The Rebel

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

Chapter 9

Brenda knew she was late. The meeting always started at nine-thirty sharp every
Tuesday morning, but her delay was understandable. Justifiable. Everyone would
accept her reason for being late, she was sure, if she could just get in the room!

Finally, the conference room doors loomed ahead, and she spun to nearly collide with
Jax, who was following close behind. Today he was dressed in a light green suit that
really made his eyes noticeable. She didn’t know how he could have gotten better
looking in the last twenty-four hours, but he had. Or maybe she was only tired, and her
blurred vision from being up all night with him and Lilly, typing and sharpening the
contract, was making him more attractive. But she doubted lack of sleep was the
reason. “How do I look?”

Jax retreated a step to let his gaze drop to go over her from head to toe and found little
to object to. Her dark hair had been pulled back into a ponytail for the day, leaving her
face easier to see. Today she was dressed in a blue polka-dotted sun dress covered by
a white jacket. “Good enough to eat.”

Her mouth fell open, her eyes widened in surprise and she nearly swayed on her feet.

Feeling no guilt, he grinned. “Sorry, you need to be distracted from what’s in you hand.
You’re way too excited.”

She managed to close her mouth and swallow the excitement that suddenly had nothing
to do with the documents she was carrying. “How’s this?”

He reached out to take hold of the lapels of her jacket in an apparent attempt to
straighten them out, but it was really an excuse to be closer to her, to breathe in her
perfume and to watch as the pulse in her neck increased in tempo. “Perfect.”

Suddenly unable to get any air in her lungs, Brenda gasped.

He smiled, liking the way her eyes had dilated, and released her. “How about dinner
tonight?”

“Dinner?” Eating was the farthest thing from her mind with him standing next to her.

“You’ll want to celebrate.”

“Celebrate?”

His grin widened, and he nodded to the door behind her. “Your victory.”

“Oh, yes, of course,” she stammered, and fumbled for the handle. “You’re coming?”

“Blow into my ear, and I’ll follow you anywhere.”

Flushing to the roots of her hair, she stepped inside the room and felt a chill hit her as
dozen pairs of eyes were suddenly on her. It was sobering enough to return her
attention to where it belonged. “Gentlemen, please excuse me for my late arrival, but I
believe you’ll understand why when I show you this.”

Her father scowled at her from the head of the table, his brown eyes brooding and filling
with disapproval. “Really Brenda, we were in the middle of discussing--”

“Jake Cooper, I hope,” she interjected with a disarming smile. “Because I have a signed
contract from him right here.”

“Signed...!” Sonny nearly jumped out of his chair, and murmurs erupted around the table
as Jax swiftly passed out a copy of the contract to everyone present.

“I visited with him last night, and we took a drive together out to the site in Malibu, where
we discussed his concerns about the sale,” Brenda explained, immediately silencing the
whispers of speculation as she stood by her chair at the table. “It’s a lovely area, and his
worry in signing a contract with us is the possibility of seeing the land’s natural beauty
disturbed.”

“But...” One word was all Sonny was allowed to speak. A glare from Harlan Barrett
stopped him from further comment.

“He doesn’t want it torn up and made into a tower of condominiums or a shopping mall,
and I believe he’s right. It would be in our best interests to preserve the environment of
the area. It would also silence those who, in the past, have objected that our real estate
dealings often neglect such concerns,” Brenda continued, briefly glancing at Jax, who
was standing to the side smiling. Her heart skipped a beat, and she hat to take a quick
breath to regain her ability to speak. “And, in doing so we won’t lose a dime, as the
figures I presented yesterday show. Dividing the area into residential lots...”

“I have to disagree with that, Brenda,” Sonny objected. “My figures clearly say
otherwise, and your entering into contract without full board approval endangers our
position.”

“Our position is not in danger,” Brenda shot back. “The contract is as you initially wrote
it with only minor changes, but if you have figures that show mine are wrong, please
present them to the board. I’d like to see them--as we all would. The sweep of her hand
took in everyone who was sitting at the table.

Sonny followed her gesture to the others, who were all looking at him in silent
expectation. He stammered. I..I don’t have them with me at the moment.”

“We’ll wait, while you go and get them.” Brenda smiled, and behind her Jax coughed to
smother the laughter that was threatening to erupt from his throat. She had Corinthos on
the hook and wasn’t about to let him go.

Sonny shrugged. “They’re are only in the preliminary...”

“Thankfully mine aren’t,” Brenda concluded and flipped a page on her copy of the
contract to draw the attention back to the matter at hand. “Gentlemen, you’ll see the
change on page two specifying the condition regarding the residential sale, and then if
you will turn to the last page, you can read the only other change of great significance.
It’s a clause Mr. Cooper insisted on having regarding the future dealings with this
company.”

Harlan Barrett scowled as he read the condition. “He wants no contact from anyone
except for you?”

“Apparently he liked my style,” Brenda responded, and took her seat without so much as
a blink.

“You’re good, lady,” Jax murmured in her ear half an hour later as he followed her from
the conference room.

His praise meant more than she could say, but she had no chance to tell him that. Not
when Sonny Corinthos touched her arm.

“Brenda.”

She glanced at him over her shoulder but didn’t stop. She made him hurry after her as
he had forced her to do the day before. “What do you want, Sonny?”

“You know, you really should have consulted me about this.”

“Why?”

“The legal issues...”

“There were no legal issues. I have full authority to sign a contract for the company. I
don’t need your permission.”

“You just got lucky.”

“I was right.” She stopped to confront him. “You’re just jealous because you couldn’t get
Mr. Cooper to sign on the dotted line.”

Sonny’s lip curled. “Maybe he just liked the idea of dealing with a skirt.”

Brenda’s glare was ice cold. “I’ll forget you said that, Sonny. Just like I’ll forget to
mention to my father that you failed to contact Mr. Cooper yesterday like you told him
you did.”

Sonny blinked but stopped her when she swung away. “It’s just one victory, Brenda.
Don’t let it go to your head.”

Having seen the first glare while standing off to the side, Jax was glad he wasn’t the one
receiving the second, and it gave him great satisfaction to see Brenda force Corinthos to
take a step backward.

“It’s only one of many yet to come,” she promised with cool certainty. “Remember that,
Sonny, and stay out of my way.” She started to walk away, but abruptly stopped. “And
one more thing.” She moved to stand directly in front of him. Standing only inches from
his face. “If you ever try and steal another one of my ideas again, I’ll ram it down your
throat in front of the entire board of directors.”

Sonny’s eyes turned darker in an unspoken menace, but the gleam of animosity was
quickly covered by a sigh, a shrug and an apologetic smile. “Brenda, baby, we’re a
team. We are not at war here.”

“Oh, yes, we are,” she denied. “You declared it as soon as I walked through the door
and took an office, and by default, you won the first couple of rounds. But I just took the
first battle. Let me know when your ready to wave the white flag. Oh, and one more
thing, don’t call me baby.”

Sonny never got that chance to respond. She whirled away, and Jax quickly fell in step
behind her as she stormed down the hall. He was proud of her. As a student, she was a
quick learner. He figured she was close to losing her temper as she ever had been, and
if a door had been handy, he guessed that she might just have been tempted to slam it.
That kind of behavior deserved an award. He touched her shoulder and asked, “How
about we have that celebration now?”

Her steps slowed as she met his grin. “I really could use a drink right now.”

“Is an early lunch an option?”

Her laughter followed them down the hall to her office door.

***

“To your victory.”

Laughing Brenda touched the rim of her glass to Jax’s “We already drank to that.” They
were at a restaurant by the ocean, sitting on a patio overlooking the rolling sea. The
early lunch hadn’t happened. They’d had to wait for the chance to eat and celebrate,
had to leave the office separately before meeting again at night, after the sun had set, to
savor “the victory” the two of them had achieved together.

She hadn’t had enough champagne to make her feel as warm and silky and wonderful as
she did. She supposed Jax might have something to do with that.

“We need to do that again because I keep seeing Sonny Corintho’s face when you
announced you had a signed contract.” He was encouraging her because he liked to
hear the sweet sound of her laugh, watch as her eyes shined with humor and the
unspoken emotion that was rippling between them. He touched the rim of his glass to
hers. The cool socialite was gone. In her place was the woman behind the mask, and
he wanted to know her better. “Did you know that your eyes shine when you laugh.”

She hid her smile behind her glass. “And your eyes are an enigma--just like you.”

A grin spread across his face. “You make me sound like a villain with something to
hide.”

“No,” she quickly objected, her hand reaching across the table to join with his. “The
good guy.”

“Do you see me charging in on my white horse to save the damsel in distress?”

“You came to mine, only you were riding on a black motorcycle instead of the white
horse.”

“You didn’t really need my help. What you did, you did on your own. I only gave you a
push in the right direction to make sure you did what you wanted and knew you had to
do.”

“Maybe.” She stared into his eyes. “You are a mystery to me. I don’t know anything
about you except that you ride a motorcycle and look wonderful in a business suit.”

“Only wonderful?” He raised an eyebrow.

“Gorgeous.”

“Stop. You’re making me blush.”

His eyes dropped from hers as he pushed his glass aside, but there was no heat in his
cheeks. She wanted to touch his cheek. She wanted to touch him everywhere, but
somehow she managed to keep her fingers wrapped around her drink. “Tell me about
yourself.”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re very good at that.”

“What?”

Turning the conversation back on the person actually asking the question.” She
frowned. “I think your really a politician or maybe even a diplomat who’s traveling
incognito.”

He reached for the bottle of champagne to refill their glasses. “Maybe I’m an industrial
spy, a modern-day pirate sent to steal your company’s secrets.”

Brenda laughed and reached for her glass. “The first time I saw you, I thought you were
a pirate.”

Jax laughed. “Really, I thought it was a Hell’s Angel.”

“That, too,” she agreed.

‘I love a woman who can make up her mind.”

“Well I can’t. Not about you.”

“Back to that again.” He signaled to that waiter that they were ready to order and
successfully diverted her attention away from that subject. Even if only it was for a few
minutes.

“I think you either used to work for or own a business,” she announced as soon as the
waiter left.

Jax sat back in his chair, stretching out his legs out beneath the table and watching her
as he swirled the champagne in his glass. “Why do you say that?”

“Because of all the things you know about running one.” She shrugged. “Those figures
you went over, the suggestions you made. You understood everything about it.”

“Maybe I was just snowballing you.” Her eyes narrowed on him, and he grinned. “Okay,
so I understand real estate transactions and can read a contract.”

“You wrote one, too.”

“A law student could do that.”

She glared at him. “What about the way you dress?”

“What about it?”

“Your suits,” she said, admiring the tan sports coat he wore over a green-open necked
sportshirt, unbuttoned and showing an expanse of golden skin. It made her wonder how
it would feel to run her hands over it. “You didn’t get them from a bargain basement.”

Jax raised an eyebrow. “And that proves your point?”

“It only proves you were, maybe are successful. That your more affluent than I thought.”

“Maybe I spent my life savings to impress you. Who knows, tomorrow I could walk in
wearing my jeans and my leather jacket.”

Her eyes narrowed again, but the glitter in them was due to more frustration than fury.
“You’re not going to tell me.”

‘It’s more fun making you guess.”

She looked away from him and into her champagne glass. “I read your application.”

“That was underhanded,” he told her, but he was smiling as he watched her nonetheless.

“It didn’t tell me a thing.”

When her eyes met his, they were accusing and reflected her disappointment. He
tipped his head to the side with what appeared to be a sincere frown. “Nothing?”

She pouted. “Just that you’re a year older than me...if that was the truth.”

“Would I lie?”

“Would you?”

He leaned forward to set his glass on the table. “Why do you care?”

“Because you interest me.”

His grin returned.” We have something in common. You interest me, too.” Sparks
erupted between them with silent promise and heat, but he sat back again to study her
and broke the intimacy warming between them. “I keep wondering how it is that with
old-fashioned parents and surrounded by stuffed shirts at work day after day...except for
the Corinthos fellow, who should be doing toothpaste commercials instead of
investments...you turned out to be the way you are.”

Brenda collapsed with laughter. “He does have a lot of teeth.”

“Absolutely. All of them pearly white. I bet they’re capped.”

The soup came. Broccoli and cheese. She reached for her spoon. “Do you think I’m a
snob?”

“You try to be.”

“Only try?”

Jax took a bite of his soup. “A snob wouldn’t go off for a motorcycle ride in the dead of
night with a complete stranger, then giving him a job in her office.”

She smiled. “I’m glad I’m different from them.”

His eyebrows rose in surprise. “Want to explain that?”

She shrugged. “It was just growing up, I tried to act and be like they were, but the more I
was away from home, the less I was able to do it.”

“They sent you to school?”

“The very best, of course,” she said with a sigh. “I think it must have been seeing the
other girls in the school with me that made me turn out the way I did. They were
supposed to be examples for me to follow, by paying attention to how they acted.” She
grimaced. “Too much of what they did and said convinced me that I didn’t want to be
like them.”

“College?”

Her face broke into a smile. “That was the best. Complete freedom.” She sent him a
conspiratorial grin. “I told my parents I was going to attend The Sorbonne in Paris, but I
didn’t. I went to small community college instead. My parents were really furious when
they found out.”

“But you enjoyed it?”

“I liked being treated like a normal person, whatever that is.” She shrugged. “The young
women I went to school with weren’t like me. “They didn’t have money to burn.”

“You didn’t tell them?”

She blushed. “No. I wanted to belong, and they accepted me. Trusted me without
question. I used to leave twenty-dollar bills lying where my friends would find them when
I knew they were broke. That was wrong I suppose.”

“Honestly isn’t always the best policy, sometimes.” He finished his soup and pushed the
bowl aside. “So they taught you the true meaning of the dollar.”

“I learned to appreciate doing without.” She groaned. “I never ate so many hot-dogs in
my life.”

He grinned. “Cheap food.” The waiter came back with two shrimp appetizers, and she
sat forward.

“This is much better.”

He watched her slip the first shrimp into her mouth to savor it and for the first time in his
life felt envy for a piece of food. “Did they ever find out?”

“I only stayed in touch with one. Robin.” Brenda smiled. “We still write.”

“And she forgave you for the deception?”

Brenda nodded. “I told her it was the best time of my life, and it was. Somehow, she
understood that.”

Jax watched her push her dish aside. “What does your friend do?”

“Robin’s a doctor. She lives in New York because she likes the snow.”

“Then no chance of her moving here.”

Brenda shook her head. “Have you ever lived where there’s snow.”

“You could say that,” he conceded, and she grinned.

“Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?”

“Not all men like to talk about themselves.”

“A myth?”

“For some.”

The rest of the meal came and the playful talk subsided to less personal subjects, but
Brenda was far from finished in trying to understand him better. Jax McCarty had depths
she wanted to explore, but it was too hard to concentrate on the search with champagne
humming through her veins and him gazing into her eyes. She liked the attention. She
liked him. Why simply didn’t matter, and neither did who he was.

“Can we walk along the beach?” She asked as they left the restaurant to go to his
motorcycle.

“You’ll get your feet wet.”

“So, I’ll take my shoes off.” And she did, in the middle of the parking lot, before sending
him a taunting grin and dancing off towards the sand.

Watching her go, he hesitated, focusing on the enticing sway of her hips and the buzzing
in his head. Yet it wasn’t champagne making his head light. It was her. He hadn’t had
enough of the bubbly for it to have affected him, but he wanted, needed more of her.
And if the saner part of him was warning that going out on a moonlight beach with her
probably wasn’t wise, the temptation was too much to resist. He followed her and
watched her spin across the beach, but quickly found that she didn’t want to enjoy the
surf alone. She held out her hand to him.

“Come walk with me.”

He didn’t have to be asked twice. Stepping forward, he caught her fingers with his. She
swayed closer, but he avoided the kiss he wanted to take. He frowned as she wound her
arm around his. Perhaps it was the taking that bothered him. She wasn’t ready to give
it. Yet. Not to him. Just to whom she thought he was.

“I love the sea. When you listen, it seems to be whispering, but it never tells you its
secrets.” She looked up at him with a smile. “Just like you.”

Guilt stabbed throughout his chest, but he refused to give into it. Didn’t want to.
Wouldn’t. If he could help it. “You don’t have any secrets?”

She bit her lip as she considered his question and breathed in deeply the scent of the
sand and sea. “I don’t think so.” She linked her hands with his as sand squeezed
between her toes. “You have to be interesting to have secrets.”

He smiled. “And you’re not?”

“Nope.” She abruptly let go and raced off into the surf, wading in and lifting her skirt until
the water lapping around her became almost knee-deep. “It’s warm and wonderful!
Come in with me!”

Left behind, he shook his head and refused to obey the overwhelming urge to join her. “I
can’t. Somebody has to save you if you fall in.”

“You don’t trust me?”

But she trusted him. He clenched his jaw and reminded himself that he was the one that
couldn’t be trusted. After all he had lied to her about who he really was.

“Won’t you come in?”

Her plea had him weakening, but he shook his head. “I can’t. I don’t want to scare you.”

She looked at him in question, a vision in the moonlight with her hair blowing in a quiet
breeze, the water whispering at her feet and her smiling eyes.

He swallowed against the growing want and pointed down towards his feet. “Ugly.” He
held out his hand. “Come on. It’s getting late. We have to work in the morning.”

She groaned but couldn’t refuse the need to go to his outstretched hand. A satisfied
sigh escaped her as the fell into step together, fingers entwined. “It’s a good thing you
don’t have a car.”

“Why is that?”

“I’d get sand all over it.”

He handed her a pair of glasses as they reached the motorcycle and she put her sandals
back on. “We’ll blow it off.”

“Good.” Eagerly she followed him onto the machine, slipping on the glasses, and
wrapping her arms tightly around his waist. She didn’t need to hold onto him as tightly
as she did. She only did it because she needed it to stay close to him, her clinging touch
suddenly made Jax regret that he hadn’t driven them in a car.

The way she was hanging on with hands that stroked as they linked, a check that
nuzzled between his shoulder blades and breasts that yielded to the hard width of his
back, making it very hard not to turn around and return the embrace. He cleared his
throat, put his key in the ignition and tried to remember who she was and why he was
with her. “Maybe I should let you drive.”

“Would you?”

Jax nearly groaned aloud when she let him go. “I think we should wait until daylight for
your first lesson.”

She moaned in disappointment, and he gritted his teeth as she made him suffer through
the sweet agony of her relaxing against him again. “Soon.”

“This weekend?”

“Promise?”

“Just try and keep me away.” But he should stay away. He should run like he**. She
was driving him crazy, pushing his limits of sanity and willpower, but he wasn’t going to
quit. Not yet. She still needed him, wanted him, and he wanted to enjoy that as long as
it lasted.

The night air was cool, the sky clear, the roads free of most traffic, but in no time it
seemed Jax was steering the bike up the driveway to her front porch. He grinned when
he saw the door to the main entrance was well lit, and he looked over his shoulder at
her.”

“Why is it parents always leave the lights on when they know one of their children is out
on a date?”

“Its an unwritten law,” she told him, reluctantly slipping from the bike and letting him go.
“But they’ll tell you its because they want you to be able to see when you put your key in
the lock.”

“Think they’re up now, watching us from behind a curtain?”

She followed his gaze to the seeming dark and deserted panes of glass overlooking the
drive. “If they are, they’ll be waiting to see if you walk me to the door like a proper
gentleman.”

“Then let’s not disappoint them.” He kicked the stand into place and swung off the bike
to take her arm.

“They were quite shocked when you appeared on a motorcycle,” she told him as she
turned to walk with him up the steps toward the door.

“I thought they would be.”

“Actually, I think my mother thought it was incredibly romantic and would have loved to
go in my place.”

“And you father?” Jax asked as they crossed the porch.

“Doesn’t believe in fraternizing,” she said with a dignified sniff. “You’re an employee
after all.”

Jax laughed. “And you? What did you think?”

But he didn’t have to hear her answer. Not when he could see it in her eyes, eyes that
darkened in wonder and anticipation.

Suddenly he was aware of how quiet it was, how alone they were, and of how it might
feel to have his arms around her instead of the other way around as it was on the bike.
And she seemed to understand his want even as he tried to deny the need. She leaned
closer, and he lost hold of common sense and made his second mistake of the night.

He reached out to touch her.

When Jax’s hands dove into her hair. Brenda gasped and stumbled forward to plant her
hands against his chest.

“I’ve wanted to do this since the first time I saw you,” he told her, his voice rough and
grating as his fingers combed through her brown locks of hair. He tugged gently to make
her lift her head. “And this, too.”

His mouth covered hers, the strength went out of her knees and she collapsed against
him in a trembling heap.