It happened the next day. Jax had gone out to fish for their breakfast and had been unusually lucky. He had managed to spear several large groupers and when he returned to their camp, he declared that since they wouldn’t keep, he would cook them for a large brunch and then they would just have fruit for an evening meal.

Brenda found it a little disquieting, having him around the camp so much during the morning hours. She had become accustomed to him leaving early to go scavenging and having the hours to fill by herself. But soon he was busy cleaning and cooking the fish, and before she knew it, they were feasting on the results of his good luck.

He was still outside the hut, putting out the blazing cooking fire, when he heard her screams from inside the hut. He dropped what he was doing and nearly twisted his ankle in the soft sand, running pell-mell to get back in the hut to see what happened. When he came in and found her, she was standing next to the makeshift table, swiping at her leg, and screaming like a banshee.

"IT’S CRAWLING UP MY LEG! GET IT OFF ME!" she kept screaming, brushing at her lower thigh. Jax rushed over to her but between the dim light in the hut and her frantic movements, he couldn’t see anything.

Suddenly, she stood straight up and began tearing at her hair. "OH, GOD, NO!! NOW IT’S IN MY HAIR! GET IT OUT!!" She was running her hands through her hair and before Jax could even touch a strand, she bolted from the hut and ran towards the ocean.

He followed her and finally caught up to her as she knelt at the edge of the water, frantically dunking her head in the water. "BRENDA! Tell me what’s wrong! What’s in your hair?"

He knelt next to her on the sand and could feel her entire body trembling. She finally looked up at him and he could see the tracks of her tears on her cheeks. "It was in my hair! Is it gone? Look and see if it’s gone!" she screamed frantically.

Jax didn’t have a clue what he was looking for but she was breaking his heart with her cries for help so he began to run his fingers through her hair. He sat back on his haunches. "I don’t see anything, Brenda. What was it?" Her face twisted in disbelief, and to his surprise, she leaned forward and dunked her hair in the water one more time. He pulled her back up and put his hands on her shoulders, trying to calm her. "BRENDA – tell me what you think got in your hair! Was it a snake?"

She shuddered as she twisted her hair to wring the water from it. "No – it was a huge, horrible brown bug."

Jax exhaled as though someone had punched him in the stomach. "A bug? What kind of a bug?"

Brenda looked at him and still had tears in her eyes. "It looked like a roach – it was brown and about two inches long. It was crawling up my leg, waving those antenna thingies it has attached to its head." She looked a little shocked when Jax’s face didn’t register with horror. "But then, when I bent over to knock it off my leg, IT FLEW! It flew into my hair!"

Brenda almost passed out when a deep laugh began to rumble up from Jax’s chest. "Brenda," he said, his eyes crinkling in mirth and relief, "it was a palmetto bug! It was probably more scared of you than you were of him! It was just a d*mn palmetto bug – it wouldn’t have hurt you!"

She pouted. "Well – I’m no expert on bugs. I didn’t know that. And besides – he just kept waving those antenna things at me and scaring me." Jax was holding his sides laughing, and Brenda was becoming so enraged that she reached out and punched him in the shoulder, throwing him off balance and sending him sprawling into the sand. "It wasn’t funny!"

Jax rolled in the sand and then wiped a tear away from one eye. "I’m sorry, Princess, but it was just a bloody bug, for goodness’ sake. The way you were bellowing, I was afraid it was a snake or a scorpion or something really dangerous." He got back up to his feet, but she remained on the sand. He clapped his hands together to wipe off the sand. "Well, the fire is out, so I’m going to get going. I’ll be down at the wreckage as usual. You can clean up the dishes and get cleaned up yourself since you’ll have a long afternoon by yourself." He turned to leave, but then looked back at her. "Oh, and since your hair is already wet, you might want to try some of that stuff in the coconut beneath the tree. I mixed some of the coconut oil and some key lime juice together – it might make that mop of yours more manageable." He stopped and smirked at himself. "Geez, I’m beginning to sound like a bloody Clairol commercial."

Brenda didn’t answer him, but just pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, sighing deeply. He watched her gaze silently at the ocean. {Awww….not another temper tantrum.} "Yo, Princess….make sure to clean up the rest of the mess from our meal, OK?" Again, she didn’t answer him. {OK, we’re into another pouting session. Well, at least this time she’s not going to wander off to God knows where.} Jax decided it was better to let her get the pouting out of her system alone, so he set off towards the wreckage of the Lear and didn’t look back.

Had he looked back, he wouldn’t have seen any change in her position for a long time. Brenda had sunk into a deep depression. {First it was the plane crash. Then it was the storm. Bugs, typhoons, felons…..what’s next for us to discover that might kill us? It’s been a week now with absolutely no sign of rescue. Face it, Brenda….you’re never going to get off this rock. Not alive, anyway.}

She sat that way for a long time – she didn’t cry, she didn’t scream, she barely even moved. She just felt lost, and almost wished she COULD do any of those things.

Several hours later when the sun was already beginning to sink into the horizon, Jax returned from his daily scouting mission. He was in a bad mood to begin with, not having found much that day that could be useful to them. He was hot and sweaty and had shed his shirt halfway through his afternoon’s labors. Adding to his frustration was the feeling that somehow she wouldn’t be out of her snit when he returned and he would have to face her whining or railing at him.

He came up from behind their shelter, taking an alternate route, and went inside first. "Bloody h*ll! BRENDA!" The table looked just as he had left it that morning. The flies were having a field day on the remnants of their brunch and the dishes he had so carefully worked to carve were still sitting there. He picked one up and wasn’t even sure that a good scrubbing would ever make it like new again. He looked over at the receptacle they used for fresh water and it hadn’t been filled.

At first, his heart nearly stopped as he worried that the drug smugglers had returned and taken Brenda away. But when he ran outside the hut and looked at the beach, he saw her sitting in the same exact spot that he had left her hours earlier. Throwing an empty drinking gourd down onto the soft sand, he stomped down to where she sat.

"So, Princess," he said with disgust, "I see you’ve been hard at work today while I was gone!" She didn’t move. She didn’t speak. {D*mn! I never realized the PMS would be THIS bad.} He cleared his throat loudly. "Ahem, excuse me, YOUR MAJESTY!" He looked down at her, but she just continued to stare out into the ocean. He got a sudden chill as he realized this might be more than just a temper tantrum.

He squatted down next to her. "Brenda! What’s the matter with you? You didn’t do anything today!" He took her by the shoulders to face him and saw her blank, cold face. "Why didn’t you go get us fresh water?" he asked, but his voice was laced now with dread rather than anger.

She finally shrugged her shoulders. "Why should I? What’s the point?" She turned and stared back out at the ocean.

Jax swallowed hard. "What’s the point?" He turned her back to face him. "Brenda, we need fresh water to survive. Remember – every day, I go fishing and you bring the fresh water from the hollow tree to the hut. I thought we had agreed to that little division of chores." He spoke to her gently but firmly, fearing that what had set in was far more serious than a pre-menstrual snit.

Her eyes were so sad they almost brought tears to his. "Right. I remember." She let out a long sigh. "But why prolong the inevitable? It’s been a week, Jax, and the only people we’ve spotted were those criminals." She took his hands from her shoulders and turned back to the ocean, speaking to him but not looking at him. "Do you think it’s really true what they say – that drowning is one of the easiest ways to die? We could just walk out into the ocean and swim until we’re tired, and then let the waves take us….."

Jax shuddered. It was what he had feared. The words needed to be said aloud, and there was no one else to say them. "So you figure that since Julia’s dead, you might as well be dead too? You’re giving up?"

Brenda’s gaze never wavered. "I never realized how smart she was until now." She laughed a little, and it chilled Jax down to his soul. "I thought we were lucky that we had survived the landing, but maybe it would have been better to die quickly in the crash than to just waste away here, waiting for rescuers that aren’t going to come."

Jax stared at her for a moment, and then shocked her by pulling her to her feet and gripping her shoulders angrily. "Now look here, princess. I haven’t pulled the "Me-Tarzan, You-Jane," act with you before this, but I think my patience just ran out." His eyes shot sparks that tried to penetrate her lifeless ones. "Maybe you’re ready to give up, but I’m bloody well sure that I’m NOT. And as long as you’re stranded here with me, I’m going to make sure that you have an incentive to live, too!"

Brenda’s eyes widened as she realized that as he was speaking to her, he was unbuttoning her blouse. She tried to bat his hands away, but he was stronger than her and by the time she realized his intent, he had them all undone. "I’ll give you a reason to live, Princess!" He pulled the blouse from her shoulders and as she began to sputter at him, he deftly kicked out at her legs and swept them from under her, landing her on her butt in the sand.

"What the h*ll do you think you’re doing?" she finally shouted.

"I’m giving you a purpose in life!" Before she could object or even move, he had hooked his fingers in the waistband of her remodeled shorts and pulled them off her flailing legs.

She sat in the sand in her bra and panties and sneered at him. "And what would that purpose be – being your playmate of the month?"

He leaned down next to her. "No – getting even with me for what I’m about to do to you!" Before she could open her mouth to object, he grabbed her hands to pull her to a standing position and then put his shoulder to her waist, throwing her over with ease. He swatted her on the butt one time for emphasis and then spun around and started walking towards the ocean.

Her expletives were almost burning his ears. She was still screaming at him as he entered the water and dumped her in. He followed through with his hand on top of her head, pushing her beneath the waves just long enough for a good dunking. She came up spitting salt water, and was outraged to feel his hands moving over her upper body, scrubbing dispassionately at her breasts. As she was about to rail at him again, he pushed her under the water and then brought her up. She pushed the wet strands of hair out of her eyes and was even more enraged when she saw he was smiling! "So how do you feel now, Princess? Are you mad at me yet?"

She called him a name that he thought only his brother used regularly to refer to him. "I’ve gone way beyond mad, Ace!"

She turned an even darker shade of red as he laughed in her face. "Good, cause I’ve only just begun!" His right foot kicked out and he swept her legs from under her, causing her to sit down hard into the water again. But he was also there to scoop her up out by lifting her under her arms, and she almost spit the water in his face when she came up. "Well, I think you’re pretty clean for now. But we definitely need to rinse that salt water out of your hair. Care to step to the shampoo bowl, Miss Barrett?"

She growled an answer at him but he just leaned down to put her over his shoulder again and carry her out of the water. "Now, now, Miss Barrett," he said sarcastically, "you really shouldn’t say things like that. You don’t know my mother at all!" She was beating her fists on his back, but after quickly stopping to get the coconut with the lime mixture from under the tree, he still carried her effortlessly to their hut and through the opening.

Once they were inside, he took her over to the small hollowed-out tree trunk where they kept their fresh water supply. Since there was only a little fresh water left and he could easily rinse it out, he set her down next to it. Brenda immediately tried to bolt for the door, but he grabbed her and spun her around, forcing her to her knees and then kneeling beside her. "You can’t do this to me, you Neanderthal!" she wailed.

"I can and I am, princess," Jax replied, still smiling smugly, which made her just that much angrier. He forced her to bend over the trough and then splashed the water up and over her hair, rubbing his fingers through it. He dared not let his mind wander to its texture or his fantasies about her, but managed to finish the job quickly. Reaching down next to him, he grabbed the oil and lime juice mixture and poured it over her head, generating a new string of expletives. He massaged it into her scalp, and then finally pulled her to an upright kneeling position next to him.

"YOU STINK!" she said through grit teeth, and rubbed her still-damp arms briskly.

He gave her a grin that she was beginning to find borderline-nauseating. "Yes, but now you don’t! And that’s the best part!" He sat on his haunches with his hands resting on his upper thighs, still smirking at her upsetness. He finally let his gaze drift downward and noticed that her nipples were standing at attention, probably due to the fact that her skin was still wet and cold from her dunking in the ocean. Droplets of water ran down her neck to gather in the valley between her breasts, which was only barely concealed by the lacy bra she wore.

Jax could feel his body responding to the sight of her, and before she could draw another breath, he made a decision. {Might as well go for broke. She’s already furious with me -- it can’t get much worse.} He sprang up to his feet and then scooped her up into his arms again. "What the h*ll do you think you’re doing now?" she cried as he began to move away from the water supply. "Haven’t you already humiliated me enough for one day?"

To her surprise, he only went as far as the rumpled pile of material they called a bed. He dumped her into it on her back, and then followed her down quickly to lie beside her. As she opened her mouth to object, he covered it with his own, giving her a blistering kiss.

It only lasted a few seconds, and then Jax raised his head and stared into her golden topaz eyes. "Maybe I was wrong, princess," he whispered. "Maybe you don’t need a reason to live. Maybe you just need to be reminded what it really *feels* like to live." He cupped her damp face in his hands and lowered his head to hers to taste the lips that had been driving him crazy for so many nights.

Brenda only hesitated a split-second herself before she surrendered to the kiss. {You’ve wanted this all along, Brenda. He makes you feel like nobody else has in your life. Why do you keep denying what you both obviously want?} She slid her hands up to his shoulders and pulled him down with her onto the bedding. She made soft, whimpering sounds as he continued to taste her, nipping lightly at the corners of her mouth. His hand moved down to the fastener of her bra and he quickly released her breasts from the confines of the scrap of lace. As he tossed her bra to the side, he began to drive her to the edge of madness as he licked the salt water from her skin on her breast.

Brenda felt her world spinning as Jax was kissing and caressing her into oblivion. His entire body was pressed against hers, and every place they touched felt to her like it was on fire. His lips created a burning path between her breasts and down to her navel, and then she moaned aloud as he nipped her stomach at the waistline of her bikini panties. He grabbed the elastic with his teeth and then hooked a finger in the lace to pull them off her, returning to kiss her deeply as he did.

Jax’s clothing and Brenda’s inhibitions were soon cast aside and he slowly explored her body, taking his time in finding every spot that brought her pleasure. "I love the way you look, Brenda," Jax moaned in a shaky voice. "I’ve been wanting to see all of you ever since I found you that day when you had come out of the ocean. You are so precious to me....almost as precious as life itself." His eyes locked with hers. "You ARE my life, Brenda."

Brenda caught her breath. She had never felt this sensual -- this desired -- this much of a woman. "Please, Jax," she moaned.

"Please what, love? What do you want?"

"I want YOU." She threaded her hands up into his soft blonde hair.

"Where do you want me?" he asked, a fiery gleam in his eye.

"I want you inside me," Brenda whispered, and when he granted her wish, she ground her hips into his and practically purred in satisfaction. Jax whispered endearments in her ear that made her blush, yet also made her feel more alive and more feminine than she ever had in her life before.

Jax moaned as he felt her body embracing him. It had never been this way before for him, and although it shocked him a little, in a way it didn’t surprise him. He had known, ever since they first locked eyes when he woke on the beach after the crash. He had known they were meant for each other and that somehow they would end up this way.

He began to move within her, and when Brenda thought she couldn’t take much more pleasure, Jax took her to another level as their lovemaking reached its climax. He gazed deeply into her eyes, and whispered his love to her. As the sun sank below the horizon, the lovers fell asleep, still entwined in each others’ arms.

*~*~*~*

Brenda tried to stretch and was surprised to find that she couldn’t move her left arm. At first, she wasn’t sure what time it was, but then she saw that the sun was shining brightly outside the doorway of their hut. When she turned her head back to where she lay, she saw the reason why she couldn’t move and she remembered the events of the night before.

Jax was still sleeping soundly, his arm thrown across her stomach, pinning her left arm against her. She watched him for a moment, daring to take her right finger to trace the cleft in his chin. How many times had she traced that cleft last night with her lips? He stirred a little, and she pulled back immediately, not wanting him to catch her memorizing every one of his features.

She carefully pulled herself free of his embrace, swinging her legs around and finally managing to move to the center of the hut. She looked at her bra and panties laying on the floor, but then after stealing one more look at his sleeping form, she grabbed her comb and went just outside the door to the hut to be alone for a while.

Brenda sat down and began to try to work the comb through her tangled hair and to her amazement, Jax’s home recipe actually seemed to have worked. She pulled the comb through again and again until the ends of her hair curled just below her breasts and her hair felt softer and more manageable than it had in days. After putting the comb down, she sat in thought, wrapping her arms around her legs and rocking back and forth slowly.

{In a way, you should be thanking Jax, not being angry with him. He just accomplished for you what you’ve been wanting to do for a long time -- break up with Sonny. Now you have a perfect reason. You’ve actually found a man you lo....} She couldn’t finish the sentence. How could she admit she loved a man who would never consider her more than just the latest in his string of mistresses? All he would ever give to her would be heartbreak. He had already made a commitment, and it was to another woman. And it didn’t seem likely that his commitment to her would end soon. She put her hand to her mouth to choke back a sob, and then took a deep breath to steady her nerves. She needed some time to think about everything – and she certainly couldn’t go for a walk without her clothes!

She quietly stood and went back into the hut, gazing down at Jax again. His breathing was still deep and even, but a lock of his hair had fallen down on his forehead, much the same as it often did when he was awake. She stole over to gently brush it back, but just as she got close to him, she got the shock of her life when his eyes popped open. "Gotcha!" he said playfully, reaching out for her.

She evaded his grasp and backed up towards the table. "Jax! You startled me! I thought you were asleep!"

He sat up and the crude sheet she had made out of scraps of fabric rode dangerously low on his hips. "Well, I’m obviously awake now, and since you are too, why don’t we make the most of it?" He extended his hand to her and gave her a bone-melting smile. {Don’t do it, Brenda. Don’t give in to his charms again.}

"Right!" she answered brightly. "I’ll go get us some fresh water and you can go catch breakfast!" She looked around her in confusion. "If I could just find my clothes, that is." She gave an artificial-sounding laugh. "I don’t exactly think that it’s a good idea to parade around the island nude, just in case those drug runners come back."

He caught her off-guard, moving to stand beside her without making a sound. "Brenda? Are you alright?" He looked concerned that she might be over-compensating for some kind of depression again.

"Yes, I’m fine," she answered brightly. "Really, I AM!" She looked around theatrically again. "If I could just find my shirt and shorts, I would be perfect….."

Jax’s arms snaked around her waist. "Don’t you remember – they’re probably still on the beach where we left them yesterday." He felt her freeze in his arms at his touch. "Brenda – what’s wrong?"

She turned, but to her consternation, couldn’t break free from his loose embrace. "NOTHING’S wrong!" she insisted, trying to pull away from him. "Honestly!" She looked into his eyes and had to keep reminding herself not to fall, so she lowered hers in mock embarrassment. "I’m sorry about the way I acted yesterday. I’m better now and I won’t behave like such a child again."

Jax tipped her face up to his and added to her discomfort when he pulled her closer to his nude body. "Brenda, you weren’t behaving like a child. It was understandable that sooner or later all of the feelings you’ve been bottling up since we landed would surface." He smiled at her again. "And besides, it was so nice helping you feel better that I for one wouldn’t mind helping you even more this morning." He lowered his head to kiss her but she jerked away from him.

"Well, I don’t need any more help from you in the future, so we can just forget what happened last night, OK?" She placed her hands against his chest to push him away and felt the muscles there tense at her words.

"No, Brenda," he said in a low voice. "We CAN’T forget what happened last night. We belong to each other now. We made love."

Brenda willed her eyes to go cold, and somehow she managed. "No, we didn’t MAKE LOVE. We had sex." She knew she wouldn’t be able to look him in the eye when she said the words forming on her lips. "And I really didn’t want to. I just did it because you made me."

Jax inhaled long and hard. "Excuse me? I MADE you? Are you trying to tell me you didn’t want me last night?"

Brenda kept trying desperately to push herself out of his embrace and finally managed to step back a few steps. "That’s right. I didn’t want to." She heard him snort in disbelief and knew she had to reinforce her words, even if it would hurt him. {Then at least he won’t be able to hurt you when he dumps you and goes back to his wife.} "I mean, maybe it SEEMED to you like I wanted you, but I was just pretending." She finally looked into his eyes. "The whole time I was just pretending that you were Sonny."

She expected him to scream. Or hit her. Or throw things. But he didn’t. She only saw a slight widening of his eyes and the small raise of one eyebrow. Then, he completely shocked her by just walking slowly to where she stood. "You were pretending I was Sonny, huh?" he said in a grim voice. She couldn’t back up any more because the table was pressing into the flesh of her upper thighs, and he had her trapped against it. His body just barely was touching hers, and she began to flush as she realized that at his nearness, her nipples were growing hard. He saw it too as he glanced down at them and then back up at her. "So, I guess that whenever Sonny stands this close to you, your nipples start to get hard, just like they are now? Just from him standing next to you?"

She swallowed hard and tried to control her breathing. "That’s right."

He reached up and began to circle one nipple with the tip of his first finger. "And I suppose that each time he touches you – here, for example – you begin to breathe hard." He reached his other hand down between her thighs and found the center of her femininity. "And you get this wet at Sonny’s faintest touch, right?"

Jax saw a tear begin to slip down one of her cheeks as she turned her head away in mortification. He stopped his caresses and took both hands to turn her face back to him. "Sonny doesn’t do that for you, does he, Brenda?" But before she could answer him, he brought his lips down onto hers, and he got his answer in her kiss. She wound her arms around his neck and he slowly slid her body up his, until she finally wrapped her legs around his waist. He walked back to their bed and lowered her onto it, never breaking the kiss.

Brenda lay on her back as Jax began to kiss and caress her breasts until her head was turning from side to side and she was moaning loudly. "Does he make you feel this hot, Brenda?" He kept it up until her breasts were both glistening and swollen from his tender attentions.

Finally she wound her fingers in his hair. "Please, no more," she whimpered softly, but he only rolled to his back, pulling her on top of him.

"Yes, Brenda – more. A whole lot more," he answered raggedly as he grasped her by the hips and scooted himself up to a reclining position, resting his lower back against the tote bag. He lowered her onto his lap to straddle him and she bit her lip to keep from crying out with the pleasure as he made them one.

Jax still had his hands on her hips and he surprised her when he slowly raised her up off his lap. She grabbed his wrists for support and her eyes flew open at his action. "Talk to me, Brenda," he growled. "Who am I?"

"YOU IDIOT!" she rasped in reply. "I DON’T WANT TO PLAY 20 QUESTIONS RIGHT NOW! I WANT YOU!!"

Jax smiled serenely but still held her suspended above him. "Who do you want, Brenda?" he insisted. He lowered her a little and he saw her eyes flutter shut as they became one again, but then he lifted her back up and she whimpered her displeasure. "Who am I, Brenda?" he repeated.

She finally groaned an answer. "You’re Jax." He relaxed his arms and she slid down onto his lap again. She only was able to enjoy it for a few seconds, though, as he immediately lifted her again. He repeated the action until she thought she would lose her mind with wanting him. She traveled the full length of him once………….twice……………three times…………..very slowly. Each time, he would ask her his name. Somehow, she managed to maintain enough of her sanity to answer him each time, confirming aloud that there was no pretending this time – Jax was the only man in her thoughts, her body, and her soul.

Finally, he lowered her onto his hips and reached his hands up to caress her breasts. "Open your eyes, Brenda. I want you to look me in the eyes and tell me want me to do."

She responded with words that he usually only heard Jerry use when their mother wasn’t present, but he just smiled and was glad to oblige her.

*~*~*~*

After both of their breathing had once again returned to normal, he ran his fingers through her silken hair and looked into her lambent eyes. "You’re mine now, Brenda. Forever," he whispered, right before they both fell into an exhausted sleep.

To be continued…..

Music credit: "God Must Have Spent a Little More Time on You," by Carl Sturken and Evan Rogers, recorded by ‘N Sync on the CD "’N Sync."