Page 32 of Tempt My Heart

"Everything's fine," she said and was impressed by how convincing she sounded. "I'd like to tender my resignation, effective immediately. I've set up meetings for you with the three prospective candidates I picked out before, I think you'll be pleased with the choices."

His eyes had flown wide as she spoke, leaving his usual calm demeanor looking ruffled. Touchable. "You said you'd give me time."

"And I did."

"You gave me less than a week," he said, throwing his hands up in the air and she tried not to be fascinated at his lack of cool—it was probably one of the only times she'd seen him lose it.

"Sure, and now we don’t have any plans left to work with. We tried deleting the video, we tried talking to David—Jared is smart. There’s no need for you to be wrapped up in this. In fact, I’m the one complicating things! If he was just targeting you it would be easy to amp up security or take him down, but he’s got that recording and he knows me, how I think and—"

“Breathe,” he said, cutting her off and she sucked down the air greedily, realizing she’d been spiraling.

"Look, I'm grateful for your help, but now that we don't have anything else we can try I think it's best that I leave and just let the chips fall where they may."

"No," he said simply, reclining back in his leather chair and watching her steadily.

"No?" She laughed but it was mostly out of shock rather than humor.

"You're giving up." He stood and walked around the desk toward her and she inhaled sharply at how close they were standing."You're letting him win."

"No," she growled. "I'm taking the choice away from him and making itmine."

"By running away?"

"I'm not—"

"I asked you for time," he said—pleaded, really. "Why can't you give me it?"

"Why does it matter so much to you that I stay?" she countered and he looked away, the muscle in his jaw ticking as he remained silent for a beat longer than usual.

"Because I need you," he said eventually and her breathing sounded loud in her own ears.

"What does that mean?"

"It means I'm not ready to let you go, damn it. It's hard to play the long game when you're not here, Ali."

The long game? "I'm just some game to you?"

"You know that's not what I meant."

She did. But it wasn't helpful to hear that right then, when she was trying to leave. When she was trying to protect him.

He took a step forward and she moved a step back. A hint of a smile tugged up one side of his mouth as he nodded slowly, like he finally understood some missing piece of information. She really wished he'd enlighten her. "I see."

"See what?" she huffed out and watched in confusion as he walked away from her, back to his desk. Had he decided she wasn't worth the trouble after all?

He picked up the corded phone on his desk and she was surprised how much it hurt, being dismissed like the conversation was just over.

She turned toward the door just as he spoke.

"Hey, Blake? I need a favor and Rose is really not going to like it." He laughed and Ali turned around slowly, eyes narrowed in suspicion at the faux-innocent look on her boss’ face.

"Yeah, nothing major. I just do want a plus one after all." He nodded at whatever his friend was saying before smiling. "Excellent. I owe you one.” He laughed good-naturedly before thanking him again and hanging up. "Problem solved."

"The problem isnotsolved! I don’t want to give Jared what he wants. I'm not doing this!"

"You don't have to give Jared anything," Christopher said calmly and his cool exterior made her want to shake him, or rumple his hair, rough him up a little so he looked as much of a mess as she felt. "Same deal as before," he continued, "you give me time to handle this. In the meantime we feed Jared small info. Innocuous stuff to keep him at bay but not enough to really piss off Rose."

Ali winced. Rose DuLoe was not someone she wanted to make an enemy of.

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