He saw her eyes widen, and satisfied that she now understood him, he released his hold on her hands to put a finger to his lips, giving her the signal to speak softly. She nodded quickly, and then he removed his hand from her mouth.

"Drug smugglers?!" she whispered incredulously. "Why do you think they’re drug smugglers?"

Jax eased himself off of her and then crouched low behind the dead tree roots. He pulled her to a crouched position beside him, and then put his right arm around her, pulling her close. At first, she thought it was some kind of sneaky maneuver to try to put his hands on her, but then she realized he was just making sure she stayed low enough so that they wouldn’t see her.

"They’ve been here for about 45 minutes now," he explained in a hushed whisper. "I’ve been watching them load and unload crates and an occasional large duffel bag."

"But how do you know it’s drugs?" she persisted.

"OK, so maybe it’s not drugs," he said through gritted teeth. "Maybe it’s illegal firearms or contraband of some other kind. But your normal, everyday, run-of-the-mill traders normally don’t pick a deserted island to transfer their goods and don’t have heavy duty assault weapons slung across their backs."

Brenda sucked in a breath and looked from Jax’s face back out towards the boats. Sure enough, she could now see that most of the men had semi-automatic weapons strapped to their chests. Tears stung her eyes. She had almost gotten them killed again, and had it not been for Jax’s quick actions in tackling her to the ground, she would have alerted the smugglers to their position. But maybe….

Brenda reached out and grabbed Jax’s wrist. "Jax! Since you really ARE Jasper Jacks, you’re a wealthy man, right? So, what if we go down there and just tell them about the jet crashing and that we’re not interested in whatever they’re doing – we just want to go back to the real world and you can pay them some obscene amount of money and they’ll be happy!!"

Jax looked at her and a sarcastic smile crossed his face. "You know, I believe you said that entire thought without taking a breath!" She was still smiling until he continued. "Too bad it s’ the most asinine, naïve plan I’ve ever heard!" He saw her face fall, and as he realized it was just her optimism talking, he felt badly about his insulting tone.

Jax turned to crouch in a position facing Brenda. He took her hands in his and spoke very deliberately. "Brenda, I’m sorry that those boats aren’t the rescue squad. I’m sorry that we’re still stuck here together. But I’m not about to take foolish chances with our lives when we’ve come this far." He glanced out towards the boats, which looked as though they were getting ready to leave. "Those men are international criminals, Brenda. If they were ever caught and brought to justice for the things they’re doing, they would be spending more than 20 years in jail – and that’s being optimistic." His eyes bored straight into hers. "Believe me – they won’t care how much money I would offer them. It wouldn’t be enough."

He let out a long sigh and pulled her against him again behind the roots. "No – those guys would only respond to sighting us with one thing – bullets." He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. "And even if I were to manage to take the bullet with YOUR name on it, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind postponing your murder for a little while – just so they could have some fun with you first." He shuddered a little and gazed out at the boats which were finally pulling up anchor. "Maybe I wouldn’t take the bullet for you after all – you would be better off dead than enjoying the attentions of that bunch."

They huddled together and watched as the boats slowly pulled away from the island and faded into the distance. Brenda had to try to fight back the tears as she felt sadness and fear even greater than when the plane was going down. Even her discovery the day of the storm began to fade – obviously, the beer bottle was probably left by one of the smugglers. And if these hoodlums felt that their island was safe enough and deserted enough to conduct illegal business, it must be TOTALLY isolated. Brenda put a fist in her mouth to hold back the sobs, and Jax noticed and realized her despair.

"Hey," he said to her softly, pulling her around to sit next to him on the sand. They propped their backs against the tangled roots and limbs that had hidden them from the sight of the smugglers. "Don’t give up, OK? After all, your boyfriend …or whatever he is….probably won’t give up looking for you until he’s scoured every island in the South Pacific, remember?" Jax smiled at her and bumped against her shoulder. "I mean, Lord knows how the man puts up with you on a regular basis, but he must find SOMETHING attractive about you. He won’t want to give that up."

Brenda smiled at his attempt to cheer her up. "Yeah, I know. And you said your family is probably going nuts looking for you, too."

Jax nodded. "Absolutely. My brother is an excellent pilot too – he’s the other "J" of J&J Charters – so he’s probably flying one of the search planes himself." Jax hesitated for a moment. {And if I know Jason, he’s probably sitting next to his uncle Jerry in the cockpit, pointing out all the things he’s doing wrong!} "Now, come on. Let’s get back to camp. I’ve got something to show you."

Brenda looked at him curiously. "What? What do you want to show me?"

Jax smiled crookedly and a tiny lock of hair fell across his forehead. "Well, you’ll never find out unless you come, will you?"

He extended his hands down to her and pulled her up to a standing position. Neither one had mentioned it since their passionate encounter days before, but as they grasped hands, both felt a jolt like an electric shock. Brenda’s eyes grew wide for just a moment and they stood frozen in place, holding hands, gazing into each other’s eyes. Just as quickly, she breathed deeply and broke the mood, dropping his hands. "So, let’s go see what’s back at camp."

They walked back together in silence, but a fairly civilized one. Jax cast a wary eye towards the ocean where the smugglers’ boats had appeared, but they had long dropped below the horizon line.

"Do you think they saw our camp from their boats?" Brenda finally asked warily.

Jax looked around to the deserted area of beach where they had landed. "No….I think we’re far enough away and the shelter has got enough grass and trees around it to act as camouflage. We were just lucky there wasn’t a fire going. They might have spotted that."

They reached the camp, and Brenda looked at Jax in disappointment. "So – what’s the big surprise? Everything looks the same."

He just smiled. "Go inside the shelter – there’s a present for you on the table." She shrugged her shoulders in delight, gave a grin, and took off running for the entrance. As she was about to go inside, Jax called after her, "Oh, and one more thing. I get to use it, too!"

Now Brenda was REALLY curious. When her eyes adjusted to the dimmer light inside the shelter and she looked at the table, she caught her breath. Tears began to form in her eyes as she realized how hard he had to work to make it for her.

She walked over to the table and touched it up reverently, finally picking it up and turning around to face him. Jax had come into the shelter too, and he saw her tears and her trembling fingers. "Do you like it?"

"I love it." It was crude and simple, but it meant more to her than any gift that Sonny had ever given her. It was a comb. It only had five prongs, and they were far apart and a little rough around the edges, but they were long enough to sift through the tangles in her hair and it even had a handle of sorts at the end. "How did you…..what is it made from?" Brenda finally asked in a hushed voice.

Jax looked down at the floor and blushed a little. "I found an old piece of tortoiseshell on the beach – the tortoise had abandoned it some time ago, by the way – and I thought you might like it." He walked over to stand next to her and picked up an end of her hair, rolling it between his fingers. "I just thought that if you didn’t get the knots out now and your hair gets too tangled, you might have to cut it when we get back to civilization." He looked into her eyes, gently laying the strand of hair on her breast. "That would be a crime."

Brenda caught her breath at his touch. She looked back down at the comb again. Obviously he must have carved it with his pocket knife, and that would have taken him hours. Her heart warmed at his thoughtfulness – it was truly a gift from a caring individual. When she looked back up at him again, she could see his eyes were beginning to spark with caring of an entirely different sort and he continued to gently stroke her hair where it ended on her breast. His chest was heaving slightly as he took deep breaths. She knew she had to break the moment before their passion meters reached overload.

As she looked up at his face, she suddenly began to giggle. That did the trick. "You see something funny?" he asked, with a little hurt in his voice.

She put her fingers up to her lips, trying to stifle the giggles. "No, it’s just – well – you said you wanted to share this with me, and I wondered if you were going to use it to comb your hair…..or your beard!" She reached up to brush the backs of her knuckles against the blonde fuzz on his chin. "You’re growing quite a jungle there, Ace!"

Jax had to laugh himself and rubbed his chin self-consciously. "Yeah, I guess so. Just imagine what all those other captains of industry would say if they could see me now – looking like some kind of hippie!"

To her own surprise, Brenda’s face grew serious and she reached up again to stroke his beard. "No – not a hippie." Jax’s face mirrored hers and she felt herself breathing faster as she continued to rub her fingers gently across his cheek. "More like a fierce Norwegian god – or a Viking." She looked up into his blue eyes that were sparking with flecks of green as she touched him. "Who’s the god of thunder – Thor? That’s who you remind me of – the pictures of Thor I’ve seen in books about mythology." When she realized where this was leading, she blinked rapidly and then tried to lighten the mood again. "Or like you need some sheepskin pants and a leather vest so you can go out and sail in the fee-yords!" She deliberately drew out the last word with a terrible Swedish accent, and they both began to laugh.

Seizing the opportunity, Brenda backed away from him and went back over to the table, laying the comb down with trembling fingers. She had come so close there – she was almost ready to forget the consequences of being a married man’s mistress and let him make love to her. She vaguely heard Jax’s voice droning on about something, but she was too caught up in her own thoughts to pay attention to him.

{It’s this d*mn island! The heat, and the sand, and the lack of clothing – the atmosphere practically reeks of sex!} She realized that that was another reason why she was so disappointed when their rescuers turned out to be no such thing that morning. She knew that she had to get off the island soon, or she couldn’t be counted on to keep skirting the issue of the attraction between the two of them.

{But why deny yourself, Brenda? You’re obviously drawn to him. It never felt like this with Sonny – this aching for his touch. Maybe he could make you happy.} Brenda thought back to many of the conversations she had had with Julia while Julia was in the hospital. She knew Julia didn’t like Sonny. She could tell from the expression on her face every time his name came up. But Julia never came out and told her she was against their relationship. All she ever told Brenda was to do what made her happy.

{Does Sonny make me happy? He makes me feel comfortable.} Brenda shuddered inwardly. {Not safe, though. Not protected. Not like Jax does.} Jax had done more for her physical and emotional needs in the past 6 days than Sonny had in four years. {So, does it really matter that much that he’s married? Maybe he had a good reason to leave her. I should have let him tell me the details. Maybe….}

Suddenly she became aware of Jax, waving his hand in front of her face. "Hello….earth to Brenda! Are you in there?"

She put on a broad smile. "Yes…I’m sorry. I don’t usually zone out on people like that."

"So," he grinned at her. "Are you willing to try it?"

Her face paled. Had he read her mind? "Try what?"

He slapped his hands against his thighs in disbelief. "Wow, when you say you zone out, you really DO zone out! Didn’t you hear anything I said at all?"

She smiled wanly. "Sorry."

"I said I was going fishing for tonight’s dinner and I asked you if you wanted to come along and help."

"Help? Like in fishing? Like in SPEAR fishing?"

Jax nodded. "Yep. I made another spear. Maybe between the two of us we can catch a really big one." He rocked back and forth on his heels and toes and hooked his thumbs in his pockets. "Unless fishing is too rough for a poor helpless female like you…."

She grinned at him and crossed her arms in determination. This kind of relationship she could take. The comb had obviously been a peace offering, and how could any kind of sexual confrontation come out of spear fishing? "Those are fightin’ words, Ace. Lead the way to that spear. Those fish won’t know what hit ‘em."

*****

Thirty minutes later, she wasn’t so sure she had made the right decision. Jax had shed his shirt and wore only his cut-offs into the water, but Brenda kept on her thin blouse and remodeled skirt/shorts. As soon as she began to wade into the surf, she was knocked down by a wave and Jax grabbed the spear before she impaled herself on it. She came up sputtering and saying some words that Jax was surprised she knew. "How can you manage to stand upright in this undertow?" she cried in frustration.

Jax grinned broadly. "Well, I hate to disappoint your feminist sensibilities, Miss Barrett, but for once my brawny male physique works to my advantage." He watched her carefully as she picked her way deeper into the water. "Watch out where you step – there’s coral out here. The last thing you need is a deep cut on your foot."

Brenda nodded and solemnly began watching where she placed her feet. She was so intent on avoiding the coral that she never saw the wave that knocked her down for a second time. She came up spitting salt water again and rubbing her eyes with her free hand. "This is impossible! I’ll never do you any good out here!"

To her surprise, Jax came over to where she was in the water. "Here – get behind me. Do you remember how I carried you piggyback that first day?" She nodded to him. "Good. Then jump up on my back again and wrap your legs around my waist. We’ll give those fish a double-decker surprise." She was reluctant, but he wouldn’t hear of her backing out. As he crouched down in the water, she hoisted herself onto his back. She could feel the play of muscles in his back as he then strode out into deeper water.

"Are you sure you can still spear the fish with my weight like this?"

"Sure," Jax said, swallowing hard. {What I’m NOT sure I can stand is the feel of your wet, cold, hard nipples beneath your thin blouse against my bare back.} "Now, keep your eyes open. But for goodness’ sake, don’t yell when you see the fish! You’ll spook it and we’ll lose it before I have a chance to spear it."

Brenda gave a snort. "Gee, duh! I never would have thought of that!" She scanned the waters carefully for anything that looked edible. After about 5 minutes, she began to truly appreciate Jax’s efforts in providing them fresh fish every night for dinner. Spear fishing was a painstaking task that required more patience than she ever could have imagined.

Finally, she rose up slightly on his back in excitement and grabbed his shoulder. "Jax!" she whispered in his ear. "There – to your right! Isn’t that a grouper?"

He was shocked for a moment that she actually recognized the almost ugly, colorless fish. But she was right. He moved closer to it, and then moved quickly to lunge at his prey.

Although Brenda had seen his target first, she wasn’t prepared for the quick way he sprang at the fish. In fact, he moved so quickly that she lost her balance and fell from his back into the water again. But just as she took a mouthful of salt water, drowning out her expletive, she felt strong arms scooping her up again. When she wiped the water from her eyes, she found Jax cradling her to his chest. "Are you OK?" he asked, a smile crinkling the corners of his amazing eyes.

She stared into his eyes for a moment longer, but then tried to smile nonchalantly. "I’m fine. Did you get the fish?" Jax held up the spear in his left hand triumphantly, the fish still wiggling on the end. Brenda’s arms were wrapped around his neck, and he held her easily in his right arm since the water helped support some of her weight. She gave him a glorious smile, and then laughed. "Well, Ace, as much fun as this was, I don’t think I should exactly take over for Mrs. Paul yet!"

He looked back into her eyes. "You did great, Brenda. And next time you’ll know better to brace yourself when I go for the fish." As he turned to head back to shore, Brenda couldn’t help but think about his statement. Next time. How many more next times could she stand before she gave in to the d*mn island’s seductive atmosphere?

*~*~*

Brenda stared at Jax across the table. When they returned to shore, she gathered some twigs for the fire and he made quick work of the grouper, cleaning and filleting it efficiently. Following their usual routine, Brenda went to gather the hollowed-out gourds they used for cups and filled them with water from their cache. The first few nights they had indulged in some of the rum and wine, but then Jax advised that they had better save it in case the alcohol was ever needed for a medicinal purpose.

As Jax bit into a banana Brenda had brought to the table, he almost choked at the words that came from her mouth. "Jax – I’ve been pretty remiss in thanking you for saving my life," she said, her eyes downcast. "If you had been killed in the crash and I was here by myself, well…" She shuddered slightly and he reached his hand out to cover hers on the table. "I wouldn’t know how to fish, or cook it even if I managed to catch one – I wouldn’t have realized how to survive that storm…" She laughed and glanced down at the table. "And I certainly wouldn’t know the first thing about furniture carving!" He smiled a little self-consciously, and when Brenda felt that the moment was getting too intense, she switched gears. "So….do you cook and make furniture and stuff when you’re at home, too?"

Jax laughed out loud. "Nope. Somehow I don’t think that Miranda would have approved of hand-carved furniture for our dining room."

"Miranda? She’s your….wife?"

Jax’s eyes grew cold. "She’s the woman I married 15 years ago." He had let go of Brenda’s hand and put two fingers to the corners of his eyes, apparently to ease a tension headache. "Out of all of my family, she’s probably the only one who isn’t worried about whether or not I’m alive."

"Oh, Jax, I’m sure that she isn’t that cruel…." Brenda began, but he cut her off.

"No, Brenda…..she is. In fact, she’s probably seen her lawyer already asking how long she has to wait before she can petition the courts to divide my estate and declare me legally dead. My death will provide her with a much better settlement than the divorce would have."

Brenda felt the pain in his voice. "You said you were on your way to L.A. to finalize the divorce. Why did she finally agree?"

Jax recognized her careful wording of the question. She didn’t ask why HE finally decided to divorce Miranda. Since she was apparently giving him the benefit of the doubt, he decided she deserved an answer. He took a deep breath. "After I married Miranda, it soon became painfully clear that the only thing she truly loved about me was my financial future. In the beginning, we tried to keep the marriage going for Jason’s sake."

"Jason is…?"

"My son." Jax smiled involuntarily. "He’s a great kid."

"How old is he?"

Another smile. "Would you believe ….almost 15, but he acts more like he’s 25?" Jax’s eyes sparkled when he spoke of his son, and when he saw Brenda’s face, he added, "So, yes – the tabloids were right about that. Miranda and I DID get married because she was pregnant. But then we drifted apart, and pretty soon she really didn’t want to have anything to do with either Jason or me – just as long as the money kept coming. So as soon as Jason was old enough to understand, I got a legal separation from her. We just never divorced because we never felt the need to."

"Why would she change her mind now?"

Jax sighed. "I don’t know. Maybe she actually found another man that could put up with her with more money than I’ve got. I really didn’t care about the reasons. Jason is perfectly comfortable with his mom and I being divorced, so since she finally agreed to my terms, I saw no reason to continue this farce of a marriage." His mouth set in a grim line. "I wonder if she’ll feel the same way when we finally get back."

Brenda gazed at the complicated man before her. If she didn’t feel guilty before about the accusations she had hurled at him based on the tabloid articles, now she felt lower than she could imagine. Suddenly, his gaze turned up to focus on her. "So…now that you know some of the story of my life, I get to ask about yours, right?"

Brenda froze. She knew what was coming. {Who’s Sonny? Why do you stay with him? Aren’t you afraid he’s a criminal? Does he make you happy?} She admired Jax’s honesty and ability to analyze his own life, but she wasn’t sure she was ready to do the same with hers. But fair was fair, so…. "Sure…..go ahead," she said bravely.

Jax folded his hands quietly on the table and proceeded to shock the h*ll out of her. "Tell me about your sister – the one that died."

Brenda almost knocked over the gourd she was using as a cup. "Julia?"

Jax nodded. "She was your older sister?"

Brenda breathed deeply. She certainly hadn’t expected this. She hadn’t really spoken to anyone about Julia since she died – not even Sonny. "She was about 3 years older than I was." Brenda looked down at her fingers and played with one fingernail as she spoke. "She had leukemia. The doctors couldn’t do anything to stop it."

Jax could see that talking about it came with great difficulty to Brenda. "Were you two close?"

Brenda laughed a little. "Not at first. But then, after she was diagnosed, we actually discovered how much we liked each other. We spent a long time talking when she was in the hospital, getting her chemo." Brenda looked up at Jax with tears in her eyes, threatening to spill out on her cheeks. "Why is it we never appreciate someone until they’re almost gone?"

Jax also realized that Brenda NEEDED to talk about Julia, even though she probably didn’t want to. He pulled his stool over closer to her and gently lay his hand on top of hers. "She was in your nightmare that first night – wasn’t she? The one about the dark?"

Brenda nodded once, and then suddenly it was like a dam burst. She found herself telling Jax about everything – the shock of the initial diagnosis, the high hopes when Julia went into remission, the despair when the cancer returned, and finally Julia’s own despair and decision to stop the treatments. Brenda was surprised she made it through without breaking down, but no more surprised than she was that she felt so comfortable telling Jax all of her feelings she had been keeping to herself for so long.

For his part, Jax just sat and listened, amazed at what this tiny woman had been carrying around inside of her for so long. When Brenda told him about Julia’s delirious screaming about the dark and the cold, he finally understood Brenda’s fanatic need to have the fire going. He longed to put his arms around her to comfort her, but he didn’t want to scare her. Not when she had come this far. Because he also realized that she hadn’t shared this with anyone else before now – not even the mobster boyfriend. And that fact made him feel happier and more hopeful than he had since he first saw the dials start to dance on the dashboard of the Lear.

When she was finally finished, she raised her eyes to meet his. Brenda was afraid that he would just mutter some kind of cliché – a "that’s too bad" and "time will heal all wounds," like Sonny usually threw at her. But instead, he just leaned in to her and raised his right hand to gently stroke her cheek with his first finger. He lowered his lips to hers, but there was no fiery passion in the kiss. It was a kiss of comfort – a sweet, gentle kiss – a kiss of promise and support. It almost ended before it began, and then he drew back and looked deeply into her eyes.

"I promise you this, Brenda – I’ll never let the fire go out. I’ll never let you in the cold or the dark again. Never." She nodded in understanding.

To her surprise, Jax quickly rose from the stool. "Are you going somewhere?" she asked, wiping the tears from her eyes.

He nodded quickly. "I’m going for a swim. I’ll be back shortly."

Before she could protest, he was out the door of the shelter and heading for the beach. She stood up and went to the doorway to watch him. He didn’t even bother to strip off his shorts, but pulled off his shirt quickly and dove cleanly into the surf.

As Jax’s arms worked furiously, churning the water as he stroked, he knew that she must think he was some kind of crazy man. But he also knew that if he had stayed there with her, he would have kissed her again. And again. And eventually he would have made love to her. And what made him NEED to take this swim was the fact that he knew she would have let him.

He broke the surface of the water and shook his head, pushing his wet hair out of his eyes. He felt the change in her as she spoke about her sister. He could feel her softening and giving – and he didn’t want to take advantage of her weakened emotional state to get her to make love with him.

He began to swim back to shore. {She’s ready alright. She’s just about ready to accept her feelings about me. But I want there to be no doubt in her mind when we make love. I don’t want there to be any regrets or second thoughts to plague her later.}

As Jax emerged from the water, he dropped to the sand to grab his shirt and wipe off his face. He also knew two other things. {I want her like I’ve never wanted any other woman on the face of this earth – and I’ll never let her belong to any other man again. She’s mine now – and I’ll move heaven and earth to keep it that way.}

To be continued….