Page 18 of Tempt My Heart

It was done. There was no going back now.

Ali felt her tension fading as her adrenaline finally settled. She'd walked into that office intending for this to be her final day atHorizons—instead she was working with her boss to take down her ex.

Her phone buzzed with a text from Christopher and she felt oddly nervous as she opened it.

Christopher: I lied before, by the way. My favorite color is red.

ChapterTen

She looked between Jesse and Freya's faces anxiously as they stared at her, both lost for words for once as she sipped on her rum and coke.

"You were going to quit?" Freya demanded at the same time that Jesse exclaimed.

"I knew you liked him!"

"He's not going to actually be my boyfriend," she reminded Jesse gently and then raised an eyebrow at Freya. "And yes. I wasn't going to give in to that asshole."

"So now you're playing him but he thinks that he's playing you?"

Jesse squinted, mouthing Freya's words as if struggling to make sense of them. It probably didn’t help that they were three drinks in at one of their favorite cocktail bars in the city. "This seems overly complicated. Are you sleeping with your boss or not?"

"Not," Ali said firmly and her friends gave each other a look that made her frown. "Not," she repeated, pouting.

"Yet," Jesse said with a grin as she unfolded herself gracefully from the table and wandered over to the bar to grab another drink, calling behind her as she went. "No point living in denial, babe."

"I'm not living in denial!" she spluttered and Freya winced. "You're missing the point," she said, taking a deep breath and blowing it out quickly. "It's over. Christopher's friend is going to get the video back and then he’ll have nothing to blackmail me with."

"And in the meantime...?" Jesse prompted as she sat back down a few minutes later with a long island and a bowl of chips.

Ali grit her teeth and bit out, "In the meantime I'll be pretending to seduce Christopher, and he’s going to talk to David and Rose."

"Christopher. Your boss," Jesse added, as if she needed reminding. "And how exactly are you going toseducehim? How are you going to sell it? Make it believable?"

Ali paused. It was possible that she'd been so relieved she hadn't really considered the exact ramifications of this deal. "I—Well, we'll figure it out. If Blake can help then we might not need to keep up this ruse in the first place."

"Are you going to let him kiss you?"

She shot a look at Freya for joining in with Jesse's questioning, even as her face flushed. "What? No! Of course not. Why would I?"

"I think a seduction usually involves some touchy-feely stuff," Jesse said with a shrug. "You should wear that dress tomorrow—the one that makes your boobs nearly fall out the front."

Ali gaped at her. "I threw that out months ago."

"And I rescued it for you."

Sometimes Jesse's tendencies to meddle were endearing, other times they just left Ali speechless. "Why?"

"There was nothing wrong with it."

"It doesn't fit," she said with a sniff and Jesse shrugged likedshewas the one being unreasonable.

"I think what Jesse's trying to say is that you might need to step up your wardrobe game to appear suitably... distracting."

"You're not slutty enough," Jesse said immediately afterwards, and a pinched look fell across Freya's face. "What? Being a little slutty isn't a bad thing. You should set some ground rules for him."

"Like what?" Ali said slowly and Jesse sat up straight, a brightness entering her eyes that nearly looked feverish.

"You know, simple stuff. Kissing's okay, but no tongue. He can touch your boobs, but only above clothes.That kind of thing."

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