AllFreeNovel
Share Us
On the other hand, maybe she was overreacting. One kiss did not a relationship make. She had no claim on him, his time, or his erections.
Like hell she didn’t.
Okay, so much for logic. She had to go with her gut feeling here, because it wasn’t allowing room for anything else. Her feelings for Sam were way out of the norm, composed of almost equal parts fury and passion. He could make her angrier, faster, than anyone else she had ever known. He also hadn’t been far off the mark with his assertion that when he kissed her, they would both end up naked. If he had chosen his location better, if they hadn’t been standing in her driveway, she wouldn’t have regained her senses in time to stop him.
While she was being honest with herself, she might as well admit that she was exhilarated by their conflicts. With all three of her fiancés—in fact, with most people—she had held herself back, pulled her verbal punches. She knew she was a smart-ass; Shelley and David had both gone out of their way to tell her so. Her mother had tried to get her to temper her responses and had partially succeeded. All through school she had struggled to keep her mouth shut, because the lightning-quick workings of her brain left her schoolmates bewildered, unable to keep up with her thought processes. Nor did she want to hurt anyone’s feelings, which she had quickly learned she could do just by speaking her mind.
She treasured her friendships with Marci, T.J., and Luna because, as different as they all were, the other three accepted and weren’t intimidated by her more caustic remarks. She felt the same sort of relief in her dealings with Sam, because he was as much of a smartass as she was, with the same verbal agility and speed.
She didn’t want to give that up. Once she admitted that, she realized she had two choices: she could walk away, which had been her first inclination, or she could teach him a lesson about… about trifling with her affections, damn it! If there was one thing she didn’t want anyone trifling with, it was her affections. Well, okay there were two things—she didn’t want anyone trifling with the Viper, either. But Sam … Sam was worth fighting for. If he had other women in his head and bed, then she would simply have to oust them, and make him pay for putting her to the trouble.
There. She felt better now. Her course of action was decided.
She arrived at the television station faster than she had anticipated, but then there wasn’t much traffic on the freeways and streets that early in the morning. Luna was already there, climbing out of her white Camaro, looking as fresh and rested as if this were nine in the morning instead o
f not quite four. She was wearing a gold silk wrap dress that made her cream-and-coffee skin glow.
“This is spooky, isn’t it?” she said when Jaine joined her and they walked to the back door of the station, as they had been instructed.
“Weird,” Jaine agreed. “It’s unnatural for anyone to be awake and functioning at this hour.”
Luna laughed. “I’m certain everyone else on the road was up to no good, because why else would they be out?”
“Drug dealers and perverts, every one of them.”
“Prostitutes.”
“Bank robbers.”
“Murderers and wife-beaters.”
“Television personalities.”
They were still laughing when Marci drove up. As soon as she joined them she said, “Did you see all the weirdos on the street? They must come out at midnight or something.”
“We’ve already had that conversation,” Jaine said, grinning. “I guess it’s safe to say none of us is a party animal, crawling home in the wee hours of the morning.”
“I’ve done my share of crawling,” Marci said cheerfully. “Until I got tired of shoe prints on my hands.” She looked around. “I can’t believe I’m here before T.J.; she’s always early, and I’m usually late.”
“Maybe Galan had a tantrum and told her she couldn’t come,” Luna suggested.
“No, she would have called if she wasn’t coming,” Jaine replied. She checked her watch: five before four. “Let’s go inside. They might have coffee, and I need a steady supply if I’m going to be coherent.”
She had been in a television station before, so Jaine wasn’t surprised by the cavernous space, the darkness, the snaking cables all over the floor. Cameras and lights stood like sentinels over the set, while monitors watched over everything. There were people around, jean-and-sneaker clad, plus one woman wearing a chic peach suit. She came toward them with a bright, professional smile on her face and her hand outstretched.
“Hello, I’m Julia Belotti, with GMA. I assume you’re the Ladies of the List?” She laughed at her own joke as she shook hands all around. “I’ll be doing your interview. But aren’t there four of you?”
Jaine refrained from making a show of counting noses and saying, “No, I think there are only three of us.” That was smart-ass stuff, the sort she typically held back.
“T.J. is late,” Marci explained.
“T.J. Yother, right?” Ms. Belotti wanted to show she had done her homework. “I know you’re Marci Dean; I caught the local bit that was aired.” She looked at Jaine, her gaze assessing. “You are …?”
“Jaine Bright.”
“The camera is going to love your face,” Ms. Belotti said, then turned with a smile to Luna. “You must be Luna Scissum. I must say, if Ms. Yother is as attractive as the rest of you, this will be a real hit. You do know the buzz your List is getting in New York, don’t you?”
“Not really,” Luna said. “We’re surprised at all the attention it’s been getting.”
