Tempt Me, Taste Me, Touch Me - Bella Andre Page 0,2

the precious ring.

But Carrie felt that it was her responsibility to be the bigger person here. To act like a lady, one last time. Besides, she wasn't angry with James. She just didn't want to marry him. The least she could do was give him back his ring in a civil manner.

A moment later, she was on her knees, with her butt way up in the air and her hair hanging in front of her eyes. She reached for the ring just as Ms. Extreme Makeovers stiletto pierced the back of her hand. "Ouch;' she cried, smacking her head on the bottom of the table as she sat up too quickly. Suave as ever, even in the midst of an embarrassing situation that involved approximately one hundred strangers, James held out his hand to Carrie. All out of options, she allowed him to escort her back to their table. He slipped the ring back on her finger and said, "Why don't you hold onto this until Monday, when your PMS isn't quite so bad."

At that moment Carrie knew without a shadow of a doubt that she was making the right decision. She stifled a scream and fled the restaurant into the streets of Union Square. She was desperate to put as much distance between her and her ex as she possibly could.

Thank God she was leaving tomorrow for a weekend of wine tasting in the Napa Valley with the girls. If there was ever a time for late-night wine and chocolate-inspired advice, it was now.

CARRIE WAITED to spill the news until her two best friends, Rose and Vanessa, were buckled into her silver Mustang convertible

and the wind was whipping through their hair en route to Napa Valley. "James proposed:' Vanessa, unromantic to her very core, cut right past congratulations. "Where's the bling?" she asked, tucking a few long, red strands of hair that were flying around her face back into her chic black cap and kicking off her Manolos.

''I'm not wearing it;' Carrie said as she reached into her beige linen slacks for the ring that was burning a hole in her pocket. The ring that had haunted her all night long. "I didn't know what else to do with it:' "My God;' Vanessa said as she grabbed the ring and stared at it with big eyes. "I've got to try it on:' The band was a perfect fit on her left hand, the yellow diamond nicely offset by her deep tan. "I can't believe you get to wear this ring every day, you lucky bitch! Which begs the question, why the hell aren't you wearing it? Afraid you'll blind the other drivers when the sun sparks off it and they crash into the center divider?" Carrie laughed. "Yeah, that's exactly why;' she said, wondering if they were going to think she was crazy when she told them how she'd panicked at the thought of a life sentence as a perfect little society lady. Rose held her unruly black curls down, having lost her scarf five minutes into their drive, and yelled from the backseat to be heard over the engine noise. "Does that mean you said yes?" Her over-sized white blouse flapped in the wind, and her blue eyes were full of concern.

The song "I Will Always Love You" came on the local pop station, and Carrie temporarily avoided answering Rose by fiddling with the tuner. In the best of circumstances this song made her want to puke. What she needed right now was a female power song. Something like Aretha Franklin's "Respect." Despite her moment of clarity at the restaurant, she'd been up all night wondering if she was making a mistake snagging the catch of the decade and then, in the eleventh hour, deciding to throw him back. Which was why she'd tucked the ring into her pocket before leaving the house. Maybe her friends would make her see the light and she'd want to slip it on her finger.

The digital tuner landed, ever so helpfully, on "Ironic:'

Carrie gave up. The radio programmers were out to get her.

Over Alanis Morissette's catchy, but so awfully appropriate tune, Carrie finally replied.

"I didn't exactly say yes."

"Under any other circumstances I'd encourage you to play hardball for a bigger ring. But in this case," Vanessa said as she held her left hand up and salivated over the diamond some more, "even I'd say that's going too far. This baby is big. Nice and heavy. Just the way a girl likes it.