CHAPTER FIVE

By morning, it was still raining, though the worst of the storm had passed. Sonny had his answers soon enough. Alexis had gone to her office building, but from there, she'd ended up at the Port Charles Hotel. Those answers were easy to come by. The most important one wasn't. As Johnny drove him to the hotel, Kristina's words played themselves over and over in his mind.
 
**
Flashback: The night before…

 "You made my sister fall in love you!"

"What are you talking about, Kristina?" he had said, his voice low and hard. Sonny hadn't meant to scare her, but her words had shocked him.  His expression never changed as he saw her face go pale. Kristina had never seen the side of him that was all "business," had never seen the side that gave his name the fear and the respect that it had.  But she was Alexis' sister. Scared or not, she stood her ground, eyes blazing defiantly into his. Alexis? In love with him? The knowledge had burst into his mind with all the force of a bolt of lightning. But this was Kristina…New Age, feng shui shooey something or other…whatever the hell that was, the influences of Pluto – not the dog – in the seventh house- or sixth or whatever -- reading Kristina. More than likely this was one of her way out there ideas…Alexis couldn't possibly be in love with him… and she was reading more into their friendship than what was really there….right?

She hadn't answered him. Sonny's voice raised itself almost to a shout. "Explain yourself…now!"

"You are so selfish, so absorbed in yourself, that you can't see what's right in front of your eyes." She shot back. "What did you think would happen? You spend all of your spare time with her….you make her feel special …that you need her….My sister is a woman…what else did you think would happen? My sister is..is…" her eyes widened as she realized what she had said. Kristina began shaking her head. "Look, I had a long and sleepless night, worrying about where Alexis has been. I spoke without thinking and I…I have no idea what I'm talking about. Forget it Sonny, just forget it…" Before he could react or respond, she'd opened the door and slipped inside.

Sonny was left staring at a closed door.

Forget about it. As if he could.

**

And so here he was, headed for the Port Charles hotel and her words were still in his head. Unconsciously, he shook his head. The fact of the matter was, it had nothing to do with him. Kristina had driven Alexis out of the penthouse with her pushy ways. She was a nice enough kid, but she could be intense. And that would be putting it mildly. So Alexis ditched baby sis, headed out to the Grille for some relief and got caught there by the storm. She probably just took a room, instead of taking a chance driving home in a storm. That was Alexis, always thinking, always making the right choices. Very little took his lawyer by surprise. She was worth every penny of the big bucks he paid her.

Sonny shook his head; Kristina couldn't be right. He would have seen it, would have sensed it, would have known something, somehow… Sonny walked into the lobby of the hotel, his mind spinning in a thousand different directions as he paused in the dining room of the Grille's doorway to slip his trench coat off. Out of long habit, his eyes slid around the room registering the room's layout and faces. Sonny froze.  Alexis and Jax were just rising from a table, the remains of breakfast plain to see. Sonny stepped back a little, suddenly, not knowing why, but just knowing that he didn't want to be seen.

What he didn't know was that Jax had already spotted him.

Sonny watched, unmoving and disbelieving, while Jax moved behind Alexis and helped her into her overcoat. The blood rushed into his face and an unfamiliar, unnamable emotion surged through him as he watched Jax's hands linger on Alexis' shoulders. He didn't even notice when his jaw clenched and the blood rushed into his face.

Jax was all too aware of Sonny eyes on them. He slipped Alexis' coat over her shoulder and deliberately let his hands rest on her shoulders a little longer than necessary. Alexis turned to look up at him questioningly.

"About last night," he began. " you've danced around that conversation all through the meal."

Alexis placed gentle fingers against his lips. "There's nothing to talk about. Except for my saying thank you for taking such good care of me."


Several people exiting the restaurant made a point of steering clear of the man standing to once side of the entrance. Sonny was totally unaware that his eyes had narrowed in anger or that he was glaring at the couple as Alexis smiled up at her ex-husband. His hands clenched as she touched Jax's mouth tenderly with soft fingertips.


"I won't bring up the subject about last night unless you want to talk about it, but I just wanted you to know that I'm here for you, whenever you need me." Before she could answer, Jax slipped one hand under her chin, and tilted her face towards his. He bent down and gently brushed his lips against hers. "I'd do anything to keep you safe. Even if you weren't my favorite ex-wife." She couldn't know that he meant that on more levels than she knew. "Forgive me?"

 Alexis was puzzled at this show of affection, but allowed Jax to kiss her softly. Instinctively, one hand came up to caress his cheek. "And you're still my favorite ex-husband. Of course I forgive you. I always will." She reached for her purse. "But I have to get home, get changed and get to my office. So, as lovely as this little interlude was, it's time for me to get moving." Alexis smiled at him as she began to walk away then turned and playfully blew him a kiss. "Thank you for being there, Jax."

That was more than enough for Sonny. Without knowing how he got there, he found himself back on the street, heading for his car, totally oblivious to the chilling rain that had intensified. He was all too aware of the chill inside of him, treacherously close to his heart, even if  he didn't recognize the reason why. That it was there, was enough.

"Drive." He growled at Johnny as he threw himself into the back seat. A red rage hazed his vision. The sight of her and Jax together was seared into his mind. The rational part of his mind tried to tell him that it wasn't surprising. Alexis was a woman; a beautiful woman. He couldn't expect her not to have any man who knew her to not be attracted to her. Just not him, not the unwonder from down under, he told himself. Jax was the last man on earth that deserved Alexis in his life.

***
 

By nightfall, the rain had intensified again. It gave the citizens of Port Charles the sense of being cocooned away, each of them in their own little worlds. So people settled down, for the most part content and secure, safe and insulated away from the storm rumbling overhead.

That same sense of being locked away from the rest of the world was very much the mood in Penthouse Two. Despite the late hour, Alexis and Sonny were there, comfortably relaxed on his couch, coming towards the end of one of their regular evenings sessions. But it was anything but regular for either of them. It wasn't that Sonny was spoiled and demanding in wanting to have most of the majority of  their business evenings at his place, it was just that, as he explained to Alexis' many protests, he had everything on hand required to create a decent meal. Although to call one of Sonny's creations merely decent was to do them a severe injustice, Alexis insisted. His answer to that was that man – or woman - did not live on popcorn alone;

Sonny's thoughts couldn't stay entirely on work. His thoughts revolved around Jax. What he did think, was that it was just that Candyboy – and that name was coming more and more easily to mind every time he thought about him – Candyboy would do anything to get Alexis away from him. And her leaning on him would be a bonus. But if Sonny leaned back on the Aussie, Alexis wouldn't like that. And the last thing he wanted right now was Alexis seeing him when he was not his nicest. Why was that? He wondered.


Despite both his common sense and better judgment, he'd spent the evening replaying Kristina's words in his mind, and now it was like his whole being was tuned into Alexis, like he was "aware" of her now in a hundred little ways. He found himself weighing every word that came out of her mouth. Things like the texture of her voice when she spoke to him. Or the rich sienna sheen of her hair and how the highlighted strands around her face caught the light and framed her expressively large brown eyes or how often her tongue licked the soft contours of her lips as she concentrated on the work before her.

Alexis tried to focus on the set of papers in her hands, realizing that she'd just read one particular clause three times without comprehending a word of it. Unfortunately, all of her senses were concentrated on the man next to her on the couch and as hard as she tried for them not to be, her treacherous thoughts kept going back there. Without looking at him, she was all too aware of him, from the unbuttoned "vee" of his shirt, to the stray ebon curl that fell over one brow as it always did when the hour was late and his hair escaped the control that he imposed on it at the beginning of each day. She could catch the faintest hint of his scent, a heady mix of cloves, brandy and coffee. Rich, dark and invigorating, the scent brought to mind his eyes. Deep, ombred brown, intense even while he studied the paperwork in his hand, focused on her when he looked up to ask the occasional question. That gaze that she would happily drown herself in. Alexis sighed and started re-reading the clause for the fourth time.

Sonny watched her as she leafed through what looked like the endless reams of papers, the debris and detritus of a full evening's work strewn all around them.
The hour was getting very late. He listened to her voice with three-quarters of himself, the other percentage silently calculating, feeding certain data into his mind. The length of time her eyes met his, how many times she watched him when she thought he wasn't looking. And the delectable way her teeth worried at her lower lip as she worked her considerable legal talents on his behalf. Seeing the whole of certain things, as though these were for the first time. And maybe, they were. Meanwhile his mind raced on remembering how he'd never really noticed before the way Alexis had of focusing on him, the way she really heard him, listened to his halting attempts to express his feelings fully; something he'd never been able to do before with anyone. Not like this. The way she put her own feelings aside, to be anything, no everything he needed. Sonny was bombarded by an avalanche of newly unearthed memories. But the leap from these memories to Kristina's so-called revelation was hard.


Kristina tended to be way out there in terms of how she looked at the world. But what if she were right? If she was, then Alexis was hiding it well. But what else could he expect? A smile rounded his richly curved lips. Alexis could stonewall with the best of them. He knew that not only from personal past experience but also from watching Alexis in action. That's my girl he thought to himself.


Sonny made a decision. He sat back on the couch and stretched elaborately. "Break time." He announced, standing and stretching. He walked over to the bar and poured himself a brandy. Sonny turned and shot her a smile, dimples flashing into view. "Join me?"

Did she not have enough alcohol the night before?  Alexis thought as she met his eyes…it was the dimples. Those damned dimples did it to her every time. Alexis heard her lips form the words "I'll have one." She amended that. After all, it was Friday; tomorrow she could sleep in. "A small one." That's it. I am now incontrovertibly certifiable. Jax was right. The man has driven me to drink.

As he poured a second snifter, Sonny spoke without turning, his next words were deceptively laid-back. "Couldn't reach you last night."

 "I wasn't aware that I was now on-call 24-7." Sonny said nothing casually, she knew that. This was clearly his idea of a round-about way of fishing for information concerning what her whereabouts the night before. She fought the impulse to smile. God forbid that he not know everything every time, Mr. Control Freak. He just wanted to know where she had spent last night, since he obviously knew that she hadn't spent it at home. But there was no way she was going to let Sonny know that she had fled her own apartment because she couldn't deal with the feelings she had for him. Last night's binge had gone a long way in helping her deal with this somewhat unsavory, certainly disreputable, yet positively, absolutely demeaning crush. She was sure that she'd managed to put everything in its proper perspective. Of course, Sonny's next words blew that theory all to hell.

He didn't deign to answer her comment, simply sat back down, handing Alexis the glass. "Councilor, I got a question?"  She was just in the process of swallowing when it came. "How would someone get next to you? You know, like a guy?"

Alexis choked. Brandy spewed. Major coughing ensued. Breath was lost yet again.

Sonny slid closer and pounded her on the back enthusiastically, all the while grinning inwardly. When her eyes had stopped watering, Alexis was looking at him as though he'd grown a second head. But he didn't stop there. "Now that I'm single, I need to know these things. I mean, if some guy were to make a move on you, what would be the thing that would make you -- open-- to their advances? Something that wouldn't result in a lawsuit, of course."

 "I wasn't aware that you have trouble meeting women." Alexis finally managed to regain her voice. The look in her eyes said that she clearly thought that he had lost his mind.

"I don't." Sonny replied with his customary male arrogance. "Maybe, I'm trying to raise my standards a little. I just wanted a woman's personal point of view.  Especially a woman like you. So come on, spill. Do you prefer the direct approach— as in laying…" Here Sonny paused deliberately, sending the heat crawl up into Alexis' cheeks  "…your cards…on the table. Or is a slow and subtle advance more to your liking?"


 "You want to know what allows me to become – interested in a certain kind of man?"

 "Yeah, Alexis; what kind of man does it for you? Smart, brainy? Silk shirts - blue jeans? International jet setter, down home country boy or savvy street smart businessman….or how about bad boys?" Sonny said, looking dead into her eyes. Without his eyes ever moving, Alexis was all too aware of the trip he mentally took down the length of her body and back. Punched the ticket from beginning to end and booked a round trip. "Basically, what turns you on?"