Free Causing a Commotion by Janice Lynn

closest with. Made perfect sense since she never traveled the easy road.
    “You look pleased with yourself.” Colin stepped out of no where to enter the elevator with her.
    Although seeing Colin always lifted her spirits and eased her current panic monsters of being alone in the elevator, she shot him a purposely fake smile. He created other, more threatening monsters to claw at her psyche.
    “Were you waiting to pounce on me?”
    “I saw you enter the building, if that’s what you’re asking.”
    “No, I was asking if you intentionally waited on me so you could pin me in the elevator.”
    His jaw tightened. “Yes.”
    “Why?”
    “What do you mean why?”
    “Why did you want to be alone with me?” she asked. After all, he’d gone to great pains to avoid her as much as possible for the past month. He looked so exasperated she couldn’t help but tease him. Teasing Colin, watching him get hot beneath the collar, gave her great pleasure. Since she couldn’t act on making him hot elsewhere, beneath the collar was all she had.
    Colin tugged on his collar.
    She bit back a smile and added words she knew would throw him. “Because we are not going down in an elevator despite my predilection for Steven Tyler and Aerosmith.”
    He took a step back. “What?”
    Gothcha.
    “Aerosmith. The greatest band ever.” Jessie didn’t bother covering her amusement. She liked throwing this man off guard. He needed a little shaking up. A whole lot of shaking up.
    Never had she wanted to shake up a man’s world more than Colin’s.
    J.P. and Maxwell wanted her to shake him up. They’d given her carte blanche to do so. Actually encouraged her to push Colin’s buttons. Like she needed encouragement.
    “Aerosmith?”
    “You heard me.”
    “I did not follow you into the elevator to go down on you.” He sounded huffy about it. Too huffy. As if he considered the idea horrific, but not necessarily a foreign concept.
    “No?” She raked her gaze over his immaculate clothes. Dark dress slacks and jacket, a cream colored shirt, and a blue tie matching his eyes that was clipped to his shirt by a plain gold tie tack. Did a wrinkle ever dare to muss his clothes? What would he do if she reached out and tousled his always perfect hair? Some day .
    “You expect me to go down on you?” She shook her head in mock pity. “I’m sorry, but paying my cab fare and your pathetic attempts to go to third base at Wolf’s anniversary party have not rated you the star treatment.”
    “The star treatment?”
    “My going down on you.”
    “I’ll pass.” But the working of his throat while he swallowed gave away that her words had his mind racing ahead, envisioning exactly what she suggested. Red blotches crept up his neck. Oh yeah, beneath Colin’s collar burned.
    “I don’t like second-hand goods that are as apt to be pretending to have a good time as not.”
    Ouch . She scowled. “How dare you?”
    She lifted her hand to slap him, but he caught her wrist with ease.
    “Don’t hit me,” he warned.
    She didn’t back down, actually took a step forward, closing the distance between them and locking her gaze with his. Mere inches separated their faces.
    “Don’t you insult me or call me second-hand goods.” She struggled to free her hand, rared back to slap him with her left when she couldn’t pull free. She didn’t hit him, didn’t do anything but still her wiggling body. Which left her pressed enticingly against Colin’s hard chest, his hard everything .
    “I call it like I see it.”
    “You see nothing,” she spat. Electricity sizzled between them, making the air crackle with tension. Excitement.
    His gaze dropped to her mouth and for a brief second she thought he would kiss her. She wanted him to kiss her. Badly.
    “The truth sting?”
    Her eyes widened. He’d insulted her again. The jerk. Sexy jerk, but jerk all the same. “You wouldn’t know the truth if it slapped you upside your thick skull.”
    To her surprise, he let