Page 17 of Tempt the Boss

Ali doesn’t look shocked. “I have a different version of the draft. It’s almost identical, but Sarah has a friend named Candace. My agent and I talked about this, and we thought the same thing. But we weren’t sure how publishers would feel.”

“We’d love to see the other version,” says Jenny, leaping at the opportunity. “Maybe just work the other changes into the other version and send it to us when it’s ready?”

“Sure,” Ali smiles. “I can do that.”

My assistant checks her watch and sighs. “Listen, I hate to leave so soon, but I need to meet with production about a new release in about five.”

I stand as Jenny gets up to leave. “Thanks so much. I’ll see you later. I’m sure I can take over for you from here on out,” is my droll comment.

She gives me a faux salute and hugs Ali. “You’ve got this, Ali. I’ll be looking forward to your revisions. Can you send them in a month?”

Ali nods. “Sure, no prob. I’ll send everything once it’s done.”

Jenny leaves just as our lunch arrives. She steals a fry from the tray and grins as she walks back into the main office.

I tip the delivery guy, take our food, and set it on the desk between us. “These are the best burgers in New York, I promise.”

“Looks amazing,” says Ali, eyeing the foil covers with appreciation. “Exactly what I like.”

Ali waits for me to pick up my hamburger before picking up her own. I like that she’s taking cues from me. We eat quietly for a few minutes, although with relish. My curvy girl isn’t afraid of a little red meat, and I appreciate her for that.

“So, how have you been?” I begin like nothing’s wrong.

“Good,” Ali says when she’s swallowed her bite. “How about you, Mr. Carmichael?”

I snort.

“Please, don’t call me that. I’m Chris,” I say with a grin. “But we’re busy. Real busy. We’re about to publish our new catalog so things are a little crazy. That’s why Jenny has so many meetings. I’ve got budget and other meetings for the rest of the day.”

“Don’t let me keep you,” she says worriedly.

I put my hand over hers. “I cleared out an hour and a half for our meeting, don’t worry.”

The gorgeous brunette smiles, and I fall even further for her, my heart flip-flopping wildly at the sight of those pouty lips. This girl does things to me no one else has ever done.

We stare into each other’s eyes for a beat longer than we should. I have meetings, and we really do need to talk about more specific edits to her manuscript. We can’t drop everything and have sex again. So with a Herculean effort, I pull myself back into business mode.

“Ms. Hartman,” I say, trying to be serious. “There were a few specific things we had in mind in the second half. This scene where Sarah sees her father for the first time, before she finds out he’s actually a horrible serial killer, the dialogue gets a bit tight. We want to loosen it up. Sarah was close to her father, even when she moved away, so their stiff back and forth doesn’t make sense.”

Ali scrunches her face. “I didn’t realize that. You’re right, though. It should be easy to talk to her father.”

We go through the rest of the pages and I tell her all the specific things to fix before we publish the book. She needs to adjust some of the character relationships and conversation especially. It shouldn’t take her more than a few hours to make the changes we want her to make, especially knowing she already has a version with the biggest edit we wanted.

But to her credit, Ali takes all the suggested changes with grace. She’s intuitive and intelligent, and is able to listen to criticism without getting defensive. I respect her for that, especially since we’ve had writers become screaming banshees we request even the smallest edit.

After going through the last page, I close the manuscript. We still have twenty minutes before I have to get to my budget meeting. It’s tempting to pull the shades down and bang her hard. But I don’t want that anymore. We’re past the point of quickies and instantaneous gratification. I want a thorough fuck session, something where I make the delicious female scream for hours. But unfortunately, that’s not possible right now.

Ali daintily wipes her hands on the napkin, and makes like she’s about to get up and leave.

“Wait,” I say, not ready to be alone just yet. “Why don’t we just … talk?”

She looks confused. “I thought we went over everything?”

“Not about work,” I say. “We could just get to know each other.”

“Oh,” she says, frowning. “I thought…um, I’m not sure. You know, no fraternizing and all that?”

Shit, she’s caught me in a bind. How do I get out?