Page 33 of Is It Casual Now?

“Fine, but ninety-percent of these questions are absolutely ridiculous and not at all what either of them will answer.” Siena’s face morphed into something else entirely, and she knew she was putting on a cold, hard front. They both probably needed it there.

“Because they don’t want to, or you don’t want them to?”

“Ms. Kettlehouse,” Siena reminded herself of who she was dealing with, “your reputation of coming to outrageous conclusions continues I see.”

“It’s entertaining how those with secrets always jump to assuming my conclusions are outrageous.” Jamie squared her shoulders, her face hardening at the accusation.

“Because they are. You have no proof, and no credible facts to point anyone in the direction of your theories.”

“If you bothered to look, you would find all of my information there.” Jamie hissed.

Taking a deep breath, Siena rubbed circles once more over her temples. She was going to have a headache by the time this ended, wasn’t she?

She needed to reel this conversation back in to where she could control it. “We’re getting off of the point.”

“And what is the point?” Jamie asked. Siena was certain it was supposed to come out defensive, but there was a quiet sadness in the words.

“You need to come up with different questions—interesting questions. They’ll answer anything about their careers. They won’t answer the trash column questions you’ve sent through.” Siena was going to hold to that. It wasn’t just what she knew Bunny and Piper would actually answer, and it was going to be a pain in the ass to convince them to meet with Jamie to begin with, but that was a problem for future Siena. Right now, she just needed to get Jamie to ask good and reasonable questions.

“They aren’t trash column questions.” Jamie’s voice rose as she leaned farther forward, as if she could reach out and touch Siena and make her point heard all the more.

Siena shuffled herself forward on her own side and put the papers she was still holding on the table between them—well, threw might have been a more accurate description. They stopped at the edge of the table where Jamie immediatelysnapped them up. She scanned the colored ink that took her one page of questions and turned them into four pages with Siena’s comments and snarky rebuttals. There were also strong hints and downright suggestions about questions that would actually work at different points.

“Are you kidding me?” Jamie looked up, her eyes narrowed, and her top lip quivering into a small scowl.

Despite Siena’s determination to remain professional, she had to bite the inside of her cheeks to stop herself from laughing. Not only did Jamie’s feistiness cause a slight ache between her thighs, but her twitching top lip gave her the image of Elvis in his heyday.

“Take the suggestions, Jamie.”

“They aren’t suggestions. They’re controlling information.”

“They’re appropriate questions, and they’re focusing on what all you trash columnists seem to forget about.”

“For fuck’s sake.” Jamie was now so far forward that her generous ass barely remained on the edge of the couch. She leaned forward, her fingertips whitened as they pressed down hard on the coffee table between her and Siena. “I know how to do my job.”

“Ha.” Siena scooted herself as far forward on her own couch as Jamie was on hers and placed flat hands on the table. “I hardly think so. Considering you doing your job is why you’re in this precarious position in the first place.”

She hadn’t meant to drop her eyes to the delicious cleavage Jamie now had on display in front of her, but as the wordprecariousslipped from her mouth, her eyes did what they wanted. The tightness in Siena’s lower stomach increased and the throb turned into a wetness on her underwear.

Damn it.

This was the exact fire that had stirred when Jamie had approached her, confident and cocky in her swagger in the middle of the tapas bar.

She couldn’t think about that. Her body was already going too far down that line of reaction.

“Precarious positions are exactly what gets me off, and why I do this job.” Jamie licked her lips and Siena shivered a little as Jamie’s eyes dropped to Siena’s lips, lingered way too long, and moved back up again.

Those beautiful blue eyes had turned from a summer sky into a storm-filled sea before Siena registered exactly what her body had in mind. Her breath was loud, her chest moving more rapidly as she leaned further toward Jamie.

“You do this job to piss people off,” Siena lobbed in her direction, needing to say something, anything to keep Jamie right where she was—or better yet, move her closer.

“No.” Jamie moved closer, and Siena’s breath shuddered out between her slightly opened lips. “I do this job because the truth is worth searching for.”

“The truth isn’t always what it looks like. The truth is even celebrities deserve to have their lives kept private if they wish.”

“Are you saying there’s something that is being kept private?” Jamie’s eyes lit up like she’d hit the jackpot.

“Of course. No one wants their full lives on display. This isn’tThe Truman Show.”

---