Page 49 of Tempt Me

I’m on top of the world today.

Even Amanda notices when I arrive at the farmer’s market to help her out. “Well, look at you,” she says, giving me a knowing look. “Either my face cream is even better than I thought, or Max showed you a good time last night.”

“Max and I broke up,” I say cheerfully, and slip into the booth beside her. There are customers waiting, so I greet them with a smile. “Hi, can I help at all? Any free samples?”

“Wait a minute, what?” Amanda interrupts. “Sorry,” she adds to the customers, “but my best friend just dumped the richest guy in the city, and I need details.”

“Amanda!” I protest, embarrassed. She’s still waiting for an answer. “We broke up. It wasn’t working. I met someone else. Happy now?”

“Not even close.” But she’s grinning so widely, I can tell it’s not true. Amanda smothers me in a hug. “I’m so happy for you!”

“Wait, you weren’t this happy when I got engaged!” I pull away. She gives me an apologetic look.

“Max is an ass. You’re so much better off without him.”

I’m stunned. “And you couldn’t have said anything sooner?”

“I’m sorry, I know I should have said something, but you were so swept up in the romance of it all. I figured you had to find out for yourself. And you did, yay!” Amanda grins. She looks back to the line of customers, longer now. “Crap, we better get to work. But I want all the details about who this new guy is who’s making you glow like that. Besides my new skin cream,” she adds, louder, turning to the crowd. “Doesn’t she look amazing? Twice a day, every day, and you can have skin just like that!”

I hide a smile as Amanda launches into her sales pitch. Face cream—and incredible sex with Jase Banner, but that’s not on the menu for this crowd, so I focus on helping out for the rest of the morning, until we’re almost sold out of product.

“Want to grab lunch?” Amanda asks, doing the final cash count. “I’m buying!”

“Sorry, I have my open house. But let’s do something fun tonight, splurge on dinner to celebrate.”

“You mean two toppings on the pizza takeout?” Amanda grins.

I laugh. “Why not? I’m celebrating.”

“To your un-engagement,” Amanda agrees. “See you later!”

I still feel incredible as I walk home to pick up my open house materials, and I know it’s not just the sex. Sure, Jase is out of this world when it comes to turning me on, but there’s something more than that, too. I feel freer, more confident in myself, like I can take on the world—

“Chloe.”

I come back down to earth with a bump. Sienna is waiting on the front steps, and she doesn’t look happy.

OK, maybe I can take on the world. But an icy, glaring Mainwaring? That’s something else.

I swallow. “Sienna, hi. How’s it going?”

“You tell me.” She purses her lips, and pulls something from her bag. “I stopped by Max’s place to get things ready for his return, and the doorman says you left this.”

She holds out the envelope with my engagement ring.

“I... I’m sorry.” I flush. “But Max and I broke up.”

Sienna’s eyes widen. “You can’t do that.”

“I already did.” I try to move past her, but she stays blocking my path.

“He proposed to you!” Sienna gasps. “You’re getting married!”

“Not anymore,” I tell her. “I really am sorry. Can you please make sure he gets the ring back safely?”

“No!” Sienna’s voice is outraged, and I turn in surprise. “This is not happening,” she hisses at me, furious. “You can’t do this to us.”

“I’m sorry,” I say again, surprised she’s so mad. “But this is what you wanted, isn’t it? All along, you’ve been telling me I’m not good enough for him. So now he can find someone who is.”

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