Page 1 of Forcing Her Hand

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Allison sat, looking in her mirror as she waited for Roger to pick her up. This would be their fifth date since Todd had left town almost a month and a half ago. Seeing her perfectly coiffed hair, the delicate shading of makeup that made her hazel eyes look larger than they really were and brought out her cheekbones, and the sweet pink bow of her lips, she felt nothing but sick of herself. Sick of her life. Sick of romance without passion. Although, could it really be termed romance when there was no passion?

She wanted to like Roger so much. He was exactly the kind of upstanding young man her parents wanted her to be with. Solid, reliable, from impeccably good breeding, but he just didn’t do it for her. At first, things had seemed so promising. While he didn’t have the same kind of charismatic power behind him Todd did, there was certainly something there—a hint of an alpha male underneath his social mask, something dangerous hidden behind his well-mannered actions and admiring eyes—but they’d been dating for weeks, and nothing had come of it.

“Are you still pouting in there?” Diana, Allison’s roommate, poked her head into Allison’s room and rolled her eyes. Allison turned to face the pretty Asian girl; for someone so petite, she was like a force of nature, a slightly terrifying one, like a tsunami. Definitely used to getting her way.

“I’m not pouting,” Allison said. “I’m just…”

“Why don’t you just dump him?”

That was Diana, blunt and to the point. The slender girl bounced into Allison’s room and flopped down on the bed, her face serious but unconcerned. Despite the fact her parents ran in pretty much the same social circle as Allison’s, Diana was indifferent to the expected behaviors Allison lived by. While she would behave when she was in situations with her family’s friends, when she was on her own, she pretty much did what she wanted. Although Allison was trying to be more like Diana, envying her friend’s freedom, without Todd, it had become an uphill battle all the way.

“I really don’t have a good reason to.” It made her feel guilty as if she was using him, but it was true. “And I do have fun with him. I like him, there’s just no spark, no excitement. But who says I’m going to find that with someone else? I just have to accept what is and could do a lot worse than Roger.”

“Very true.” Diana leaned back on Allison’s bed on her elbows. Allison could tell she wasn’t wearing a bra under her tight purple t-shirt. Of course, Diana often went without a bra, an option not open to Allison with her 34D breasts, not for all day every day, at least. While hers were plenty perky after a while, it just put a strain on them, and they ached.

“I just have to forget Todd.” Allison stood abruptly and smoothed down the silky skirt of her blue dress. Knee-length and demurely ladylike, the v-neckline only gave a hint of cleavage. “He’s gone and made it clear he wasn’t going to be coming back for me. There’s no use pining over him. He wasn’t even my boyfriend.”

“That’s a lot of sex with someone who wasn’t your boyfriend.”

Allison glared, but all she got was a wink back from one of Diana’s exquisite almond-shaped eyes. At least she could talk about this stuff with Diana. Her only other close girlfriend, Chrissy, was as snobbish and self-involved as Allison used to be and would have a complete lack of understanding for Allison and Todd’s relationship—if it could be called that.

Allison had no idea what else to call it. Sure, she’d admitted—confessed, really—to Todd, she wanted someone to blackmail her into fulfilling her wildest fantasies. That way, she wouldn’t have to feel guilty about the things she was doing, it would be out of her control. And yes, he’d taken advantage of that and given her so much more excitement and sexual satisfaction than she’d ever thought possible. But there was more to it than that, she swore there was. At least, there had been on her side.Apparently not on his, she thought bitterly for the umpteenth time.

She was halfway through the summer and should be looking forward to her senior year of college. She should be happy about dating someone as sweetly wonderful as Roger and should be proud of herself for her job. In fact, tonight, Roger was taking her out to celebrate. In the time she’d been working, she’d already been promoted from a receptionist to the Human Resources department as their administrative assistant. She’d been doing half of the work, anyway, helping them out while they searched for the right candidate, answering phones, inventorying and ordering supplies, and providing the upkeep and schedule for the conference rooms. After a couple of weeks, the head of HR had asked if she wanted the job, and Allison had accepted gratefully. The front desk really wasn’t enough to keep her busy, and she’d been dreading when they finally filled the position, and she was left cooling her heels and waiting for the phone to ring.

Slowing down for even a minute inevitably led to thoughts about Todd. She should be thinking about Roger, the sweetly supportive guy who she was dating, who was thrilled she was working—unlike her parents—and thought it was great she was promoted so quickly. They were going to a classy dinner, followed by dancing at the country club his family belonged to. Not like the bar where Todd had first taken her.

Crap, she needed to get him off her mind. From the way Diana was eyeing her, her best friend obviously knew exactly where Allison’s mind was.

She was saved from a lecture by Diana when the doorbell rang, announcing Roger’s arrival.

“I just want the best for you,” said Diana.

“I know.” Allison reached out to hug her best friend as Diana got up from Allison’s bed. “But I do like Roger… a lot. I promise. I’m just still getting over Todd. And I do need to get over him.”

“Alright.” Diana hugged her back, then gave Allison a little shove toward the door and slapped her butt, making Allison yelp with surprise. “Go get ‘em, girl.”

Roger’s white, even smile beamed at her when she opened the door, and he held out a small bouquet of lilies. One thing Allison had to say, he didn’t disappoint with the flowers, he always brought her a bouquet. Unfortunately, it just reminded her of Todd buying her the single rose and taking her out to a nice restaurant for their final date, which meant even more because he really hadn’t had extra money to spend on fripperies. For Roger, it was nothing to show up every week with a bouquet of flowers, although it did show a certain thoughtfulness on his behalf.

Still, he’d do the same for any girl, and maybe that was part of the problem. Allison felt he’d be just as polite, sweet, and thoughtful for any girl. There wasn’t a ton of passion on his side, either. He’d never blackmail her into doing perverse and erotic things with him because it was the only way he could have her. Which probably made him normal, but Alison already knew she wasn’t.

“Thank you.” Smiling, she kept her less than flattering thoughts to herself. Todd would have laughed at her comparing herself to a cow. No. No more thoughts about him. “They’re beautiful.”

“Beautiful flowers for a beautiful girl,” Roger said, smiling. He leaned over and kissed her very gently, his lips soft against hers. She fluttered her eyelashes at him when he pulled away, wishing she felt a matching flutter in her stomach.

* * *

Roger was exactly six feet tall, putting Allison’s head just at the right height for him to kiss her forehead if he wanted to. A few people checked them out as they walked through the restaurant. She knew they made a handsome couple—her brunette hair to his dirty blonde, hazel eyes to green, and her curvy slim figure against his handsomely muscled one. Last week, she’d found out he had a personal trainer, which was what accounted for his impressive physique. When he’d been in prep school, he’d played football and been on the track team, but he didn’t have time for that anymore. Now, he was working for her father and impressing businessmen with his mental acuity. Allison was impressed he kept up his fitness regimen, but Roger was nothing if not tightly disciplined.

As he pulled out the chair for her, she smiled and thanked him as she sat; he had all the makings of a 1950s gentleman when it came to treating a lady right. No wonder her parents had thought he’d be perfect for her. Still, there was no flash, no excitement throughout the dinner, just chatting and casual jokes, his slight flirtations as he caressed her hand or said something just barely suggestive. Roger was a great guy, he just didn’t excite her the way Todd did. Oops, no. She firmly told herself to keep her mind on where she was now and looked at him attentively as he told her all about his previous summer’s trip to Greece. Which was not so far from Turkey… No, don’t go there.

Dancing was better. Not that Roger was a bad conversationalist, but she felt like she’d had these conversations a thousand times with other people. Most of the places he’d been to were places where she’d been already, or her friends had been and told her about. His job was very similar to her father’s, and she heard about that at every family dinner, and his interests were the same as all their peers. In other words, the same golfing, social events, and parties as every other guy she’d dated. He was a good dancer, and as he flung her around the dance floor, she found herself having a lot of fun, laughing as he mimicked a tango move. Breathless, she was pressed against him for a slower song. It was really supposed to be a waltz, but he was holding her much too closely.

“You’re so beautiful tonight,” his low voice murmured in her ear. As his hard body pressed against hers, she felt the first stirrings of arousal. Dancing put him in the lead, and he was taking advantage of it. She liked that. It wasn’t the passion she’d felt before with… anyway, she’d felt more passion with someone else, but at least it was something. “I wish I could just sweep you away and keep you all night with me under the stars...”

Allison found herself desperately wishing he would do just that… and many other things to her under the stars. Make her forget about… other people. Shifting her position against him, he was very hard. She rubbed against him a little to encourage the notion they should go somewhere else, where he could take her. To her intense disappointment, he pulled away, smiling at her with desire in his eyes.

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