Page 26 of Tempt the Boss

“Maybe,” I say, but her words give me hope. “Did you talk to Steven?” I ask abruptly. Steven is the head of the board.

“Yeah. He said to continue working on Ali’s book for now. If we do keep her, we’ll have to stay on deadline anyway. If we drop her, this work will be for nothing, and we’ll have to eat the cost.”

“Shit,” I say. “Fuck shit fuck.”

Jenny shrugs. “At this point, it is what it is, boss. Not that they’re interested, but I’m definitely going to tell the board I want to keep the book.”

“You go to bat for the book,” I say. “I’ll wipe my hands of it.”

“But you love this story!” Jenny gasps.

“I do, but I like Ali more, and if I have to step back to get her published, then that’s what I’ll do.”

Jenny just shakes her head again.

“Like I said, Mr. Carmichael, you really like this woman. I’ve never seen you this go this ga-ga before. But we don’t have to make any decisions now. We have two weeks before the board meets, and we’ll come up with a game plan before then.”

I sit down at my desk with a heavy sigh. “I just don’t want to ruin Ali’s life.”

“I know,” Jenny says comfortingly. “We’ll figure this out.”

I nod, and Jenny shoots me one last look of pity before leaving. Because Ali may not like me, but my heart won’t stop wanting her. And if I can’t have her … the least I can do is to make her dreams come true.