How You Take Me Read Free Page A

pleasured so much, and
paid so well, in a long, long time, Julian. Don't forget me, okay?
I certainly won't forget you.”
    Julian shook his head to try to clear it. Shoving his
hands into his pockets, he asked cautiously, “What can I do for
you, Aleisha?”
    She regarded him in silence for a moment. Finally, she
pushed herself off his desk and advanced towards him. “It's
not what you can do for me, Julian.” Her voice rose. “It's
what you did, to me.”
    “ Wha-what did I do?”
    “ You...” She jabbed a painted nail into his
chest. “You raped me.”
    “ No!” Julian reeled from the accusation.
“No, I did not...”
    “ You bastard,” she hissed. “You're a
fucking bastard!”
    “ Aleisha, I did not, I swear! That night, you
were all over...I mean, we, we were both...”
    “ You raped me, Julian. And you're going to pay.”
Her voice was cold and brittle. “Oh, right, you said it was a
mistake. It certainly is, Dr. James. It is a very costly mistake,
for you.”
    “ No...” Julian gripped the back of a chair
to steady himself. “It wasn't like that. You...you were
coming on to me, and you wanted it...you did as much and you clearly
said...I did not, Aleisha, whatever I did, I didn't rape you...”
    “ You are guilty, Julian. You made a huge mistake,
and you're going to have to make good the mistake. Before it blows
up in your face, and your career and reputation get blown to
smithereens.” Her tone was strangely calm and reasonable. “I
could go to the press, the police, the public...” She ticked
off the options on her pointed, manicured fingers.
    Julian met her cold, calculating gaze. He read the want
in her eyes but it was not him she wanted. She had come all this way
for it and from the steely, predatory look in her eyes, he knew that
she wasn't going to leave without it.
    His mind whirled as he contemplated his next step. His
shoulders slumped as a terrible, tortuous weight pressed down on
them. It would be his word against hers. And even though she had
been the one to come on to him, and had started stroking and
stripping him as she gyrated on his lap, he couldn't deny that he had
indeed fucked her. Rape or not, he had done something he shouldn't.
It was a huge mistake. One that would cost him...
    He already knew what Aleisha wanted, but he decided to
let her spell it out for him. Better than to make assumptions and
make yet another mistake.
    He breathed out slowly. “What do you want,
Aleisha?”
    “ Half a million dollars,” was her swift
reply.
    Julian jerked back. “That's a lot...”
    “ Not to a man like you,” she cooed,
inspecting her nails.
    “ I just can't...” he started.
    “ You can't, or you won't?”
    “ Aleisha, it's not that I...”
    “ All right. I see.” Her eyes glinted
dangerously as she squared her shoulders. “I see that you
don't want to make the problem go away. Fine. Then the problem will
only grow bigger. Bigger and bigger, just like my belly.” She
planted both hands on her hips and swaggered towards him. “You
see, don't you, Julian...that I'm pregnant.”
    “ What?”
    “ That's right, Dr. Julian James. I'm pregnant
with your baby.”

Chapter Three

    I fly down the stairs and stop breathlessly in front of
the closed double doors to Julian's ground floor office. I raised my
fist to knock on the door, but my hand is shaking so badly I can
hardly keep it in the air, let alone rap firmly on the door. Trying
to slow my frenzied heartbeat and breathing, I start to pace in
small, tight circles in front of the door. What is going on? Who is
this woman who has chosen to materialize at his doorstep in the
middle of the night, just when Julian finally tells me that he loves
me? She has obviously been here before. She knows the way to his
office, and has brazenly pushed her way in without being invited.
They know each other, but how well? How close are they? Who the
hell is she?
    The questions that are spinning and spiraling out of
control in my mind