by Lynn, Janice
Jessie lifted her eyebrows in feigned-being-impressed. “Looks like you have a fan. Perhaps I should leave you two alone?”
She stepped forward and all four men moved with her. Jessie smiled. Much better.
“Don’t go.”
“Wait.”
“I thought we could go to my place and catch up a bit. Seeing as I’ve been out of the country shooting and it’s been months since we’ve seen each other.”
The last came from Eric. Part of her wanted to agree just to prove to Colin that not every man was averse to her company. Although Eric was easy on the eyes, she didn’t want him and she’d made that promise to quit selling herself short just to keep from being alone. She waited for Colin to speak. After all, he’d stepped forward, too.
He didn’t make her wait long, just met her gaze and held it. “You owe me a dance.”
His demeanor still chilled, but his eyes were hot. Molten hot. Blue flames of desire promising to warm her insides if she dared take him up on his claim. Blue flames promising to consume her if she didn’t.
Jessie dared.
Always had. That’s what got her into trouble so much.
Which should have made her reconsider, but old dogs rarely learned new tricks or something like that and this dog wanted to dance with Colin. Badly.
She flashed a smile at the other three men. “Sorry boys, but it would seem Colin is under the impression I owe him a dance, and perhaps I do. I’d hate to disappoint. Might ruin a lady’s reputation.”
“I would have danced with you.” Eric practically sulked when he realized she intended to step away with Colin. Men always wanted what they couldn’t have. She supposed it had to do with a natural instinct to be top dog.
What was it tonight with her and dogs?
Jessie laughed and patted Eric’s cheek. “Maybe later, dude.” But later wouldn’t come. Not for them. “Right now I see a cute little redhead who looks like she wants your autograph.”
Eric turned to see who she referred to and his eyes lit up, having already forgotten all about wanting to dance with Jessie Davidson. Easy come, easy go.
“I didn’t realize you were so chummy with Ewing. Did I interrupt?” Colin sounded irked. He watched her, a scowl on his handsome face.
Enough about loneliness, dogs, the men in her past, and on to the future. To figuring out what prompted the change in Colin’s temperature. Because he’d been shocked to see her. Shocked and arctic. So why the warm smiles, smoldering looks, and offer to dance? What kind of game was he attempting to play? She didn’t like the mixed vibes and refused to be toyed with.
“You know nothing about me, so why would you know anything about my relationship–-or lack thereof–-with Eric?” She pinned him with her gaze. “You walked over and butted into a conversation you weren’t a part of, of course, you interrupted. Wasn’t that your intention?”
One corner of his mouth lifted. Admiration shone in his expression. And scorching heat that made her want to bask in the glow. “I suppose it was.”
“No suppose about it. You did.”
“Yes,” he admitted.
“Why? I thought you found me repulsive.”
His gaze never left hers. “That red dress changed my mind.”
“Pervert.”
He grinned, and Jessie’s heart rate kicked up a few more notches.
“You read minds, too?” he teased. Warm and fuzzy. What happened to the ice cubes?
“My side job is on the Psychic Hotline, so get your mind out of the gutter and off what’s inside my red dress.” She liked the thought that he found her attractive. Liked how he looked at her. The dress and shoes were worth every penny she’d paid even if she had to park cars to pay for them. Wouldn’t be the first time she’d done so. “Want me to tell your future?”
Colin pulled her onto the dance floor. The current song blasted fast and furious and Jessie found herself regretting her earlier thoughts about the music. She wanted slow and sexy.
She wanted Colin. Ridiculous.
“I know my future.” He ignored the music and held her close, gently moving to a beat only he heard. Or perhaps she heard it too since her body kept perfect time with his unhurried movements.
“You pulling in some extra bucks on the hotline, too?” she teased, liking the way his arm wrapped around her waist. Liking how her body melted into his hard frame. Loving his spicy sandalwood scent. “Perhaps you can tell my future?”
His hand rested on the low of her back, right at where her flesh met the silky crimson material of her dress. The tip of his finger slid beneath the edge and traced back and forth.
Jessie shivered. Which was as ridiculous as everything else about her reaction to him. Why shiver when he set her on fire?
“Uhm, you were going to tell my future,” she prompted, suddenly uncomfortable with the heat jettisoning through her body. Lava bubbled low in her belly. Real low. Threatening to erupt and engulf all in its path.
“Was I?” He leaned in, mere centimeters from her earlobe, and took a deep breath. He sighed. A deep, masculine, pleased sigh. Like just smelling her satisfied him.
Hot breath moistened the sensitive skin behind her ear. Jessie’s knees threatened to buckle.
Colin’s head lifted. His eyes dark, he stared at her lips as if he fought to keep from taking them, by force if necessary. He spoke soft, low. “I see crutches in your future.”
Jessie blinked.
“Crutches?” she screeched softly, surprised. She’d thought he’d say steamy showers and massage oil. Satin sheets and breakfast in bed. Anything except something with humor. He’d surprised her. That intrigued her all the more.
He grinned, looking devilishly handsome. “Okay, so maybe just an ace wrap around your foot, but definitely your future holds limping and sore feet.”
“I don’t know,” she mused, liking how his brooding expression from when he’d propped against the wall now radiated with charm and amusement. “You’re doing a pretty good job dancing for a man who threatened to stomp my toes a hundred times during a single song.”
“I was warned to never underestimate you. Perhaps I should warn you to do the same in regards to me.” He dipped his head low, his breath soft and warm against her ear. “Never underestimate me or you’ll have regrets.”
“Sounds nasty.”
“I am.” He chuckled, but a real threat lay beneath his words. He knew it, she knew it. “A horrible beast who shouldn’t be trusted. Just ask anyone who knows me.”
“I don’t know anyone who knows you,” she reminded, wondering how he managed to make a threat sound so sexy. “Until tonight I’d never heard of you.”
“Guess that puts me in my place.” His fingers dipped lower beneath her dress material.
On the crowded dance floor, she doubted anyone could see or would care if they noticed. She should stop him, slap him, something, but she didn’t do more than move her body in sync with his.
Why had he sought her out? Although the conversation between them felt natural, light, flirty, something more sinister lurked beneath the surface. She kept her toes curled inside her Jimmy Choos just in case.
His fingers dipped lower still. Enough.
“If you’d like to put your hands down my dress any further I suggest we go back to your place.”
His hand flattened against her back, and his feet stilled. “You’d go with me?”
Would she?
“No,” she answered honestly. Despite her attraction to him, she really had reached a new place in her life. A place where she demanded more from men than a romp in bed and a distraction from the lonely thoughts in her head. “I just met you, and I can’t say you’ve been particularly nice or that I even like you.”
His forehead furrowed, looking almost offended, which was ludicrous considering how he’d treated her in the taxi. Yet the look compelled her to elaborate, to admit more.
“But there is something captivating about you. In a weird sort of way.” She brushed her
hand against his nape. His soft dark brown hair tickled against her fingertips. Tousling tempted, tempted sorely.
“Are you captivated?” He pulled her body tighter against his hard length.
Totally enraptured. Which made no sense since he was hot and cold and no doubt told the truth when he said he wasn’t a nice person. Unfortunately, he overloaded her senses and put her libido in hyper-drive.
“Given the right set of circumstances, I could be.”
His palm dug into the flesh of her low back, so hot it wouldn’t surprise her to discover his imprint scorched onto her skin. So low he skimmed the cleft between her cheeks. Too low.
“These aren’t those circumstances, so if you’ll remove your hand from my dress before I permanently incapacitate you, I’d appreciate it.” She smiled pretty as you please.
He laughed and Jessie knew exactly what she found mesmerizing about him. The mixture of dark and gloomy bad boy, who was a bit haughty and snobbish, with a surprising mix of playful mischievousness and steamy good looks. On the surface he could rival anyone for uptight demeanor, but the twinkle in his eyes, the twitch of his lips promised that hot lava bubbled beneath that cool exterior. The man oozed with contradictions.
Puzzles fascinated her.
Colin puzzled.
Although his hand remained on her back, he moved his fingers above the material. “Point taken.”
“So why did you do it?”
“Do what?”
“Put your hand down my dress.”
“Why not?”
“Not exactly the way a lady wants to be treated.”
“You’re not a lady.”
She frowned. “The last time I checked beneath my skirt I most certainly was a lady.”
“Checking beneath your skirt automatically disqualifies you from being a lady.” His lips twitched in that delightful way that made her lips itch to press against them. Even while wanting to stomp his foot again.
“Touché.” She arched a brow, determined he give her a real answer. “Tell me why you thought you could go to third base on a pre-first dance by putting your hands down my skirt. I’m not buying any tale about checking to see if I’m a lady.”
“Third base?”
“Your hands down the back of my skirt.”
“Not exactly my hands. Barely the tips of my fingers, really.” His eyes sparkled, the icy shell from before thawed and a hot blue smolder in its place. He was thoroughly enjoying their banter. Good, because so was she.
“I wouldn’t call that going to third base, either,” he continued, “barely even qualifies as first.”
“Answer my question.”
He shrugged. “I only realized what I was doing seconds before you slapped me and my wandering fingers down.”
“You were unconsciously trying to feel me up?”
“Basically. I was captivated.”
“Right.” She stretched the word out with sarcasm.
“It’s true.” His tone implied it really was. Interesting. Something about Colin said he didn’t unconsciously do much of anything.
“And according to your biggest fan Eric you’re all about the truth?”
“Yes.” He got quiet a moment and she feared the brooding iceberg planned to make another temperature plunging entrance. “Tell me about your relationship with Ewing.”
“I used to sleep with him,” she announced matter-of-factly, daring him to say something negative or to turn back into Colin the Cold.
He stiffened against her and didn’t say anything for long moments. “Used to implying that you no longer are?”
“I haven’t dated Eric in over a year, but we’re still friends, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Friends?” His gaze bore into hers. “As in the kind you have sleep-overs with?”
“I don’t sleep with friends.”
“Enemies?”
“You know what I mean.” She refused to rise to his bait.
“Who do you sleep with?”
“That, Mr. Crandall, is none of your business.”
“What if I’m trying to make it my business?”
“Then I’d want to know why and what you were up to since we’ve already established you don’t like actresses. I’m an actress. And, we both know I won’t be accompanying you home tonight.”
“We both know that?” His hold at her waist tightened. “If I said I thought you were beautiful?”
“I’d say thank you and that has nothing to do with who I sleep with being any of your business.” Acting skills had never come in so handy, because his words sped up her pulse and hammered into her resolve.
She wanted him to think her beautiful. Wanted it desperately. Which was absurd. Outside appearances didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Looks were temporary, meant to fade with time. But she basked in the thought that this man found her attractive.
“If I told you I wanted to know for personal reasons?”
“I’d ask how personal.”
“Very personal.”
“Very?” She arched a brow, refusing to give him wiggle room. “As in how much so?”
“As in, I’m likely to have dreams about this red dress tonight, and I’ve thought about you all afternoon.”
Another one of those thankful for acting skills moments. The man was full of surprises. He’d thought about her? And was admitting it?
“Probably cursing my name every time you took a step.” She laughed softly, pretending his words didn’t penetrate her armor of good intentions.
His face tightened and his brows veed. “I don’t even know your name.”
“Good.”
“Tell me.”
“No.”
“I can ask someone and find out.”
True enough. Let him ask. She wasn’t telling. “Fine. Ask someone.”
He frowned when he realized she was serious. “You’re really not going to tell me your name?”
“No.”
He stared at her in apparent amazement. “You’re something else.”
She smiled a bit coyly. “Only question is what.”
They danced in silence for a few minutes.
“I know you’ve been offered a job on my show.”
“A job?” She blinked innocently.
“I was also informed that you turned down the offer.”
“Well, aren’t you just an informed little man?”
He snorted. “Informed yes. Little, well, you turned down your opportunity to find that out, too, didn’t you?”
Jessie giggled. “You weren’t serious about taking me to your place, and we both know it.”
“You think I don’t want you?” His expression turned somber, and he pulled her to him, fully, to him where his desire pressed into her belly.
She pretended to be calm, cool, and collected. In reality her insides shook and zeroed in on that proof of how much he wanted. “I think whether or not you want me is irrelevant after the way you treated me this afternoon.”
Her words sounded calm. She wasn’t. Not by a long shot.
“The way I treated you? You stole my taxi, stomped my foot, and left me with the bill.”
“You deserved worse.”
“What?”
“I liked you,” she dropped her gaze to his mouth, “really liked you, and you were a jerk. You deserved to eat decaying dog poo and die.”
He lifted her chin so that her gaze met his. Tingles of awareness shot through her at his fingertips pressing against her tender under-jaw.
“For the record, I am a jerk and have not pretended to be otherwise at any point during our limited acquaintance.”
She sucked air in, wanting to look away from his intense gaze, but holding steady. “Then we’re agreed.”
“Apparently.” His other hand toyed at the line of her skirt again, but didn’t re-dip beneath the material. “I liked you, too. Really liked you.”
“I could tell by all the warmth emanating my way as you stared out your window, and I s
tared at your back.”
“I don’t like actresses.”
“Which is a direct contradiction to your claim of liking me since I am most definitely an actress.”
“Actresses are trouble in the worst way.”
“Yet you choose to harass and dance with one. Aren’t you just the adventurer?”
“You’re different.”
“Why?” she challenged. “Because I’ve been offered a job on your show and you can’t stand the thought of it?”
The skin over his cheekbones pulled tight. Bingo.
“You turned the job down so that’s irrelevant.”
Au contraire. “I may change my mind.”
His fingers bit into the flesh beneath her chin. “Oh?”
He didn’t want her to change her mind. Interesting.
And more incentive to say yes.
“I turned the job down because I didn’t think myself the talk show type. Then I got to thinking, I do know a lot about talk shows. I mean, I watch Ellen at least four times a week. And I’m a total Dr. Phil freak.”
“That qualifies you to be on my show? I report on world news, politics, economics, environmental issues. I interview people with real jobs who make a difference in the world.”
