Lilith stood in front of the mirror in her dark blue thongs and 36 F cup matching bra a flash of image crossed her mind. Derek standing behind her, watching her watch herself in the mirror. The thought of him there made her naked caramel flesh burn and her stomach turn. She knew she wanted nothing more than his hands and lips all over her.
But she told herself in the mirror, this time loud and clear "YOU NEED TO STAY AWAY FROM THIS MAN LILITH!". She knew she liked him; she liked him a lot or maybe even more, she couldn't risk it at this moment.
She quickly put on her navy-blue pencil skirt and tucked in her body-hugging white top. Combed her long black hair, she liked to keep them open, put her dark beetroot pink lipstick and perfume and rushed out. She was already running 20mins late for work.
It was her first job in a substantially bigger firm in her career. Over 29 years she has established herself as a strong, opinionated, independent single woman. Living alone in a new city, renting out an apartment, working, cooking, cleaning enjoying her own company, she seemed to be doing well for herself. Nothing seemed to bother her except having a companion on some of the rare days.
During the early days of her office, she had noticed this decent looking guy in his early 30's, fair, around 5'10", with a decent built and a simple dressing sense, he usually was quiet and kept to himself but she could often sense him watching her when he was around. Some of the time when their eyes would meet, she would smile at him and he would awkwardly pass a half smile. They quickly came to know each other; Derek was the Head of one of the departments just like her. Their paths seemed to not cross each other but over the past 2 years he would always find reasons to get Lilith to help him with something or the other.
She was outgoing and extroverted unlike Derek who was the quieter, introvert but there was definitely, chemistry and sexual tension between them but they both had always kept their distance. Office affairs are never a good idea specially with her history of getting stuck in risky situations.
His charm was irresistible to her, his laugh made her knees go weak; he could make her burst into laughter and blush at the same time. Her irresistible attraction towards him and his way of putting her in her place at times was a clear enough sign of why she should keep herself away from him.
But working in such close proximity and keeping distance was getting extremely difficult. Day by day over the past 2 years the tension between the two of them had been increasing. Being in the same room without locking eyes, brushing fingers, light flirting was getting impossible. Once when one of her colleagues, Susan passed a comment to tease her about Derek, she decided to avoid him completely for some time to let things simmer down.
A week had passed and she had managed to avoid Derek completely. But after a few days he made quite a significant effort to meet her in the office, she builds some excuse and managed to step out of the situation before it could get out of hand but she knew he wasn't very happy about it.
The next day passed by smoothly, there was no sign of Derek, she could not find him in the office nor did he message or call her over the weekend. She was a little disappointed but relieved at the same time. She told herself this is the right thing to do, she knows herself, one step forward and she will fall straight in hell. She could not afford to do that at this point in her life. She kept repeating it to herself "this is the right thing to do, this is the right thing to do."
The day went by too fast, with the amount of work she had, she completely lost track of people and time in the office. When her eyes fell on the watch it was already 8:00 pm and all her team members had already left about an hour back and Susan was just packing up to leave. She stepped out of her cabin with Susan and she noticed only 3 new interns were still working in the office.
Everyone seemed to have left, she usually stayed back late alone so it wasn't anything new for her. Sitting in her cabin she wondered if Derek had left too. He would usually come say bye to her before he left but the lights in his cabin were off, she thought maybe he understood and decided to keep distance as well. Pushing the thought out of her head she got back to work.
After an hour or so suddenly her cabin door flung open, startling her, as she stood by the file cabinet going through a project report. Derek stood in front of her in his black shirt, black pants and black shoes, his hair all over the place from the hectic day he had had, staring right at Lilith with his bearded straight face.
Lilith's heart started to race, failing to read him as his face and body which showed absolutely no emotions.
"Are you ignoring me?" Derek asked stepping inside the cabin, as the door closes on its own behind him. Lilith stared at him blankly trying to bring her senses back in the moment.
"ARE YOU IGNORING ME?!" Derek asked again this time with a little frustration in his voice. Lilith knew she will have to answer him, he is not going to leave this topic without an answer.
"Hey Derek, why would you say so, it's just I have been busy with work, nothing like that." Lilith did not want to tell him the truth or the embarrassing reason behind the truth.
"DO NOT LIE TO ME LILITH! Tell me why are you ignoring me?! Have I done something? Did I say something to you? What is the issue? I have been noticing, you have been avoiding me on purpose from one week."
All Lilith could think of was them being in the same room, after 10days, she could feel the room getting smaller and hotter, as Derek took a step forward saying all this to her with frustration and anger. She could barely look away from his beautiful deep dark brown eyes and his little rugged but pink lips and his recently cut hair. God, he looked breath taking.
Breaking the eye contact with him she let him know in a low voice, "Okay Derek. Yes. It's just I thought it would be better if we kept some distance for a while."
"But Why?" Derek.
"I have my reasons" Lilith.
"Oh, come on! Tell me!" He took one more step forward with that, as she stepped back.
They both again stood in front of each other, looking straight into each other's eyes, leaving barely any space between them. Lilith's stomached turned like it did in front of the mirror, she could feel his breath on her face and the intense anger in his eyes. It wasn't the quiet introvert man in front of her right now. This was someone else, a side of him she was not aware of and it was driving her mad. It's almost been 2 years since she had been this close to a man, she wanted to get away from him but at the same time her body loved his warmth and his eyes moving between her eyes and lips.
"Get away from me Derek!" she said to him in a firm voice, she knew this is not the line she should cross, but she realized this response only provoked him more and he moved even closer to her.
She took another step back only to realized her back was now touching the file cabinet behind her. She now had no place to go.