Page 57 of Tempt My Heart

“Why did you go to Texas?” Denver leaned forward as if the answer was important and she snorted.

“Because Jesse got it into her head that she needed to paint in the desert.”

Denver blinked, clearly not expecting that response. “And did she?”

“What?”

“Paint in the desert.”

A small smile curved her mouth as she remembered how awful that trip had been and how sunburnt she’d gotten. “It was the first piece she ever sold at auction for five figures.”

Jesse still had a small vial of sand left over from that trip that she kept on her shelf in her room, it made Ali smile every time she saw it.

“She’s talking about Jesse Cleaver,” Maia chipped in, glancing between them all as if to emphasize how cool that was.

“Oh right!” David looked at her with interest. “She did some work forHorizonsright?”

Ali nodded and then tuned out as he began chatting about art with Maia.

“We’ll be landing in approximately ten minutes,” the steward said as he stuck his head around the corner to smile at them.

Ten minutes and they would be in Napa. One more day and Jared would be in chains and she would have her life back. She wasn’t sure she’d ever been so excited for a wedding.

ChapterTwenty-Eight

Had she said that she was excited for the wedding? She was regretting those words as she was forced to sit through yet another toast to the bride and groom—it wasn’t even the real wedding! So she would have to hear these all over again the following night.

The room in the villa that she was sharing with Christopher did kind of make up for the ridiculous speeches though. It was huge, with a canopy bed, smooth cream walls, and hardwood floor. Plus they had a dreamy view of the vineyards from the window.

“Will the food be different tomorrow night? Like, for the real thing,” Ali muttered to Christopher and he bit his lip against a smirk.

“It’ll all be the same,” he replied and she widened her eyes as she worked to maintain her neutral expression.

“Oh, wow,great.” It wasn’t that the food was bad per se, it was more that there wasn’t much of it. She felt like she needed a magnifying glass to work out where the food was on the gigantic plates—if they combined her meal tonight with tomorrow’s it would still probably be only a quarter of a real dinner.

Christopher’s body shook with silent laughter and she wondered if she was still a bit drunk from the champagne on the plane and the wine tasting they’d done when they arrived. She figured it didn’t matter too much, everyone was drunk at weddings, right?

The speeches finally over, some music began to play through some speakers—apparently the band wasn’t arriving until tomorrow—but wrapped up in Christopher’s arms as he slow danced with her, she couldn’t say she wasn’t having a good time.

“I’m going to go to the bathroom,” she murmured into his ear and he nodded, letting her go so she could make her way across the room. The restrooms were ridiculously fancy to the point that she kind of looked forward to needing to pee so that had an excuse to go in there.

She finished washing her hands and tidied up a stray piece of hair that had fallen out of place before heading back out onto the dance floor and freezing.

Christopher held a woman in his arms, dancing and laughing together—and not his fake work laugh either. No, that was genuine joy on his face. And the woman was… stunning. She was tall and so curvy she made Ali feel like a sheet of cardboard. Her tan glowed, or maybe that was just her, and her dark hair and confident movements only made Christopher look more gorgeous than usual.

Ali finally unfroze and took a step towards them, finally recognizing the woman as a plus-sized influencer that she was sure she’d met once or twice through Freya. Christopher caught sight of Ali over her shoulder and his smile didn’t slip. The other woman smiled and Ali saw red when she spotted the hand pressed against Christopher’s chest flirtatiously.

She wasn’t sure what expression she was wearing, but he finally seemed to notice it and frown a little. So she forced a smile and turned around, picking a guy at random to dance with. Then she took note of him, realizing he looked familiar, and remembered Rose introducing him atLola’s, he was her security guard. Nolan? Noah? She wasn’t sure.

The song ended and a warm hand closed around her elbow, she assumed it would be Christopher but was surprised to instead find Denver behind her. Her stomach dropped and even though she knew she shouldn’t, her eyes sought him out and found him still dancing with the same woman as before.

“I think Noah has work to do, darling. Dance?”

Ah, so his name was Noah. She took Denver’s hand and tried to smile. “Sure.”

Four songs later, Christopher still seemed to be making the rounds with the unknown woman and she was sat at the bar, getting progressively drunker with Denver.

“Who is she anyway?” she finally asked and Denver laughed like he’d been waiting for her to ask.

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