All of Me Read Online Free

She couldn’t forgive him for that.
    The bastard.
    Shame. That’s what she felt when she looked at Alex Fredericks. Shame and remorse and self-loathing.
    “I’d like to give you the benefit of the doubt, Jillian. We can start over fresh, you and I.” Alex raked his gaze over her,
     his eyes lingering on her breasts.
    Her fingers twitched to reach across that desk and smack his smug face. “Give
me
the benefit of the doubt?”
    “I’m merely saying there are ways we can repair our tattered relationship.” Alex got up and came around the corner of the
     desk toward her. Surely he was not suggesting what she feared he was suggesting. Was he hinting about resuming their affair?
    Jillian held her ground. She was not about to let him make her back up, but she hated being this close to him. Hated the familiar
     smell of his cologne in her nostrils. Hated that she’d ever thought he was worthy of her caring.
    He stood right in front of her, his eyes predatory.
    “I’ve missed you, Jillian,” he said.
    She snorted.
    “It’s true.”
    “Does your wife know how much you’ve missed me?”
    Alex shifted his weight. “My wife and I … we have an understanding.”
    “What? You screw around and she doesn’t understand?”
    “I’ve especially missed that sarcastic wit.” He reached out and stroked the back of his hand across her cheek.
    “Don’t.” Jillian grabbed his wrist and flung his hand away from her. “Don’t you ever touch me again.”
    “I
am
your boss.”
    “And this is sexual harassment. I can file charges.”
    Alex’s expression was hooded, inscrutable. He was too good of a politician to acknowledge her accusation. He didn’t move.
    Jillian sank her hands on her hips and stepped forward until their noses almost touched. She’d seen this man naked, done intimate
     things with him that she now sorely regretted. She couldn’t believe she’d slept with him and even stupidly imagined having
     a future with him. She felt like a complete idiot. She’d been right all along—love was for suckers and fools.
    He blinked and she saw a flicker of contrition in his eyes, but the whisper of humanity was gone as quickly as it appeared.
     “Ms. Samuels,” he said coldly.
    “Yes?”
    “I wouldn’t recommend that course of action. It would be my word against yours, and I could make your life here quite miserable,
     indeed.”
    He was right and she knew it. Blake was gone, and even before that she’d been feeling a strong sense of unease. Now with Fredericks
     in charge, it was too much to bear.
    She experienced that end-of-the-tunnel sensation again she’d been feeling ever since that day in court with Randal Petry.
     The same day Blake died.
    “I don’t have to put up with this,” Jillian said, injecting her voice with steel as cold as his.
    “What do you intend on doing about it?” He drew up his shoulders, puffed out his chest.
    “You’re a real ass, and I can’t believe I slept with you.”
    “As I recall, we didn’t do much sleeping. I miss you, Jillian. Your fire and your guts and your passion. Seriously, I’d really
     hate to demote you.”
    That did it. She wasn’t going to put up with his threats. She’d had enough. “You know what, Alex? Shove this job up your ass.
     I quit.”

Chapter Two
    B ack in her own office, Jillian opened her desk drawers and chucked her belongings into a cardboard box. She thought about
     calling Delaney or Tish or maybe even Rachael, who was living in the isolated terrain of southwest Texas.
    But Jillian did not pick up the phone. Her friends all had their own lives, loves, husbands, and children.
    They would listen to her, of course. And sympathize. But they couldn’t really understand. They could never know what it was
     like to grow up the way she’d grown up. They’d try to get her to laugh and tell her everything was going to be all right.
     But she knew that wasn’t true. Nothing was ever going to be the same again.
    Blake was really gone.
    It