Page 3 of Tempt My Heart

He didn’t let go. “I told you I didn’twantto hurt you, not that I wouldn’t,” he said gently, like she was an animal that could spook at any moment. “The video is real, Alison.” When she said nothing else, he sighed again likeshewas inconveniencinghim. He tilted the screen on his phone toward her and her lunch curdled in her stomach as acid rose in her throat.

The back arching, the red hair swept off to the side, they were familiar. They wereher. He’d recorded them without her knowing—had this been his plan all along? Date her to blackmail access to Christopher and gain access to the high-profile world he lived in?

“You planned this,” she said woodenly, too shocked to do anything but stare at the video playing before she looked away, unable to take it anymore.

“I did what I had to.” There wasn’t an ounce of regret on his face, just a cold frankness that made her feel dizzy. “I need this story, Ali. Both for my career and the money, I’m not going to throw this opportunity away just because you were a nice lay. So now you know where we stand. You can have until Monday still, if you like.” There was a smug tilt to his mouth that said the offer was hollow—he expected her to comply without question.

No.No.He didn’t get to just do this to her and make her risk everything she’d worked for. The business world had grown a lot, but a video like this getting out would still be detrimental to her career, her reputation. Maybe if she were a guy, a sex tape wouldn’t be a scandal—or at least it would blow over five-times faster. But it was hard to be taken seriously in the business world and this would only make her life harder, not to mention that this was a private moment and the violation alone made her heart quicken with anger.

She lunged for his phone and he snorted, surrendering it as he finally relinquished her arm. “Take it if you want. I have it backed up online. This isn’t going away that easily, Ali.” He left the phone in her numb fingers and stepped closer to murmur in her ear. “For what it’s worth, the sex really was good. If I didn’t need this so badly, maybe things would have worked out.”

Jared chuckled as he moved out of her space, walking away as easily as he had a few months ago when he’d unceremoniously ended things without so much as a goodbye. He’d left the phone with her, the video of them still playing and she flinched as the sound of her own moans carried to her before she hit pause.

She’d been in a low place when she’d started dating Jared and, for a while, he’d made things better. Made her feel slightly less alone. Her dad had just died, she’d been vulnerable, and clearly this sick fuck had taken advantage of that.

A strange mixture of shame and anger swirled inside of her, clawing its way up her throat and making her eyes water until she hurried further down the sidewalk and vomited in the closest trash can. He’d seduced her and betrayed her and now he wanted her to do the same thing to Christopher.And for what?His career?Money?She shook her head, fighting the sting of tears in her eyes. The truth was that she hadn’t even been worth a goodbye to him and she hated that it stillhurt.

She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and grimaced before walking away, just wanting to be back home where she could cry in privacy.

Jared may have got the upper hand on her before, but she wasn’t about to go down quietly now.

Monday.

Ali had the whole weekend to work out how she was going to make Jared sorry he’d ever met her, and she’d be damned if she wasted a single second of it.

ChapterTwo

She was already drunk by the time Jesse and Freya found her at the apartment they shared, curled up on the sofa and crying as she watchedA Castle for Christmas.

Jesse dangled her close-shaved head over the top of the sofa to peer at her, light blue eyes wide and framed by thick eyeliner. "Did somebody die?"

Ali shook her head and Freya gazed at her with concern as she sat down, lifting Ali's legs and plopping them onto her lap.

"Does somebody need to die?"

Jesse laughed throatily and the sound was almost enough to make Ali smile. Almost.

Tomorrow she would be okay. She would pick up all the stupid pieces of her naive heart and come up with a plan. But the moment she'd got home, she'd realized that tonight she just needed to cry.

"Jared," she managed to force out, and Jesse groaned.

"Again? I already told you, I can set you up with Tash from work and he'll treat you ten times better than Jared ever did."

Ali handed Jesse the phone Jared had left with her, and she looked at it with her brows raised before unlocking the screen and gasping. "Fucker."

"What?" Freya reached for the phone and Jesse handed it to her before standing and pacing up and down the room, cutting off Ali's view of Brooke Shields on the TV.

The jingle of the chains on Jesse's washed-out denim trousers was strangely comforting as Freya let out a slew of cusses as she locked the phone and set it on the squishy chair they used as a coffee table.

"Have you reported it yet? My father has a friend in the police department—we can get this scumbag arrested and—"

"No," Ali said, her voice sounding as scratchy as her throat felt.

"No?" Jesse crouched down so her face was close to Ali's before she pet her hair. "It's okay. You're right, you're probably tired from all the snotting you've been doing on the couch. We'll go tomorrow."

"No," she repeated and Jesse tweaked the septum ring poking out of her nose as if she couldn't fathom what the word meant.

"We're going to need some more information than that sweetie," Freya said, her green eyes gentle as she brushed her dark hair out of her face, leaving just her bangs to frame her high cheekbones and pointed chin.

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