Surrender to Temptation Part III: Tempted to Obey Read Online Free PDF Page B

hoping that I was imagining it.
    I wasn’t. Caught in the beefy arms of Ron, the one security guard who actually smiled at me occasionally, was my ex-boyfriend, Tom.
    Tom, the cheating bastard.
    I watched, strangely nonplussed, as Ron finally let him go. Tom straightened like a bird whose feathers had been mussed, shaking as if he could remove the imprints of Ron’s hands like droplets of water. His version of casual clothes consisted of neatly pressed khakis and a starched button-down shirt in navy and white checks. They were now wrinkled, and a tuft of hair stood straight up from the rest of the neatly combed golden strands that covered his head.
    I wasn’t happy to see him. Neither did I feel an overwhelming urge to storm up to him and slap him across the face.
    Mostly I wanted to hide. I didn’t want to deal with him or any of the feelings that his appearance dredged up when my mind was already so full of Zach.
    “Shit.” I hissed as I spoke, and the man in front of me in line cast an uneasy glance at me before inching forward, placing distance between us. My mind raced as I grimaced. I had to be an adult. Though Tom had been fully in the wrong, I hadn’t been acting like an adult when I ran away, and I had to make that right.
    Inhaling deeply, squaring my shoulders, I exited Higher Grounds and crossed the lobby to where my ex still sputtered.
    “Tom.” My voice was even. He looked up, saw me, and gave one last shudder, presumably trying to remove the sensation of being manhandled from his skin.
    “What the hell kind of company are you working for, Devon?” Now that he had straightened himself out—except for that tuft of hair, which I certainly wasn’t going to tell him about—I watched Tom fall back on his usual arrogance and swagger.
    That swagger wasn’t something that sat well on my ex. Though it probably wasn’t fair to compare the two, when I thought of Zach and the high-handedness that was ingrained right into his every act, I found myself growing warm.
    “The security is here to keep employees safe, Tom.” He looked a bit surprised that I hadn’t immediately agreed with him. Part of me felt the urge to slip right back into my old ways—to acquiesce, to placate.
    I couldn’t do that. Forcing myself to hold my chin high, I looked my ex right in the face, noting the puzzlement that ran over his features when he took in my demeanor.
    “They don’t have the right to rough up innocent people.” Tom brushed a hand fussily over his shoulder, smoothing away dust that I certainly couldn’t see. I stifled a roll of my eyes. Catching Ron’s eye over Tom’s shoulder, I had to bite my cheek to keep from smiling when the man cast me an incredulous, “do you actually know this idiot?” look.
    I
had
known this idiot, once upon a time. And though I didn’t know where things stood with Zach, I now certainly knew better than to settle for someone like Tom.
    I couldn’t blame him for my insecurities—they were my own issues, though Tom certainly hadn’t helped matters any. Never mind his cheating, he had never made me feel anything as intensely as Zach did, and the thought of going through life without experiencing sensation like that made me shudder.
    “Tom, if you tried to get past the gates, then you weren’t innocent and you knew it.” I heard the sharp edge in my voice, and instead of trying to hide it, I found myself embracing it. Seeing Tom dredged up all kinds of old devastations, ones that I had come so far in working through in the past few weeks, and I found that I didn’t appreciate it at all.
    “How did you find me?” I hadn’t told anyone where I was going—I hadn’t known, myself—until I’d gotten here.
    Tom pursed his lips, studying me as if trying to discover what was different, before he spoke. “I linked our cell phones several months ago. All I had to do to find you was to log into the program. You’ve been spending work hours here every day for the past couple of