Bedeviled Angel (6 page)

Logan grinned and massaged a beautifully sculpted arch. "I thought about that while you were gone. We can drive in together," he said, rescinding his earlier avowal, for his son's sake, never to do so again, "and split up in the garage. You can walk Shane to day care, and I'll come right up. At the end of the day, we can reverse our route. Shane won't expect anything different, because I'll be driving."

"And if somebody hears him call me Mel?"

"Pull them aside and tell them you want him to outgrow that stage at his own pace."

"Clever, and devious."

"Not really," Logan said, thinking the words applied to him in at least one discomforting way. But did they apply to her? "Day care service should be mine by rights," he went on. "We're just picking our battles."

An hour later, Logan chuckled as they drove from the station parking garage, while the boss stood beside his own car watching them. "Man," Logan said, "he's gonna hate himself when his T-level goes down and he realizes he let you walk away with the rights to the show." He gave her a wink. "I gotta tell you," he said. "That took
cajones
."

"High praise." Melody grinned. "What part of the interview do you think got me the job?" she asked. "The incantation, maybe?"

Logan nearly drove off the road. "So, the spell was real?"

Melody did a double take. "You got a problem with spells, Kilgarven?"

He shrugged. "Can you spell your way into a job?"

Melody laughed. "I'm here to tell you that I can spell my way out of one."

So, Logan thought, maybe the incantation had been nothing but a ploy to derail cooking questions, not that she would ever admit as much to him.

"I don't mind admitting," she said, "that I had an easier time coming up with the show's name and format than I did finding something to rhyme with
mine
that made sense. Even then, the charm was lame. But I think it might have done the trick."

"Mine," Logan said. "Twine. Entwine." He gave her a dangerously searching look.

"Entwine your limbs with mine?"

After a long, hot beat, he looked back at the road, sorry he'd opened that mixed bag of magic tricks, glad she didn't have the
cajones
to respond this time, because she looked as if she might be up for it. Oh boy.

"It does rhyme," she said after a pulsing minute, "but it's not what I was going for, interview-wise."

"Sure it was. Bewitchment, seduction—they're exactly what you were going for, just a bit more subtle. Gardner's gonna take you up on that invitation, by the way."

"You son of a—Stop the car! Stop, I'm getting out."

Caught off guard by her fury, Logan reached out to try and keep her from unhooking her seat belt. "I'm sorry. Truce. Truce," he said.

Logan swung into the Hawthorne Hotel parking lot to calm her and clear up the misunderstanding without getting into an accident. "Mel, Mel." He unhooked his own seat belt and took her fumbling hands from the latch on hers, then he removed her grasp from the door handle and finally hit the child-proof locks.

At the resounding click, Melody stopped struggling, almost, but not quite, conceding defeat, her breath coming as fast as her fury. "Do you really think I would… that I would?…"

"No. I realize the way that must have sounded, but it's not what I meant," Logan said. "It's just that I know the drill." He moved close enough to smell springtime, reminding himself that for women like Melody and Shane's mother, revving up and putting out were two entirely different matters. "You were just using your assets, playing to Gardner, nothing more, and I know that. I even appreciate your talent, but I'm warning you that he might not be as wise to the ploy as I am," because Heather had used him, not Gardner, for "tease" practice. "I wasn't saying you'd follow through," Logan added. "Honest."

Melody stilled and took a breath, as if she might or might not believe him. "I don't know what you mean by 'the ploy,'" she said, "but I don't think you have a very good opinion of me. Fine. That's your choice, and I've been warned. But you know what, Kilgarven? Just because I look like… I do… doesn't mean I'm missing a brain.

You have talent, you use it to get a job. That's the way it goes. I got a job on a TV

show by using some damn fine showmanship. So sue me, but stop looking down your nose at me for using what I've been given."

That bit of wisdom worked like a stun gun, probably because she made sense, which made Logan feel like a jerk, which he deserved. The fact remained that she couldn't cook, but this was not the time to bring it up. "You're right," he said.

"Again, I'm sorry."

"Listen," she said, poking him in the chest, still carrying a furious head of steam.

"One: Assets can sometimes double as liabilities. Remember that. Two: The drill, if that's what you want to call it, was me demonstrating how I would use sex-appeal on the show, and if Gardner got confused, then I'll straighten him out."

Oh, she'd straighten him out all right
, Logan thought. That was the problem.

"Three: I'm going to have to be able to work with that man, a lot of men, without you getting all bent out of shape."

"I know." Logan shook his head. "I'll be cool from now on. Scout's honor."

"Were you a scout?"

"Sure."
Until they threw me out
.

WHEN they pulled into the driveway, Shane came running over to the car from Jessie's. "Hey, Mel, wanna come to my pirate cave picnic next Saturday to watch the tall ships come in? You don't have to cook or anything, but if you want to, I can help."

Melody ruffled Shane's hair. "Thanks, buddy." She turned to Logan. "You're going to watch the ships from a cave?"

Logan supposed he should be sorry that Shane had taken it upon himself to invite Melody, but an imprudent, adventurous part of him wanted to spend time with her, too. Working side by side, driving into work together should be temptation enough, he supposed, without hanging together on the weekends, but Shane had asked. "We practically front Salem Harbor," he said, "so with a pair of binoculars, we should be able to see the ships after they clear Winter Island and before Marblehead gets in the way. Better than fighting the tourists."

"The pirate cave is nearby?"

"That's what he calls our turret." Logan pointed to the top of their old Victorian.

"I haven't been able to convince him that a cave isn't likely to be surrounded by windows." Logan stepped closer to Melody, as Shane followed something hopping in the grass back toward Jessie's. "I won't let him go up alone, because there's a door to the widow's walk up there. Even with it locked, the thought of him having access to the roof makes me crazy. What do you think about me using a leash on him, Saturday?"

Melody grinned, which was Logan's intent, and a nice change from the mood of their ride home. "Seriously," he said, "it'll be a fine vantage point. Watching the ships make their way toward Boston Harbor gave me the perfect excuse for a supervised pirate cave picnic. Join us."

"I don't want to crash your party, besides I won't know anyone else there."

"Just Jessie, me, Shane, and my mother. It'll be fun. Come on."

"In that case, it does sound like fun. I love the tall ships, and I've never been up in the turret. Can I bring something for lunch?"

"Just your appetite. My mother's in charge of the picnic. She's a great cook."

"As opposed to me?"

"I didn't mean that. Look, just to make you feel better, I'll be first in line to sample what you cook during your run-through in a couple of days."

"PIGS wouldn't eat this slop."

Logan heard the comment as he stepped onto the set after he'd missed Mel's preliminary run-through.

Gardner stood with his hands on his hips looking a bit dazed. "Where's the black cat I got for a walk-on?" he asked. "I think the poor thing ate some."

"Hey?" Chuck yelled into a headset. "Anybody see a dead pussy?"

Silence, and the acrid scent of smoke, hung in the air like a pall, and everywhere Logan looked, somebody was cleaning a mess. The oven door hung open at such an odd slant, Logan was afraid to ask what happened. He
knew
he shouldn't have met with the Nutty-Yum people today. He should have cleared his calendar and been here for Melody. Speaking of whom… "Where's Mel?" he asked. "Anybody seen Melody?" he shouted.

"Can't have gone far," said the soundman through the mike. "Broom's still here."

"Cute," Logan said, running his hand through his hair. "But is she all right? She didn't get hurt, did she?"

"Relax, Logan, she's fine, maybe a bit upset."

"Upset? Why?"

The guy shrugged. "Because her chicken exploded?"

"HER chicken
exploded
?" Logan looked around, waiting for someone to explain, but nobody did. Wait a minute. Chickens didn't just explode. Though with Mel, you couldn't be sure. "What the hell happened here anyway? And why are you all hanging around? Doesn't anybody have work to do?"

"Hey, Logan, come see this," Gardner called, with a laugh. Poor guy hadn't refrozen properly since Melody came on board.

Logan went to find the boss examining the remains of… damn, that might actually have been a chicken. "Son of a—" Logan bent on his haunches to get a better look.

"What in the world? Hey, somebody shoved a firecracker up this bird's butt! Okay, who's the wise guy?"

Tim Kaiser came over. "This was
supposed
to be Mel's initiation, Logan."

"You mean like when you locked me in the shower? That kind of initiation? Do you initiate everybody?"

"Only the people we like."

"Lucky Mel." Logan ran a hand through his hair. "What did she do when the clucker blew?" Damn. He was starting to find this funny, which would not be a good thing, if Melody didn't.

"She ran off the set."

"Couldn't you have initiated her another way?"

"Hell, Logan, we didn't think you'd like us to lock her in the shower with, say, Hal or Woody."

"Good thinking." His people already knew he had the hots for her, though
she
hadn't seemed to figure it out yet. "I'll go and look for her."

He found Melody in their office, lights off, face down on the sofa, and sat beside her to stroke her hair. She purred like a kitten, raising his temperature, urging him on.

Neither of them spoke.

Just sitting in the dark, running his hand along her witch's mane of sable curls felt erotic as all hell, never mind that stroking it lured him all the way down its incredible length to the curve of her fine bottom beneath… and he was a lowlife, getting hard when he should be consoling her.

"I like that," she said.

Wonderful. "Me, too." She had obviously no idea how much, which was another puzzle; Heather would have known and used the knowledge to her advantage. Logan shook his head, grateful he sat in shadows too dim for her to see either his confusion or his physical reaction.