Causing a Commotion (32 page)

“A couple of months ago, we started a contest and the winner has yet to be chosen.” Dead, dead meat, she thought. Beverly would never get her wedding because the groom was going to die within minutes of proposing. “Today’s the lucky day the winner of the Fun for Colin Contest will be chosen.”

Reading the next line, she gulped. “Here to pick the winner is my former co-host, Colin Crandall.”

Jessie squeezed her eyes shut despite being on air. She didn’t need to see to know Colin was on set, to know he’d slid into his old chair behind the desk they’d shared. She heard him, smelled his spicy sandalwood, felt him as surely as if all the air in the room had been replaced by him and he wrapped himself around her, filled her lungs, and bound with her body in some unique chemical reaction only he caused.

“Jessie’s right,” his rich timbre purred to the camera. “After months of investigative work, it’s time for Colin to have some fun.”

Jessie’s eyes opened, and she looked at him, her gaze colliding with his intense blue one. Her breath caught.

She’d forgotten how handsome, how strong his presence, how forceful his magnetism, how just looking at him left her insides weak and her stomach fluttery.

She stomped his foot. Hard. Enough that her heel gave and his dynamite smile slipped for a milli-second. He pulled his foot out from under hers and grinned mischievously, never letting on to the audience that she’d just crunched his toes. Trying to keep the upper portion of her body prim and proper appearing, she made another lunch at his toes, hoping to elicit at least a yelp.

“As you may recall, Jessie challenged viewers to come up with ideas for ways for me to have some fun. She felt that I was a bit too serious about life.” Colin gave a self-deprecating laugh. “She was right, and with all the public displaying of my life over the past couple of years you can imagine why I might find it a bit difficult to let loose. What you don’t know is that behind the scenes Jessie challenged me to prove to her that I knew how to have fun and that if I won, I could choose the winning email.” He met Jessie’s eyes and whispered “Steel-toed shoes.” before continuing, “We won’t go into the details of how,” he flashed a suggestive smile at the camera, “but I won.”

Oh, the rat made it sound as if they’d had sex and that was how he’d won. They had had sex, but that wasn’t…oh! Steel-toed shoes? He’d worn steel-toed shoes? He hadn’t even felt her stomp? And she’d broken a heel over this…this…heel! She kicked at his shins beneath the desk but didn’t make contact. He’d wisely shifted to where his legs were just out of reach without her letting the audience know she intended to maim him.

Was maiming a former co-host on live television something that would put her in a harsh light? Probably, and she loved her show. Still, the thought of permanently giving him a limp tempted. He deserved to limp. He could be called Colin the peg-legged weasel.

“There were thousands of emails to cull through.” Colin shot her a knowing grin. “Fortunately, Jessie went through them and deleted quite a few that she found inappropriate.”

Harsh light or not, she glared. How did he know that?

J.P. Had to be. Ohhh, she seethed. Men. None of them could be trusted.

“Making my job to find the one that deserved to win easier.” Colin stood from behind the desk, careful to keep just out of kicking range she noted, and took her hand. “Jessie and I are going to go sit in the living room, and when we get back from this commercial break, I’ll announce the winner.”

The moment the on air light went off, Jessie spat, “What are you doing?”

“Walking you to the living area. Come on.” He tugged upward, lifting her out of her chair.

“Just for the record, I hate you.” Why she said it, she wasn’t sure. But she’d had to say it. Had to lash out at him for all the hurt just looking at him caused her.

“I know.” He grinned, and she thought she might really. He was playing with her. Him. Colin. Playing with her. Jessie. Who did he think he was? Didn’t he know it was her job to play with the opposite sex and no matter how she felt about him, she wouldn’t put up with being toyed with?

“I’ll have J.P. cut this from the film.” She cast a look at the audience to see if she could sneak in a shin kick, then pasted a smile on her face. No way, they were glued to her and Colin. Terrific.

“Go ahead if you think he will.”

He wouldn’t, would he? This would do too much for lifting rating for J.P. to cut it out. “I’m going to sue you for interrupting my show.”

“I have your producer’s and your network’s permission to be here. Go ahead. Sue me.”

He was laughing at her. Mocking her. Making her look like a fool on her own show. Darn him.

“But not mine,” she reminded, jerking her hand free and placing both on her hips. “I don’t want you here,” she mouthed, hoping her microphone didn’t broadcast their conversation.

“Yes, you’ve made that clear, but this segment isn’t about what Jessie wants, is it? It’s about Colin having some fun, and you’re the one who put this particular piece in motion. It’s only justice that you have to finish it.”

“Fine,” she huffed, marching past him to sit down in her chair and turning her shoulder to him. About time someone let him know what it felt like to get the cold treatment since he’d been doing it to her from the day they’d met.

He laughed.

Which made her irritation and anger threaten to explode like a volcano and rain hot lava all over his parade. How dare he come on her show and cause such a commotion?

Oh. My.

In Colin’s hand he held a copy of B.K. Smith’s The Blooming Rose.

Her eyes widened with realization.

He’d read
her
Fun for Colin email.
Chosen her email
.

She bit down harder, tasting blood, not caring. She needed the pain to keep her focused. To remind her that he’d left. That she didn’t understand his reasons for doing this, but she wasn’t going to melt just because he was on his knees and about to read erotic poetry. To her.

“Like the softest rose petal,” Colin began, but he didn’t look at the pages in the book. He stared into her eyes. “Her skin lured me with its softness, urging me to stroke my fingertip over the silky smoothness.”

How was she supposed to not melt when he quoted erotic poetry to her and looked at her as if each word was from the heart?

She didn’t want to melt. She wanted to hit him and stomp his feet and to…melt.

No. No. No. She didn’t want this. She wanted to stay mad at him. To not give in just because he smiled at her. Winked at her. Quoted poetry to her. She needed that anger to protect her broken heart. How dare he do this?

“Urging me to bring her bud to full bloom.” He took her hand in his, stared at her with emotion he didn’t attempt to hide and continued, “But, alas, I am but the stalk upon which her beauty is pedestaled. The bearer of thorns in her succinct beauty. Merely a shaft of light meant to briefly dance upon her dewy petals.”

Jessie gulped, wondering if she’d bitten through her lip, severing a nerve because she no longer felt pain, no longer felt anything but the warmth emanating from Colin’s eyes. Or perhaps it was the moist heat emanating from her own eyes. With her free hand she swatted at her tears. Elaine was not going to be happy because her make-up was definitely messed up.

Colin continued to quote the excerpt Jessie had read, one of the few places in the poem that could be read on air without the FCC coming down on Wolf. When he finished, the audience burst into clapping and cheers.

To which she almost giggled. Which was crazy. He’d left her. Hurt her. Driven her half insane with missing him over the past couple of months.

And here he was on his knees, having just barged onto her show and quoted award-winning erotic poetry to her and she was melting and as much at his feet as ever.

She stiffened her spine and her resolve, determined not to let him make a fool of her, to not give him the opportunity to turn his back on her again, to leave her alone in a world where she hated being alone even if she no longer feared it. Yet preferred to be alone as opposed to being with anyone other than him.

Instinctively, her hand palmed his chest above his heart and gripped the material of his shirt in her fist. “What did you say?” she demanded.

“That I’ll learn all of that poem if it takes me the rest of my life so I can quote it to you if it’ll make you find forgiveness in your heart for a man who loves you more than life itself.”

“That’s what I thought you said.” Jessie stepped up onto his feet to gain leverage, after all the man came prepared with steel-toed shoes so it wasn’t as if she’d hurt him. She wrapped her arms around his neck. “If you do that, a woman would be a fool not to forgive you.”

“The show? You want to come back to
Causing A Commotion
?”

“Yes, I’ve discovered I’ve grown quite fond of your Sex Tip of the Day.”

“And my poetry readings. Don’t forget my poetry readings.”

“There is that.” Colin laughed. “Marry me, Jessie and put me out of my misery.”

Jessie jerked her head back. “Marry you? Are you serious?”

He nodded. “As serious as a man with his heart on the line can be.”

She leapt into his arms, wrapped her legs around his waist and kissed him until she was breathless. Until he was breathless.

“You know if I say yes I’ll spend the rest of my days causing one commotion after another in your life?”

He clasped his fingers with hers, lifted their twined hands to his lips. “I’m counting on it.”