The Cowboy's Temptation Page 0,1

“Ah, Elissa, if you would only follow through on my answer, I would be a happy man,” he said, his smile showing off his perfectly capped, falsely white teeth.

Only by sheer force of will was she able to resist rolling her eyes at him. “Keep it to the professional and I’ll see what I can do,” she said, typing in some additional numbers.

“You could go out with me again,” he said, his voice confident, as if women rarely, if ever turned him down for a date.

Elissa typed in a few more numbers before replying. “No thank you. Burned twice, not interested,” she answered, referring to the recently-ended relationship they’d had. Elissa knew her heart had never been into the relationship because she’d only felt a mild disappointment at the breakup earlier in the week. What genuinely bothered her was the fact that Derrel had called her frigid because of her resistance to making their relationship physical. He had used their lack of physical intimacy as justification for seeing other women behind her back.

If she had bothered to look up, she would have seen his stunned expression. “But I’ve told you, the other women weren’t important. You mean a lot to me,” he said, his voice becoming borderline whining.

She couldn’t help herself this time. Elissa’s blue eyes rolled, the statement was just too ridiculous. He had mentioned that phrase several times over the past week, trying to convince her to re-establish their relationship. “Derrel, I really need to finish this up. If you’ll excuse me,” she didn’t finish the sentence as she walked out of her office to retrieve a file from the file room, assuming he would get the hint that the conversation was now over.

She assumed incorrectly.

He followed her to the small room filled with cabinets from wall to wall. Elissa’s first sense of alarm came when she heard the file room door click shut. “What are you doing?” she demanded angrily, holding the retrieved, bulky file in front of her defensively.

Darrel’s smile was as charming as a snake and just as dangerous. “Just relax. I want to talk to you,” he said, moving towards her.

Elissa looked around for an escape route but the files were packed high with only a small aisle between each row. Darrel was blocking her only exit, feeling powerful now that he had her full attention.

She refused to be nervous around such a snake. “Darrel, get out of my way,” she said forcefully, moving towards the doorway, pushing his chest with the file folder.

Darrel worked out religiously every day in an effort to maintain his muscular arms and chest so he wasn’t a movable object if he didn’t want to be moved, especially by a five-foot, six-inch, exhausted woman with panic in her mind. Those muscular arms now wrapped around her, holding her still. “Elissa, we never really became intimate. Let me show you how good it can be between the two of us. Then if you want me to leave, I won’t say another word.”

She tried to wriggle out of his arms but he was too strong and the filing cabinets didn’t give her much room to maneuver. “Darrel, stop it! Don’t touch me,” She said firmly, hoping he couldn’t hear the rising panic in her voice.

He didn’t heed her request and his mouth descended towards hers. His mouth was hard as he tried to coax a response from her. She fought him initially, but his strength was no match for hers so eventually she just stood still and waited.

Finally he realized she was not participating in the kiss and pulled back, confused. “What’s wrong Elissa? You know you want me. We’d be so good together.”

He had pulled back slightly to see her face but that was all the space she needed. She twisted in his arms and was able to pull free and rush out of the room. “Stay away from me, Darrel,” she called back, furious with him for trapping her in the file room but also equally furious with herself for not seeing what a slimy, irritating man he was months ago.

Elissa rushed out of the file room and back to the relative safety of her office. She felt dirty now. She wanted to rush home and shower again, needing to get the feel of his hands off her arms and back.

Thankfully, as soon as she returned to her office, there were messages and e-mails waiting for her so she was able to put Darrel’s tactics to the back of