Posted by CJ on September 05, 1998 at 19:05:29:
The Kiss - 22
Jax’s family was so enamored of Brenda that it wasn’t until 9:30 that Jax finally managed to whisk her away from them, after they had all retired to the parlor for coffee and dessert. Grandpa Jacks had been the first to notice Jax’s restlessness and had figured out that his grandson wanted time alone with his future bride. This was confirmed when a few moments later, Jax "accidentally" knocked a glass of ice water into Brenda’s lap, shooting the
nineteen-year-old out of her seat and putting a grin on Jax’s face as he made sure to apologize profusely for his clumsiness, and then suggested that Brenda go upstairs with him and change into one of his shirts while her dress dried. Grandpa Jacks decided to aid in Jax’s efforts to break up the rousing family get together by making a hilarious pretense of being dead-tired.
So, as Jax and Brenda went toward Jax’s bedroom, the family began to go its separate ways, with Jerry taking his parents over to his place to spend the night, and Grandma and Grandpa Jacks, and Aunt Elinor retiring to two guest bedrooms in Jax’s mansion.
In their bedroom, Elizabeth Jacks realized immediately that her husband was not tired at all, when he walked out onto the verandah and sat down to smoke a cigar.
"Why, Jason Jacks, you’re about as "dead-tired" as a kangaroo full of caffeine," she accused him, standing in the verandah doorway with her hands on her hips.
Grandpa Jacks shrugged. "I think our Jasper was feeling a little randy for his lady love’s attention," he said with a devilish grin and sparkling aquamarine eyes that matched his grandson’s. "We were monopolizing all of the darling girl’s time all evening, you know. He was getting jealous," Grandpa Jacks laughed.
"Do you notice that whenever she’s in the room, he can look at nothing else but her?" she asked, with dancing eyes and a romantic sigh.
"Oh, yes," Grandpa Jacks agreed, puffing on his cigar and exhaling perfect circles, "The boy is hooked. Soundly hooked. I think my sister was actually right about this one love in his lifetime thing she’s always predicted for him ever since he could walk. Imagine that, Elinor being RIGHT about something," Jason Jacks chuckled.
"Imagine your ADMITTING to it," his wife countered as she sat down next to him on the elegant, white-wicker love seat. "I like Brenda so very much," she said, pleased at her grandson’s choice of a life mate. "She’s utterly delightful. And so pretty! You don’t think this will be some dreadful repeat of Jerry’s engagements, do you? For Jax, Brenda truly is ‘the one,’ isn’t she?"
"Jax isn’t Jerry, and Brenda isn’t either of those two flighty floozies poor Jerry had the misfortune of falling in love with," Grandpa Jacks said, gazing up at the moon, which was unusually bright tonight. "For Jax, Brenda is the one, all right."
And in Jerry’s large guest bedroom at the Penthouse, John and Jane were having their own little pow-wow about their future daughter-in-law.
"Oh, John, she’s just the most adorable thing!" Jane gushed. "And she’s so funny! Every moment she opened her mouth, I fell more in love with her."
"The rarest of gems," John agreed, turning down the bed. "Even my Aunt Elinor seems terribly fond of her. Did you see how many times Brenda actually got the woman to crack a smile? I’ve never seen my aunt smile. I was terrified!"
Jane laughed. "Oh John, be nice! Now, we all know that Jax has long been Elinor’s favorite. She treasures that littlest cub of ours as if he were her own. I think her initial coolness toward Brenda was because she was unsure of the girl. She just wanted to make doubly sure that Brenda was the one who could make Jax happy. "
"She’s the one, all right," John said, nearly mirroring the words of his father.
# # #
Walking down the long, elegant hallway to Jax’s bedroom, Brenda was light-headed with happiness. Tonight had certainly been a success with her perspective in-laws. Jax was right, in that everything had been fine. Delightfully insane, but fine.
"I LOVE your family!" she told him, so excited that she would soon be a part of that one-of-a-kind bunch.
"And the feeling is obviously mutual," Jax said. "I never thought I was going to be able to detach them from you so I could be alone with you. Sorry I had to resort to dumping that glass of ice water in your lap," he added with a flash of a smile.
"You are NOT sorry," she said, playfully pushing him. "And just why do we need to be alone anyway?" she asked him with a teasing smile.
"Because," he answered her as they entered his bedroom, "you and I are getting married, Miss Barrett. And I think that etiquette dictates that a private celebration is in order," he added, gesturing for her to enter the room where Brenda found blue balloons floating about, blue candles surrounding the bed - which was done up in sheets of blue satin - and there was a silver serving cart sitting in the middle of the room, on which was a bottle of
champagne and two chilled glasses.
Brenda was grinning with delight and then laughed, as upon closer inspection, she noticed that the champagne was blue!
She gasped. "How did you DO that?!" she asked, marveling at the color of the champagne.
"You know me and my penchant for creating all sorts of unheard of beverages," he reminded her. "I just added a dash of blueberry elixir to this very expensive bubbly."
Brenda laughed and looked at him with wonder and love. "Why?"
"Well," he said, pouring the sparkling blue liquid into a glass and handing it to her, "As I recall, you and I had a very interesting conversation once upon a time in which you did say that the color of love was BLUE, did you not?"
Wow, he didn’t forget a THING!
Her semi-embarrassed blush told him that neither did she.
"To the future Mrs. Jacks, who’s warped color schemes I find eternally fascinating," he said with a knowing glance, as he held up his glass to hers, the glasses touched lightly, and they each took a sip. Then Jax gave her a kiss.
"Mmm! REALLY good," Brenda said.
"You’re referring to the champagne?" he asked her with a sly smile.
She laughed, the happiness bubbling over in her every moment they were together. "I would like to make a toast, too, if I may, Mr. Jacks,"
"By all means."
"Okay, just let me get out of this wet dress first," she laughed as the cold ice water and the cool, air conditioned house was starting to give her goosebumps. Or was that merely being kissed by Jax that was causing that reaction? At any rate, she grabbed one of his shirts - a BLUE one, which made him smile - slipped into the bathroom, and came out a few moments later barefoot, her hair loose, his shirt covering her up to just above her knees.
She picked up her glass of champagne to pick up where she had left off. "To our happiness," she said. "Because we ARE going to be, you know," she insisted.
"Happy?" he asked her.
She nodded, hoping he would not contradict her. "Yes, happy," she said.
His eyes were beautiful, but the emotions were veiled as he said "I don’t doubt that." He clinked his glass to hers once again, and they sipped, and then he set his glass down and reached for a large black velvet box which he handed to her. "I have something for you," he said. "Keeping with my whole "blue" theme this evening - - - "
With a smile of curiosity, Brenda opened the box and found inside a dazzling sight, as she beheld the diamond and aquamarine jewelry collection that Maxwell had let slip to her earlier Jax had gotten for her. There was a stunning choker, a tennis bracelet, and a pair of earrings. All breathtaking.
"These are beautiful. I LOVE them," she whispered in awe, fingering the choker delicately.
Jax nodded and smiled slightly, contented by her happiness.
"Oh! It just so happens that I have something for YOU, too," she said, as she grabbed her pocketbook from the bed and began to rummage through it, while he watched her with interest and wondered why in the hell the woman always looked so damned good in his clothes. She finally pulled out a tiny, blue satchel from her bag. "It’s not much, really," she apologized in advance, "but it means a lot to me, and so I wanted you to have it." She opened the
pouch over the palm of her hand and "it" fell into it.
"It" was a quite marvelous gold, safari ring with the alternating circular pattern of elephant, garnet, lion, diamond, panther, emerald.
"It’s the only thing of any value I really have ever owned," she told him. "It was left to me by my grandfather, Richard Barrett." She laughed a little self-consciously then. "You know, I never even thought that he liked me. He wasn’t really emotional or overt with his feelings at all. He was kind to me, I guess, but so distant. I thought he tolerated me because I was his only grandchild, but I never thought he liked me. But then he died
when I was eleven and he left me this ring, and there was this little letter with it. I’ve read it so many times now that I know it word for word," she said. "It said, 'Dear Brenda. Going on safari for my fiftieth birthday was the most profound experience of my life. This ring, commemorating that most extraordinary time in my life, is precious to me. And so are you, which is why I want you to have this.' I remember I just sat there and cried
for an hour after I read it."
"So, he did love you, after all. All along," Jax said.
Brenda nodded and smiled a little. "Yeah , he did. But he never told me. I had to find out after he had died which I thought was so sad and such a waste of the time I’d had with him, youknow? Anyway, he gave me this ring because he wanted me to know that I was the most important person in his life, Jax. And I think he’d want me to give it to the most important person in mine," she said, placing the ring in Jax’s hand.
Aquamarine eyes gazed down at the extraordinary ring and then back up at her. "That person is me?" he asked, a hint of boyish wonder in his voice.
She nodded.
For a moment he seemed as if he would grab her up happily in his arms, but instead, he placed the ring on his right ring finger, not even all that surprised when the fit was a perfect one, as he was growing quite accustomed to perfect fits when it came to him and Brenda. His eyes came up to meet hers once more.
"So - - -do you like it?" she asked hopefully, hopping up on his desk so her eyes were more level with his. "I mean, I know ti's not much but - - -"
"It's everything," he corrected her, moving closer to her and thinking he could not possibly love her any more than he did at this momemt. "I’ll cherish this always."
Jax placed his hands down on the desk on either side of her and then leaned down and touched his lips to hers. And the sweetness of that kiss was almost beyond bearing. "Tell me you love me," he said to her, as she was still reeling from the pleasure of that kiss and the beauty of his eyes and caught off guard by his request.
"You tell me first," she said. Then she pulled his head down to her for another kiss, her tongue teasing his lips. With a soft groan, Jax wrapped his arms around her, pulling her body tight against his. He felt her hands slide up his chest and eagerly curve around his neck, holding his face to hers in a kiss that was on fire.
"Tell me you love me," he whispered again, kissing her eyelids, the tip of her nose, her cheeks, her chin. "I just want to hear you say it."
And she did want to say it. So badly! The words wanted to just erupt with joy from her burning lips. She had to literally press her lips together to keep the words inside and hope he would say it first, and Jax saw her do this and knew she could not possibly last much longer in her will to remain silent until he said it first
He lifted her off the desk and into his arms and sat with her straddled against him in the tall, leather chair by the desk. He kissed her slowly, deeply. No one could withstand this blissful seduction of love. "Tell me, sweetie," he whispered into her ear, as he kissed the side of her face and trailed down to her throat. "I know you want to, Brenda. Just say it." Her resistance evaporated into thin air.
"I love you," she said breathlessly, her eyes reflective of her words. "I do love you, Jax. I love you so much it just makes me CRAZY!" she laughed. "I just – I LOVE you."
He swallowed, obviously moved. "For the moment?" he asked, reminding her of what she had said downstairs.
She shook her head. "Forever," she said, the bet be damned. "Forever," she repeated with a smile that made his whole world tilt, her fingers touching his hair with sensual, adoring, little strokes as she waited expectantly for him to say the words back to her.
He leaned back in the chair, looking like a man who had just obtained his heart’s desire. He was watching her, a sinfully sexy smile touching his lips as his hands slid down and rested on her hips. "I knew it!" he said triumphantly. "And I knew you would tell me."
She glared at him, furious that he would choose to gloat at such a deeply romantic, revealing moment as this. "You are IMPOSSIBLE!" she yelled, leaping out of his arms. "And for your information, I happen to KNOW that you love me, too! So there!" she declared to him.
He rose a sexy eyebrow and laughed softly while grabbing onto her hands to keep her from running away form him. "You say that as if you expect me to deny it," he said, flashing her that wicked grin that did the most sumptuous things to her. "And how can you think I ever would? I mean, have you any idea the lengths I would go to just to save you from my grandfather’s William Tell complex?" he asked her indignantly. She had the absurd
desire to laugh hysterically at his silliness, but then he was cradling her face with both hands, and the teasing playfulness suddenly left his eyes as they grew serious, a beautiful shade of dark teal that could stop traffic, and got her immediate attention.
"I have to ask you something," he said solemnly. "Do you know just how much I adore you?" he asked her, softly stroking her face. "How much you mean to me? How much I want you – I’ve never wanted anything more than this – than you," he whispered, brushing his thumb against her chin, gazing so deeply into her widening eyes that she could see nothing but rivers of blue. He paused for a few moments, and his eyes grew even more intense, and then,
like a curtain drawing back, she saw his feelings unveiled in a beautiful swirl of blue, and her heart stopped. "Do you know how much I love you?" he asked her. "Because it’s more than you could possibly ever imagine."
She was stunned with joy by his unexpected revelation. He had said it! HE loved her! Then he slid his hands into her hair, holding her eyes captive with his, kissed her lips with a kiss as soft as the wings of a butterfly, and said it again, "I love you more than anything, Brenda."
I have never felt like this
For once I’m lost for words
Your smile has really thrown me
This is not like me at all
I never thought I’d know
The kind of love you’ve shown me
I don’t know what’s going on
Can’t work it out at all
Whatever made you choose me
I just can’t believe my eyes
You look at me as though
You couldn’t bear to lose me
Brenda was dazed by his eloquent and beautiful admission of his feelings. She could barely breathe and felt her eyes welling up with tears and an intense joy spinning madly within her heart.
"I knew it!" she burst out giddily. "I knew it from the first moment you kissed me up on the Quartermaine garden balcony! Ha! " She said raising her hands in the air as if she had just scored the winning touchdown.
"Hey, you ASKED me to kiss you, remember?" he said. Then he laughed. "But yeah, you had me from that first kiss, all right," he confessed as if amazed by the truth of that.
"Awww, thank you for your honesty," she said, brushing her fingertips beneath his chin and then interlocking her fingers behind his neck, her arms resting on his shoulders. "You knowwww - - - you actually had me even before that kiss," she confessed. "From the moment I laid eyes on you, I was a goner."
Jax grinned, "You mean when you were perched up in that tree like a little owl?"
She laughed. "Yes! And our eyes met, and the sight of you affected me so much that I fell right off that branch, like a DEAD owl."
"And right into my arms," Jax recalled, his eyes growing dark with desire, his voice growing soft. "It was so prophetic, don’t you think? The love of my life falling right out of the heavens like that? It couldn’t have been any more perfect if I had choreographed it in my dreams."
"Am I really the love of your life?" she asked, wondrously.
"Who else could ever be that to me, but you?" he responded. "You make me so happy. Of course I'm sure."
Her smile lit up the candlelit room. "I love you, Jax!" she said throwing her arms around him, her heart simply in another orbit at this point. "I love you with everything I have," she whispered. Then her lips kissed his cheek, and kissed a sensuous pathway to his lips.
His mouth covered hers in a wildly arousing kiss that sent heat racing through her bloodstream. She felt the intimate, rising pressure of his body against hers, as he ignited delicious flames within her wherever his lips and hands touched. Warm lips slid down her neck, sending shivers of delight up her spine.
"Tell me you love me again, Jax," Brenda said, her eyes hazy with desire, her heart racing with joyous exhilaration, her ears longing to hear those words from him again.
"I love you again," he whispered.
She laughed and so did he. Their happiness filled the room like sunlight. He kissed her cheek and touched her face as if she were his treasure.
"I'm so in love with you," he told her, "And I’ve known this for days, and at this moment I have no idea why I waited so long to tell you this."
"Typical male," Brenda teased him, moving against him and setting him aflame.
"I’ve never thought there was anything exaclty typical about me," he objected.
"There isn’t," she agreed. "That’s exactly why I love you so much," she said. "And the fact that you’re so cute, and so much fun, and so smart," she said softly as she slid her lips passionately over his once more. Jax responded by joining her in a heady, tongue tango that had them both on fire as he pulled her tightly against him, evoking a soft moan of pure, primitive pleasure from her lips.
With his lips still locked in a passionate dance with hers, he slowly lifted her up until her feet were no longer touching the floor, and he slid her slowly up the length of his body as she wrapped her legs around his waist and their passion deepened even more. He took Brenda over to the bed in the midst of the blue balloons and the wavering candlelight and lay her down. They had to separate for a moment as he stripped out of his clothes and
removed his shirt from her, and when that was done they couldn’t wait to be back in each other’s arms, as Brenda reached for him and he came to her. He bent his head and kissed her, while his hand slid along her flat tummy and her hands slid into his blonde hair to draw his mouth into even deeper contact with hers. In response, he kissed her with a dizzying hunger that left her barely able to breathe.
Brenda was infused with a sensual excitement further heightened by their love being out in the open at last, and she surprised Jax by pushing him down on the bed beneath her, reversing their positions. His eyes lit up with pleasure at her enchanting aggression, and he gave her a slow, sexy smile of acquiescence Brenda kissed his lips and then kissed down along his neck and body taking Jax to a place of mindless euphoria.
Trancelike, he entangled his fingers in her hair, his body reeling with astounding waves of pleasure, his heart pounding with excitement, and awash with so much awakening love that the sensations overwhelmed him. He could kiss her forever.
Love is real
Real is love
Love is feeling
Feeling love
Love is wanting
To be loved
Brenda was kissing a path from his washboard stomach and up along his chest, headed back for his lips when a slow, longing groan erupted from him, his restraint shattering, as he pulled her up, his hands wrapping around her hips as sheer ecstasy broke free in a wild rush between them. This was a passionate celebration of a very passionate love, and these fireworks were not about to shoot off quietly by any means, as they brought each other to a tumultuous, love-intoxicated climax.
An hour later, Jax and Brenda were relaxing together in the bed and talking very happily about their upcoming wedding and the life they would have together after that.
"I want to take you everywhere and show you everything," he told her, kissing her hand, which was linked with his. "I want to fly you to Paris and sail you to Greece. I want to take you rafting down the Nile and skiing in St. Moritz. I want to take you excavating in Cairo, and and take you on a safari in the jungle." He smiled at her laughter. "I’m serious, We can do all of that," he said. "I want you to see life though my eyes,
Brenda – for the thrilling, beautiful adventure my parents and grandparents always taught me it could be. And I want us to just rack up those adventures together, by the dozens, so we can have as many incredible stories to tell our grandchildren as my grandfather has been able to tell me."
Brenda was caught up in his enthusiasm for their future. "I want all of that, too!" she said excitedly. "But most of all I really just want you," she confessed softly, kissing him. "But there’s one thing I need you to promise me, Jax. I really need you to do this okay? I want you to promise me that we won’t send our kids away to school in England or Switzerland or wherever, okay?" she said. "I want them with us."
"Hey, I got a lot out of my education overseas," he told her.
"I know, but you knew how much your parents loved you, and - - -" she bit her lip. "I just really want to be close to our kids, Jax. I don’t want them to grow up in a house like mine -- so cold and lacking affection -- a place they can’t wait to run away from." Jax felt his heart constrict, as he saw tears springing into Brenda’s eyes. "I don’t want them to feel like I did -- like they were just there, but not really wanted. Like they were
existing, but not really living. They could get the wrong idea if we send them away. They could think we don’t want them, or they're just in the way, or they could think we don’t love them," she said brokenly, a tear sliding down her cheek.
Jax gently wiped away the lone tear and held her in his arms. "Brenda, we are not going to be anything like your parents," he promised her. "And I promise we won’t send our kids away to school, if that’s what you want," he added, anxious to make her feel better. "Did something happen?" he asked her softly, as he soothingly stroked her hair. "Did something happen that made you think of all this?"
Brenda nodded against his chest. "My mother called me," she said. "She called me because she heard about us getting married, and she all of a sudden wanted to know me again. She’s so transparent, Jax. She doesn’t love me or care about me. She doesn’t even like me. But because I’m going to be a part of YOUR family and YOUR world - a world my Aunt Erica swears my mother has craved to be a part of all of her life - well, now I can be of some USE to
her, so she calls offering to ‘make me over’ into someone good enough for you to marry," Brenda said, her voice a combination of sorrow, pain, and bitterness. "She’s such a terrible mother, Jax. She just made me feel so worthless," Brenda said, hugging him tighter. "She’s always had the ability to make me feel that way, and I don’t want her in my life. I don’t want her anywhere near us Jax, I don’t want her trying to be a family with us."
"She won’t be," Jax promised her. "Listen to me," he lifted her face from his chest, forcing her to make eye contract with him, "Your life -- OUR life – is going to be a very happy, very beautiful thing, and she can’t take that away from you. She can’t take ME away from you." He kissed her tear-streaked face. "Anyone who makes you this unhappy is unwelcome in our life. And I will make sure she knows this in no uncertain terms," he promised.
"Now, I’m declaring a moratorium on any further conversation about that woman ever again."
Brenda smiled and wiped away the last of her tears. "Fine with me," she agreed, and they switched the subject to the zany antics of Maxwell, the wedding planner, instead. Then they talked a bit about Great-Aunt Elinor’s insistence that they have the wedding in New Orleans, and Jax told an awed Brenda all about the grand life and great love his Great-Aunt had had, and her marvelous pre-war estate which the state of Louisiana kept offering her tons
of money for so they could turn the magnificent home into a museum. Then they got into a pillow fight over who knew that the other loved them first, and then they got into a tickling marathon, then a playful kissing frenzy, and that, of course, led to them making love for the second time that night.
About an hour later, Jax awoke. The clock in his bedroom flashed a bright green
11:48 p.m. The house was in silence, save for the sounds of the chirping crickets floating in through the open windows. Jax felt the warmth of Brenda’s body on top of his, her head resting over his heart, her beautiful, dark hair splayed across his chest, the sheets wrapped around them, the blue balloons still floating about the room, the blue candles long ago burned out. One of her arms was curved over his shoulder, the fingers loosely at the back
of his hair. Her other arm rested on one of his thighs, while his other thigh was between both of hers. Her breathing was so soft and serene. It filled him with such peace just to gaze upon her. How miraculous it was that he had truly found her; that he had gone with his impulsiveness and followed her out into the garden that summer’s night. How fortuitous that he had not managed to screw up this relationship and lose her, and how blessed that she
would be a part of his life now and forever. For to be without her would be a bleakness he wasn’t sure he could withstand. Not now. Not when he knew that in her he had found the one and only true love he would ever have in his life.
His Great-Aunt Elinor used to always tell him that she and he were exactly alike in that respect. She had been married to his Uncle Cary for thirty years. When he had died, Elinor had never loved again. It simply was not possible. She had predicted that when Jax loved, it would be in the same, profound manner that would ruin him for all other women. He marveled at how right his Great-Aunt turned out to be.
###
It was 12:05 a.m. Tracy Quartermaine was at the airport boarding a plane headed for the Cayman Islands. Jax’s press conference had turned HER, not Brenda, into the laughing stock of town and rather than endure one more tittering smirk from her contemporaries or a rant from her father, Tracy had decided to blow this town. She was on her way to the Cayman Islands where she intended to take up hotel owner, Ari Kast, on the marriage proposal he
had made to her three years ago while the family had been vacationing here. Sure at age 51, he was thirty years older than she, and not exactly a dream boat by any stretch of the imagination. He was no Jax. But then again, there was only one Jax. And Brenda Barrett had gotten him. Tracy - disowned, despised and disinherited - was now in the right frame of mind to wed a man she would formerly have laughed at. And so, Cayman Islands and Ari
Kast, here she came. Of course, she was wishing Brenda the illest of will as she climbed aboard that plane.
Meanwhile, in front of the airport, an attractive, dark haired woman was hailing a cab. She got inside as the cabby put her substantial amount of baggage into the trunk.
"Where to m'am?" he inquired.
"The Port Charles Hotel, please."
"Are you here on vacation?" the cabby asked conversationally, as he sped off from the terminal.
"Oh, no. I’m here for good," Veronica Barrett said, as she gazed down with a pleased smile at the gorgeous photo of Jax and Brenda that was on the front page of the newspaper in her hand, with the caption: "The Billionaire Takes A Bride."
CJ