“You took those files, didn’t you? My secretary said you came looking for
some files. You knew I was gone and used the excuse to get into my
office and took my files from my desk like the little thief you are,” Sonny
accused, shaking her as he held her by her arms. “And all the time
pretending to be some mousy little thing your not.”

Lilly screamed as he grabbed her oversized glasses and smashing them
with his foot.

“Did you really think you could fool me for long?” He dragged her closer
towards her, his grip tight, his dark head lowering and his intent clear.

“Let her go, Corinthos.”

Sonny froze.

“I said let her go.”

The words were spoken in a cool, sharp and demanding tone. Each one
was pronounced with perfect precision. Sonny couldn’t miss the meaning
or ignore the threat that lay just beneath them. Slowly he straightened,
released Lilly and turned to face Jax. “Get out of here, McCarty.”

But Jax didn’t move. “If I go, she goes with me.”

Sonny sneered. “Your only an employee here, Blondie. I’m a vice
president. You can be fired for insubordination.”

“And you can be sued for sexual harassment,” Jax shot back, his stance set
and his gaze dark and stormy. “I believe that’s why Lilly’s wearing the
disguise. To discourage your unwanted attentions.”

“What makes you think they’re unwanted?”

The smile made Jax cringe in repulsion, but he didn’t get the chance to
respond or react.

With an angry cry, Lilly suddenly pushed against Sonny. The unexpected
force of her push knocked him off balance and gave her room to get
around the filing cabinets and to Jax’s side.

Jax caught her in his arms when she reached him. “Are you okay?”

She nodded emphatically but kept her eyes focused on Sonny. “I’m fine
now that I have a witness.”

Sonny said something unrecognizable and stepped forward, Jax
immediately pulled Lilly behind him, his fingers clenching into fists.

“Stay away from her, Corinthos, unless you want to eat your teeth for
lunch.”

“Don’t you threaten me, McCarty!”

“It’s not a threat. It’s a promise,” Jax retorted angrily. “You put your
hands on her again, you’ll answer to me. You try and set up Brenda again,
you’ll answer to me. And just so you know, the only reason Lilly went to
your office is because Brenda sent her.”

A look of disbelief formed on Sonny’s face.

“That’s right, Sonny,” Jax warned. “Brenda isn’t as dumb as you’d like
her to think she is, and she’s proving it to the board. You better start
working harder, or she’s going to have your job.”

Sonny growled and started forward again. Jax wouldn’t have touched him
if he’d stayed still. But Sonny had moved. He lunged forward towards
Jax. And, without the slightest hesitation, Jax swung.

His knuckles connected solidly with Sonny’s jaw.

The power of the blow sent Sonny tumbling backwards into the metal
filing cabinets. The drawers reverberated loudly at the collision and
clanged again when Sonny bounced from one drawer to another.

Sonny tried to regain his balance but, staggering not only from the blow
but from the loss of balance, he tripped over his own feet, missed grabbing
for a handhold then tumbled down to the floor, landing on his behind.

He’d barely connected with the floor when the noise brought people
running. Everyone had come to see what happened. Brenda was among
the first of them to arrive. Searching for Lilly to send her to join Jax, she
was in time to see Sonny hit the floor. She stood, stunned and speechless
at the site before her as Sonny wiped blood from his mouth.

“Sonny, what...?” But the rage and satisfaction she saw reflected in Jax’s
angry glare when she looked at him stopped her. She didn’t have to ask.
She knew what was going on, and when she saw Lilly’s appearance, she
knew how the fight had started. “Lilly, are you all right?”

The strength of Lilly’s smile surprised her, and Lilly turned her grin on
Sonny as he sat on the floor looking up at her. “Fine. In fact, I’ve never
been better.” She turned to face Jax. “Thank you so much.”

He shrugged his shoulders, but his eye’s were shining with victory as they
met hers. “Definitely my pleasure.”

With a final victorious look at a fallen Sonny, Lilly whirled away to march
past the other onlookers, and Brenda stepped aside to get out of her way.

Clearing her throat as Jax shook his hand and assured himself that at least
*he* wasn’t bleeding, she looked from him to Sonny, who was struggling
to rise to his feet. “I think you had better go.”

“Why? Afraid we’ll go another round?” Jax asked with a mischievous
smile that told her he was more than ready, willing and able.

“No, I’m just afraid I’ll have to pick up the pieces.” She gave him a shove
towards the door and motioned one of the onlookers over. “Give Mr.
Corinthos a hand. He’s fallen and he can’t get up.”

“Yes, he sure has,” Jax agreed, and stopped at the door to watch Brenda
take charge of the situation. He flashed a hundred watt grin. “He slipped
off the ladder.”

Brenda’s gaze met his at his comment, too well aware that no ladder was
in sight.

Jax didn’t care about technicalities as he went out the door because he
knew Sonny had slipped, all right. Straight off the ladder of success.

***

Hours later, Jax and Brenda explored the Malibu site. The hot Santa Ana
breeze was blowing sand all around them.

“I still can’t believe you hit him.”

“He deserved it.”

“Lilly would agree with that statement.”

Jax smiled. “I suppose I’ll finally get to see her dressed as Lilly tomorrow
instead of Lynda?”

“I suppose,” Brenda admitted, and turned a leery eye on him. “Just
remember that your already spoken for.”

“Afraid of a little competition?”

“Not after learning to throw a right hook.”

Jax laughed and put his arm around her as they stopped on a hilltop to
look down the beach at the construction. The beginnings of a few houses
could be seen from where they stood, along with cement trucks, stacks of
lumber and dozens of pieces of equipment and men. The whine and call
of machinery and workers could be heard above the cry of sea gull and
ocean, but it was a happy sound. “Exciting, isn’t it? To know your
making something grow.”

She nodded without looking away from the various scenes of organized
chaos. “Incredible. I think I like dealing in real estate.”

He moved his shoulders in uncertain agreement. “Investing can be the
same. You put money into something and watch it expand, become more
than it was.”

“We usually don’t hang onto any investment that long.” She sighed and
turned away from the building and the workmen to the endless ocean
beyond both. “We always seem to sell everything after putting a
minimum amount of development into it.”

“Sounds like you don’t follow your father’s philosophy to conquer and
divide.”

She lifted a hand to brush some hair from her face. The wind seemed to
be hot one minute and cool the next as it shifted direction from land to
beach had loosened it from its ponytail, but she didn’t care. “I don’t. I
think, beyond the original purchase price, sometimes we should spend
more money to get a good return back, but my father doesn’t believe in
putting more in an investment than is absolutely necessary. Just enough to
improve and sell. Never enough to expand and grow.”

Jax nodded thoughtfully even though she wasn’t watching him. “Maybe
you could change his way of thinking.”

She snorted in unladylike disbelief. “Ever try telling the sun not to come
up in the morning?”

“I would if I was in bed with you.”

Her heart stopped. But just for a moment. Adrenaline kicked it into
rhythm again. “That wouldn’t stop the sun from rising.”

“Maybe not, but it would sure make me hope it wouldn’t”

Slowly she turned to face him, her mind suddenly and irrevocably made
up. “We’d still have to go to work in the morning.”

He held his breath and met her brown gaze with a casual shrug. “We
could always play hooky.”

His suggestion had her arching an eyebrow. “The day after we’ve been
given a pile of new accounts?”

“There’s always tomorrow.”

She smiled as he moved closer. “I might let you convince me, even
though the gossip will be merciless.”

“Appearances.”

“They can strangle you.”

“And giving into impulses can set you free.” He pulled her into his arms,
and time was lost. He was lost. In her.

She pulled away slightly, leaving her lips a whisper length away from his.
“Your place or mine?”

“You still want to see where I live?”

She closed her eyes as his mouth covered hers again. “Only if you’d
prefer not the spend the night wrestling with Peter and Wendy.”

“Maybe I can show them a trick or two.”

Her gaze locked with his again. “I’d prefer you’d show me.”

Letting out a whoop, he spun her in a circle. “Oh, what Henry’s missing.”

She laughed when he sat her down, and pushed away. “We have
company.”

“So what.”

She swatted at him when he tried to catch her again and stepped back to
greet Kevin Carmichael. “Kevin, we came to have another look.

The man nodded, politely refraining from comment on the intimate
exchange he’d witnessed. “We’re cooking right along.”

“Literally,” Jax observed, and wiped sweat from his brow with his
shirtsleeve.

Kevin grunted in agreement. The T-shirt he had on was caked with sand
and sweat. “The Santa Anas are making it hot, but we’re watching them.”

Brenda followed his gaze to the horizon and Los Angeles where smoke
and flame could be seen dancing in the hills that stood high above the
skyscrapers. “The fires have stayed to the south so far.”

“She’s a worrier,” Jax observed aloud, and Kevin grinned appreciatively.

“I worry myself when those winds blow. I don’t want them touching my
buildings.” He gestured to the nearest structure that was lacing walls but
had the beams and staircases laid. “It’s a bit cooler today with the wind
coming off the ocean once in a while. How about I give you a tour?”

“I’d love to,” Brenda agreed, her eyes lighting up, but Jax shook his head.

“You go,” he told her. “I’m going to take the bike back to town. I’ll meet
you in a couple of hours.”

“I’ll warn Peter and Wendy to expect you.”

He laughed at her smirk and Kevin Carmichael frowned, but Jax could
have cared less about what the big man thought. He had a seduction to
plan, and he was going to do it in grand style.

Yet if his mood was bright when he left, it was a black ride into the city as
he had to detour around roads blocked by fire crews and flame. Without a
doubt, Jax knew it was going to be a very bad year for the Southlands.

Years of drought had left dried vegetation and dead trees for kindling.
Any new growth that had come from winter and spring rain had long since
been scorched away by the heat of summer and was now being baked by
the Santa Anas...winds that came from the weather systems that blew in
from the Mojave Desert.

He’d seen the pattern before. A simple spark in these conditions could
start a blaze that would take out hundreds of acres. Already the fires had
taken twenty-thousand acres, countless homes and several lives. And
while the season was almost over, it wasn’t.

Feeling as if he’d just driven through a sauna, Jax jumped in the shower
on reaching his home and cooled off, but he didn’t remain under the water
long. He left the bathroom for the bedroom, where he changed into a light
blue polo shirt and brown slacks. It wasn’t exactly elegant attire, but he
didn’t figure what he was wearing was going to change things much, so
chose to go casual rather than formal.

In no time he was back on the road, driving his car this time and stopping
at a florist and a liquor store then stopping at a restaurant where he knew
he could get the best carryout. But he was already thinking past dinner to
dessert.

Whistling a nameless tune and turning the air-conditioning in the car on
high, he returned to the streets leading from the city and zigzagged his
way through rush hour traffic under a sky that was eerily lit by nature’s
display of earth, wind and fire. It was a trip that took longer than normal
under the conditions at hand, but patience was easy to come by when he
knew what--and who--was waiting for him.

Yet the idea of culmination brought a vague sense of uneasiness as well as
elation. He’d waited for Brenda for a long time. Playing a knight on a
motorcycle, a hero on the business battlefield and a suitor in candlelight,
he’d wooed and charmed in an attempt to win her over, but he was almost
nervous by the time her Malibu house came into view. If he hadn’t know
better, he would have sworn his palms were sweating, but he put that
possibility down to the heat waiting for him when he got out of the car.

Skipping up the walk and onto the deck with his hands full of flowers,
champagne and food, he knocked, but no one came to answer. And when
he looked inside, Peter and Wendy were the only ones he could see.
Brenda wasn’t in sight.

Staring through the glass, he watched Peter and Wendy pat the panes,
listened to their muffled cries and wondered if Brenda was in the shower.
Or if perhaps she hadn’t yet come home.

He scanned the living room, searching for some sign of her return. He
couldn’t believe she was still at the site with Kevin Carmichael. But then
again he could. Victory could be so sweet, and it was her first win. But
then he spotted her purse sitting on the stairs.

His concern deepened and was made worse by the ominous wind.
Rushing down the shoreline, the breeze carried the smell of smoke.

Following the scent, he turned on the deck and felt his heart stop when he
saw the flames. A wall of fire was coming down toward Malibu, and
Kevin Carmichael’s building site was right in its path.

“Brenda.”

The word was a whisper, a plea, and Jax suddenly knew what had
happened. She’d come home, started to go upstairs and then had seen the
flames. Without thinking, she’d gone in the car to get a closer look,
probably to reassure herself that the beams laid to form the new homes
weren’t in any danger.

Without further thought, Jax dropped the champagne, the food and the
roses and started to run. He had to get to her before the fire did.

To be continued...