Causing A Commotion

by Lynn, Janice

  “It’s quite all right. Tell me more.” Marian became thoughtful. “Tell me about her and Colin.”

  “She doesn’t talk to me about Colin, but everyone on the set thinks there’s something going on between them. There’s definite chemistry. They fight like cats and dogs, but when they look at each other, there’s attraction. When she passed out last week, Colin was beside himself. I’ve never seen him so perturbed.”

  That was another thing. The tampering with the electrical wires. The graffiti on Colin’s wall. The drugs in Jessie’s coffee. All the equipment mishaps on Causing A Commotion’s set. Someone was deliberately sabotaging the show. Now Maxwell planned to cancel the show and claimed it was at the board’s bidding. As a board member, and a major one at that, she knew of no such bidding. Which meant Maxwell had lied or was working on an agenda of his own.

  Or perhaps particular board members’ agenda.

  When she’d insisted on Wolf hiring Colin, there had been those who’d fought her on that decision. Fought and lost, because none was willing to go against her father and he’d sided with her. She smiled. Her daddy always sided with her and she’d lived to make him proud once upon a time. These days she only lived to serve as a doormat for Maxwell. What did her father think about that? He never said anything derogatory, but how long had it been since she’d seen outright pride in his gaze? Too long.

  It was time for some changes in her life.

  First thing was getting rid of the doormat syndrome.

  * * *

  What was he doing here? Colin asked himself for the hundredth time. After the childish way he’d behaved this afternoon, Jessie would likely slam the door in his face.

  Yet he couldn’t leave. They needed to talk. Ever since Ewing left his office, he’d been able to think of nothing else.

  Who was he kidding? He hadn’t been able to think of anything else, but Jessie since he’d made love to her. Before that. Since she’d first climbed into his taxi cab.

  Now, his obsession with her was interfering with his work. Which was wrong. And yet another reason why he shouldn’t be here, but hell if he planned to leave before talking with her, getting some answers to his questions.

  Colin knocked on the door and waited like a prisoner awaiting sentence.

  Dressed in a pair of slinky pink shorts and a white t-shirt she wore braless, Jessie opened the door and stared at him. “What do you want?”

  Colin’s tongue grew ten sizes and stuck to the roof of his mouth. What did he want?

  “You,” he answered without censoring himself. He was tired of censoring his thoughts, his words, his emotions. He felt like he’d been walking on eggshells for years. He was tired of fighting to hold on to a semblance of control. Tired of fighting his feelings for this woman. “I want you.”

  Her eyes widened, her lips pursed, then she smiled Cheshire-like. “Then I think you’d better come inside.”

  That’s when he realized that’s exactly what he planned to do. Come inside her sweet body. Again and again. As long as she’d let him. As often as she’d let him. Maybe forever.

  She plopped on the sofa, eyeing him curiously. He forced his eyes to remain above her chest. Hard to do when she bounced like that with no bra on. Not as hard as other things. Him for instance.

  “Have a seat.”

  “I’d rather stand.” Sitting might hurt with his slacks stretched so tightly over his hips.

  “Okay.” She pulled her legs beneath her, tucking them under her bottom. “Tell me why you’re here.”

  “I’ve been thinking.”

  “And?”

  “I’ve been wrong to avoid you.”

  “Oh?” She was smiling now. “You’re just now catching on to that?”

  “I’m a little slow when it comes to the opposite sex.”

  “Colin, darling, there’s nothing slow about you. Especially when the word sex is involved.” With the way she looked at him, he believed her.

  “Yeah, well, let’s just say I’ve not been myself since you entered my life.”

  “I do tend to cause a commotion.” She grinned. “Pun intended.”

  “You’ve certainly accomplished that. With my show. My libido. My life.”

  “Is that a bad thing?”

  “I thought so, but, now, I’m not so sure.”

  “Your life needed a good shaking, Colin. You were existing, not living.”

  He couldn’t argue. He had only been existing. When Karen died, he’d forced part of himself to die, too. Out of guilt.

  Guilt he’d carried far too long.

  He hadn’t killed Karen. He hadn’t been the one to give her the drugs or to even be aware that she was using. He’d drank too much and passed out. Something he’d never done prior to or since. He hadn’t drunk a single drop since that night. One night of losing control and a woman died. It was enough to make him not risk losing control again.

  But he’d gone beyond trying to maintain control. He’d quit living. “Yes. I did.”

  Her eyebrows rose. “What? You’re admitting that you needed me to shake things up? To shake you up?” Her tone was teasing, but they both knew what she was asking.

  Part of him balked at making any kind of admission. Another part warned that it was now or never, because he might never get the nerve up again to lower the walls around him. Jessie wouldn’t accept another run-away lover. She deserved better. He wanted to give her better.

  “I needed you.” He walked to stand in front of the sofa, touched her hair, breathed in her spicy cinnamon scent. “I need you.”

  * * *

  Jessie stared up at Colin and decided this wasn’t real. She’d fallen asleep and was having a delicious dream. One in which Colin whispered words of need and looked at her with hot emotions in his eyes. Well, since she was only dreaming, what would it hurt to tell her dream lover the truth?

  “I need you in my life, too.”

  He gave a low snort. “You don’t need anyone, Jess. You’re bright, beautiful, and so self-assured. There’s nothing in life you can’t have if it’s what you want.”

  Definitely, a dream.

  “You’re so wrong. I’m scared of so many things, but fine, I won’t argue. I can have anything I want? I want you.” She reached up and looped her fingers in his belt loops and tugged him to his knees. Putting his eyes slightly below her eyelevel. “Tell me I can have you.”

  The corner of his mouth lifted. “I’m yours.”

  What every woman wanted to hear from the man she craved, but Jessie wasn’t quite ready to give in to her desire to kiss him.

  “Why the change of heart? What really brought you hear tonight?”

  “This afternoon.”

  “What about it?”

  “You kissed Ewing. I didn’t like it.”

  “Eric?” she asked incredulously. He thought she kissed Eric? That’s why he acted all jealous and He-man? “I didn’t kiss Eric. What would make you think I did?”

  Colin’s brows drew together. “Your lipstick.”

  “Because my lipstick was messed up you thought I kissed Eric?”

  “Not just your lipstick. The way you acted. You were distracted when you came on the set.”

  “It had nothing to do with Eric.”

  “Tell me.”

  “No, rehashing this afternoon would ruin tonight. I want this fantasy. I didn’t kiss Eric, have no desire to kiss Eric or anyone but you. Now, forget about this afternoon because it doesn’t matter.”

  He sighed. “You’re probably right.”

  “Of course, I’m right, Colin. The woman is always right. Didn’t your Momma teach you that?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “She died when I was young.”

  “How young?”

  “I was six.”

  “Ouch.” She laced her fingers with his. “I’m sorry, Colin. That’s terrible to lose your mom so young.”

  His expression pained, but she pressed on.

  “Wh
at about your dad?” She’d read that his father had been killed while driving under the influence, but she wanted him to open up to her, to share the details of his life.

  “He died when I was twenty-five.”

  Jessie sighed. “Something else we have in common. We both lost our parents too early in our lives.”

  “Your parents?”

  “Died in a car wreck when I was seventeen.” She smiled ruefully that he asked. She knew he already knew. Still there was something to be said for actually telling him. “I went a little wild for a few years. Did a lot of crazy things I shouldn’t have.”

  “Like moon a police officer on your eighteenth birthday.”

  “Hey, Dan says it was one of the highlights of his law enforcement career.”

  “Who’s Dan?

  “My sister’s partner on the force, although at the time, he was just another cop,” she admitted. Not wanting secrets between them, she decided to make another admission. One that would matter. “Colin, I did drugs for a while.”

  He stiffened. She’d expected him too.

  “Because of what happened a couple of years ago, I want to be upfront about that. Especially after last week. But I give you my word that I don’t use drugs anymore and haven’t in years.” She squeezed his hands. “I know that’s important to you, and I want to be upfront about everything.”

  “You don’t have to tell me this again. You told me last week at the hospital that you didn’t use drugs.”

  He had been in her room that night. It hadn’t been a dream. “But you’ve wondered about it. Wondered if I was telling the truth. Don’t deny it.”

  “I won’t deny the possibility ran through my mind, but when you told me you didn’t use, I believed you, Jessie.”

  “You did?”

  “Yes. Once the initial shock wore off of seeing you black out, I realized you’d been drugged. Either by accident or intentionally, but I was sure you’d been poisoned before you ever came to.”

  She leaned her head against his belly. “Thank you.”

  “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

  She wanted to press, to make him tell her about his past. About Karen. Had he loved her very much? Had the rumors about a secret engagement been true? Had the woman lived would Colin be married? Perhaps be a father?

  Jessie’s heart fluttered. She had no maternal instincts. Had never spent more than a few minutes in the presence of kids, but the idea of a baby with Colin’s blue eyes appealed.

  What was she thinking? A baby did not appeal. She could barely take care of herself much less be responsible for another person. She was a career woman through and through. Never mind all those women out there who had it all. Jessie just wanted the career. Of course, she’d blown her career today when she’d kneed her boss’ groin.

  Perhaps she’d settle for just getting the man of her dreams. Having a fabulous career, too, would be having it all and way too lucky for a girl like her.

  “No more talking,” Colin said.

  Jessie agreed and nuzzled her face against his abs, breathing in his rich, masculine scent. No, no more talking. They’d talk later. Much later.

  * * *

  When the phone woke her, Jessie dozed in the crook of Colin’s arm, her body spooned against his.

  “Mmmm, do you have to get that?”

  “It might be my sister. She’d worry herself to death or come over here if I don’t answer,” Jessie drowsily murmured, picking up the receiver.

  “Jessie? It’s J.P. I’ve got bad news.”

  She sat up in the bed, wide awake. Crap. Maxwell fired her. Fine, she’d hire a lawyer and own him before she was through.

  “Tell me.”

  “Tamara is missing.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Jessie couldn’t believe the events of the last twenty-four hours. Tamara was indeed missing. No one had seen her since yesterday afternoon when she’d been spotted going into Colin’s office. Oh, but several reported hearing the two argue.

  Colin and Tamara arguing? It made no sense. They barely knew each other. Colin denied Tamara having even come to his office, denied arguing with her, but the police still questioned him. Questioned Jessie about Tamara, about Colin, about her relationship with both.

  They’d gone to the police station where they both answered questions. But not before Colin called a lawyer. She supposed due to the past he felt it necessary. Jessie saw it as superfluous since he was innocent. She considered calling Jill then decided against it. After all, she wasn’t in any kind of trouble and was only here to give a statement.

  Colin on the other hand seemed to be the number one suspect because of his supposedly being the last person to see Tamara. The police hadn’t detained him, but he’d been advised not to leave town—-just in case.

  Jessie knew he hadn’t done anything wrong. She knew it. Unfortunately, she might be the only one who believed that whole-heartedly.

  Who had made that missing person’s report, anyway?

  Currently, they recorded today’s show. Colin looked as handsome as ever, but she could see the tiredness in his eyes, the unease in his gaze. She smiled, hoping to offer reassurance.

  For him, this had to be hell. He’d been arrested, tried for Karen’s death, and although he’d rightly been found innocent, that didn’t erase what he’d gone through up to that point. She couldn’t bear the thought of him having to deal with this. Couldn’t bear the thought that her roommate and friend was missing.

  “That’s a wrap,” J.P. announced, motioning for them to follow him. Jessie hated not to mingle with the audience, but in light of the last week’s events, perhaps J.P. was right to be overly cautious.

  Security guards flanked them. Wolf was taking no chances.

  “I got a call from Maxwell.” J.P.’s tone was ominous. “Wolf is suspending taping until Tamara is found.”

  Wolf was really taking no chances.

  “They can’t do that,” Jessie illogically said. Of course, Maxwell could do whatever he wanted. She’d really been surprised that he hadn’t fired her yesterday afternoon. Perhaps he’d known she’d nail him to the wall. Instead, he was taking advantage of Tamara’s disappearance and suspending the show. Indefinitely.

  If Maxwell got his way, and Jessie imagined he usually did, Causing A Commotion wouldn’t go back on air. She was sure of it.

  Which meant she would have to take matters into her own hands. Maxwell wasn’t canning the best thing that ever happened to her. Colin Crandall and Causing A Commotion.

  “I suspected they’d do something of this sort,” Colin admitted. “They’ve got to protect themselves, and I’m a high risk.”

  Jessie touched his sleeve, hating that she’d played a role in the events unfolding. “It’s my fault Maxwell pulled the show off air, not yours.”

  Colin’s gaze sought hers. “Why would you think that? The problems at Wolf started long before you showed up.”

  An exasperated sound came out of J.P. “Would you two shut up and follow me? We’re leaving. Now.”

  Jessie looked at him questioningly. “What’s going on?”

  “We’re getting out of here so we can figure out what the hell is going on and what we’re going to do about it.”

  “Let me get my purse,” Jessie said, wondering at the odd tone in J.P.’s voice. “I’ll meet you in the front lobby.”

  “We’re not leaving through the front lobby.”

  Were things that out of kilter at Wolf? Were they at that high a risk of someone trying to hurt them? Recalling the coffee, the frayed wires, Tamara’s disappearance, she supposed they were.

  “I’ve got to get my purse.”

  J.P. sighed. “Fine, get your purse, but hurry. We don’t have much time.”

  Colin closed his office door and locked it. Down the hallway, Jessie was leaving her private room and smiled despite the turmoil.

  Going to her yesterday evening had been insane, but he didn’t regret it. She’d welcomed him with open
arms and a warm heart. He liked that about her. She was so real.

  “Perfect timing,” she cooed, slipping her hand into his and giving him a quick squeeze. “Let’s go meet J.P.”

  Colin had never been a touchy feely kind of man, but Jessie’s fingers snugly laced with his felt natural. Right.

  J.P. stood at the fire exit doorway they’d arranged to meet, his hands waving while he spoke into his cell phone. He looked agitated and didn’t seem to notice them.

  Colin glanced at Jessie, who winked at him and stood on her tiptoes to plant a kiss on his cheeks.

  “What was that for?” he asked.

  “Do I have to have a reason?”

  “Most actions are motivated by a reason.”

  “Quit being so analytical,” she scolded. “I kissed you because I wanted to kiss you.” She stretched and pressed her lips to his. “Because kissing you makes me feel good.” Another kiss. “That’s my reason.”

  “Great reason,” he agreed, returning her kiss.

  “Ahem,” J.P. cleared his throat. “We’ve got major problems and you two are too busy exchanging spit to even notice.”