Serendipity

by Dawn 

Chapter 31: Morning, Mr. Jacks

One hand glided along the bed, searching for the warm bundle of soft skin that had lulled him into an exhausted and satisfied night's sleep but his hand found nothing but an empty space beside him. Jax blindly stretched his arm out in a wider arc, still reaching for the woman he held close during the night. Nothing met his palm but the sheet.

"V." He reluctantly opened his eyes to half-mast, quietly whispering her name so as not to wake her and slowly rolled on his back, half expecting to bump into her slumbering body behind him along the way. But instead he woke up alone, greeted only by the ceiling above him and wondering why he didn't wake up when she'd left the bed. Where is she?

When there was no answer, Jax sat up in bed looking for some sign of where V was and, more importantly, why she wasn't still in bed with him. His voice was louder this time. "V?"

Just as he prepared to toss the covers aside and hunt through the apartment for her, he heard her through the closed bedroom door, puttering somewhere unseen. The drifting scent of coffee followed the faint noise. Ah the kitchen. Well, we certainly did everything possible to work up an appetite. Jax lazily curled his arms around a pillow and pulled it beneath his head, smiling up at the ceiling and in no hurry to leave the lush comfort where he'd slept -- and not slept -- the too short hours of the evening and early morning away.

The broad smile on his face became a beam as he recalled some of the night's better pleasures. Rest was not among them. The beam up at nothing in particular gave way to a bubble of delighted laughter at the whole-hearted enjoyment of getting to know the goddess who disguised herself as his straight-laced assistant. Intimately. Thoroughly. All he could do at the moment was wiggle his toes and grin like a fool up at the plaster -- and suddenly he identified the emotion that flowed so strongly through him.

Happy he couldn't remember the last time he was this happy. Well happy about everything except the fact that the woman responsible for this feeling wasn't still next to him. Happy and hungry which finally drove him from his leisurely huddle under the covers. The fact that all of the things that could appease his hunger -- V and food, in that order -- were located just a few feet away was quite a convenient coincidence. So off to the kitchen he went, pausing only long enough to pull on his discarded boxers, merely out of deference to V's sensibilities -- after all, this was all new to her and Jax didn't want to do anything that might make her feel uncomfortable.

See he could be sensitive.

Sure enough, he found her in the kitchen but what he saw wasn't what he had hoped for. V had her back to him as she diligently poured herself a steaming cup of coffee. And she was dressed. Dressed for the office, right down to her heels. What he'd intended to spend the greatest portion of the morning -- if not the day -- doing didn't require clothes. As a matter of fact, a complete lack of apparel was usually preferred for what he had in mind.

Oh, well he'd always enjoyed a challenge.

So Jax lounged casually against the nearest wall and announced himself with a cocky smile. "Have somewhere to be that I should know about?"

"Morning, Mr. Jacks." V didn't turn from her task of pouring coffee, instead reached up into an upper cabinet to retrieve another cup and proceeded to fix a second coffee just the way he liked it. "And -- as if you didn't know -- you have a meeting with the chief executive officer of Monarch International at ten o'clock."

Mr. Jacks? He stared quizzically past her to the microwave clock. "It's barely seven-thirty, Ms. Ardanowski. And I may have to cancel that meeting -- maybe all of my meetings today."

"Very funny, Jax. As you pointed out not too long ago if my memory serves correctly, these meetings take months to arrange -- now's not the time the time to play hooky."

He continued to study the long line of her body as she dropped two frozen waffles in the toaster, and offered her a drawled invitation. "I don't know lot of interesting things can happen in a few hours. "

"Okay -- I suppose but regardless, Mr. Delvecchio is still expecting you at ten. I, on the other hand, have to get a move on if I'm going to make sure the contracts and wire transfers are ready for your signature before ---" V turned to face him with a coffee cup in each hand, but froze at the sight of him. "Is there a reason you're standing in my kitchen in your underwear, Mr. Jacks?"

Mr. Jacks again? "Because I thought you'd be embarrassed if I came out of the bedroom naked?"

"I don't think 'embarrassed' would quite cover it -- then again, those boxers barely do the job either." V stared sharply at him with a pointed look that eerily resembled Lady Jane's when he had seriously set a foot wrong. "Jax, I know that we'd gotten a little closer before your trip to Hong Kong. And I appreciate that you rescued me from your scoundrel of a brother last night really I do. I am more disappointed in myself for letting Jerry hoodwink me into drinking with him last night than I can possibly put into words. And I'm completely and utterly humiliated that you had to see me in that state, much less baby-sit your inebriated assistant but if you're finished exacting your price for that less than enjoyable task, I really think you need to put your pants on."

As the grin slowly fell off his face with her every word, Jax suddenly had a very bad feeling about this. He'd been prepared for any number of different reactions from her in the first light of day after the night they'd spend together -- embarrassed, nervous, shy, serious, quiet, talkative, tentative, defensive, evasive -- all of which he expected to fade away after those first few awkward moments of the unknown passed. They were new lovers -- he was her first lover. She had no experience with facing a morning-after -- even one after such an incredible evening -- a brief bout of nerves was to be expected.

But V didn't look awkward -- she looked mildly bewildered and approaching insulted to find him in such a state of undress within spitting distance of her seven-grain waffles and yogurt. And, most urgently, of the things she talked about concerning the previous evening's events -- she hadn't even come close to mentioning the one activity that had occupied the majority of their time and energy since he'd returned home.

A *little* closer? Jerry? Baby-sit? Inebriated assistant? This is all a very, very bad sign. Don't even think it, Jax I mean, there's no way she --- no there's no way she *couldn't* no, it's not possible is it? Jax continued to stare at her with increasing somberness and alarm as she impatiently returned his gaze. He awoke in the early hours of the morning, hungry for her all over again, and made love to her with an aching, deliberate slowness that had been impossible in their first union. .

"V. " The next question seemed so totally absurd and unthinkable that Jax couldn't get it out on the first try. He cleared his throat and tried again. "V, are you trying to tell me that youdon't remember what happened last night?"

V was becoming concerned at Jax's unusually pale complexion, decided that he might need a doctor more than he needed coffee and set the cups of the hot brew back on the counter. The question appeared to be of supreme importance to him, so she tried to reassure him. "Of course, I know what happened, Jax. How could I not? The clothes I had on last night still smell like whiskey and I woke up on the sofa this morning with an apparently well-deserved headache the size of Manhattan -- it wasn't all that hard to fill in the blanks."

Oh, God tell me this isn't happening. "And?"

"And what?" V gave him a queer look, but tried to answer him as best she could. "The snake-charmer you call a sibling played bartender, I had too much to drink, you brought me home and you stayed to make sure I was all right. It was a very nice thing for you to do."

Nice? This isn't happening. "And?" The words come out rather strangled and Jax was certain that his stomach was somewhere near his feet.

"Well I had hoped that I had somehow managed to not do anything more disgraceful than getting drunk and passing out -- but from the way you're looking at me, I'm getting the distinct impression that's not the case." V rubbed at her collarbone absently, tempted to scuff her shoe nervously on the floor. "Tell me, go ahead, tell me what did I do that I'm going to wish I didn't do?"

"This is not happening." Jax spun on his bare heel and started pacing circles around the living room. "I you we." He didn't even know where to start, so he just paced and became more agitated with each completed trip around the sofa. "No, no, no I mean, it isn't possible."

"What isn't possible?"

Jax stopped in his tracks and turned on her, dazed but adamant. "It is not conceivable that you and I shared the most amazing night of my life together and now you're telling me that I'm the only one that knows it happened. I mean we talked I wanted you to be sure -- to know I was sure."

"Jax"

"V, we weren't a 'little closer' -- we were a *lot* closer as close as two people can be."

"Jax."

"And you didn't pass out on the couch -- you were in your bed, with me, all night well, virtually all night."

"Jax! "

"And what you and I did is called many things -- but babysitting isn't one of them."

"JAX!"

"WHAT?"

The poor man was nearly apoplectic at the idea that somehow V had been so intoxicated that she didn't remember the more earth-shattering elements of the prior evening and that he hadn't realized it at the time. She almost hated to say what was coming next. Almost being the operative word.

"Skunk dunk."

As recognition of those two little words seeped in and the look of panic and disbelief faded from his face, V began to think that it might be wise to take advantage of being fully clothed and bid a hasty retreat from the apartment. She took a cautious step back towards the door and then a second, throwing a quick sideways glance over at the drafting table near where her purse and briefcase sat on the floor as she calculated if she could grab both with one hand and open the door with the other before the shock wore off and Jax reached her.

Carefully watching his face to gauge just how much of a head start she still had, V couldn't quell one corner of her mouth that refused to stop tilting up ever so slightly as his light blue eyes narrowed and a feral grin ruthlessly curled his lips. He took a purposeful stride towards her as she continued to edge closer to the door.

The wider his smile got, the more certain V was that flight was the most logical course of action. "Now, Jax don't do anything you might regret." She quickly turned on her heel and darted for the door, peals of laughter escaping in her wake. Three more steps and she'd be out the door. Jax had her in two.

He spun her to face him, pressing her back against the door pinning V's arms above her head and trapping her with his body. "You realize, of course, that you just took five years off my life with that little joke of yours and now you must be punished accordingly." His smile was wide and wicked. "And I assure you, I won't regret one single thing."

"Jax, Jax, Jax I'm so disappointed in you." V forced a frown up at his hovering mouth, returning his mock glare, trying not to chuckle.

"Oh, really? You could've fooled me." He lightly brushed his hips against hers just to see her reaction. He wasn't disappointed her eyes fluttered closed very briefly and she stiffened against the ripple of electricity that the intimate contact created. But the question wrapped in his smile was more serious than not. "Is that why you're in such a hurry to get out of here at this hour of the morning? Is that why you weren't in bed when I woke up?"

The hint of seriousness in his tone immediately brought about a similar mood in her. She stared hard up at his probing eyes as she answered. "I'm not in a hurry, but I do have to leave before too long -- I wasn't joking about having things to do before going into the office. Second, I wasn't in bed this morning because I really did wake up with a splitting headache -- remind me never to drink with Jerry again -- and, mostly, because I wanted to avoid that awkward moment of silence where we looked at each other and I didn't know what to say so I would babble on incessantly -- like now, for instance -- and still not say what I wanted to." She shyly stroked her lips against his mouth as a slow blush stained her cheeks a delicate pink. "And if this how you disappoint a girl, Jasper I'm not sure if I could survive being pleased."

Jax let her hands slip out from beneath his own, leaving his palms flat against the door as she wrapped her arms around his back and he pressed more insistently against her body. "Well there's only one way to find out."

"You still have a meeting" Her mouth tenderly caressed his with featherweight pressure while trying to keep a firm grip on the day-to-day reality that was going to knock on her door soon. Jax was dangerous enough to her senses in a suit and tie and at arms' length but Tall, Blonde and Much Too Handsome in next to nothing and in her arms was almost more than she could handle and still string two coherent sentences together.

"You still haven't told me why you gave me gray hair by acting like you didn't remember last night."

"Jax, I hate to break it to you but in case you missed a few very blatant hints in the past eight hours or so -- I'm not used to finding a man wearing a pair of boxers and a smile in my kitchen, or anywhere else for that matter." His teeth sank delicately into the tender lobe of her ear. "And y-you were just so sure of yourself -- I felt compelled to l-level the playing field. Besides, I never imagined that you'd believe su--ch a thing I I can't think when you do that"

"That's the whole idea." He smiled broadly into her neck before he took another nip of her flesh, his fingers toying with the top button of her blouse. "I almost had a heart attack thinking I'd taken advantage of you last night. Jerry's right you have an extremely convincing poker face. You had me completely fooled. "

"Jax, you ahem woke me, so to speak, at three o'clock. Now I know I'm not an expert in these things, but I was a reasonably conscious -- I'd even say, active -- participant. Trust me, it's not the sort of thing I'd fail to notice. Or that I'll ever forget." V kept buttoning the same button that Jax insisted on unbuttoning as soon as she finished that tiny duty -- unsure how long she'd be able to hang on to her clothes much less her normally dependable principles as his mouth wandered along her jaw with her giggling as he went. "And while we're at it, whispering your brother's name while you're nibbling on my ear seems counter-productive unless Jerry's my punishment for skunk-dunking you?"

"And share the most amazing night of my life? Never."

"The most amazing night of your life, huh?" V let her silent nervous question show on her suddenly serious face. She tried to look calm and collected about it, but she needed to know that he wasn't disappointed -- she didn't think he was, but

Jax laid one hand gently against her cheek and became equally as serious the question understood. "Without a doubt."

"Thank you." V looked away briefly to cover her fluster, then peered up at his face. "For last night. I ---"

"Last night was both my privilege" His roguish smile slowly bloomed. "And my pleasure." It was promptly followed by a very languid kiss. "What do you think of us having an amazing morning?"

"I'd love to but you still have your meeting and I have to get to work. My boss is a real taskmaster" V's face fell under the contagious spell of his smile, which she returned with all the available wattage.

"I'll have to do something about him. How about an amazing afternoon?"

"My waffles are several degrees past cold"

"I, on the other hand, am several degrees past hot. I say we make it an amazing day." He wound his arms around her shoulders, holding her close to him and inching their way back into the living room plundering her mouth as they went.

Jasper Jacks was a very, very persuasive man when he wanted to be. And right now, he was inspired.

[Just make a note that I wanted to stop this chapter right after the "skunk dunk", but I like my head attached to the rest of my body -- so I carried on <g>.]

To be continued

Dawn