Causing a Commotion (14 page)

The audience laughed, catching her meaning.

Colin scowled, his brows burrowing into a deep vee and his fingers curling into a tight fist. She hadn’t. “You threw me into the river of tranquility?”

Jessie nodded, turning to the audience for support. “What do you think? Doesn’t Colin need to relax, to let the calming waters wash over him?”

Lots of yeses filled the studio. He clenched his teeth. She was manipulating him, toying with him like she always did. Like what he’d missed seconds ago. Just call him a glutton for punishment.

“This is ridiculous. I’m a news journalist, not a psychology experiment.”

“Now, now.” She patted his hand, and he realized it was the first time they’d touched since he’d held her last week, the night he’d kissed her, drowned in her sweetness.

He went hard just remembering her soft curves pressed against him, remembering the taste of her smart mouth.

Hard while on television was not good. Distracted by Jessie’s touch while on television was not good. He needed all his mental faculties sharp when dealing with her cunning mind.

He did feel wet beneath the collar and had to consciously keep from loosening the constriction at his throat.

“I think you should be hypnotized,” Jessie suggested, garnering good natured cheers from the crowd. “Of everyone I know, you need to
relax
,” she put extra emphasis on the word, “more than any of them.”

“No.”

“Oh, Colin, don’t be such a spoil sport. You’ve already said you don’t believe in this garbage, so what’s it going to hurt?”

Great. She’d put him on the spot with that one. If he said no, anyone watching would think him a prick. Most probably already did.

J.P. said their ratings were soaring higher and higher with each show that aired. Maxwell seemed happy, but perhaps that had nothing to do with ratings. Colin had to give her credit, though. To his knowledge, Jessie only saw Maxwell within the confines of Wolf studios and never personally. She was either more ethical than he’d given her credit for or sneakier.

Then again, he hadn’t heard a thing about her and a man during the entire time they’d worked together. Not typical for her pattern. Last week he’d experienced first hand what a sensual woman she was. No way was she going without.

“Now, Colin.” She blinked innocently, but her gaze held a devilish gleam. “It’s not fair that I’m the one who always gets to have fun on the show.”

Jessie did have fun. She played, experimented, enjoyed each of their guests and the segments she covered. Like the Sex Tip of the Day. Jessie took great pleasure in reading off the winning e-mailer’s tip while sending Colin teasing glances. She also took great pleasure in flirting with the male guests and commiserating with the female ones. Even last week’s piece on lesbian lovers who cheat with men. Jessie had been right there, shaking her head in agreement with the lady bearing her soul. The damnest thing was that she came across as sincere.

Colin’s verdict on whether or not that sincerity was real or not was still out. He’d likely never know for sure.

After all, Jessie was an actress.

“What do you think?” She turned to the audience again. “Colin should get to have some fun, too, right? I mean, if all I got to do was report on trade embargos and crime and political foul play, I’d be a grouch, too.”

His scowl deepened at her slur, then he forced his face to relax as the scowl probably only solidified her ‘grouch’ accusation.

“We’ll hold a contest.” She smiled at the camera. “Sorta like my Sex Tip of the Day and you can send in your thoughts on what Colin should do for fun on the show.”

Cheers and clapping sounded within the audience. They liked this crazy idea.
Not good
.

“I have plenty of fun.” Like last week when he’d kissed her. That had been fun. And hot. And sassy. And, hell, he wanted to kiss her again. Had thought about kissing her long into the night every night since he’d met her and last week hadn’t helped matters.

“Oh Colin, you wouldn’t know fun if it bit you on the,” Jessie’s gaze dropped to his mouth and she leaned forward. No doubt the camera zoomed in on them. Fortunately, the desk hid his burgeoning lap. “Butt,” she whispered, her warm breath brushing against his lips, teasing him with more memories of their kiss.

Cheers sounded again. The audience was eating this up. Great. That meant J.P. wouldn’t let him out of this latest hare-brained idea. Just great.

As soon as the cameras quit rolling, they interacted with the crowd, shook hands, signed autographs, and fended off questions about how Colin was going to have fun. When they were backstage away from prying ears, Colin grabbed Jessie’s arm.

“Just because I don’t tell the world that I went shopping this morning and bought the most adorable little purse,” he mimicked her voice and chatter while on screen that day, “doesn’t mean I have no life.”

Inside, the realization that she thought he left her for another woman irrationally pleased him. Jessie was jealous.

“You bought a purse this morning?” She arched a brow. “No wonder you don’t share your private life.”

“You know what I mean.” He rolled his eyes at her teasing. Did she have to twist everything he said?
She was jealous
. Which was ridiculous considering where he’d really gone. “I have a life.”

“For your Sex Tip of the Day? Why would I want to do that?” he purposely misunderstood. With Jessie, it was always better to clarify what she meant because she wasn’t above using word play to her advantage. During the first show they’d taped he’d learned that.

“No, goofus.” She looked heavenward. “For the fun thing you have to do on air.”

Have to do
. She assumed Maxwell and J.P. would make him. He assumed it, too. Jessie had both men twisted around her fingers. Just as she’d had his hair twisted around her fingers on her sofa. The thought that he’d left her for another woman upset her. Which, ironically, made him feel quite good.

“You mean besides getting to work with you?”

Startled at his sarcasm, Jessie’s eyes narrowed, then she grinned. “Yeah, besides that.”

Colin weighed his options. The audience responded too overwhelmingly to Jessie’s suggestion for J.P. to let the matter drop. If J.P. or Jessie chose the winning entry there was no telling what they’d have him doing. Speed-dating. A pedicure. Having to demonstrate the Sex Tip of the Day. Possibly with Jessie if it would help ratings, because J.P. was all about ratings, and Jessie was just ornery enough to go along for the hell of it. He gulped. He’d be much better off choosing the winning entry.

* * *

J.P. watched Jessie and Colin spare off against one another. They’d captured that Bruce and Cybil spark he’d been hoping to get on film. Thanks to Jessie’s brilliance.

Actually, Jessie teased Colin often and there were hints of the electricity sizzling between them at all times, but normally Colin maintained a tight control no matter what Jessie did. Today he’d responded to her daunts.

Why? Had the hypnotist gotten to him or something else?

J.P. wasn’t sure, but didn’t intend to look a gift horse in the mouth. Something had changed and Colin responded to Jessie’s flirting on camera. The audience loved it.

Polls already showed viewers wanted more about the couple’s personal lives, especially in regards to each other. An audience that was rapidly expanding.

Chapter Nine

Colin stepped out of the studio in time to hear the blood-curdling scream that echoed throughout that end of the eleventh floor of the Wolf building.

Jessie’s face was buried against J.P.’s chest. Spray paint marred the wall behind Colin’s desk, marred his desk. Spray paint that lewdly warned to mind his own business or else. Mind his business on what?

He wasn’t even doing any digging. Just who Brad Pitt was sleeping with and who he should be sleeping with. Somehow or another, Colin doubted Brad was responsible for the wall graffiti.

No one should feel threatened by Colin Crandall these days. Not even Senator Thomas as Colin had been after him for so long that the old goat was too cocky to believe he’d be found guilty even if caught at wrongdoing.

Jessie spotted him and leapt into his arms. Not that he’d held them out, but they had gone around her. Just to balance her, he assured himself. Nothing to do with how pale she looked, how shaken, how the need to comfort once again flooded. This time she hadn’t given a chance to question his thoughts on holding her despite the fact they were under co-workers’ watchful eyes.

“Who would do this?” she asked, burrowing against him. Her body trembled. Walking into his office, into this scenario, had shaken her.

It shook him. That she’d been the one to find the mess and that he’d been the one to send her as much as the fact that someone had desecrated his office.

“I don’t know.” He hugged her close, taking in the graffiti, wondering how he could be so aware of the woman in his arms when he should be calling the police or Wolf security.

J.P. shook his head. “Well, this is a hell of a pickle. Who’d you piss off, Crandall?”

By that time, there was a crowd outside Colin’s door. A crowd that included two security officers shooing back the curious onlookers.

“I won’t.” He didn’t understand the reasons why, but he knew he wouldn’t. Not until she felt safe. Not until she ordered him to go.

Perhaps because the message had been intended for him and inadvertently he’d caused her to uncover the mess and be frightened. Just as the frayed wires had been for him and she’d been the one shocked.

Perhaps because she made protective urges juice to life.

Perhaps because her kiss unleashed a vault full of emotions he’d spent years locking away and now emotions threatened to drown him. Mostly confusing ones in regards to Jessie.

* * *

Any choices she’d had to walk a different path had been taken from her long ago and now she was forced to live with the consequences.