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She watched him walk away, and Jessie vowed she would never watch this man walk away from her again, until she knew the secret delights those eyes of his promised.
FITTING HER FOR THE microphone had been a bad move. Penny could have done it. Hell, twelve other people on staff could have managed it. Feeling the softness of Jessie’s skin had teased him, but spotting the hint of her sexy, black lace bra foretold his doom. He hadn’t been able to concentrate since the show began taping. Thankfully, the director had the action well in hand.
All Cole had to do was sit in the control booth and speculate on the black skirt she wore. Would it ride up? That expanse of skin between skirt and boot had teased him before, in the conference room. Now, it tortured him, because he knew just how soft her skin was. Would the inside of her thighs be as delicate? His fingers curled into a fist.
The stagehands finished the change to the set from the last segment, and Eve and Jessie took their seats on stage.
The director flipped on his studio mic. “Cue music, we’re back in five, four, three…”
As the music faded, Eve took over with a smile. “We’re here with Jessie Huell, who’s been sharing some of her stories of late-night chases pursuing cheating spouses. So, Jessie, give some advice for the single girls out there. What should we be on the lookout for?”
“Take camera two,” the director said, and the monitor filled with a close-up shot of Jessie’s beautiful face.
She laughed, a deep feminine sound, yet filled with cynicism. That was it. Cole hadn’t been able to place what was different about the sweet, innocent girl he’d known. Suspicion, skepticism surrounded her now.
“First of all, you need to be prepared that he’s holding something back. News you might not want to hear or know.”
“Camera one, go to a two-shot,” announced the director.
“How can you be sure of that?”
“Because everyone’s got a secret. In fact, you show me a man who’s lived in the world, had a job, gone to college or whatever, who doesn’t have at least one thing he wouldn’t want you to know, and I’ll show you a man who’s a liar. Or someone who’s very good at covering his tracks. And that’s just what I like to do…uncover tracks.”
“How do you go about it?”
“Camera three, pan the crowd for audience reaction.”
“Other than the background searches, you have to become an investigator and think systematically. Find out what your target’s hidden objective is. We all have one. Certainly every man I’ve encountered has. Maybe it is to find love, his soul mate. Maybe it’s to get to something you have.”
Cole scanned the audience’s reaction. Jessie held their attention. Good.
“Here’s the second step. Find out the reason behind your man’s actions. What’s he trying to hide? Some dirt you can live with, some dirt you can’t. Why is he with you instead of some other woman? Ask yourself that before you enter into any kind of relationship. Is he cheating? Using you? Be methodical and be brutal. And remind yourself that love has nothing to do with it.”
“So what does that leave a woman with?” Eve asked. Damn, she was good. Cole had been wondering the same thing.
“Back to camera two.”
A sexy smile tugged at the corner of Jessie’s lips. “Now, that’s where the beauty of the fling comes in. I highly recommend it. But like your investigation, you have to be systematic about it. There are rules.”
“This I’ve got to hear.”
“Get rid of anything casual. No quick phone calls just to talk. The telephone should only be used to set up times for sex.”
Cole’s penis hardened.
“Second, don’t sleep over. You’re not twelve.”
“Got it,” Eve said.
“Never engage your emotions, and last, but certainly not least, don’t ever let him see how much you want him.”
“Terrific. Thanks, Jessie.”
“Wind down and cue music. Close segment in five, four…”
Eve grinned into the camera. “There you have the rules for your next fling. We all have secrets, and it’s Jessie Huell’s job to discover what they are. Join us after the break.”
“And to commercial,” the director said, and took off his headset. “You found a good one there, Cole. I bet our viewers will be contemplating their boyfriend’s covert objectives, or their spouse’s hidden intentions for weeks.”
The smile left Cole’s face. He forced the speculation about Jessie’s cynicism from his mind. She was in the habit of finding dirt, and he was a man who’d lived in the world of sandstorms. Yes, she was intriguing. But she was also a woman of secrets. And most secrets were best left alone.
4
HAD SHE REALLY ANNOUNCED to the world she believed only in flings?
Jessie closed her eyes for a moment and sighed. That fling comment should definitely make her mother proud. Jessie could picture the scene at the Cuts and Such salon, where her mom never failed to get her hair back-combed every Saturday. Her mother would be innocently thumbing through a magazine under the dryer, when she’d be bombarded by the tsk-tsk-tsks of her friends. Each commiserating that she’d never make grandparent status with that kind of daughter.
But the fling observation wasn’t the best part of the ill-fated interview. Jessie had quickly followed her statement about flings by announcing—most emphatically—that all men were basically big lying liars.
That pretty much ensured no dates in the foreseeable future. She’d almost shouted that any man who asked her out would be practically fingerprinted. If she’d learned one thing in her line of work, it was that guys liked their secrets kept hidden.
Oh, well. It’s not as if anyone had been wearing a path in the grass to get to her, anyway. Plus, she’d have no time for dating, because her client list was sure to expand. After the show, she’d taken a cue from Eve and spent the next twenty minutes talking with audience members. Jessie had almost run out of business cards. That alone would be worth any embarrassment associated with appearing on Just Between Us.
Crew members, from the camera operator to assistant producers, congratulated her on her performance. When the receptionist handed her three pink message slips asking for return calls, the last of any I-said-too-much qualms vanished.
“That went great,” Penny told her, as she took off Jessie’s microphone before dashing away to do something else.
Jane came by with a small white box. “These facial wipes will take off the makeup if you want.”
Jessie shook her head, her blond hair flowing around her shoulders. Pretty different from her normal ponytail. “I think I’ll keep it on. Makes me feel a bit glamorous, and I can’t remember the last time I wore makeup.”
“Not even on a date?”
“Who’s dating, with my upside-down schedule? I’m hitting work at the time most people are heading to bed.”
Eve approached them. Jessie had always thought the woman was charismatic on TV, but in person she was stunning. “That was a great interview, Jessie,” she said.
Jessie immediately felt her sincerity. “Really? I was afraid I was coming off a little cynical.”
Eve shook her head. “The studio audience was loving it. I could have used you myself in the past. I’ve had a boyfriend or two who I know had a lot of dirt. Speaking of which, I heard you went to high school with Cole. Now, that’s some dirt I want to hear.”
“You knew Cole in school?” Penny asked as she returned to Jessie’s side. “Was he hot then, too?” She giggled.
Yes.
Jessie resisted the urge to say, “Hey, that wasn’t so long ago,” complete with a giggle of her own. Then she realized Eve and Jane were also looking at her expectantly. Her eyes narrowed as she glanced from one woman to the other. Now this was interesting. These ladies were really curious about Cole, which meant that he likely hadn’t changed much from the keep-everything-to-himself teen he’d been. And just like always, women wanted to know his secrets.
Jessie did know some of them. They were some of hers, too. But although she was in the business of spilling other people’s secrets, she kept hers under lock and key. “Uh…”
“Uh-oh. I can see we’ve made you uncomfortable,” Penny said. Then her face brightened. “Hey, you should go out with us tonight for our end-of-the-week stress down. Cole will be there.”
“End of the week? But it’s Thursday,” Jessie said, feeling confused.
“Right after the sign-off for the Friday show, Cole leaves town and heads over to his sister’s place to see his daughters.”
“So really, Thursday is our Friday,” Penny told her.
Jane nodded. “And that’s why Fridays are our worst shows.”
Eve shrugged. “Or our best. Depends, really.”
Both Eve and Jane laughed. Clearly this was an inside joke. But Jessie was getting really good information about Cole. Excellent. Now she had an explanation about where his kids were, and she’d avoided having to look through filed court cases. Those were the worst. If she had enough money—Wait a minute! When. When she had enough money to hire an assistant, poking through judgments would be the first thing reassigned.
Man, this was almost too easy. Jessie hadn’t even had to resort to the tools of the trade. Blank expression. Innocent-sounding questions. Where was the challenge?
Just then Cole came striding toward their group, looking far more relaxed than earlier, but still very, very sexy.
Hmm. Here was her challenge now. A little thrill ran down Jessie’s back. Little? Who was she kidding? Her whole body grew tingly. It was ready to take up the task at hand. Cole.
“Tell him you want to go to Club Octane,” Eve said, her lips twisting as if she were trying to hide a grin.
Jessie glanced toward him. She sucked in a quick breath, because the purposeful way he was moving in her direction reminded her of a dark gym when she was fifteen. High-school dance.
Oh, the agony and the angst of not being asked to dance. She’d spent thirty minutes with her back against the padded gym wall, the basketball net casting a shadow across her face. She’d stood there, feeling miserable and asking herself the same thing over and over again: why had she come?
As others danced and moved about on the gym floor, she’d sometimes spotted Cole. Her face would flush and her breath would hitch, reminding her why’d she been idiot enough to attend this dance.
Then Cole had walked toward her.
He’d asked her to dance. With a nod, she’d joined him on the floor, her heart beating so loudly it overpowered the music. The song pounding from the speakers changed to something slow and seductive, and Cole drew her closer. She took a deep breath. Memorized the smell of him. He’d worn cologne that night. It reminded her of the woods, but didn’t mask the scents she associated with him. Leather from his jacket. Or the harsh soap he used to clean his greasy hands after working in the garage.
She’d closed her eyes as she settled her forehead on his chest. Jessie vowed she’d dance this one song and leave. She knew this was a pity dance. Cole was trying to save her from the embarrassment of not having been asked out onto the floor even once. But she didn’t care. She would have taken Cole any way she could have got him.
Cole Crawford had tried to save her back then. As he was doing now, by infiltrating this gang of female coworkers and helping to pull her out of a potentially awkward situation. How sweet. But Jessie was more than capable of saving herself. In fact, Cole should be concerned about saving himself. From her.
She flashed him a smile, and his steps slowed for half a beat. She made sure her lips didn’t turn up in satisfaction. Cole might not be so immune to her as he’d been in high school. “Your colleagues were inviting me to join you for your Thursday night out. Club Octane good for you?”
Cole shuddered. Ah, the ladies were setting her up to make him uncomfortable, Jessie realized. Excellent. She’d play along. “So what’s wrong with Club Octane?”
“Two words. ‘Dancing Queen.’”
Eve and Jane laughed, but Jessie was still confused. “I don’t get it.”
“The probability of me having to dance to an ABBA song is perilously high at Octane. I’ve never met a woman who wouldn’t dance to that song, and try to drag me onto the floor with her. Not going to happen.”
Eve draped her arm around Cole’s shoulders. “You see, according to the Atlanta Daily News, Cole here has his finger on the pulse of what women want. So like any man…he’s not going to give it to them. No dancing.”
Jane shook her head sadly. “Ever since that article came out, it’s been only sports bars.”
Cole raised an eyebrow. “It hasn’t been all bad for you.”
She nodded. “True, I actually participated in the fantasy-sports league. Won an HDTV Big Screen with surround sound.”
“You never saw so many grown men crying in their beer,” Cole said dryly.
Jessie laughed. She loved it. The camaraderie. The teasing. She’d missed that since she’d left the force. Hadn’t even realized she had until now. Maybe that was because—
Stop. She wasn’t going to do this. She wasn’t searching for inner reasons.
“I’m going to call Perry and see if he wants to join us at Latitude 33. I’ll meet you there,” Jane said with a wave.
“Good idea. I’ll call Mitchell, and invite Nicole.”
And that left Jessie and Cole alone together.
“Perry and Jane live together, and Mitchell is Eve’s boyfriend,” Cole told her.
“Ah,” Jessie said with a nod.
The smile faded from his eyes as Cole faced her. “Thanks, Jessie. You really came through for us today. But then you always come through, don’t you?”
The light atmosphere disappeared instantly. Jessie’s jaw almost dropped. Could he actually be referring to that fateful night that nearly killed him and sent her to her father for help? Here? In the impersonal beige hallways of some TV station?
No, she was inferring way too much. Jessie gave a light laugh, wanting to lighten the mood. “Yes, well, I can see all that Latin Ablative Absolute work we did has really paid off in the work force.”
Cole’s eyes crinkled in the corners as he smiled. “I don’t even remember what that is.”
“I just remember it was hard.” Did she want to steer the conversation back to the questions she always wanted to ask? No, she could enjoy her visit down memory lane to a point, but there were memories she didn’t want to relive. Cole leaving her without a word was one of them.
No, better to keep it light. She glanced at the banks of TV monitors. All on different channels. It felt surreal. Uncomfortable. Jessie nodded her head toward the row of screens. “It’s strange, but I feel I’m being watched.”
“It’s a TV station. You can’t escape it. But I know what you mean. If you’re ready, I’ll walk you to the restaurant. It’s only a block from the studio.”
That was the nice thing about the midtown area of Atlanta. Places to eat, shop, live and work were all within easy walking distance.
Cole led her to the reception area. With a wave to the security guard chatting to the receptionist, they emerged onto the sidewalk. Jessie blinked as the late afternoon sun hit her eyes, and she rummaged in her purse for sunglasses. With her odd schedule, she’d become a creature of the night, and bright sunlight really bothered her.
The click of her boot heels on the pavement was the only sound for a while. The weather was still mild for this time of year in Georgia, and Jessie took a moment to enjoy it—the warmth of her skin, the sun on her hair. Days like this were few and far between.
Cole reached for her hand and drew her into the shade and out of the way of foot traffic. He’d donned his own sunglasses, but the set of his lips was stern.
“I know you were cornered in there. You don’t have to go. I’ll call Eve’s cell right now and—”
Jessie placed a hand on his arm, feeling the muscles tighten beneath her fingertips. “No, it’s okay. I think it will be a lot of fun.”
His expression grew dubious. “You realize they are going to grill you.”
She pushed her sunglasses to the top of her head and gave him a wink. “Actually, I promised them a lot of dirt. Yours.”
