The Promise Chapter 3

by: Belle

Hi everyone - Well - this chapter is incredibly short and I had planned on it being much longer, but with moving into college this weekend I won't be getting much time to write, so I've decided just to post what I had already done. Please send me feedback. :-) Enjoy!

The Promise - Chapter 3

Twenty minutes later Jax was still circling the terminal, searching under every nook, cranny and wide-brimmed hat for the mysterious woman from the book store. He had looked everywhere... even going as far as sending an old woman who took pity on him into the ladies' room. But his efforts were futile; the woman had clearly disappeared into thin air. He was about to check the DUTY free shop one last time, when someone grabbed his arm.

"Jax! Where the hell have you been? Annie, Brenda and I have been sitting on the plane waiting for you for over fifteen minutes. You were supposed to meet us at 11:30. That was over twenty five minutes ago! Now come on - we have to get going. Annie is having a coronary because she thinks we're going to miss our guides in Kenya." Zack's dark green eyes were flashing and he tugged at Jax's arm - practically dragging him towards the gate where the

private planes flew out of.

"Zack I can walk myself. Please let go of my arm." Jax sighed heavily and took a last look around the terminal. Who was he kidding? The woman was clearly gone, and he was alienating his best friend and his fiancee by looking for her in the first place. "I was just - well..." He searched for some reasonable explanation. He couldn't bloody well tell Zack he had been in hot pursuit of some strange woman when he was already engaged to be married.

Besides - the fact that he'd only seen this woman's eyes made his chasing her even more insane. Jax found himself laughing out loud. What had he been thinking? Searching an airport terminal for some dark eyed woman. He was clearly completely losing his mind.

Zack gave him a strange look when he heard him laughing. "You okay man?" he asked softly, arching an eyebrow. He stopped walking and looked at Jax with concern. He had never seen him in such bad shape.

"Oh yeah I’m fine. Great. Perfect." Jax blew off his peculiar behavior with a wave of his hand. "I just well… I just remembered something funny Jerry told me last night."

"Uh-huh." Zack murmured, completely unconvinced. "Well if you’re sure you’re okay - let’s get going." He gestured for Jax to follow him, and the two friends made their way to the private gate in silence. "Oh look." Zack said cheerfully once they had gotten by security and were heading towards the ramp. He pointed towards Annie and another woman Jax couldn’t see talking by the door to the ramp. "Annie and Brenda got off the plane. Come on Jax - I

can’t wait for you to meet her. She can be a little spoiled and crazy at times, but I absolutely adore her."

Jax sighed and gave Zack a half-hearted smile. After all the trouble he’d already caused he didn’t want his friend to know how completely unenthusiastic he was about meeting another friend of Annie’s. A female friend at that. He was already having enough bad luck with women today. The last thing he needed was to be stuck in an airplane cabin with Romeo & Juliet and a spoiled little princess. As they got closer, he could hear Annie telling the story

about the first time she, Jax and Zack had gone camping in the Himalayas. He smiled at the memory, and then he heard it. Her laughter. It sounded like a million crystal bells ringing from heaven, and he felt his heart lurch. The sound was both familiar yet new, and even before Annie turned around to greet Zack allowing Jax to see her friend, he knew it was her. Her back was facing him, and as he approached, Zack called out to her and she turned

around. Jax caught his breath. She was even more beautiful than he’d imagined. Her dark hair sparkled with reddish gold highlights and her skin was a creamy shade of tan. The mouth that had lashed out at his so quickly before was perfectly formed. With just the right kissable dent in it, and when she smiled at Annie before looking at him, he saw two amazing dimples. And her eyes. Her eyes quite simply touched his soul. They spoke to him in a way that

both terrified and allured him. As she slowly glanced away from Annie and up at him, he heard her gasp, and he had to bite his lip from laughing. He was about to make some charming comment about her disappearance when he noticed that she was all but shooting daggers at him. He frowned.

"Hello Brenda." He said softly, reaching out his hand and trying to ignore the fact that she pulled her hand away from his as quickly as she possibly could.

"Jax."

There was an uncomfortable silence as the two of them stood in the doorway looking at one another and not saying a single thing.

"Ummm… have we met before?" Jax asked the question innocently. He honestly felt like he had seen her before. And he wasn’t referring to the book shop.

Brenda’s usually warm eyes frosted over, and Jax felt like he was being shot at with ice. "I don’t believe so."

"Oh." For one of the first times in his entire life - Jax was speechless. He had no idea what to say to this woman who obviously not only didn’t want to talk to him, but had no desire to even make friendly conversation.

Again there was a painful silence, and Annie and Zack glanced at one another with alarm. "Well ummm… should we get going?" Annie asked hastily, looking back and forth between Jax and Brenda and trying to figure out exactly what could have possibly gone wrong in less than a minute.

"Great idea." Brenda cried, racing past Jax and heading down the ramp. Annie followed her with Zack in tow. However, before he left, Zack flashed Jax a look that clearly said "what the hell did you do?" Jax just shrugged. He had absolutely no idea but he didn’t doubt that Brenda would somehow make him completely miserable over whatever it was.

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August 17, 1998

1:21 p.m. EST

Zack’s Jet

The plane was warm but Brenda was freezing. She tugged her already long sleeves over her hands, folded her arms across her body and sighed. This flight was absolute torture. Not only had Annie and Zack been cooing and cuddling the entire time on the couch across the cabin, but Jax was sitting next to her and she was finding it impossible to concentrate on anything when his arm brushed against her’s every time she moved and the air was saturated with

the heavenly scent of his cologne. Worst of all - he was obviously completely unaware of her discomfort; sitting next to her didn’t seem to have any effect on him at all. She wasn’t sure what made her more annoyed - his being not only un-bothered but completely oblivious to their closeness or him in general. The man was absolutely impossible and his being able to work successfully while she was getting nothing done made her only more enraged. Whereas

she had already unsuccessfully attempted to read a book, get some work done for Barrett Industries, take a nap and listen to her walkman, he had been busily working on his lap top ever since they got on the plane. In fact - he didn’t seem to realize she was sitting next to him at all, and it was making her insane. After all - even though she detested every thing about him, she had been positive that there was some sort of bizarre attraction between

them, and the thought that only she felt it bothered her more than she would have ever admitted.

<Just look at him.> She thought bitterly to herself, glancing over at him typing away at his lap top, and quickly turning when he looked up and gave her a cocky grin when he caught her watching him. Her heart skipped a beat, and she shivered, rubbing her arms feverishly with her hands and swearing to herself that she wouldn’t give him a second glance for the remainder of the plane ride. As she rubbed her arms, her mind drifted off to their meeting

earlier at the gate, and to how shocked she had been when she’d seen him. The feelings Jax had stirred in Brenda at first sight were confusing the hell out of her, and the only thing she knew at the moment was that while on one hand she wanted desperately to get away from him, on the other hand the thought of never seeing him again made her want to die. What had he done to her? She knew she’d been incredibly rude to him at the gate, and it had been

her greatest hope and fear that he would take the hint and either be too offended to ever speak to her again or be outwardly rude to her in return and therefore convince her that he really was a horrible man that she would never want to know. So far - he was doing the absolutely worst thing - charming and ignoring her. Brenda unintentionally looked over at him again, and she couldn’t help admiring the muscles in his arms under his

rolled-up-long-sleeved blue button down shirt or the way his lips curled up in the most kissable way. There was something incredibly familiar about those blue eyes of his, and frankly every time he looked at her Brenda felt as though she would faint. She was busy admiring the way a reluctant blond curl kept tumbling on his forehead despite Jax’s attempts to brush it away when he turned and noticed her rubbing her arms and shivering.

"Are you cold?" He asked the question softly, furrowing his brow with concern.

Brenda shook her head rapidly and immediately busied herself with searching for the book underneath her seat. Anything to keep him from being able to stare into her eyes.

Jax laughed at her reluctance to admit the fact that she was freezing to him. "What are you talking about? Look - you’re shivering." He reached out and touched her arm and the feel of his hand against her skin caused her to nearly jump out of her seat. Jax bit his lip to keep from laughing at her startling reaction. Brenda glared at him.

"I’m… I’m fine." She didn’t know why she was being so difficult. He was trying to be nice, but for some reason she just couldn’t be nice in return. Something about him terrified her, and she was scared to death of what would happen if she just smiled and told him that it wasn’t the cold that was making her shiver. It was him and those damn blue eyes of his.

"Here - why don’t you take my shirt." He was standing up now and unbuttoning his blue shirt and oh my god - he was wearing a fitted white waffle T underneath it and although Brenda wanted to beg him to put it back on, she found herself standing up to take it from him.

. "Hey - let me help you." He leaned over to help her put it around her shoulders, and she whipped around, practically grabbing the shirt away from him, and nearly knocking him over in the process. On instinct, Brenda reached out to catch him and as she did so the plane lurched sending both of them sprawling onto the ground. Jax was pinned down on top of Brenda and they were so close to one another that he could feel the sweet warmth of her breath on

his face. They both simultaneously licked their lips. Each resisted moving just a little closer and kissing the other, but their pride kept them in check. Jax stared into Brenda’s deep brown eyes and he could feel himself falling into something so familiar that it startled him and he jumped up, offering his hand to help her up.

"I - I can do it myself." She said forcefully, taking his hand for a mere second and moving away from where he was trying to help her steady herself. Jax gave her a strange look, and Brenda licked her lips and swallowed. She was acutely aware of the fact that he was looking intently at her - probably waiting for her to thank him, and she sighed.

Raising her eyes slowly to his, she smiled nervously and bit her lip. "Ummm… well I guess I should thank you Jax." Her voice was soft and her heart began to pound when he returned her smile and gazed into her eyes.

"Well I guess I should say your welcome." He replied, winking at her and returning to his lap top. Brenda slowly sat back down as well, and busied herself with pretending to read her book. She didn’t want him to think she was some brainless twit who stared into space all day. She was so intent on staring at the pages of her novel that she didn’t notice Jax watching her out of the side of his eyes and laughing at the fact that her book was upside

down.

To Be Continued....