Watch Me

by Lisa Renee Jones

  Sam reached for her hand and pulled her in front of him, into a narrow hallway. His touch sent a shiver of awareness up her arm, and all over her body. Her mind went back to the break room, to the kiss, to his departure. She’d gone after him, and not because of this mess. She hadn’t known about any of this. She’d followed him because whatever had made him leave so abruptly, whatever had made him withdraw, she had this horrible feeling, it was going to haunt her in ways she had yet to discover—and didn’t want to. Because like it or not, she liked him. He mattered.

  One of his hands settled on her waist as she pressed her way toward the crowded bar, which appeared to have two levels, and balconies above the dance floor. There were also stairs leading to a lower floor.

  Sam pushed in next to her, his body framing hers, branding her with memories of the prior night. He bent down, his lips near her ear. “Let’s stay close. I don’t want to lose you in this chaos.”

  She turned instinctively, and suddenly, her mouth was inches from his, his breath warm on her cheek. “Yes. Okay.” Their eyes locked, and all the shadows in the world couldn’t mask the connection that crackled between them. She was so alive with Sam.

  He leaned in closer again, to talk to her, the spicy scent of him rushing over her—she so loved the way the man smelled. “Shall we try upstairs or down first?” he asked.

  “Hey!” Someone screamed. “Some television show is filming downstairs. We have to go downstairs.” A rush toward the lower level followed, bodies flooding past them.

  Meagan and Sam shared a look of inevitability. They knew where they were going now, and clearly, they weren’t the only ones headed there. He motioned with his head and drew her hand in his. A lot of maneuvers, bumps, and her feet getting stomped, and soon they made it down the stairs to find a huge area blocked off around a stage. Four of Meagan’s dancers were performing, with cameras rolling. No director, no Meagan—just Kiki and everyone who hadn’t been busting their butts in the editing room.

  Anger rolled inside Meagan and she pulled away from Sam, charging forward. Meagan had been cautious around Kiki and her corporate connection for too long. She and her assistant were going to do a little dancing of their own.

  * * *

  SAM’S MEN HAD STEPPED UP to the plate, which was one piece of good in a lot of bad. He owed Josh a heck of a lot of kudos. The stage was well secured, the safety of the cast ensured as well as it could be, considering the circumstances. But there was no way to get the dancers off the stage, in the middle of a routine, without making matters worse.

  Holding his position, Sam stood a few feet from Meagan, watching the heated exchange between her and Kiki, and noting the moment she broke from the argument to speak to Jensen, the show’s host, and then to one of the cameramen.

  She then stood alone inside the ropes, arms crossed in front of her chest. She all but screamed annoyance, louder in Sam’s mind, than the music thrumming against every particle in the place. The dancer’s routine ended, and another started, and still Meagan didn’t move. Clearly, she’d decided to let this continue.

  Sam made his way over to Josh, who’d texted his position. Sam ended up almost directly across from Meagan, who was staring at the stage.

  “We breaking this up or what, boss?” Josh shouted over the music.

  Sam could see the tension in Meagan’s body, despite the distance between them. Whatever had gone down between her and Kiki wasn’t good. Not that he’d expected it to be good, but he had a strong feeling that whatever had happened was worse than bad.

  Suddenly, Meagan started walking toward the back of the stage. Sam cut Josh a sideways look. “Hold everyone right here. If anyone so much as breathes in another direction, I expect you to be on them.”

  Josh gave him a two-finger salute, and then Sam was moving toward Meagan. He rounded the back of the stage and found a long hallway with a restroom sign, which was the only place Meagan could have gone.

  He found her at the end of the narrow hallway and to the right, leaning against a wall with her head back, her eyes shut. For a moment, with her unaware of his presence, he took in the sight of her.

  Petite and sexy, her long dark hair brushing her shoulders, he was so in tune with Meagan. He’d always had a connection to this woman. They had always been headed toward each other.

  Everything male—hot and protective—screamed inside him, and pushed him into action. There was no hesitation, no thought of rejection, of her not needing him right now, because he knew she did.

  Sam went to her, and before she knew he’d joined her, his hand gently cupped the side of her face, comforting her, while the other hand rested against the wall near her chin.

  Her head lowered, eyes fixed on his, hands settling on his chest. “Sam.” She breathed out the word, and there as if relief there, like she was glad to see him.

  “Talk to me, sweetheart. What happened? And why are you back here alone?”

  “Just needed to think a minute. I’m handling this all wrong. Kiki and I argued. I threatened. She threatened. She won. She swears I signed a release for tonight along with some other forms I signed. She had to have snuck it in and I missed it.”

  “Is that possible?”

  “I don’t know. I told her I want to see the forms. But she says that if I go to Sabrina she’ll say she warned me about tonight’s potential liability ahead of time. I screwed up, Sam. I can’t even pull the dancers from the club because she said I can’t. Because she said, end of story. I okayed things in my contract I shouldn’t have. I can be removed if I’m a detriment to my own show. I can’t stop Kiki.”

  “I can,” he said. “I’ll—”

  She leaned in and pressed her mouth to his, the softness of her lips, the willingness of the connection, making him instantly rock hard.

  “Don’t,” she whispered a moment later. “Don’t protect me, Sam. I don’t want to drag you into her line of fire. I won’t let that happen. Just...just kiss me.”

  His arm slid around her. “I’ll do both.” He slanted his mouth over hers. She moaned and leaned into him, her hands gripping his shoulders. Something wild sprung to life around them—the club, the music, the desire so long bubbling between them—igniting in the seclusion of this one tiny spot, their escape in the midst of chaos. And the acknowledgment that they’d lied when they said they’d never kiss like this again.

  Sam deepened the kiss, drinking her in. He knew even though she’d said “one night,” that she wanted another as badly as he did. His hands were all over her body, her hands were all over his—under his shirt, caressing his skin—scorching him to the point that he was ready to take her right here and now. And he wanted to.

  He wanted to forget everything—he had forgotten everything. He should be focused on his job, but he was here, ready to rip her clothes off, damn thankful he could trust Josh to handle things elsewhere.

  He stopped and pulled back to look at her. “You accuse me of wanting control,” he said. “Yet you steal it from me at every turn.”

  “You can have it,” she panted. “I don’t want it.”

  She reached for his jaw again, and he kissed her, tasted her, but there was something in her words, in her face, and he pulled back again, tenderness colliding with passion. “You aren’t letting her defeat you. I won’t let you.”

  “Stop talking,” she ordered, sliding her hand down the front of his pants and stroking his cock. “Why are you always talking?”

  Why was he talking? He palmed her backside and melded her to his shaft, claiming her mouth again, running his hand roughly over her breasts, pinching her nipples.

  “Sam—” she moaned.

  “Oh, yes—Sam.” The cold female voice that wasn’t Meagan’s froze both of them in place. Kiki.

  “No,” Meagan whispered. “No.”

  “Oh, yes. Yes, yes!” Kiki laughed. “I am here, and boy, what a show.”

  Sam cursed under his breath, fully intending to handle this mess, so Meagan didn’t have to. But he
should have known that Meagan’s moment of weakness when he’d found her in this hallway, was just that. And it was over now. In true Meagan form, she faced Kiki, obviously refusing to let her get the best of her. But before Meagan could say anything screams bellowed through the air. “Fight! Fight!”

  Meagan took off running past Kiki, Sam behind her. They rounded the corner to discover the crowd surrounding the stage, where the dancers had been performing only minutes before. Now, a shoving match appeared to be taking place.

  Meagan’s family-approved dance show was turning into a version of female fight club and that meant sponsors could be lost. And so could the show.

  14

  MEAGAN WAS ON the stage in a heartbeat thanks to Sam, who lifted her up and then jumped up behind her. And thanks to Sam’s staff, not only were the observers being held at bay, the fight was somewhat under control, as well.

  Josh, and a female security person employed by Sam, were holding two contestants apart—Tabitha and a petite brunette dancer named Carrie White. Meagan had thought Carrie was fairly timid, but considering the clear mark down Tabitha’s face, she wasn’t so sure anymore.

  Tabitha was fighting Josh, trying to get to Carrie. “You better watch your back!” Tabitha yelled at Carrie. “I’m going to make you pay for scratching me.”

  “Enough!” Meagan yelled. “If either of you touches the other one again, you’re off the show.” She eyed them both. “Understood?”

  Carrie quickly nodded. “I was just defending myself. She jumped on me, Meagan. She jumped on me and... I swear I was defending myself.”

  Jensen, the tall, blond New Yorker, stepped forward. “It’s true. Tabitha jumped on Carrie.”

  It didn’t take Meagan long to put two and two together. Tabitha and Jensen had been flirting on set. And since Jensen was defending Carrie, instead of Tabitha, it was a good bet that there was some sort of jealousy thing going on between the girls.

  Kiki rushed onto the stage, conveniently after the fight had been derailed. “What happened?”

  “They didn’t belong here, is what happened,” Sam said and motioned to Josh. “There’s a back door by the bathrooms. Let’s get everyone out that way, and make it snappy. As in yesterday.”

  Fifteen minutes later, the dancers were heading in the direction of the hotel as Meagan and Sam followed. “You okay?” he asked, touching her arm to draw her to a halt.

  “As okay as I can be considering what happened tonight.”

  “I called Sabrina,” he said.

  “What? When?”

  “A few minutes ago.” He held up his hand. “And before you get mad—”

  “I’m not,” she said. “I’m not. I know you’re trying to help, Sam. I know and I appreciate it. But I don’t want to drag you into this and endanger your career, and I feel like I already have.”

  “It’s my job to protect the studio,” he said. “I’m working on a documentation trail that backs up my concerns about Kiki. I’ll handle this, but in the meantime, you have to keep her from doing any irreversible damage to the show.”

  “I’m trying. I am desperately trying. What was the outcome of the call?”

  “Sabrina thinks a lot of you and this show, but she has powerful people she answers to and big money at stake. I have full authority to investigate Kiki but she is well connected and she’s been praised for saving the network from several disasters. I’m fairly confident they were manufactured disasters. She’s clearly been rewarded for her actions in some way, shape or form, and she’s just as clearly after the gold now. We have to tread carefully.”

  “If she’s that powerful then tonight might be the end, Sam. If that fight makes the tabloids then it could already be the death of our sponsors.”

  “Then get more.”

  “It’s not that easy for a new show, Sam.”

  “All right. Then let’s think this through. You want the cameras rolling in the house because you want to feature the real lives of the contestants while they traveled this journey.”

  “Yes, but this isn’t what I had in mind. I thought it would be kids getting nervous about performances, their dreams and desires. Their inspiration. Not threats, fights and exploding water pipes.”

  “So, not real life, then.”

  “Yes, real life.”

  “You’re too close to this show emotionally,” he said. “Step back and think of it like you did when you were producing a news program. Surely, you were battling competitors all the time for top stories.”

  “Yes,” she said. “We were.”

  “Then do that now. Stop thinking about the show like it’s a dream. Save that for the celebration when it’s a hit.”

  She considered him a moment and nodded. “You’re right. You are absolutely right.”

  “Okay, then,” he said. “Us Special Ops guys are all about damage control. My first thought is that what happened tonight, despite Kiki’s manipulation and mishandling, was raw and very real.”

  “Not in a good way,” Meagan argued.

  “Reality means real—and that isn’t always pretty. That fight evolved from the pressures of competition, more than anything else. I bet you can do something with that to make it a powerful episode.”

  His words sparked a few interesting ideas in Meagan’s mind. “You know, now that I’m thinking about this with some distance, I think I can. I could even do a press release and frame the fight the way I want it framed. I can send it to the sponsors and promise them some preview footage before I air a show around tonight’s events.”

  “Perfect,” he said. “Hell, give Kiki credit. Praise her to your staff. If you spin tonight into something brilliant, you deflate her efforts to make you look bad. Which means tonight becomes a win for the show.”

  A slow smile slid onto Meagan’s lips. “Oh my God, you are the one who’s brilliant. I love you, Sam.”

  The words dropped heavily between them, out before she could stop them. She could barely breathe because...she might actually be falling in love with him.

  “And here I thought I’d be lucky just to get you to like me.” His voice was soft, his gaze hot.

  Meagan didn’t know what to say so she did what she always did with Sam. She picked a fight. “I won’t if you do things like tonight. You distracted me from a critical situation and had me making out in the club.”

  “No, I didn’t.”

  She blinked. “What? That’s all you’re going to say? No, you didn’t.”

  “You were beating yourself up, and searching for a way to feel something other than defeat. You used me to do that, and I was helpless to resist, though I shouldn’t have been. I should have been focused on my job. So you distracted me.”

  “You’re blaming me for distracting you from your job?”

  He smiled. “Exactly.”

  “You distracted me,” she said. “You distracted me, Sam.”

  “Seems we have a mutually distracting impact on one another.”

  “So we can’t...we have to stop doing things like tonight.”

  “I want to kiss you.”

  “No.”

  “Yes. I do.”

  “No. You can’t. We can’t, Sam.” Her chest tightened because the realization washed over her and she couldn’t selfishly ignore it at Sam’s expense. “Kiki is going—”

  “I don’t care about Kiki.”

  “I do. We have to.”

  “Let’s walk,” he said abruptly, turning toward the hotel, clearly not happy with her.

  Meagan’s stomach clenched. Her chest got even tighter. The same feelings she’d had back in the break room. She wanted him to understand, yet she didn’t want him to understand at all. She was more screwed up over Sam than ever.

  “That’s it?” she asked, falling into step with him. “Let’s walk?”

  “What do you want me to do besides walk?” he asked. “Pull you against the wall and kiss you again?”

  Yes. Oh, yes. Please. She grabbed his arm and brought him to a standstill.
“You’re making me crazy, Sam. I don’t know what to do here.”

  “Right there with ya, sweetheart.”

  “Sam. Please. Even Sabrina is cautious about Kiki. Sabrina! She’s powerful. She’s one of the executives. I’m afraid that I’ll drag you to the unemployment line with me if this goes badly.”

  “No,” he said. “That’s not the problem. I’m trying to get through this with you. You’re trying to find a way to do it without me. There’s a difference. A big difference.” He started to walk again. She didn’t. She stared after him, all that emotion in her chest balled so tightly, she could barely breathe. She wanted to go after him, she wanted to dispute his words, make him understand. But he wouldn’t understand. She’d figured that out about Sam.

  He wasn’t an arrogant jerk. He wasn’t a control freak. He had a whole lot of hero in him. He’d tell her it was okay, that he wasn’t risking his job, to be with her. And that mattered to her. He mattered to her. She had to let him go.

  He was right though. Rather than using her smarts,

  she’d been letting her emotions get involved when dealing with Kiki, and everything to do with this show. That ended tonight.

  * * *

  EARLY THE NEXT MORNING, Sam was awake and thankful for the coffeemaker in the room. He might be a soldier at heart, but he’d never been a soldier who denied himself thick, black hardcore caffeine when he

  needed it.

  He finished off a cup, with one thing on his mind. Meagan had let him walk away the night before. Again. Damn, he’d never been a glutton for punishment before. This was unfamiliar, uncomfortable territory, and he had to get some space, to get his head clear. Setting the mug aside, dressed in his jeans and a T-shirt, he was ready to finish the deal for the house and get his hands dirty securing the property.

  Around the hotel, Meagan was too close for comfort. Where just knowing she was a few doors down had him climbing the walls, and right out of his skin.