Page 34 of Tempt My Heart

Christopher nodded. "Yeah she's been carrying that thing around with her constantly. I'm surprised you haven't seen it."

"I don't keep up with that kind of stuff," she said with a shrug and her boss' lips twitched.

"It's on Friday," he said eventually and she nodded, suppressing a groan. "What, too busy to go to the most sought-after engagement party of the year? Hell, probably the last five years?"

Ali rolled her eyes as she stood and collected her purse. "It sounds delightful."

"Where are you going?" There was a tightness to his voice that made her pause as she walked past him, analyzing his face to try and find the source of it. Was it anger? No, she decided, the pinched look in his eyes looked more like concern than irritation.

"Well, apparently I'm going to need a dress for an event on Friday and I don't think I've taken a lunch break away from my desk maybe ever? So, I'm going shopping."

"Shopping?" he said doubtfully, tilting his eyebrows up until they nearly reached his hairline.

"Mm," she said as she popped a hip cockily. "It's this thing you do where you give a store money and in return they let you take stuff."

"Well, do you need a second opinion?"

Nowthatthrew her. "You want to come shopping."

"Sure," he said easily and her mind flashed back to all the times she'd had tobegJared to come to the mall with her.

"With me," she repeated and he nodded like she was the one who was slow on the uptake.

Clearly worried her shock was disdain, he stepped forward and raised an eyebrow. "I'll even pay for the dress."

She pretended to think about it, biting her lip and sagging her shoulders for dramatic effect. "Fine, but only if you'll drive us too."

"Deal," he said smugly, adjusting his tie and tugging on the ends of his suit sleeves. He’d gotten his car back from the cops at the end of the previous week and she knew he’d been thrilled to drive himself places again instead of using the car service.

She followed him down the corridor and jumped when he caught her hand in his as they strolled past her colleagues, prompting more looks of envy, disapproval, and surprise.

They could definitely have taken a shorter route, but Christopher seemed content to parade her around like a prize.

"Enjoy yourself?" she asked when they stepped into the elevator that would take them down to the parking garage.

"Immensely," he said with a smirk and she had to look away before she blushed.

"I was only kidding you know," she said when the doors opened and they stepped out. "Not about you coming with me," she amended when he looked a little disappointed. "About buying me a dress. I have my own money."

His eyes crinkled at the corners when he laughed. "Nope, I insist. What's the point of having money if I can't use it to buy beautiful dresses for even more beautiful women?"

She raised an eyebrow but couldn't hide her amusement as he opened the passenger side of the car and shut it once she'd safely climbed in.

* * *

They'd been walkingaround the out-of-town mall for over two hours and Ali was kind of ready to kill her boss. She'd liked the first dress she'd tried on, but Christopher had insisted it wasn't 'the one'—whatever that meant. And so the procession of dresses began.

"Some say that you can still find the spirit of the boss and his assistant walking the halls of the mall, searching for the perfect dress to this day," Ali said in her most ghostly voice as Christopher approached the table she'd claimed in the food court with their frozen yogurt.

"You can have any dress you want," he said as he licked a long line of frozen yogurt off of the plastic spoon and she watched the motion of his tongue a little too closely. "I'm just waiting for you to say something more enthusiastic thanthis is okayorthis is fifty percent off," he mimicked in a high falsetto that sounded nothing like her voice. "Money isn't an issue. Hell, pick the most expensive dress in the store, if you like. I just want you to wear something you genuinely like and feel good in."

She swallowed a too-big bite of fro-yo and cringed when it made her teeth ache. She hadn't really expected him to buy her a dress, or shoes, or any other number of things Christopher had pointed out to her as they walked around. Sure, he had the money for it, she'd just never realized she would have trouble accepting it. She’d always been self-sufficient, she supposed old habits were hard to break.

"Come on," he said, standing and leading her to one of the only formal dress shops they hadn't been into yet. "If you don't find something you like in this one then I'm going to have something custom designed for you and rush delivered and it will behideouslyexpensive." He smirked at her look of horror and led the way into the store before seating himself on one of the tiny chairs in front of a row of curtained dressing rooms.

She took her time, wandering through the racks and inspecting the dresses until a smiley sales associate came over and asked if she needed help. The truth was that she did—it wasn't often she had to wear black tie to anything. Business casual or smart-business office wear was pretty much her go-to for the majority of events she had to attend. Black-tie parties and custom designer dresses were a whole other world that just didn’t come naturally to her.

Eventually she made her way to the dressing rooms, and the assistant helped her clamber in and out of three dresses before she tried on the fourth and stopped to stare.

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