The Proviso by Moriah Jovan Read Free Book Online

from pursuing her anyway and making himself a general pain
in her ass.
    Ralph (who insisted everyone pronounce it “Rafe”)
propped his hip on her desk and waited for her to finish typing a
phrase. Though she would like to ignore him and work, she couldn’t.
If the attorneys wanted to monopolize her time with chitchat, they
could, though it threw her off her self-imposed schedule. It was
now six o’clock. She wanted to leave by midnight.
    “What can I do for you, Rafe?” she asked once she
clicked the Dictaphone off, remaining polite but aloof, hoping he
would get the hint.
    “Go to the Ford exhibit at the Kemper Gallery with
me on Saturday?”
    Ever so thankful her weekends consisted of study
groups, she shook her head. “I have plans this weekend.”
    “Ford’s an artist. Have you ever seen his
art?” he asked, sly.
    She sighed. “Rafe, I really do have plans,
but I’ve explained this to you before. I don’t date outside my
faith.” That wasn’t exactly true, but it did provide her a
convenient out.
    “Right. How could I forget all about you nice little
Mormon girls?” It was nothing she hadn’t heard before, with the
same contempt, and from more interesting men than Ralph. “I think
that’s just a bullshit excuse.”
    Her eyebrow rose. “Oh? So are you saying that I’m
using it as an excuse not to go out with you ?”
    His face hardened just a bit. She knew men’s moods,
so she didn’t miss the change in demeanor. Ralph had always seemed
relatively harmless, but now her annoyance turned to wariness. She
kept her face carefully blank until—
    He leaned into her personal space and murmured, “I
could make things very difficult for you here.”
    She stared at him a minute before she burst out
laughing. “Is that the best you can do?”
    Ralph drew back at that, his surprise evident. His
lips thinned and the rusty cogs in his head ground to come up with
a reply. Giselle chuckled. “I thought so. If you have work for me,
please drop it in my box and I’ll have it done by the time you come
in in the morning.”
    His nostrils flared at having been dismissed. “I
don’t think you want to cross me, Miss Cox.”
    “Ralph,” she said slowly, pronouncing the “lph”
sound with great precision. Rising from her chair, she closed the
gap between them until her nose nearly touched his. “I am not going
to fuck you.” Her husky whisper made his breath shorten.
“Not today. Not tomorrow. Not in a thousand lifetimes.” Adrenaline
pulsed through her arteries even as Ralph’s humiliation visibly
warred with his arousal. “You go on with your threats and
intimidation. Go to Hale. Tell him whatever you like. I dare you.” She smirked. “I guarantee you won’t like the
consequences.”
    She rocked back on her heel and crossed her arms
over her chest, one eyebrow raised. He gulped, but attempted to
save face: “You’re going to be very sorry about this, Miss
Cox.”
    “Ralph.” Giselle and Ralph both started at the deep,
hoarse male voice behind them and turned to see who had spoken with
such ice. She felt Ralph tremble as she gaped, up up up, at the
most beautiful man she had ever seen. She felt a jolt of desire as
she stared at him, her body tingling for a real man the way it had
only once before, long ago and far away.
    He continued, “When you’re feeling froggy, you just
go ahead and jump.”
    “Hey, buddy!” Ralph said, his bright tone
manufactured and patently false.
    The stranger’s bright green eyes flashed fire and
his lips pressed together in a thin line. His big body radiated
tension and a hint of his divine cologne wafted her way.
Intimidating under any circumstances, the burn scars that matted
the left half of his face and disappeared down into his collar made
him fascinatingly ferocious.
    Black hair. Fair skin that would tan easily and
probably very dark in the summer sun. Chiseled features on the
unscarred side of his face. She couldn’t place his ethnicity, but
he was