Free Curvaceous Heart by Terri Pray Page B

man who would force her. He’d stop if she wanted him to, so she was safe with him.
    “Then, if you’re serious, I believe I’d like to extend our evening together.”
    * * * * *
    “So who is it that has you so nervous around me?” Alan glanced over at her as he slipped the key into the ignition. “I wasn’t aware that I’d done anything to spook you.”
    “I -- I’m not sure what you mean.”
    “Yes, you are, Sue.” He leaned back in the seat and twisted just enough to meet her gaze fully. “I can see it in your eyes. I know you want this and that you want to be out with me, to go home with me if only for a couple of hours, but I can also see something else in you. A slight flinch, the way you listen very carefully to anything I say as if you’re looking for the hidden knife in the words. It’s not an ex-boyfriend thing, either. So who it is?”
    Sue chewed slowly on the inside of her lip, twisting her hands in her lap.
    “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but I’d really like to know.” Did she think he would use the information against her? Well, depending on what sort of men she’d spent time with then yes, she might well believe that. “You’re a strong woman, Sue. Whoever it is only has power over you if you let them have it. I think you know that.”
    “That sounds all well and good, but if you go to work every day and hear the same jokes, the snide comments, the jabs and wide load remarks then you’d think differently.”
    Work. All right, so not an ex-boyfriend. Good. “And your manager hasn’t done anything about him?”
    “They never catch him. Bloody asshole knows not to try anything like that around witnesses, or most of the time at least.”
    “Ah, he makes mistakes on occasions?”
    “Bill did today.”
    At least he now had a name to go by. “And what did Bill do today?”
    “He tried something in the corridor by the copy room and someone overheard him. He didn’t know, nor did I , but I stood up to him for the first time since he started picking on me. He has something against women of my build.”
    “Or he’s attracted to you and too scared to say anything.”
    She chuckled and ducked her head a little. “Well, he does try and cop a feel every chance he gets, but he tends to be more interested in the skinny young things. Goes through them quickly, though. I’m honestly surprised he hasn’t been fired yet, but I guess most of them are too ashamed to file a complaint.”
    Now that part he could understand in a roundabout way. He’d seen more than one newcomer to the company bluster their way out of filing a report about sexual harassment in case it backfired on them. Or because it boiled down to he said, she said. Unless there was a witness to some, if not all, of the problems that the man or men had caused.
    “So what are you going to do about him?” Alan turned the key fully and started up the car. “Or are you going to keep on letting him make women unhappy?”
    “Not much I can do, unless he pulls some more shit around me. I’ve stood up to him once, so I can do it again, but only if I catch him at it. And that’s the hard part.” She sighed and brushed a stray lock of hair back from her eyes.
    His gaze wandered for a brief moment, lingering on her legs until he reminded himself he should be concentrating on his driving instead of how good his passenger looked.
    “Well, I just hope someone catches him out soon, other than you, I mean.”
    “I think he might have pushed things a little too far recently,” Sue murmured. “In more ways than one -- God I am so tired of his constant snide remarks. The fatty comments, the elbow in the side, pressing me up against the wall to try and grab a feel when he walks past, but he’s done worse things that that to other people. I…” She looked away.
    “Is there something wrong?”
    “Nothing, no. I just don’t want to ruin the evening by talking about him anymore tonight. He’s ruined enough things