Fairy Tale-56 to 62
by: Belle
"Brenda - Bren - I think there is someone at the door, so you're going to have to move a little" Jax opened his eyes reluctantly, and glanced down at the sleeping Brenda who was sprawled across him. She was lying with her face against his chest, her hand across his heart. An innocent smile danced on her lips and he would have done anything to know what she was dreaming about. "Probably Sonny." he muttered disgustedly to himself. "Brenda - come on." he tickled her cheek lightly. The knocking on the door was getting more persistent, and soon he was going to have to throw Brenda on the floor to free his legs. "Brenda.....sweetie - wake up." he leaned down, and flirtatiously began to kiss her neck, knowing that this would definitely stir her.
"Jax....." she murmered, "what is it?" she opened her eyes, and groaned softly. "i'm still sleepy."
Jax laughed. "Well - that's what happens when you stay up half the night crying over some romantic movie."
"You said you liked it!" Brenda cried indignantly, sitting up and pouting.
"I knew that would get you up." JAx teased. Giving her a light kiss he got up and strode towards the door. Before he opened it, he turned and winked at her. "By the way - you might want to cover yourself up before I open the door."
Brenda blushed, and looked down to see that both her tank top straps had fallen down on her shoulders, exposing her pale peach bra, that she'd forgotten to take off the night before. "Thanks." she said sarcastically.
"Hey - I'm only trying to be a gentleman." Jax responded. "If it was up to me, I would have shut my mouth. You look awfully sexy in the morning Ms. Barrett."
Brenda couldn't help grinning. "You don't look so bad yourself." In truth "not so bad" was an understatement. Jax was wearing nothing but his black silk boxers. His golden hair was slightly tossled, and he had slightly dark shaddow of golden stubble on his face since he hadn't shaven yet.
Just as Jax was about to respond with some cocky come-back, a female voice behind the door began yelling.
"JAX! Open the door! I know you're in there. Please - let me in." It was Lucy, and she was pounding furiously against the door.
Both Jax and Brenda burst into laughter, and Jax gave Brenda a second to fix her straps before throwing the door open ceremoniously and announcing, "Why - hello Lucy - to what do I owe this pleasant surprise?"
"JAX! What took you so long?" Lucy barrelled into the penthouse, looking beautiful and wide-awake in her red tube dress. Sighing and shaking her head, she wailed, "I was beginning to worry that you had died, or been kidnapped or -" Lucy stopped speaking when she noticed a bed-tossled Brenda sitting on the couch in her pajamas. "Or.......Brenda?"
"Morning Lucy." Brenda chirped, getting up to join her and Jax in the foyer.
"Good morning.....you two...." Lucy looked confusedly back and forth between Jax and Brenda who were standing close together smiling. For a moment, Lucy was speechless, which was an act in itself. While she just stood there and stared, Brenda walked over to the coffee table, and got the box of cookies and muffins from the night before.
"Muffin?" she offered, holding up the box.
"Sure." Lucy consented, trying to not stare as Brenda walked comfortably into the kitchen to find some plates.
"Want some coffee?" Brenda called.
"That would be great." Lucy looked at Jax strangely, and was just about to say something when a loud crash came from the kitchen.
"If you'd excuse me for a second - it looks like there may be a natural disaster named Brenda in my kitchen." Jax laughed, and ran to the kitchen.
"Okay......sure!" Lucy said to no one. Shaking her head, she walked over to the couch and sat down, pushing away the pile of blankets and pillows. "What is going on here?" she mused to herself. "Brenda and Jax? This doesn't make any sense. But here they are - in his penthouse, cooking breakfast together, " laughter errupted from the kitchen, and Lucy could hear Brenda's squeals of "wanting to do it herself". "and obviously having a lot of fun. Well - to each his own." Lucy took a VOGUE magazine off the coffee table, that was addressed to Brenda. "She's already leaving her magazines here?" she thought to herself. "Oh well." Lucy became ingrossed in the magazine, and was still reading when Jax and Brenda emerged from the kitchen 15 minutes later carrying trays of coffee, fruit and muffins.
"Breakfast is served." Brenda announced happily, pouring Lucy some coffee and sitting down next to Jax on the couch.
"Thank you." Lucy said. "So - uhh...if you don't mind my asking, why exactly are the two of you here this morning. Jax - I thought you'd gone back to Alaska, but then I called Addie this morning, and she said you were back in Port Charles. And Brenda - I've been searching for you for a week! You just disappeared."
"Let's just say that I've found business deals in Port Charles to be more rewarding than I planned." Jax explained grinning at Brenda.
"Oh! Well, that's wonderful." Lucy tried to ignore the fact that neither Jax nor Brenda were paying any attention to her since Jax was pretending to die from Brenda's "poisonous" coffee and Brenda was slapping him and begging him to admit that she had done a good job. "Okay - so JAX! Jax - hello......." Lucy waved a hand in front of Jax's face.
"Oh sorry." Jax whispered to Brenda that her coffee was good, and tried to calm himself down. Getting up from the couch, he walked over to his desk, and turned his laptop computer on. "What did you want to discuss with me, Lucy?"
"Well," Lucy said, straightening her dress, and taking some papers out of her leather briefcase." Jax - remember that little "deal" we discussed the night we ate at the Outback?"
Jax took some papers out of his briefcase before walking over to the couch and sitting down. "Although the business meeting isn't the first thing I think about when I look back on that evening,"Jax smiled flirtatiously at Brenda, "I do remember discussing the Deception/Jax Cosmetics merger - I'm assuming that's the deal you're referring to."
Brenda giggled at Jax's incinuation, and Lucy looked nervously at her, and then whispered to Jax, "Yes - that's the deal I was *referring* to. But Jax -"said, opening her eyes widely and bitiing her lip. "if you remember, I mentioned that the merger has to be *very* secretive. If Edward Quartermaine so much as considers this merger, he will destroy it before it's even on paper!"
"Well," Jax explained, handing a number of documents to Lucy, "since the merger already is on paper and Edward hasn't a clue, I'd say we're safe. Besides Lucy there isn't anything in my business that I can't discuss in front of Brenda. Afterall," Jax pointed out. "Brenda is my newest business partner, and I have to admit that her deal is the one that intrigues me the most at the moment."
"Really." Lucy said, looking more confused than ever. "Well....as long as the two of you are having fun together..."
As Jax went on to discuss the merger with Lucy, Brenda just sat quiety and stared at him in awe. She couldn't get over how different he was from Sonny. In the Bahamas, he had spoken openly with her about all his business deals and mergers, often asking for her opinion and advice on what he should do. He had delighted in how naturally acute she was when it came to business, and had even suggested that they go into a "real" business together someday. Perhaps a fashion company. Thinking about the Bahamas, she smiled to herself, and shook her head. "He's increadible." she thought - "the woman who gets him will certainly be very lucky."
************************************************************************
"Okay -" Brenda said, picking up her backpack and pillow, and heading towards the door. "If you have a moment later, would you give me a call?"
Jax looked at her quizically, "Where are you going?" Lucy had just left, finally satisfied that Jax was giving their merger proper attention, and he had planned on spending the rest of the day with Brenda.
"Home." Brenda stated simply, setting her bag and pillow on the floor for a moment.
"Why?" Jax asked, furrowing his brow and giving her a sexy pout. "You don't want to be with me anymore?"
"Of course I want to be with you! But- Jax, just like Lucy said, you can't forget about business, and I just heard you say that you have a day-long meeting with your most important partner. So.....I don't want to hold you up, so I'm just going to go back to Kelly's. You should call me when the meeting's over." Picking up her bag and pillow again, Brenda opened the door and was just about to walk through when Jax pushed the door hard, causing it to slam shut.
"Brenda, Brenda, Brenda...."he said shaking his head. "Come here." he took her hand. "I want you to meet my business partner."
"You do?" Brenda's eyes lit up, and she smiled. "Great! Just let me fix my hair."
"I don't think that will be necessary."
"Okay....well, where are we going?"
"No where."
Brenda looked very confused. "No where?"
Jax dragged Brenda into the bathroom and turned her so that they were facing the mirror, her in front, and him directly behind her. "Brenda Barrett - meet my most important business partner." he pointed at her reflection.
"Me?" Brenda asked increduously. "You cancelled all your business meetings today so that you could spend the day with me?"
"Yeah." Jax said sheepishly. "Well, I didn't cancel them, I'm just taking care of everything via e-mail and telephone. And I can do all that in the car or plane or boat or helicopter."
"Helicopter?" Brenda giggled. "What about a spaceship? you don't own one of those? I'm disappointed."
"Tell you what." Jax said, cupping her face in his hands, "if you want a spaceship, I'll buy you one."
"Really?" Brenda shook her head. "You are too much Jasper." As she said his first name, she gave him a sexy smile, knowing how annoyed he became whenever she called him Jasper.
Jax arched an eyebrow, "Did you just call me Jasper?" he asked in a low, husky voice.
"Yeah." Brenda smiled confidentely. "What are you going to do about it? she shot him a look that said, "try and make me stop."Jasper, Jasper, Jasper....." Jax lunged towards her and she shot off, racing through the penthouse laughing, with Jax close on her trail.
"I'm going to get you Brenda Barrett!" Jax yelled, following her up the stairs towards his bedroom. She had to take two stairs at a time, to keep the distance between them.
"I don't think so!" Brenda retaliated. "Nobody ever catches me if I don't want them too." She raced around the corner and ran through the door to Jax's bedroom. Involuntarily she stopped cold in her tracks. She'd never been in Jax's room before and it was beautiful and completely "Jax." The room was decorated in blacks, charcoal greys, and pale blues. One side of the bedroom looked out on Port Charles, and it had dark curtains that could be pulled for privacy. There was a thick, rich, pale blue carpet, and pale grey walls. In the center of the room was a gigantic King-size modern black bed, with a patterned black, grey and blue bedspread on it. To the left of the bed, across from the windows was a huge desk with a computer on top of it. There was also a black couch and TV/VCR to the right of the bed. On the wall across from the windows were three doors. "Probably to closets and the bathroom" Brenda thought to herself. She became so caught up in taking in the room, that Brenda forgot that she had been running from Jax. Suddenly, he bounded into the room, expecting to find Brenda hiding in the closet or bathroom. Yet, there she was. Standing perfectly still in the middle of the room. Creeping up behind her, he grabbed her around the waist, and pulled her close to him. "Got ya!" he whispered into her ear. "So...." Jax turned Brenda around, while still keeping his hands tied tightly around her waist. "Does the fact that you're standing here in my arms mean that you wanted me to catch you?" he asked the question lightly, but something about the way he was looking into her eyes told Brenda that he talking about a lot more than just the tag game.
Brenda flushed a deep shade of red and looked down at the floor, trying to keep herself from staring into his beautiful eyes that could take her captive with their deepness. No! Say No! Brenda willed herself. Just say no, and then walk away. "Maybe...." the word came out involuntarily.
"Maybe?" Jax repeated increduously. He was shocked to say the least. Although he had posed the question as a mere joke, he knew that he had been hinting at more. However, he had expected Brenda to playfully push him away and instigate another chasing game. Instead she was looking at him with an embarrassed vulnerability that he had never seen before. He knew she wasn't sure what he was saying, but that was okay, because in truth he wasn't sure what he'd been asking. What had started as a game had suddenly taken an unexpected turn, but for some unknown reason, Jax felt a spark of hope inside him when he heard her murmer that magic word.
"Yeah - maybe. Oh - I don't know!" Brenda wailed, covering her face with her hand and backing away. Jax followed her over to the couch and sat down, facing her.
"It's okay Bren - I don't know either." he explained, gently caressing her face.
Brenda looked up at him with wide eyes. She was scared. For the first time in her life, she had a man who seemed to genuinely care about, trust and respect her, and she didn't want to lose him. "I just don't want anything to change between us." she said softly. The moment the words left her mouth, Brenda knew she'd made a mistake. What she'd meant to say was that she didn't want to lose him. She didn't want him to get tired of her or leave her or hate her.
"Oh." Jax murmered, taking his hand off her shoulder, and glancing out the window. "Well, that's perfect because neither do I." he lied, walking to his desk and picking up the cellular phone.
"Jax!" Brenda cried wanting with all her heart to explain what she'd meant. "Please - let me -"
"There's nothing to explain." Jax interrupted, forseeing what she was going to say. "We had a deal, and I intend on helping you get Sonny back. You're right things are perfect the way they are. We should stay good friends and business partners. Nothing more. now I'm just going to make a couple of phone calls and then I'll be ready to go out with you." He dialed a number and began speaking on the phone.
"Okay." Brenda felt miserable. Apparentely she had misinterperted Jax's feelings for her. Suddenly, instead of feeling sad, she felt angry. "This has to stop." she ordered herself. "You have to stop thinking about Jax. And there's only one way to do that. You have to get Sonny back." A plan dawned on Brenda, and she smiled to herself, feeling a reknewed energy. "This just has to work."
"Just don't look down and you'll be fine." Brenda whispered to herself, trying not to think about the fact that she was over one hundred feet off the ground. "Oh god - why didn't I think about how dark it would be?" she moaned. It was 11 pm and Brenda was creeping across the ledge outside of Sonny and Lily's penthouse. Her goal: to get inside and find some information or clue about the stability of Sonny and Lily's marriage. She wanted to find some hint that Sonny still loved her. An old photograph or T-shirt...anything. Sonny had taken Lily to see Il Postino, and it wouldn't be over until at least 1 a.m., so Brenda had snuck up the fire escape and onto the ledge. She was beginning to realize that this wasn't the greatest idea she'd ever had. Instead of being wide and flat, the ledge was narrow and rocky. The flashlight she'd brought with her barely lit up her own hand and she discovered that she had an acute fear of heights. Just as she was about to turn around and go back, she saw the first window into the penthouse. Clinging to the wall, she moved slowly towards the window, and sighed happily when the window was unlocked. "Thank god." she murmered, slipping easily through the wide space and onto solid ground. "Okay - now where do I begin?" She looked around the penthouse and scrunched up her nose. "It's so dark and gloomy in here." she noticed. "Either Lily has god-awful taste or she just let Sonny do whatever he wanted." she shook her head. "She's such a step-ford wife.Hmm....maybe I'll look in the desk. Brenda walked over to the dark oak desk and opened it quietly. "Stamps, pens, stationary, a datebook." Brenda took out the date book, and opened it up. The words LILY IN PUERTO RICO jumped out of her. "Lily's going on vacation?" Excitement surged through Brenda's body. "Yes! Next week Sonny's going to be home for alone for a whole week!" Brenda became so distracted that she nearly forgot her reason for being in the penthouse. Finding nothing else in the desk, she returned the datebook and closed the desk. She wandered into the kitchen and began to rummage through the cabinets. Suddenly she heard the door creak open. Brenda froze in her place, immobilized with fear. She held her breath, straining to hear a voice, praying that she'd only imagined the creaking of the door. All she heard was the rhythmic sound of shoes heading directly into the kitchen. Just as the stranger walked into the kitchen, Brenda dove under the island, hiding herself at least for the moment. She peaked out the side of the island, and gasped. "Detective Taggert? What is he doing here?" she wondered. "Just my luck," she groaned. "the cops are here. Please don't let me get caught, please don't let me get caught." she repeated, crossing her fingers.
Her praying was interrupted by a loud voice. "Ms. Barrett - funny that I should find you here. Hiding behind the counter. Funny - I thought the bedroom was the more likely place for Sonny to keep you."
"You're so amusing Detective." Brenda stood up reluctantly, and tried to appear as in control as possible. "I was just - uh....looking for a pan that I lent Lily and she never returned." Brenda reached hastily into the cupboard and pulled out an aluminum bowl. "And here it is!" she held the bowl up proudly and smiled. "You know, I really should be going, it's getting awfully late." she looked at her watch and began to hurry out of the kitchen.
"Not so fast." Taggert declared, blocking the door. He looked at her curiously. "You aren't a friend of Lily's. A friend of Sonny's maybe - but I doubt he'd have you over while he was out with his wife. Exactly how did you get in here?"
"I don't see why that's any of your business." Brenda stated. The shock of his sudden arrival was wearing off, and she felt herself gaining control again. "What about you - 'Detective' Taggert - do you have a warrant to be in this penthouse?"
Taggert didn't say anything. "I'm a police officer Brenda."
"And I'm the woman Sonny really loves." Brenda retaliated. "Who we are and what are relationships to the Corinthos are doesn't change how we both got here. Listen - I can keep a secret if you can. Deal?" Brenda extended her hand and looked at Taggert hopefully.
Taggert studied her. "No. I'm taking you in." He grabbed her by the arm and took out his handcuffs.
Brenda's mouth dropped open and she stared at the handcuffs as he put them around her delicate wrists. "You're arresting me?" she cried. "On what charge?"
"Unlawful entry. Now Ms. Barrett, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you do or say can be held against you...."
To be continued....
- Belle
J&B Reuniters - Sonny never ,Jax forever!
IRFC
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