The Rebel

This is my adaptation of "Rebel With A Cause" by Kim Hansen


Chapter 12

Jax walked around the backyard or the Barrett estate, mingling with the other
guests, admiring the swimming pool, strolling in the garden and looking for
Brenda. He'd been at the party for almost an hour already, and he still had not
seen her yet.

He raised his glass of champagne while looking over the multitude of people
around him. Perhaps she was avoiding him. He took a drink of the champagne. But he really didn't think so. That was not her style. She didn't run from challenges. That was part of her appeal...as was the fact she was willing to throw convention, society and all the rules away to let him make insane and passionate love to her.

He skimmed the faces surrounding him, most of which he recognized from the
office, but unconsciously searched on for the one he wanted. It was not
arrogance telling him that Brenda was willing for the passion to begin. It was
human nature. He was a man, she was a woman, and when the two of them came together, the sparks flew. She might be trying to ignore it, he might be
temporarily resisting it, but it was there. Undeniably. Unavoidably.

He began walking again. It was odd, but he could not remember pursuing or
wanting to pursue another woman more than Brenda.

The chase was something that he enjoyed. It was a subtle game of intrigue and suspense that he liked to play, and his pray was always beautiful and intelligent. Brenda was not any different in that respect, but in other ways, somehow, she was. He could not quite pinpoint why or what made her more special then the other women he had been involved with. She was, simply, unique...

"Henry, there really isn't anything more to say."

The words stopped Jax in his tracks. They had come from Brenda's lips. But he couldn't see her. He was in alone in the shadows as far as he could tell.

"Look, if it is about the other night..."

The male voice led Jax to look up and grin burst across his mouth. The balcony.

"It's not," Brenda interrupted. "It's more than that and you know it." She sighed and studied the scowling man before. Henry Raines was tall, dark, and handsome in the black tuxedo he was wearing. He was also rich and had a bright future ahead of him. But even if he was, or at least should be, everything Brenda wanted in the man who wanted to marry her, she wasn't interested.

"Henry, you're a nice man."

"But not nice enough for you."

Brenda reached out to stop him when he would have swung away. "Nice has nothing to do with it. We just don't see things the same way."

"Would you like to?"

Brenda smiled into the brown eyes searching hers. "We cannot change who we are even if we want to."

"Meaning, you won't change your mind? You won't reconsider my offer?"

"I won't marry you, Henry. I'm flattered, but..."

"We could make it a long engagement. It would give you some time." Henry took his hands out of his pockets to grasp her hands. "It's a big step, I know. For both of us, but it will work out if we let it. Let's just take things slowly and see what develops, okay?"

Brenda opened her mouth to disagree, but it was already too late. Henry Raines was walking away, leaving the balcony and her, and as usual, he hadn't heard a thing she'd said.

"I'll meet you downstairs," he called over his shoulder with a wave and promptly disappeared out the door.

Sighing heavily, she lifted a hand to push her hair back from her face. She'd left it loose for tonight, preferring a casual style and a more conservative cocktail dress for the evening that was to be spent with coworkers. She wasn't out to impress. Just to blend in, but before she'd had the chance to try, Henry had shown up.

Her mouth thinned. She suspected her mother was behind Henry's visit, because engagements had been the topic of conversation at the dinner table just prior to the party. It was really getting to be too much. Her mother--

"Hark, hark, what light through yonder window breaks?"

Brenda froze where she stood, shock holding her speechless until recognition bubbled in her throat on a gurgle of laughter. Straightening, she moved to the corner of the balcony. "Oh, Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?"

"I thought you didn't like Shakespeare."

She leaned over the railing to look down at Jax. "It depends on who's playing Romeo."

"What's your preference?" he demanded.

Someone tall, blonde and handsome."

"Then I'm your guy."

She laughed as he pumped his arms in victory. "I see that no one in your family has any humility. You have it all."

He grinned and tossed his glass into the bushes. "Move aside. I'm coming up."

"Are you crazy?"

"No," he said, grabbing hold of a vine. "I have always wanted to play the part of rescuing a damsel in distress." And he did, especially when it would bring him together with the woman he wanted to be with and opposite the man he wanted his fist to meet.

Jax reached for another vine, ignoring the ominous snap of twigs and the precarious sway of his footing.

Standing under the balcony listening to some other man try and make love to the woman he wanted had not been the highlight of the evening. But at least she'd said no. She wasn't marrying the jerk. Whoever he was. And Jax didn't think she'd kissed the guy. At least he hoped she hadn't, but he wasn't willing to stay on the ground any longer waiting for the man named Henry to get another chance.

Above him Brenda screamed as another branch snapped, but the vines held.

"Never fear, my lady. Nothing will keep me from you."

She bit her lip, caught between fear and amusement. "I think that line's from another play."

"That or a bad movie," Jax grunted, and abruptly wondered what the hell had gotten into him. Why was he risking life and limb to climb a bunch of dirty vines to get to a woman who was considering marrying another man? What did it matter if Brenda Barrett was altar bound? She was nothing to him. He just wanted her to be. At least until he could find out if all of her skin was as soft as the small part he had touched. That was hardly worth breaking his neck for, though, was it?

Heaving himself upward, he grabbed hold of the edge of the balcony and found Brenda looking down at him. "I must be out of my mind," he told her.

"I believe that's what I said." She smiled. "But I like the effort. Very theatrical," then she clapped.

He finally got his arm around the railing and tried to catch his breath, but it was being taken away again. By her. In a simple black dress with a high neckline and a length that barely covered her knees, she was simply elegant, delicately alluring and delicious enough to eat. "Does that mean you're pleased to see me?"

She smiled again. "Your pushy as well as cocky."

"No, just jealous." And it surprised him to realize he was telling the truth, but the smile curving her lips disappeared at his confession.

"You heard Henry?"

"I heard you say no."

"Then you heard just about everything."

He heard her sigh and watched her lift a hand to brush some hair away from her face. "Henry is the family friend?"

Her smile returned as she remembered the deserted street Henry had left her on. It was where she had met Jax, and Jax was part of the reason she'd said no. It was Jax's golden gaze she'd been thinking of when looking into Henry's eyes. That was why Henry paled in comparison to Jax. "He drives a Jaguar."

"I noticed."

"And my mother likes him."

"Double wow."

"She wants grandchildren."

"Doesn't sound like a match made in heaven to me."

"It's not, but she keeps pushing the issue."

"Ignore her."

"Impossible while I'm living here."

"Then move out."

Brenda frowned.

"Why are you living here anyway?" Jax asked. "After college..."

"And being independent I had other ideas," she admitted. "I wanted to come home, work in the family firm and have my own place. I was looking forward to it." She chewed her lip. "But my mother was sick, my father was worried and I..."

"Was available."

Her smile was feeble. "I thought she needed me."

"Does she still?"

"All parents need their children."

"All parents have to let go sometime." He studied her in the shadows flickering across the balcony. "I bet I could find you a place."

Her eyes lit up under his.

"Or you could always move in with me."

Her mouth opened in surprise, but before she could register the shock, he had her laughing instead.

"That way you can find out where I live."

Her laughter washed over him as he remained clinging to the railing. "You are something else!"

"But are you interested?"

Murmured voices suddenly came from below.

"Wait..." she interrupted.

Brenda's eyes widened as she recognized her father's voice, and she grabbed for Jax. "Get up here!"

Her whisper was harsh, and he hastened to comply but the vine stopped him. "I can't! I'm stuck!"

Unable to imagine what her father would say if he caught Jax climbing into the house by going over the balcony and not knowing whether to laugh or cry at the possibility, she hurried back to Jax and the railing and bent over both to reach the pants leg that was hooked on a determined branch. "There!"

She pulled, he pushed, and together they rolled backward to collapse onto the balcony floor and out of sight to anyone below.

Brenda immediately pressed her hand over his mouth. "Shh!"

"Maybe it was a rabbit or a stray cat in the bushes," someone suggested from the ground.

"I suppose." Harlan Barrett murmured in dubious response.

"Come on. Whatever it was is gone. Let's get back to the party. You are the host."

Footsteps were heard and Brenda removed her hand away from Jax's lips to find him smiling. "What if he had seen you!"

"Who cares?"

She should have been expecting the kiss. It shouldn't have taken her by surprise, not when they were lying on top of one another with their limbs tangled and their breath mingling, but it did. He did. He did the expected, but she didn't resist when he changed his ways. And he didn't want her to.

When she melted in his arms, it was as if she blended right into him. He and she were not longer separate. They were one. Together, and this time the discovery didn't scare him. It made him want more and he took it.

Searing kisses across her face and down her neck, he found she tasted as sweet and her skin was as soft as he remembered. He rolled taking her with him...and yowled when his elbow cracked into hard cement.

Laughing, she sat up to look down at him as he rubbed the bruised limb. "Poor baby. It's just a bump."

"Easy for you to say," he told her, but the pain was forgotten quickly enough as she stood and he was faced with the legs that had captivated him on a deserted street. "I like the view from down here."

She rolled her eyes and grabbed his arm to try and to hurry him from outside into the room beyond the balcony doors.

"Get up and come in here."

"Why, is this your bedroom?"

"No, it's not."

"Ouch!"

"Be quiet!" she whispered. "Everyone will hear you."

"How can I be quiet when I can't even see where I'm going and I keep running into things?" he demanded. On entering the darkened room, he'd walked right into a table. "Why are all the lights off? Didn't your father pay the bill?"

"No, I just didn't turn them on."

Jax blinked as the flick of a switch unexpectedly lit the room, and his eyes quickly narrowed in suspicion. "A quiet rendezvous with Henry in the dark?

She crossed her arms over her breasts. "A quiet evening of watching you weave through the crowd."

"You were watching me?"

His grin was annoying, but at the same time arousing. "Don't look so delighted."

He reached for her. "I am, but I'm better close up."

She stiffened when he pulled her against him, but resistance was futile. He was too big, too strong, and she didn't want to fight, anyway. Her arms lifted to circle his neck, but all too soon he was pulling away.

"Does this mean your ready to acknowledge ours isn't a normal business relationship?"

She slipped out of his arms. "Our relationship, as you so eloquently put it, doesn't seem to be normal, business or otherwise. Not from start too..."

"Finish?" he asked, and cocked his head slightly to study her. "We're not finished yet, are we?

"I'm not sure what we are." She sighed, and her heart jumped as a satisfied smile formed on his mouth and he took a step closer. She quickly stepped to the side to avoid an all-out retreat.

He followed her. "Show me your bedroom, and I bet I could help you make up your mind."

"Wherever we are, we're not there yet," she protested, holding a hand out to prevent his approach in a desperate gesture of self-defense.

He obeyed her signal to stop. Reluctantly. "Let me know when."

"You're very sure of yourself," she said, using her fingers to brush her hair back into place after his had been tangled in the strands.

"It pays to know what you want."

More laughter flowed into the room from the open balcony doors. "It also pays to know when to wait." She dropped her hand from her hair to her dress and grimaced when she came away with a leaf. "And how to look!" She groaned and began brushing at the other leaves and twigs that had transferred themselves from him to her.

His jaw clenched as he watched her, and was abruptly reminded of what he was sure she saw as their class differences, even though they were of the same. Her rejection was caused by more than bad timing.

"Sorry, we peasants do tend to get dirty sometimes."

She looked up to watch him toss a twig aside. "You're not a peasant. I'm not sure who or what you really are, but it doesn't matter to me either way."

And her eyes told him it didn't. He started toward her again.

"But," she said, holding him off with a warning glare, "I think we need to take this one step at a time no matter what our relationship is." She indicated the window through which the echo of talk and laughter could be heard. "We'll be missed."

"Appearances," he acknowledged, and shoved his hands in his pockets.

We are in my parents' house," she reminded him.

He grinned. "I can find you an apartment tomorrow."

"We'll find me an apartment tomorrow."

"Deal." He held our his hand for her to take. "What do you prefer? Inland or beachfront?"

"I don't know. I like them both."

He sighed and reached for the door. "I can see that this decision is going to take a while."

She wrinkled her nose at him. "Making the right choice is important and requires careful thought. After all, I'm still trying to make my mind up about you."

"A little mystery is the spice of life," he suggested as he led her out of the room, and immediately began imagining what seasoning he'd try with her first. But before he could make that selection, she was pulling away from him. The staircase lay a few steps ahead, and by the time they reached it, she'd already slipped the cool mask of social convention back into place. He didn't like the transformation. "I don't think I care about appearances."

Surprised, she turned to look at him as he walked beside her down the stairs. "Why?"

"It's too restricting. It's strangling you."

Her eyes widened, but he gave her no chance to respond. He moved past her instead to descend the last few stairs before disappearing into the crowd, but while he left her behind, he didn't go far.

Keeping her in sight as the evening wore on, he remained at a discreet distance until, following the ebb and flow of people, finally managed to draw close enough to her to maneuver himself into one of her conversations...with her mother.

"I'm glad you're not mad at me for inviting Henry," he heard Veronica Barrett tell her daughter, and followed her gesture to where a man stood beside Sonny Corinthos by the pool. "I know this is a company party with the anniversary and all, but I thought you would be happy to see him...especially since you have just been swamped at the office."

"Yes, well you certainly surprised me," Brenda managed, also followed the gesture to where Henry was standing, but when she looked back, her heart skipped a beat because it wasn't her mother's eyes she found herself looking to, but eyes the color of the sea. "Jax."

He smiled, her knees trembled as she quickly made an introduction.

"Mom, I don't believe you've met Jax McCarty. He's..."

"The one that owns the motorcycle," Jax cut in smoothly. "Perhaps I can talk you into taking a ride with me someday."

Veronica turned pink as he took and held her hand in his while flashing his million dollar smile.

"I'm a bit old..."

"No way," Jax assured her, and leaned closer. "Actually, I almost mistook you for Brenda. I can see where she gets her looks."

Brenda bit her lip to stop from commenting or smiling as her mother's poise was shattered by pure male charm. Her mother was stammering and eating out of his hand and in no time maneuvered away and into a group of people standing nearby. The move left Brenda alone with Jax, something she didn't mind at all.

"Nice lady," he said turning to face her.

Brenda shook her head. "You're very good at manipulation."

"Oh, I don't know about that. You've kept me checked and cornered so far." He reached up to pull something from her hair. "Twig," he said with a smile that reminded her of the balcony and his kiss, but if her knees were suddenly knocking together, she couldn't cave in. Not with her mother watching her every move.

"The garden," Brenda quickly explained, flushing from her neck up, grateful that her mother promptly turned away with an accepting smile. Brenda stepped closer to Jax. "You're supposed to keep you hands to yourself in public."

"Just trying to be helpful." He lifted the tequila he'd been carrying since leaving her earlier and gestured with it past her to the pool. "That Henry?"

Her gaze swung from him to Henry and back again. "Yes, why?"

He smiled. "Just checking out the competition."

Her eyes narrowed. "If you recall I told him no."

He shrugged nonchalantly. "But he didn't hear you, and with my business background I've learned it always pays to eliminate competition."

"Eliminate..." Her eyes widened and she hurriedly looked from him to Henry. "Jax, you wouldn't--"

"Brenda! I was wondering where you were!"

Left with no choice but to turn and greet the wife of one of the vice-presidents, Brenda determined to keep Jax by her side via introduction, but when she gestured to where he had been standing, unexpectedly she found him gone. Alarm immediately sent her heart racing, but she was given no time to worry, no time to wonder as polite conversation trapped her...at least until the first splash.

The sound of water and excited chatter got everyone's attention, including hers, and when she turned to see what the commotion was all about, her mouth fell open in surprise. Henry was no longer standing beside the pool...he was in it.

Movement by the water's edge caught her attention, and she watched Jax bend with Sonny to stretch out a helping hand to a floundering Henry. But, suddenly it appeared Sonny leaned too far. He went headfirst into the pool, and Henry went back under with him.

The second splash brought more people hurrying forward, but while everyone wanted to offer assistance as two heads bobbed to the surface of the pool, no one seemed in a hurry to get too close. Instead of extending arms or hands to help, an inner tube was found and tossed in, then another.

It was total chaos as people jumped into her line of vision, and in the ensuing fray, Brenda lost track of Jax. There were too many tuxedos to pick his out of the crowd, but without warning he suddenly appeared standing next to her.

He whistled. "Boy, that deck sure is slippery."

She swung to confront him with accusing eyes. "Did you push them in?"

Jax looked wounded. "I was standing there just talking to them when your Henry dropped this."

She looked at the napkin clutched in his hand.

"We both bent down to pick it up, and the next thing I knew, he was in the water." Jax shrugged. "It happened so fast, I'm not exactly sure what happened."

Her hands settled on her hips, and he raised his hands in quick surrender.

"I tried to help him out. Honest. So did Sonny."

Her lips twitched, and suddenly she was finding it hard to hang on to the outrage she should be feeling. Instead, incredulously, she had to fight to keep a straight face. "He slipped, too, I suppose."

"No, he reached too far," Jax explained with an expression of total innocence. "Overbalanced."

She stared at him, caught between the need to display proper shock and the want to laugh out loud at his audacity, but rather than give in to either, she looked past him to where the two men were, dripping and disgusted, being helped toward the house. "The least you could have done was waited."

"For what?"

"Me." She turned back to face him. "I would have liked to be the one to shove Sonny in."

He would have laughed but was prevented from doing so when she unexpectedly shoved her drink into his hand.

"Hold this. I have to go see to my guests." But the look she gave him as she walked away said that she'd rather stay with him.

***********************************

The light on the answering machine was blinking when Jax returned home hours later. He was drunk on the sent of a certain type of perfume, and he wanted to ignore the red light because he was tired. It'd been a busy night.

A smile lingered on his lips as he thought of Henry and Sonny landing in the pool. It wasn't something he'd planned or even intended on approaching them. More, he'd been motivated by curiosity, but Henry's arrogance had been annoying and Sonny's introduction condescending. The urge to act had just been too tempting to resist, and it had been so easy.

A nudge with an elbow, a well-placed hand. Jax sighed. A little humiliation was good for the soul, and Henry and Sonny had both needed a strong dose.

Stopping by the answering machine, Jax stared at it. The urge was strong to just go to bed and listen to whatever message was waiting in the morning. But it took little effort to hit the play button as he took off his jacket and unknotted the tie at his throat. Yet his euphoria evaporated rapidly when the playback of the tape began.

"Jax, Its your brother. No matter what time it is, call me when you get in. We need to talk."

Frowning and reaching for the phone, Jax punched out a number on the keypad and tried to get his thoughts into working order. Jerry wouldn't have called him otherwise. The phone was picked up on the other end. "Jerry, its Jax."

An incoherent mumble came, followed by a sharp oath. "Jasper, don't you ever call anyone when the sun's up?"

Jax grinned. "Don't blame me. You said to call as soon as I got your message."

Another murmur came from the other end of the phone line, but it definitely wasn't Jerry's voice.

Jax's grin widened. His brother was entertaining a lady friend. "Anyone I know?"

"No, you're not the only one who likes to celebrate."

"So call me tomorrow."

"Actually, I need to see you tomorrow."

Jax remembered Brenda and his promise to pick her up at ten. Together they were going to find her a place of her own, and if he was who she thought he was, he could still go. But he wasn't. So he couldn't go. Not now. Swearing, he dragged a hand through his hair and fought the guilt.

"Bad timing?"

"No," Jax snapped. "What's up?"

"The takeover hit a bump. A big one."

"The office tomorrow? Seven?" But Jax immediately shook his head in denial of his own demand. "No, make it nine. You have a guest." And he didn't. He hung up and swore again.

He was tired of pretending with Brenda. Tired of the deception. He was used to open and fair dealing. But once started, the masquerade was hard to stop, especially now.

He remembered again the way Brenda had felt in his arms. He wanted her. She wanted him. It should be simple. Would be if he were just a man and she was just a woman, but everything was more complicated then that because he was Jasper Jacks and she was Brenda Barrett. As Brenda had put it, nothing in their relationship was normal.

Muttering to himself, he jerked the loosened tie from his neck. He should have said no when she offered him the job. Then, perhaps, they would have a chance. They would have been dealing with each other on equal footing. She would know who he was, and he who she was. It wouldn't have been one sided. And they could have gone forward, explored and enjoyed the chemistry and each other, but things weren't equal. Nothing was as it seemed. Or, at least, he wasn't.

Sooner or later Brenda would have to see and accept him as he really was, not who she believed him to be...whatever that was. Yet while he was sure her recognition was what he had once wanted, he wasn't as certain he wanted anymore. Not when he couldn't predict how she'd react when she realized he was really a wolf in sheep's clothing.