Flirting with Temptation - By Kelley St. John Page 0,22

“Sure, Cecile. I’ll send you a plate with Babette.”

Babette nodded, still a bit miffed. “An hour is fine.”

“Hang on, Cecile. I’ll ask.” Granny grinned, and Babette’s irritation dissipated. How could anyone stay mad at this outrageous woman?

“What?” Babette asked, knowing Granny Gert was enjoying this way too much.

“She wants to make sure she’s got the color you want,” Granny explained. “Let me guess. I bet I get it right.”

The laugh that bubbled from Babette’s throat was unexpected, but welcomed. “You know me better than most everyone, so I’m betting you’re right.”

Granny nodded approvingly, then winked. “Back to her roots, Cecile. Her natural color. Fire engine red, with lots of wild curls. A spiral perm, I’d say. That’s her favorite look for the beach, and that’s where she’s going.” She nodded toward Babette. “Am I right, dear?”

Babette looked back at the mirror, remembered the first time she’d ever seen Jeff. He’d dubbed her “Red” and then he’d never seen her with fiery hair again, though he’d asked for it repeatedly when they dated.

Red. In truth, it was her favorite color, and as Granny said, it was the original hue. And the one that signified confidence and spunk, two things she’d need in spades if she was going to pull off a miracle and get Jeff back to Kitty.

She swiveled and announced with a single, emphatic nod, “Yes, red. Definitely red.”

Chapter 4

Jeff Eubanks hung up the phone after the bizarre call from his brother, stepped onto the patio of his Destin condo, inhaled deeply and welcomed the familiar scents and sounds of the beach. Salty air, crashing waves, laughing kids, giggling females—refreshing reminders that he liked it here, and that he liked where he was in his life right now, enjoying life and freedom and women, each to its fullest capacity. After the one-two emotional punches dealt by Babette and Kitty, it was amazing he was able to, but he was, and he was doing it quite well.

But thanks to Ethan’s call, Jeff now knew that his life was about to be turned upside down again by the most prominent women in his past. Babette was on her way to Florida to convince him that he should take Kitty back.

He shook his head, laughed at the absurdity of it all. First, that Babette would begin to think that she was an expert on love, and second, that Kitty would have the balls to think he’d take her back after she sailed away with Farraday. Hell, he must have dated two of the most brazen women in the country if they thought they could pull this off.

Wasn’t happening. Not now, not ever.

He glanced out at the beach, specifically at a young couple, probably newlyweds from the look of things, lounging on an oversized beach towel on the sand. The woman rolled onto her back and handed a brown bottle of tanning oil to the guy, who smiled as he took it from her hand. He drizzled the shiny liquid all over her stomach while she stretched on the towel, then ran her fingers through her long, red hair, fanning it out behind her. Taking one palm to her belly, he slid the oil across her abdomen, then slowly eased his hand toward her breasts, while his face moved closer to hers. He didn’t even attempt to kiss her, but merely looked at her, drinking her in, while his hand never stopped its seductive perusal of her flesh, and—from Jeff’s vantage point on the balcony where he could see—he slipped his fingers beneath the edge of her bikini top and teased the lower curve of her breast.

Jeff swallowed and moved his attention away from the heated exchange to two teen boys, tossing a bright orange Frisbee near the edge of the water. He focused on the orange disk, the way it caught the wind and the way one kid snagged it mid-air, then flung it back. This was what he should be looking at from his balcony, people enjoying a good time on the beach.

But his voyeuristic impulses took over and his eyes turned back to the couple, now lip-locked, with the man’s hand no longer visible, hidden within the shadow of his body over hers and apparently paying homage to a lower part of her anatomy now.

Jeff had thought spending a little time on his balcony before his date arrived would get his mind off the woman currently en route to his condo, but watching the couple’s heated exchange only reminded him of