Flirting With Temptation by Kelley St. John Page B

suit Babette’s traditionally apathetic mentality toward relationships. A very green emotion that she couldn’t deal with at all, because if she were jealous over the brunette touching him, what would she do when she convinced him to go back to Kitty—for good?
    She’d deal with that when the time came.
    He turned slightly away from the smiling woman on the balcony, and Babette thought that their free show was blessedly ending.
    She was wrong.
    He placed the laptop on a nearby patio table and then stood, leaning his back against the railing and simply waiting for her to move toward him, slowly, like a tiger sizing up prey, and smiling as she progressed. Again, Babette couldn’t see his face, couldn’t even see his jaw now, but she knew he was giving the woman that sexy smile.
    “Oh, my,” Rose said, as the woman closed the gap between them and then practically crawled up his body, nipping his neck and smiling against his ear as she whispered something, then her hands slid up his back and into those curls at his nape.
    Babette’s palms tingled, recalling the way those springy curls felt when she used to tunnel her own fingers through them.
    The Jag lady kissed him, and it was no ordinary kiss. It was an I’m-going-to-give-you-anything-and-everything-you-want-and-then-some kind of kiss. Her body was moving and rubbing against him, and Babette suddenly grew very hot. Everywhere.
    This was not good. She needed to stop staring. She needed to leave this cramped little hiding place between the palm trees and the building.
    She needed to breathe.
    As if knowing that Babette was watching and simply couldn’t take any more, the brunette pulled away, took Jeff’s hands and tugged him back inside the condo.
    “Whew, alrighty then,” Rose said, exhaling loudly as she shook her head. “I’ve seen him put on many a show on that balcony, but I believe this one takes the cake.” She dropped one side of the shawl, gathered it up with the opposite hand and waved it in front of her face like a fan. “I’m not cold anymore.”
    “As if anyone could be cold watching that,” Babette said.
    Rose snorted. “Didn’t leave all that much to the imagination, did they?” Then she tilted her head, glanced back at the balcony and said, “Well, I guess they did. Or we’d have seen some skin.”
    Unable to shake the image of the woman attacking Jeff like an animal in heat, Babette glared at the balcony. “I didn’t know he was dating someone,” she said aloud.
    “Dating?” Rose actually cackled. “Honey, you haven’t been listening. It’s a different one every two or three days. That’s why I bought him that case of—”
    Babette waved her hand in front of Rose’s mouth before she blurted out “condoms” for everyone sitting on their balconies to hear.
    “I was going to say protection,” Rose huffed.
    “Sure you were.”
    Rose’s cheeks pinked, and she smiled guiltily. “You know me too well.”
    “A different one every few days?” Babette asked. So Jeff had gone back to his old playboy ways after things ended with Kitty.
    “Pretty much. I mean, sure, some of them could be repeats, since basically I just notice tall, short, blond, brunette, that kind of thing, but there’s so many different ones that I sure can’t keep them straight. Doubt he can.”
    Babette nodded. If he wasn’t into just the brunette, then there was still a chance she could get him back with Kitty Carelle and keep Kitty’s money, which was the only positive thing about this situation that she could think of at the moment.
    “But I’d be shocked if you couldn’t get him back,” Rose added. “He was his happiest with you. Never did understand why you split up.”
    “Neither did I,” Babette said, more a whisper to herself than a response to Rose. Then before her little peeping tom could continue, she added, “But I’m not here to get him back for me. I do plan to make him regret ever letting me go, but that’s mainly to soothe my