Joy surged as she turned. “Ale—”
“Good morning, Ms. Gray. Or may I call you Cailin?” James Allen stood far too close, his bulk threatening as he ran a calloused finger along a blonde curl that had escaped her morning upsweep with all the bending and stretching.
What the hell is he doing here? Why didn’t security call? After the problem with Tammy, Alex had made certain they were notified before Allen was allowed to step foot in the elevator. And now he’d caught her here, in the office, totally alone since Alex had a meeting with Ian and Sara Beth this morning.
Trying desperately to control the panic making it hard to breathe, Cailin attempted to sidle away from his touch, but the man had fingers like a vise. There would be bruises on her hip later. “Mr. Allen, what—”
“And you can call me James. After all”—his slightly bulging eyes leered their way down her body and back up—“I’m hoping to get to know you very well.” A fat pink tongue slicked along his lower lip. “Very well, indeed.”
Nausea twisted her stomach. She took a single step backward, all the room she had, pressing her body against the filing cabinet and ignoring the dig of a drawer handle in her spine as she sought any way to escape the man’s proximity. “I don’t understand.”
His poor-innocent-me look wasn’t innocent at all. “You don’t? Well, maybe I can explain it to you.” Thick, hard fingers traced the edge of her collarbone above her blouse. Cailin was distinctly aware of the threat of that hand, of how easily it could slip—or shove—below the flimsy material protecting her right now. Automatically her hand flew up, slapping him away. She tore at his fingers on her hip, but the hand she’d slapped tangled in her hair, lifting until she was pulled taut, stretched along the front of the filing cabinet as if it were a rack. The muscles in her legs strained as she went up on tiptoe, trying desperately to release the pull on her hair.
“Uh-uh-uh, naughty girl.” Allen’s alcohol-laden breath hit with almost as much force as his heavy body slamming her against the cabinet. His fingers tightened cruelly, forcing a gasp from her lips.
“What are you doing? Let go of me!”
He snorted his opinion of that demand. “Don’t get so excited, missy. I know what you’re here for. I just decided to take advantage of it.” His flushed face dipped down, and he drew a deep breath, scenting her like a dog. The nausea rose to the back of her throat. “If I’d known what a hypocrite our Alex was, I’d have had my eye on you a whole lot sooner.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Well, see, I took me a trip to Nashville recently.”
Her fear-saturated brain struggled to make a connection. Nashville? Nashville. Oh God…
She turned her head, straining away from him, panic thumping a heavy drumbeat in her chest. Allen laughed, the sound pouring over her like an oil slick, as he transferred the hand on her hip to her jaw and forced her to face him again. “I see you’re getting my drift. I just happened to have tickets for the play downtown. There I am, walking across Sixth Avenue, when I look up and what do I see but little ol’ you hanging all over our very own Mr. Alex Holier-than-thou Brannigan. Right there, in the street. As if he wasn’t a married man and all.”
A tilt of his hips brought a firm bulge in contact with her churning stomach. Pure, electrifying adrenaline shot through her already trembling limbs. “Please…”
She hated the whimpering sound of her own voice. The fact that she and Alex had been seen together didn’t even matter right now. Who cared, anyway? Not John, that was for sure. After what that prick had said to Alex, she figured he could have a harem and John wouldn’t care as long as he stayed married to Sara Beth and did what was best for the company. No, what mattered was getting out of here without being raped. How the hell had he known she’d be alone?
“Mr. Allen, please, you need to let me go. Alex will be back any—”
“Shut up!” Droplets of spit hit her face with every hard word. “You don’t think I’m stupid, do ya? You think I can’t get in here anytime I want?” Wet lips left a slimy trail along her cheek as he moved across it to whisper in her ear. “Did you know one of the security officers retired last week? I did. I made sure the most qualified candidate for the job was offered up. Money can open doors—literally.” His laugh blasted her ear.
Cailin slid her eyes closed, trying frantically to calm herself, to think. Instead, panic had her struggling against him, desperate to get free, to escape the feel of his body against her. Tears pooled at the pain digging into her spine, in her neck and jaw as she dangled from Allen’s relentless grip, but she couldn’t stop. She needed to get away.