"Excuse me?" Brenda stammered.

"I said, Miss Barrett, that I AM Jasper Jacks, owner of J&J Charters."

Brenda’s mouth hung open in amazement. "YOU – YOU’RE Jasper Jacks?!" Brenda stopped for a moment in shock, but then surprised Jax when she punched him hard in the arm. "Well, why the H*LL didn’t you tell me in the first place?"

"You never asked," Jax replied, and at her grimace, he went on, "besides, what difference would it have made?"

Brenda wrung her hands. "Well….maybe I wouldn’t have said some of the things I said just now."

Jax raised one eyebrow. "Why…..because they’re not true or because you didn’t want to make me angry?"

"Maybe a little bit of both," she conceded. "But why were you flying the Lear to begin with? Normally the owner of the company doesn’t act as pilot on routine flights – I’ve flown with J&J Charters before."

Jax smiled slightly. "That’s true, but I had a pressing appointment in LA and I thought I could kill two birds with one stone by taking this flight back." He snorted with disdain. "But at least you’re a repeat customer – I guess there’s something I should be grateful for – loyalty."

Brenda put her hands on her hips. "But I still don’t understand – you told me that your name was Jax, like with an X. But that’s not the way your real last name is spelled, is it?"

"What I TOLD you," Jax clarified, "is that I hate my first name, which is true. I don’t know what possessed my mum to name me Jasper, but I’ve always just preferred the nickname version of my last name."

Brenda nodded glumly and then, feeling a breeze on her damp clothing, shivered a little again. "Still cold?" Jax asked.

"Mm-hmm," she nodded. Actually, Brenda wasn’t sure why she was shivering. {Is it really your wet clothes, or the realization of how close you came to dying, or just being stranded on this godforsaken tropical island with a rich, handsome man who you now find out is KNOWN for being an international playboy?}

"The fire’s starting to burn down. Let me try to get it going again." Jax got up and searched for a stray stick, and then crouched down to stoke the fire again. Brenda watched him carefully the entire time, seeing the play of his strong arm muscles in the glow of the fire, and remembering how they felt when they were wrapped around her.

{Brenda Veronica Barrett, snap out of this! The man is just what you called him – arrogant and self-centered! He could have told you before who he was, but he lied to you. Probably the same way he’s lying to his wife.}

Jax’s voice interrupted her reverie. "Is that better?" Brenda at first didn’t realize what he meant, but then she saw the red and orange flames leaping high into the night sky and she came closer to the fire.

"Mm-hmmm." She rubbed her hands together briskly. Although it galled her to do it, Brenda’s upbringing demanded her to speak. "Thanks."

Jax nodded. "You’re welcome." He was still in a crouching position and he bounced lightly on the balls of his feet. {You’re just what she said you were, Jax – an arrogant asshole. You could have told her before who you were. So why didn’t you?} Jax sat down on the sand, presumably to warm his hands, too. But mostly to think about the answer to his unspoken question.

He finally decided that maybe he didn’t tell her because he LIKED being just Jax. Not Jasper Jacks, international playboy, owner of J&J Charters and all the responsibilities it entailed. Once he had married Miranda and Jason was born, the boy had become his entire purpose in life. Then, J&J Charters started growing by leaps and bounds, and he had two things that kept him going from day to day – his business and his son.

Up until yesterday, that was enough. That, and the thought that once he got to L.A., he would finally be free of Miranda. But then the Lear crashed, and survival became a goal in itself. Survival – and protecting the beautiful, sensual woman he had had the good fortune of crashing with.

Jax glanced up furtively at Brenda to watch her. He wondered if she knew just how sexy he found her every movement. She had a delicate grace, even when she was stomping after him protesting that her temper tantrum had been no such thing. The way her long, wavy hair hung down her back made him want to run his hands through it and bury his face in it. When he began to imagine it sweeping across his waistline, he had to shift on the sand so that his body wouldn’t begin to betray him.

He looked up at the sky, which was now clearing and become streaked with the last rays of the setting sun. He wanted it all – this woman, the heat, the island – but yet, he wanted rescue, too. He had to laugh at himself. {No, Jax, you’re not self-centered – you just want your cake and to eat it, too!} He wanted to get back to civilization, his son, and his business, but somehow, he wasn’t quite ready for this idyllic interlude on the island to end.

Brenda shifted on the sand and Jax was stricken again with an attack of conscience. "I’m sorry."

Brenda’s head shot up. "What?"

Jax took a deep breath. "I said, I’m sorry. I should have told you before now who I was."

Brenda nodded. {That was probably hard for him to do, Brenda. Men never like to admit they’re wrong, especially arrogant, self-centered ones. Let it go at that – don’t rub it in.} She took a small stick she found on the ground and began tracing patterns in the sand with it. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Shoot."

"Well….if you really are THE Jasper Jacks, shouldn’t there be some kind of massive search going on for you, even as we speak? I mean, shouldn’t your employees be in a panic and out scouring the four corners of the earth for you?"

Jax snickered. "Well, if I really am the asshole you say I am, maybe they’re not so panicked after all." Jax’s face crinkled in a crooked grin, but when he saw the anguish in Brenda’s eyes, he abandoned his attempt at humor. "I was joking, Brenda. Yes – not only my employees, but also I have a very devoted family. My older brother is probably burning the ears of several pilots as we speak, chewing them out for not finding us yet."

He noticed, though, that she apparently was not comforted by his words since she had stopped tracing in the sand with the stick and was clutching it for dear life. He moved over to sit next to her in the sand. "And you know, it really hasn’t been that long. We only landed here 24 hours ago. It just seems like it’s been ages with all we’ve had to endure in those 24 hours." He tried to put on a face of confidence. "And don’t forget that beer bottle you found. We must be fairly close to some kind of population center."

Brenda nodded and Jax let out a sigh of relief as he saw her body relax. Although he privately was wishing they wouldn’t be rescued until he got a chance to know her much better, he was also dismayed to discover that the thought that she was afraid or upset disturbed him in a way nothing else had lately.

She suddenly slapped her hands against her knees and stood. "Well, I don’t know about you, but being caught in that tropical storm has made me ravenous. How about some dinner?"

Jax recognized her attempt to distract herself from her fears of not being rescued. "Sounds good to me. Mum always did say that I never met food I didn’t like. What’s on the menu?"

She made a face. "I’m afraid we’re back to the same lovely fare we had last night – coconuts, bananas, and possibly some cheese and crackers."

"Sounds like heaven to my stomach," Jax responded with a smile. "Why don’t you go get them and I’ll try to put our shelter back together for tonight." Brenda nodded and as she turned to go dig their provisions up, Jax called after her, "Oh…and why don’t you bring some of the rum, too? It might help take the chill from the storm off."

Brenda soon returned to the fire, juggling the fruit and cheese and crackers in her arms. They had remained relatively dry in their stash during the storm, and for that she was grateful to Jax’s survival training again. As she divided the fruit and crackers between them, she looked up at their shelter and then at the sky. "Do you think it will rain again tonight?"

Jax munched on a cracker and cast an eye towards the sky. "Nope. Don’t think so. I think most of the storm has passed. See – there’s stars in the sky now."

Brenda couldn’t help but worry. "Yeah, but what if it does? I mean, what if that storm was just part of a series of storms or something?"

Jax tried to be patient. "You don’t usually get severe storms like that in series, Brenda. We might get a small passing shower during the night, but nothing more than that." He purposefully peeled a banana. "And if we do, we just get wet."

Brenda shivered at the thought. "I hate getting wet. I never was one to walk in the rain."

Jax saw her continued shivering. "Maybe if you had a shot of that rum it might warm you. Where is it?"

Brenda looked around and then sighed in exasperation. "I forgot it. I guess I was carrying so much it just slipped my mind."

Jax nodded. "Well then, go get it." He looked back at his banana and bit some off happily, giving her a toothy smile.

{That’s the last straw, buster. I’m wet, and I’m cold, and whether you saved my life or not, NOBODY orders Brenda Barrett around.} "You want the rum – YOU go get it!" she snapped back briskly at him.

Jax slapped the banana peel down next to him on the sand. "I knew it was too good to last."

"What was?"

"Your good mood," he answered, his eyes flaming as brightly as the fire on the beach between them. "I guess I can only expect gratitude for saving your behind to last so long, and then you revert to your natural self." He shook his head and snorted. "Geez….and you had the nerve to call ME selfish! Now, go get the rum, PRINCESS!"

Brenda put her hands on her hips where she sat. "And here I was, feeling badly that I had called you those names! I was right! You’re a grade-A jerk!"

Jax leaped up from where he sat and came over to tower over her. "And YOU are an immature, ungrateful, spoiled brat!"

Brenda pushed herself up off the sand to stand up to his chest and try to match at least some of his height and bravado. "You’re a macho pig!"

"You’re a whining pain in the ass!" He stood with his hands on his hips, leaning down to practically go nose-to-nose with her.

"You’re a crude, vile, mean man and I do NOT whi…" Her words were cut off suddenly as he reached his right hand behind her head to cup the nape of her neck and pull her hard against his body. She barely had time to close her mouth before his lips descended on hers.

Brenda knew she was lost from the moment he touched her. He ground his lips hungrily against hers, and stabbed his tongue into her open mouth, catching her in mid-phrase conveniently. He heard her moan at the feel of his tongue against hers, and he raised his head only slightly and broke the kiss. His right hand was still cupping the back of her head, but as he saw her open her heavy-lidded eyes just briefly, he reached his left hand around to pull her lower body against his. To his delight, she reached her hands around his neck and pulled his head back down to her again to repeat the kiss.

This kiss wasn’t hard or punishing like the first. This time, he feathered his lips against hers, rubbing them over hers until her mouth parted with a sigh. He teased at her open lips with the very tip of his tongue, and then when he felt her winding her hands up into his hair to pull his head closer, he gave her what she wanted and opened his mouth over hers.

Brenda felt her world spinning as he kissed her. She had never felt a kiss like this before – like a burning flame that she didn’t quite know how to extinguish. She made soft little whimpering sounds into his mouth, and ran her hands down to his shoulders, feeling them flexing under her hands.

Even Jax was a little taken back by the kiss. Maybe it was the aftermath of almost being killed in the storm; maybe it was the warm, tropical night; maybe it was the romance that was part of the very air they breathed on the island; all he knew was that he wanted her like he had never wanted another woman. He crushed her petite body to his and felt no objection as he pulled her down with him to the sand.

Brenda wasn’t even aware that they went from standing to a prone position in a matter of seconds. All she was aware of was his magical lips – they burned a trail from her mouth to the side of her neck, and when she felt him take a sharp nip from the place where her pulse was pounding, she moaned aloud. She shifted so that her body slid more fully under his, and Jax returned the moan as he settled himself into her softness.

Brenda had never felt like this before. She was no virgin, but no man had ever made her feel so much of a woman. She almost purred like a treasured feline when his hand came up to stroke her hair away from her face and he moved down to nuzzle the base of her neck. He pushed her blouse aside and placed a kiss at the first swell of her breast. She tangled her hands in his hair again and didn’t try to push his head away. Rather, she was almost mortified to realize that she held it in place as he moved his lips gently across the top of her chest, burning a trail there.

When she felt him begin to undo the buttons of her blouse, she knew she should tell him to stop. But if she also knew that if she did, he would stop kissing her and stop touching her, and she realized that down deep, she wanted that as much as she wanted to survive. She wanted him – no, she NEEDED him. His tongue was beginning to trace a pattern on her bra close to her nipple, and she felt the sparks going all the way down to her core. Suddenly, she wasn’t cold anymore. She was burning, and his kiss was the only thing that could put out the fire.

But when she felt his fingers begin to tease at the front opening of the bra, a flash of reality hit her. {What are we doing? What are YOU doing, Brenda? You’re not on fire – you’re PLAYING with fire – a MARRIED MAN!} She somehow gathered the strength to push at his shoulders. "Jax, NO! We can’t do this!" she gasped on heaving breaths.

He pulled away from her, his hand still poised at the front opening of her bra, his fingers resting on her breast gently. "Why not? Did I do something you didn’t like?" His eyes glittered with passion in the warm semi-darkness of the island. "Tell me what you like, Brenda. You want me – I can feel it. You want me as much as I want you." His fingers lazily traced back and forth, from the curve of one breast to the other. "You know we’ve wanted each other since that first moment we landed on this island and looked into each other’s eyes." He raised his hand to cup her cheek gently and stroked his thumb across her swollen lips. "Tell me how you like to be touched and I’ll do it, Brenda," he crooned softly.

Her breath caught in her throat at the sight of this gorgeous man and the feel of his fingers against her skin. He felt her hesitancy fading and lowered his lips to hers again, teasing her with a series of gentle kisses while he fanned his fingers across her nipples until they responded. Just as she was about to surrender to his masterful persuasion, Jax got the shock of his life as she pushed him away once again and scooted out from under him.

"We can’t DO this!" Images of Brenda’s father flashed before her eyes. She had heard her mother crying over his affairs during her childhood. Brenda even remembered the time her father promised to take her to a movie, only to have a strange woman meet them there. Brenda remembered her father introducing the woman as his "friend," but later she word that he really should have used. Mistress. If she gave in and let Jax make love to her, she would be no better than that woman.

She levered herself up higher on the sand and looked into his disbelieving eyes, expecting to see the anger there soon. She sat up and began to re-button her blouse, her fingers still shaking. "You’re good at this seduction thing, aren’t you?" she asked. "Of course, you would be. Look at all the practice you’ve had."

Jax pulled himself to a sitting position, his face rapidly beginning to resemble one of the thunderclouds they had seen during the storm. "Is that what this is about? You don’t want me to make love to you because there have been others before you?" He ran his fingers through his hair. "May I remind you that you’re no virgin yourself, princess?"

Her brown eyes flashed with fire equal to his. "That’s not what I meant, you idiot! I meant, I don’t want to get involved with a MARRIED man!"

He threw his hands up in the air. "Oh, I’m a MARRIED man? I’ve been legally separated for more than ten years…."

"…which hasn’t stopped you from having a whole stable of playmates along the way," she interrupted sarcastically.

"So this IS about the other women, isn’t it?" he asked angrily. "As I should have explained before, there’s a perfectly good reason why the divorce hasn’t been finalized before this."

She crossed her arms across her chest. "So…I don’t seem to have any other pressing appointments this evening. Enlighten me." He put his head in his hands in exasperation, and then a laugh started deep in his chest, much to her consternation. "Did I say something funny?"

Jax looked up at her. "Don’t you see the irony? I have to give you a detailed explanation for some trash you read in gossip magazines, but YOU don’t feel in the least bit obligated to explain to me the nature of your relationship with what’s his name. Are you two engaged?

Brenda pouted. "No."

Jax snickered acidly. "Going steady?"

"No…and don’t go and get me all confused, trying to make this about me! We were talking about YOU and the undeniable fact that you’re MARRIED!"

"Well," he shot back, "at least I had the GUTS to make a commitment! Obviously, you DON’T!!"

Brenda’s eyes widened and her mouth opened in rage at this latest salvo, but then she closed her eyes, put her open hands out to the side, and took deep, cleansing breaths. "Look, we’re getting TOTALLY off the subject here. Your marital status is not the only reason why we shouldn’t…have sex."

Jax’s eyes began to twinkle again. "…..MAKE LOVE, you mean. So…what other reasons?"

Brenda looked down into her lap, blushing slightly. "Well….the possibility of an unplanned pregnancy, for one."

Jax sat up straight. "You….you’re not on the pill?"

Brenda felt the flush creep up into her cheeks and was grateful for the darkness. {Sure, Brenda. Here’s a man you’ve only known for a little more than 24 hours. You’re thinking of having mindless sex with him, so go ahead and tell him how the pill gives you a rash and blinding headaches and why you chose to use a diaphragm instead.} "I don’t think I need to explain my reasons to you or anyone else. Let’s just let it drop with the fact that no, I’m not on the pill and my chosen method of birth control went up in flames in my suitcase on the Lear."

Jax rose one eyebrow. "You kept it in your suitcase?"

"Well, I wasn’t exactly planning to make an emergency landing on a deserted island with a man and have a romantic fling, Ace!" She quieted down a little. "And don’t start quoting me facts about "windows of opportunity" and it only being a problem during a small part of the month. We just can’t take the chance."

Jax spoke very softly. "Brenda, you must know that I would take care of you and the baby if anything happened….I’m not one to shirk my responsibilities."

Brenda’s entire upper body stiffened in rage. "You would TAKE CARE of us! How magnanimous! I’ll have you know that my income is MORE than adequate to support myself and a child. I could easily handle the financial burdens of being a single mother……"

He buried his head again in his hands and muttered. "….Bloody h*ll, here it comes again. The gospel according to Gloria Steinem."

She let out a huff. "I just was NOT only referring to the fact that we would be bringing another life into the world to support." She got a little quieter and it surprised him. "I just mean that no child should ever be brought into the world by anything other than loving parents." She looked at him pointedly. "TWO loving parents!"

Jax caught his breath at the irony. {You don’t have to tell me about that one, princess. Jason is living proof that it takes two parents to make a family.} He stood and looked down at her in the dying firelight. "Well, Miss Barrett, for a woman who is so sure she can take care of herself – or any child that might come along – I hope you can teach it the difference between a simple thunderstorm and a tropical storm!"

He looked around, took a deep breath, and then wiped his hands against one another, signaling that he was finished with something. "Well, I don’t know about you, but it’s been a long day and I’m exhausted. I’m going to go set some sleep and I suggest you do the same." He began to walk away, only to stop in the half-light and throw back over his shoulder, "But, of course, you KNEW you should do that because you’re so bloody fine at taking care of yourself."

Brenda watched him stomp off towards their shelter. "Fine!" she shouted at his back, but either he didn’t hear her or he pretended he didn’t. She stood up angrily. "Fine," she muttered under her breath.

Neither one of them was surprised when they got no sleep that night, only tossing and turning and alternately glaring at one another across the small shelter.

Brenda heaved a long sigh and gazed out at the empty horizon. {6 days. It’s been 6 days, and there’s been no sign of a rescue party.} She wrapped her arms around her knees and rocked back and forth in the sand, trying desperately to keep the tears from running down her cheeks.

Life had settled into a predictable routine for the castaways. Jax spent most of the days back at the wreckage, scavenging for small items he could use to make their continued existence more comfortable. Somehow, he had used the scrap metal from the jet and some sturdy tree branches to make a hatchet and to Brenda’s surprise, one night she found a small table waiting inside their shelter. The next night, she found two crude stools, so they began to take their meals in a semi-civilized fashion sitting across from each other.

Brenda reached down and sifted some of the fine sand through her fingers. She had to admit that Jax was certainly more than responsible for her being alive this long. He managed to become quite a fisherman, and their evening table was usually graced by some kind of seafood he had caught and cooked that day. Never one to like being indebted to anyone, Brenda tried to make herself a little useful by gathering fresh fruit from the interior of the island each day.

She shivered as she realized she was almost becoming accustomed to living like this. They were developing a routine – almost like an old married couple. The daylight hours were actually the easy part. Jax would leave early in the morning to go do whatever he was doing back at the wreckage, and after Brenda cleaned up from their breakfast, she would begin scouring the interior of the island for fruit. There was a deep gully in the interior of the island that filled with rainwater after the tropical storm, and it became their source for fresh drinking water. One day she grew bold and when she reached the other side of the island, she shed her clothes to rinse them out quickly in the ocean. She was nervous that Jax would find her before they dried, but she worried for nothing.

The nighttime hours – now those were the difficult ones. Ever since their passionate encounter, it seemed like normal conversation came with difficulty for the two. Brenda gave a sigh and reached up to run her fingers through her hair, and then the tears started to form in her eyes anew. {It’s a good thing Lucy can’t see me now. She would terminate my modeling contract in the blink of an eye.} She let out a loud sob as her fingers tried to work their way through the matted, tangled mess her hair had become. The salt water certainly wasn’t helping its manageability, and every morning it seemed like she found new knots or clumps of sand in her dark tresses.

She had been attempting to comb it two nights previous and was becoming more and more frustrated with the small plastic comb she was using. When it got entangled in her hair for the third time that night, she finally wrenched it out with a cry of rage and broke it in half across her knee. She and Jax had been sitting by the fire on the sand, and she immediately realized that she shouldn’t have let her temper get the best of her. Now she had no comb at all, and the knotting problem would only grow worse. She looked up to give Jax a murderous gaze, and although he had his mouth open to point that out to her, he caught her look and shut his mouth again thankfully. All she would have needed at that point was a superior "You’re only cutting off your nose to spite your face" and she would have gladly punched HIS nose.

She sprang up from the sand and put her hands on her hips, the tears blinding her vision for a moment. She rubbed at her eyes and finally had to give in and cut loose with a huge sob. She couldn’t help but remember all the times she had cursed the traffic in L.A. What she wouldn’t give for a good old traffic snarl now. She thought of the times she complained about the taste of the baking soda toothpaste she used to keep her teeth bright. Now, it would taste like a chocolate truffle to her after using tree bark to brush her teeth for six days. Most of all, she thought of her beautiful bathroom – she would give her eye teeth for inside plumbing. And water that she didn’t have to drink with her eyes closed so that she wouldn’t see the miniscule pieces of leaves or flotsam floating in it.

Brenda took a deep breath, and decided crying wasn’t going to help anything. She gathered the armful of fruit she had gathered and began to make her way back across the island to their campsite. She decided to take a route south of the area where the plane crashed and explore that end of the island a little bit. Just as she was about to break through the dense vegetation in the interior of the island, she stopped cold.

At first, she didn’t realize she was holding her breath. She put the fruit down, careful not to drop it and bruise it, but then stood back up and rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating. Her face broke into a broad smile when they were still there – two boats. RESCUE!

Brenda looked around quickly, angry that Jax seemed to be nowhere in sight. The boats were near the shore, clearly visible, and not that far south of where their camp was. Jax should have seen them, even if he still was at his private refuge at the site of the wreckage. {He’s always telling me that I need him to take care of me! Well, won’t he be surprised when I’M the one who brings the rescue party with ME to meet HIM!}

She took off running toward the beach, pushing aside the tall grass. There was a large area of dead tree trunks and roots and some thick vegetation on the edge of the beach, and just as she reached it, she put her hand in the air to wave to the men on the boats. She could see them now – there were at least four of them on each boat.

Suddenly, her feet went out from under her and she was pulled roughly to the ground. She struggled to scream, but a large hand clamped across her mouth. As she began to fight in earnest, she felt herself being dragged back behind the thick foliage and dead roots, hiding her from the sight of the men on the boats.

She was forced to her back and felt her hands being manacled to the ground while her attacker still had one hand across her mouth. She was so busy fighting him that she didn’t get a clear sight of him until he was sitting on top of her, holding her to the sand. Then, he bent down to whisper in her ear.

"Just what the bloody h*ll do you think you’re doing, princess?" Jax asked angrily, his eyes blazing with fire. "Do you want to get us both killed? Or do you normally include drug smugglers in your circle of friends?"

To be continued…..