by Lynn, Janice
“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.
Was she and Maxwell an item? Was that why Marian was willing to give him his show back if he got rid of Jessie?
Worse still, was Marian behind the frayed wires?
He closed his eyes, then remembered he was on air and forced them back open. “I’m not interested in being hypnotized.”
“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.
“Don’t do that.”
“What?” She blinked innocent eyes at him. Innocent his hind-end.
“You know exactly what. I don’t want you interfering with my life.”
“From where I sit, it doesn’t appear you have much of a life.”
Her words so similarly echoed Maxwell’s that Colin wondered if they’d discussed him. The thought burned.
“Oh, wait, there was the hot date you rushed off to last week. Maybe you do have a life.”
“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.”
“Prove it.”
“What?”
“You heard me. If what you say is true, that you have a life outside of Wolf studio, prove it.”
“Why should I do that? I don’t have to prove a thing to you or anyone else.”
Her lips twisted and she stared at him with challenge. “I’ll let you choose the winning email.”
“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.
“Done.”
“What?”
“You heard me.” He liked having caught her off guard. Lord knew she threw him off balance often enough. Turn about was only fair.
“You’re serious?”
“Yes.” He gloated. “Guess you’ll have to cancel your facial.”
She sucked in a startled breath. “How did you know I had a facial today?”
He shrugged. “You mentioned it earlier.”
“I most certainly did not. Are you keeping tabs on me, Colin?”
“You must have forgotten, because you did mention it.”
She didn’t look convinced, but let the matter go.
“Meet me in my office in fifteen minutes,” Colin said, daring her to change her mind.
He didn’t know whether to be disappointed or not when she muttered, “Fine.”
* * *
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.
They weren’t any real competition for the Ophelia Winters show. Not yet. But J.P. was working on it.
Today went a long way toward making it happen.
Chewing on a cigar, he headed toward his office, only to stop dead in his tracks at the piercing scream.
Jessie’s scream.
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 scream.
He ran toward the sound. His office.
What he saw floored him.
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.
One of them waited for the police to arrive and the other led J.P., Colin, and Jessie into a nearby conference room.
Colin’s gaze dropped to his hand. His hand that Jessie held in a vice-lock. He helped her into a chair.
She turned pleading eyes to him. “Please don’t leave me.”
“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.
He pulled out the chair next to hers and sank into it. His hand remained clasped to hers.
J.P. watched their odd behavior, but wisely chose not to comment. For which Colin was grateful.
He didn’t want to explain things he didn’t understand himself.
* * *
Beverly dropped her forehead against the ladies room mirror and rolled her head back and forth.
She stared into the hazel eyes staring back at her and didn’t like what she saw. Not one bit.
But what choice did she have?
None. None whatsoever.
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.
Enough.
Enough of this whining and feeling sorry for herself.
It wasn’t as if what she was doing was actually hurting anyone. It wasn’t.
She straightened and shoved her hands beneath the automatic faucet yet again, needing to feel clean, to wash herself free. Perhaps, she could get Jessie’s hypnotist to help her.
“You okay?”
Beverly blinked at one of the jr. gophers. She hadn’t realized someone occupied one of the stalls.
“Fine. Just menopause kicking in.”
“Oh, my mom’s going through that.” The young girl bought Beverly’s excuse. “Wakes up drenched with sweat. The most awful experience she says.”
“It’s the pits.” Any day now God would likely bless her with an abundance of hot flushes and night sweats for the lies she told.
“Sure hope you feel better soon.”
So did she.
The perky girl went on and on until Beverly escaped the bathroom.
Too bad she ran smack dab into that cocky J.P. Scott.
She didn’t like him.
Didn’t like any man.
They all spelled trouble and took, took, took. It’s what her father had done to her mother. What her own husband had done to her before leaving her for a woman half his age. Men.
J.P. was worse than most. Six wives. What kind of man had six wives? And most of them young enough to be his daughter. His granddaughter even.
He was no different from her ex. Worse, even. Much worse.
“What’s the rush?” J.P. steadied her and she fought the urge to jerk free from his hold.
How long since a man’s hand touched her bare skin?
Why such an inane thought? She didn’t want a man’s touch. Particularly not J.P.’s. A woman who cared for him only begged to be hurt. Besides she was a couple of decades too old for his tastes.
“I’ve got work to do.”
“That’s what you’re in such a rush for?” He looked puzzled, like he saw right through her words.
“Yes.”
“You’ll hear soon enough, but Colin’s office was vandalized. Nothing was stolen as far as we can tell, but someone sprayed warnings on his walls.”
“What kind of warnings?” Did her voice sound level? Steady?
“Just for him to quit snooping around.”
“In what?”
“That’s the million dollar question, now isn’t it?”
Beverly’s gaze dropped to where J.P. held her arm. His grip was surprisingly warm and stronger than she would have expected with the arthritis she knew plagued him despite his arrogant pride. Unfortunately, she understood why women flocked to him. He had an appeal that defied time.
She gritted her teeth and cursed her treacherous thoughts. “Let me go.”
His gaze dropped to where his hand covered her arm and he sighed. He let go.
Beverly ran. Ran as fast as her feet would carry her without drawing more attention.
The last thing she wanted to do was draw attention.
* * *
An hour later, Colin cut his gaze toward where Jessie sat in the front seat of his car. She flipped down the visor and applied lipstick. Keeping one eye on the road, he watched her pucker and rub her lips together. She’d answered all the police officers’ questions, kept it together, ke
pt him close.
He wasn’t sure what he thought about the fact he liked her keeping him close. That she repeatedly checked to make sure he stood at her side. That any time he let go of her hand, she sought the comfort of his touch.
Jessie needing him close prevented his doing a thorough check over the mess in his office. For now, he’d have to rely on Wolf security and the police, but later, he’d check out the sprayed-on artwork himself, see if he could find any clues.
“Are you sure you’re up to this?” he asked, when she put the cap back on her lipstick.
She glanced his way, her smile overly bright. “You don’t think I’m going to let you change your mind about showing me that you can have fun just because some jerk pulled a Van Gogh-from-a-can in your office?”
That was one way of putting it.
“I doubt it.”
“No way.” She flashed him another smile, this one appearing more real. “I want to see this fun side I keep hearing about and after today, I need some fun.”
“Just remember,” he warned. “You asked for this.”
Jessie liked how Colin drove cautiously, concentrating on the thick traffic around the black BMW. Which she also liked. Somehow the sleek lines of the car fit Colin. Dependable yet one pretty ride.
