Flirting with Temptation - By Kelley St. John Page 0,35

didn’t really count as far as what Kitty had in mind), that she didn’t know if he was seeing someone (she didn’t know that he was seeing someone; she knew that he was seeing several someones), and that she had no idea whether whoever he was seeing, if he was seeing someone, was pretty (although the girl climbing on top of him last night would fall into the striking category). Bottom line, Babette didn’t want to tell Kitty anything, because she didn’t really know anything. And more than that, she didn’t want to talk to Kitty. Yet. Eventually, it’d have to happen, because she promised regular updates when she worked on a client’s case. But she didn’t mean minute-by-minute, even if the client did pay triple for her services.

Just thinking about Jeff lip-locked with the brunette made Babette’s skin burn, and she knew good and well it wasn’t merely because his sexual gallivanting was going to make it harder for her to convince him to get back with Kitty. It was also because his sexual gallivanting was making her want to gallivant with him too. A lot. Kept her up practically the entire night with hot and heated dreams of Jeff against that balcony railing and a woman climbing all over him, except the woman in her dreams wasn’t the Jag lady. It was Babette. Naked.

She glanced at the clock and realized she’d been on the phone all afternoon. It was nearly six o’clock in the evening and she hadn’t even set foot on the beach all day. The closest she’d come was running down to one of the resort’s two restaurants and eating a club sandwich. She’d selected a table on the deck, and she’d enjoyed the atmosphere of the beach while she ate . . . and talked to Kitty. The woman simply hadn’t let up. Had she been that relentless with Jeff? And if she was, had he actually liked that?

Obviously he had. He asked her to marry him.

Babette scanned her notes beside each number on her list of Slidells. She’d tried them all. Some had answering machines, and she didn’t leave a message. Others didn’t have answering machines at all. And the ones where she actually reached a human on the other end didn’t have a clue who Rowdy Slidell was. She could call some more later, after people had a chance to get home from work. For now, she was going to make up for all of the beach time she’d missed by staying inside all day. She put the cell phone on the table. If anyone needed her, they could leave a message.

That included Kitty Carelle.

She left the condo and within minutes was enjoying everything she loved most about Florida—warm sand, splashing waves and salty breezes. Completely comfortable with the world around her, she ran straight toward the water like a child seeing the beach for the first time, then laughed when a huge wave soaked her shorts.

She was so busy enjoying the freedom and the beauty of the beach that she didn’t even notice that the French doors on the condo that centered the fourth floor had opened, and she didn’t see the gorgeous male who’d always had the power to make her heart stand still step onto his balcony and watch the show.

Jeff had spent the entire day on the brink of frustration, courtesy of Babette and Kitty, even though he hadn’t seen either of his most memorable exes in months. Ethan’s call yesterday had, quite frankly, shocked the hell out of him, with a surplus of information, and none of it good. But that wasn’t what had Jeff so frustrated. What had him so perturbed was the fact that Babette hadn’t made an appearance yet, and he was ready to get it over with. Last night’s date had been horrific due to his feeling that she could show at the most inopportune moment, and he’d consequently sent Kylie home early. Very early, as in before they’d really spent any time together. She’d understood when he said he’d had a hell of a day, but she’d assumed he’d meant his day at work, not his day of learning what his exes were up to.

However, today he actually had had a hell of a day at the office, because he hadn’t been able to concentrate on work, thinking that at any moment Babette would appear with her ridiculous request for him to take Kitty back.

Again, it hadn’t happened. True to form, Babette was