This is my adaptation of "Rebel With A Cause" by Kim Hansen.
Chapter 11
Brenda walked down the hallway toward her office, doing a little dance as she went, but her rhythm faltered when she rounded a corner and saw Jax waiting by her door. Just seeing him made her heart thudder off beat, her pulse accelerate, and tried to remember all the excuses she'd thought up this morning on the way to work to justify her behavior the previous night.
The champagne had been the main problem. She'd had way too much of it. That was why she had lost control and ended up in his arms. It wasn't that it had been inevitable, that the pull of him as a man appealed to her as a woman. Or, even if that was it, she also had better sense, or so she had thought.
He wasn't for her. She wasn't for him. They were too different. They came from different backgrounds. Oil didn't mix with water. But'd it had felt like a flood when his lips touched hers. She'd nearly drowned in the waves of sensation she'd felt while in his arms.
Brenda gave herself a mental shake and continued to walk. She'd have to explain, make him understand that what happened could not happen again. They had to draw a line somewhere. A line that she could not cross. The sex appeal was great and satisfaction sweet, but it was short-lived. And, in this case, with them being who they were, it was ill-advised. But how did she tell him to stay away from her when her body was already humming because he was so close?
Jax looked up as she stopped next to him, his blue-green eyes giving away nothing, and she took a deep breath. Maybe he would be a gentleman and not discuss the kiss, but with him, she never knew what to expect. That was part of the enigma, part of what made her move closer when she should be headed the opposite way. Was he really who she thought he was? "Jax, can I see you in my office?"
He followed without saying a word, closing the door behind him and waited for her to speak as she paced restlessly back and forth behind her desk. "Problem?"
The quiet prompt had her clenching and unclenching her hands together and her stomach full of butterflies. She turned to face him. "Actually, yes...and no." But as she looked into his eyes, she found herself unable...or unwilling...to bring up something personal, when they had business to attend too. She lifted her chin. It was why she'd hired him after all. "The Malibu project? My father has agreed to let me handle the development."
A slow smile spread across his face. "Great. So what do you need me to do?"
"I don't have a clue where to start."
His eyebrows rose as she gestured helplessly.
"I mean, I've never done anything like this before, and I suddenly don't have any idea where to start!"
Jax moved closer. "First, take a deep breath."
She did as he told her.
"Now, tell me, what's the first thing you need before you can plan any project?"
"Financing."
He shrugged. "See you know what to do. You just can't let emotion get to you."
Relief had her sighing. "Okay. So I call the bank, but what about a contractor? Bids?"
"The bank can help you with some recommendations. Banks, after all, are very particular about to whom and how they lend money."
"Or, Sonny could give me some suggestions." Brenda considered with a frown. "He's done that more times than I can count."
"Do you really think Sonny is going to help you? Especially after the last meeting you had with him."
Brenda smiled as she sat down in her chair. "You have a point there. But the bank would recommend the same people he would."
"Not necessarily, and only if you use the same bank he does. Why not choose a different one?"
"But we've always..."
"Rules were made to be broken," Jax interrupted.
"Besides, competition is good for the soul. A new bank's going to want to impress you because they are going to want more of your business."
She smiled slowly as she sat back to enjoy the view. "You've done this before?"
"I've been involved in putting up a building or two."
His shrug was nonchalant, but her curiosity was piqued. Again. "For yourself?"
"Why do you ask?"
"Why won't you answer the question?"
He grinned, recognizing her frustration but unwilling to satisfy it. The time wasn't right. "I told you, it's more fun making you guess."
Resentment sparked anger, but the heat that ignited between them had little to do with fury as her eyes locked with his in silent combat. More, it was desire the stirred her blood, and suddenly she was drowning again. Finding it difficult to break away from the warmth of his gaze, she managed by sitting up straight and wheeling her chair tightly against her desk to use it as a shield against him. Somehow, though, it seemed like a weak defense. "Jax, about last night..."
"Our celebrating got out of hand."
Brenda's eyes flew to his in surprise and quickly darkened with disappointment in his quick dismissal of their heated kisses.
"I didn't say I was sorry about it though," Jax told her, recognizing the emotions too easily read in her eyes and coming forward to rest his hands on the desk so that he could lean toward her.
Unconsciously, drawn like a magnet, she leaned forward, too.
"I just prefer we wait for a while before testing that balcony."
"Balcony," she repeated numbly, wondering how his mouth had so quickly gotten to within mere inches of hers and if his lips would be as firm, as coaxing, as devastating appealing as she remembered if he kissed her again.
"I'll go call the bank."
She almost hit her chin on the desk when he abruptly swung away. "Bank?"
"You'll want to set up a meeting."
"Meeting," she muttered in bemused agreement, struggling to catch up with him, get her mind back on the conversation and business at hand, and act like the professional she was pretending to be.
"As soon as possible?"
Seeing him stop at the door to look back at her, the hunger in his eyes said he could have cared less about the bank or the meeting. And neither could she. She licked her lips and watched his gaze focus on the action. "Yes."
His hand hesitated on the knob, and she held her breath as she wished he would come back to her and kiss her as if there was no tomorrow. But suddenly the door was opening, and Sonny Corinthos was entering the office.
Brenda, your father tells me that you'll be handling the development of the Malibu property."
"Yes," she agreed, her guard snapping up, her back stiffening and her gaze
sharpening on the unwelcome interruption. "Jax and I were just discussing the bank about the financing."
Sonny smiled, the flash of his teeth bright next to his dark face, and ignored Jax who stood almost next to him. "Moving quickly, aren't we?"
Brenda merely smiled, trying but unable to see any malice in his eyes or words.
"You know, I'd be more than happy to help you," Sonny sniffed. "Even after the way you treated me yesterday. I can even give you the names of some contractors, or if you need some advice..."
"I appreciate the offer, Sonny. Any assistance you could give would be appreciated, wouldn't it, Jax?
"Of course," he rapidly agreed.
But watching him, Brenda realized that, like Sonny, she could read nothing in Jax's eyes. She nodded to him. "Why don't you go set up that meeting? I'll chat with Sonny for a while."
Jax hesitated, unwilling to leave her alone for fear she'd be talked into something that would put her behind rather than ahead of the game. But when her eyes locked with hers again, he recognized the steel in her brown gaze. She wasn't ready to be duped, mislead, or patronized, but she was going to let Sonny think she was. For a little while, anyway.
Jax swallowed his words, smothered a smile and went out the door to set up the meeting. Maintaining his silence when he would have like to say something was something he found himself doing a lot of over the next few days as he followed Brenda through various business meetings.
It was very difficult to sit back and let someone else do the work when he was used to being in charge himself. But if his patience was tried while he sat with Brenda through endless meetings with bankers and contractors, at least he was never bored. And she remained open to his ideas. She didn't always agree with them, but she never dismissed them without thought or being able to give a logical argument, either. He found it exasperating when she followed her own line of reasoning to a decision, especially when he felt he could get the same result faster if she followed his, but it was exhilarating, too. She had a sharp mind, and he liked watching it, and her, work.
"What do you think, Jax?"
He turned his head to look at her. It was Friday afternoon. Standing with her in the sitting sun, he'd been listening to the contractor they were considering hiring as the three of them stood on the Malibu hillside overlooking the ocean, beach and sloping shore. Jax nodded. "I think it sounds good."
"So do I."
Her smile was enough to make his heart skip a beat, his stomach do somersaults and his mouth water for another taste. And when she directed her attention to the contractor, the man was equally bowed by the brilliance of her acceptance, the warmth of her eyes and the femininity that couldn't be disguised by a business suit or agenda. "You'll get us a bid by Monday?" Jax asked, rescuing the man as he tried to stammer out a sentence.
"I'll personally deliver it."
"We'll see you Monday, then," Brenda said, offering her hand and continuing to smile as her fingers disappeared in a grip that was twice the size of hers. Kevin Carmichael was big and rough, but he knew the business well, It showed in his suggestions, his enthusiasm and his experience. He'd worked out of Malibu numerous times before, and he'd proudly taken her and Jax on a tour of some of the homes he'd erected along the California coast before laying out his ideas for the new project. "I like him," she said, looking away from the contractor's departing figure to Jax.
"Not a requirement when doing business, but it makes things easier," Jax agreed. "He'll do great work."
She sighed in satisfaction, feeling confident and secure that the project was proceeding at a good pace. "The bank was right about him, and you were right about the bank." She watched Jax shrug and look away to gaze out at the waves rolling in to pound the shore in a soothing rhythm. Like her, his suit jacket was being held not worn: It was a concession to the heat wave.
She let her eyes wander over him. The suit he had on was another in a series of well-cut, expensive business wear that he'd worn throughout the week. This one was light brown and mixed well with his choice of a blue striped tie. The tie that was still knotted and slightly askew around his throat. But she'd ceased to wonder, over the long hours of negotiations and meetings, about his attire of his business sense. She just accepted and expected both from him, just as she had stopped believing he was simply a motorcycle groupie who owned nothing but his bike and leather jacket.
Why he'd wanted her to believe he was penniless and broke she had no idea, nor could she understand why he'd needed the job she offered him. His application hadn't set forth much in experience, but that, she was sure, had been by purpose not lack of experience. Jax was definitely hiding something. He was hiding his true identity...or running away from it.
A small frown formed on her face. She wanted to determine which but didn't know how hard...or if...she should try to find out.
The mystery of him intrigued, enticed, puzzled, but some mysteries were better left unsolved. Except she wanted to know more about him. Very badly...
"Are you coming to the party tonight?" she asked, interrupting his thoughts and wondering what they were, but all wonder vanished when he turned to level his golden gaze on her.
"I thought your father frowned on fraternizing."
"This is different. The party is for all company officers, their families and their staff. Besides," she said, cocking an eyebrow. "I thought you didn't care my father thought." But she didn't wait for his answer. She turned to start down the hill toward her car. He rapidly followed.
"I never said that."
"You didn't have to," she told him over her shoulder. Breathing in the sea-salted air was like an elixir. She loved the ocean. Her dream was someday to live in a house right beside it.
"Still think I have an attitude?"
"I don't think. I know you do."
"How's that?" he asked, reaching her side and falling into step beside her.
"It shows in your eyes."
He smiled. "What does?"
"Your attitude." She glanced at him. "Like when I decided not to go with the other contractor. You thought you were right."
His smile widened. It had been one of their more lively debates. "Everyone has an opinion."
"You like to be the one making all the decisions. Makes me wonder if that's the reason you were jobless when we met."
His eyebrows arched.
"If I'd been a man, I think you would have punched me out." She stopped to face him in front of her car. "Maybe you did punch your last boss."
Jax shook his head as he thought of all the fights that he had gotten into with Jerry. Most of them ending with punches thrown. "Nope. I just disagreed with him...all the time."
"Thankfully that hasn't happened to us," she said, turning toward the driver's door.
"Yet."
She stopped to look at him again and was suddenly struck at how sexy he looked with the wind blowing through his hair and his aquamarine eyes shining with mischievousness. He took her breath away. "You're expecting us to disagree?"
He smiled slowly, and the heat in his gaze reached out to make her blood boil. "At first, but I think we'll come to a peaceful settlement."
"Really?" she responded, crossing her arms in front of her in a vain attempt to ward him off. "That sure of you persuasive skills?"
"Sure you'll want to be persuaded."
This time it was her eyebrows that arched. "Cocky, aren't we?"
He stepped around the bumper to stop before her, and the temperature on the beach seemed to go up another fifty degrees. "Just confident." He lifted a finger to run it down her arm, bare below the sleeveless shirt she wore. Her skin was as soft as he remembered. "We work well together."
"We think alike," she agreed refusing to step back even though her flesh was burning from his touch.
"Sometimes." He pushed his free hand into his pocket and away from the temptation to touch her again. "But I think you like fraternizing, either."
"What do you mean?"
He put his head next to hers to breathe in her perfume and whisper in her ear. "You're trying to keep me at arm's length." He leaned back to put his face directly in front of hers and watched her eyes darken and her pulse leap erratically in her throat. "It won't work."
It was more a promise than a threat, and she was more thrilled than afraid. Shallow or not, proper or not, socially acceptable or not, she was ready to set aside right and wrong if he would just take her in his arms again. But she wasn't willing to be conquered too easily. She wasn't going to surrender, yet. "Maybe."
His smile was unworried as she turned away to unlock the door.
"Can I drop you somewhere?"
He waited until she was seated and closed the door for her before going around and getting in the other side. "The office. I need to pick up my bike."
She started the engine. "I could drive you home. Even pick you up to take you to work tomorrow."
He didn't answer, and she was force to turn her head meet his gaze as the air conditioner began to hum.
"What?" she asked innocently, refusing to acknowledge the light of humor in his eyes. "I'm just trying to be helpful."
"Your just being curious."
Scowling she reached for the gear shift. "You *are* cocky."
"No, its just that I know that the only address I put on my application was for a post office box."
She gritted her teeth. He was also a mind reader. Putting the car in Drive but leaving her foot on the brake, she turned her head to glare at him. "I *am* going to find out more about you whether you want me to or not."
His smile had her heart accelerating before the car did. "I'm willing to let you find out all you want."
Suddenly finding it hard to get air in her lungs, she hastily returned her attention to the windshield and the gas pedal and away from the man sitting beside her. Only it was impossible to escape thoughts of him, or of all the possibilities that lay between and before them, when his cologne, his sweat, his very presence demanded she give him every consideration. She couldn't wait for the discovery to really begin
