Page 1 of Tempt My Heart

ChapterOne

You know what to do.

The words had been staring up at her for so long that she was starting to worry they might burn into the screen. Alison bit her lip as she glanced around conspicuously, eyes wandering more than once to the big glass wall that sat directly across from her desk. The blinds were open, sunlight cheerily pouring into the chic space, but it was the man grinning down at the phone as he spoke that really held her attention.

You know what to do.

The thing was, shedidn’t.Maybe for some people, the choice would have been obvious, easy. But Ali had never been very good at lying, least of all to herself… but, more importantly, never to her boss, Christopher.

He looked up at that instant and their eyes met, his smile slipping slightly before it hitched back up again and she looked down at her diary awkwardly, still seeing nothing but the words from the message on her phone.

See, she knew that lying to her boss and leading him on under false pretenses would never end well. Trying to score an invite to the biggest wedding of the year by being his plus one was never going to happen—regardless of what her ex threatened her with… or how she might feel about the boss in question. Not that there was anything like a Happily Ever After on the table for her and Christopher. Therewasno her and Christopher.

He was her boss. She was his assistant.

Could she be a bigger cliche?

In her defense, there weren’t many men out there like Christopher Hanley. He was always unfalteringly polite, genuinely nice, and the way his slacks hugged his thighs was—Ali cleared her throat, willing the burning in her cheeks to calm down as she let the thought die a slow and miserable death. He was herboss.He might as well have had OFF-LIMITS stamped on his forehead.

So, she had to tell him. He deserved to know and, logically, she was probably going to save herself a lot of trouble down the road. But if she told him what she needed… If he couldn’t help her…

Well, let’s just say that she couldn’t see her ex being the forgiving type if she couldn’t deliver what he’d demanded. Given that she’d never expected him to be capable of blackmail in the first place, she couldn’t predict what he would do to get ahead in his career as a journalist. Secretly filming your girlfriend (who you probably only decided to date because of her connections so you could capitalize on them) and then threatening her? Apparently, Jared didn’t draw the line at any of that and it made her wonder what else she’d been too blind to see. Had he been overeager to come to company events? Had there been small bits of info she’d unwittingly leaked to him and the trashy magazine he often freelanced for?

She’d thought she’d gotten over her heartache for Jared already when he’d unexpectedly broken up with her viatextwhile she’d been waiting for him at a restaurant in the city. Was there anything sadder than crying over breadsticks and a bottle of red wine inGino’s? At least he hadn’t papped her, she supposed. Not that anyone would be interested in her life—not unless it involved her boss. Not only did Christopher run one of the biggest interior design companies in the US, but he was friends with one of the most infamous couples in Cincinnati. David Blake and Rose DuLoe were theitcouple of the moment, thanks in part to their ridiculous wealth and the various businesses they owned—but also because of the shock waves they’d made last year when a crazed-stalker had made an attempt on their lives.

Telling her boss what her ex was demanding would be mortifying, but what other choice did she have? Trying to trick or seduce him would only end in heartbreak and probably a job hunt after being rightfully fired.

Ali picked up the phone, teeth sinking into her bottom lip as she read and re-read the message before replying:I need time.

The reply came almost instantly. Crap.He must really want this to be practically sitting by the phone, waiting for her message. It was a short and to-the-point statement:You have until Monday to decide.

Ali glanced up at her computer screen and blew out a long breath. Monday. She could deal with that. Everything was going to be fine. She was going to figure this out. Everything was fine. It was all okay. It was—

“Ali?”

She looked up, pulled out of her spiral to see Christopher with his head sticking out of his wooden office door, and jumped a little as she met her boss’ dark brown eyes. “Could you come here for a sec?”

Crap. He knew. How did he know? “Sure.”

Clearing her throat lightly, Ali stood and smoothed down the waist of her pencil skirt as she made her way into the glass office. Christopher was already seated behind his desk and from anyone else, this would have intimidated her. As it was, she felt only a mild thrill as she looked up at him from beneath her lashes.

The thing was, Christopher wasn’tjusther boss. She’d been his personal assistant for about two years now and in that time they’d become… friends. It was one thing to lie to her boss, even if she was terrible at it, but it was a wholly different thing to lie to a friend.

“What do you need?”

He smiled at her and her pulse jumped in her throat. “I just need you to—”

Ali tuned him out. She didn’t mean to, but it was hard to focus when she had other things on her mind. Like, for example, the ultimatum her bastard of an ex-boyfriend had saddled her with on what would have otherwise been a seriously nice Friday afternoon.

“Ali?”

She blinked, caught in Christopher’s concerned gaze for a second before giving herself a mental shake. “Yes, sorry. Um, could you repeat all of that?”

His eyebrows furrowed as he watched her before he stood and came around the other side of his desk, leaning back against it as he ran his eyes over her face, probably not missing her pallor or the way she’d bitten her mouth nearly bloody. “Is everything okay?”

“Of course!” Her voice was too high, squeaky even, so she cleared her throat and repeated herself. “Of course. Everything’s fine. Just Friday afternoon, you know?”

A small smile ghosted across his mouth and she found herself dazed for a moment before she forced herself to refocus. It was often like that between them—Christopher being innocuously gorgeous and her fighting to maintain the professional boundaries she needed if she was going to keep her cool. It was just hard when he was so damnnice. And single. Very, annoyingly, single. In fact, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen him with a woman or had seen a date on his schedule. Of course, that made her imagination run wild—clearlyher boss had shunned the advances of the women in Cincinnati in favor of gazing longingly at his assistant.Ha.

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