How You Remind Me Read Online Free Page B

just
do it! Do you have any idea how long I’ve wondered what happened to me?”
    “I’m sorry. Katie-gate, I swear—”
    “Don’t call me that! Wait. Oh, God. Is that why you came up
with that nickname? Because I’m some sort of secret scandal? Is that what I am
to you? A joke? A double-entendre? A pun?”
    “No,” he insisted. “Listen to me. I didn’t even know your
name until I fished your ID out of your purse to get your address. But I
couldn’t just throw you in a cab and hope for the best. I took you home myself.
No one stopped me. No one else stepped up to the plate to stay with you all
night and make sure you didn’t have any dangerous after effects.”
    “What about the actual effects? Roofies make you drop your
inhibitions. They make you horny. Did you fuck me while under the influence and
since then, all your flirting and come-ons have been an attempt at a second go?”
    She wasn’t crying, but her voice shook as if she was holding
in the emotional equivalent of a tidal wave. Shaw had known she wouldn’t take
this well, but the way she held herself together despite her justifiable anger elevated
his admiration for her to a level he hadn’t thought possible.
    He should have found a way to tell her sooner, before she’d
dropped her guard, before she’d invited him to her room. Or at the very least,
before he joined her in her bed.
    “I would never take advantage of a woman who wasn’t fully
aware of what she was doing. I took you home. I…I listened. And I liked what I
heard enough so that when we ran into each other again, I wanted to be with
you. The right way. Like this,” he said, gesturing toward the bed. “With
romance and seduction and truth.”
    Her gaze was locked on the door and slowly, her head shook
from side to side. He wasn’t sure if she didn’t believe him or she didn’t want
to—either way, he knew he was seconds away from being tossed out on his ass.
    When she finally spoke again, she didn’t look at him. “You
expect me to believe that while I was hot to go for anyone with a penis,
nothing happened? Not a single kiss? You didn’t cop a single feel? Hell, I
didn’t?”
    He pressed his lips together. He couldn’t lie to her. Not
again.
    “Nothing happened that you should regret,” he answered.
    She laughed, but the sound was hard and humorless. “That
doesn’t answer my question.”
    He chanced a step closer to her, but she backed up until she
was inches from disappearing behind the bathroom door.
    “Kate, I’ll tell you everything that happened, I swear. But
you have to trust me.”
    “No, I think you need to leave.”
    “Kate—”
    “I have to work in the morning,” she said and in that
moment, the Kate who never would have invited him to her room reappeared—crisp,
efficient, unattainable. “Just do me a favor, will you? Pretend you were
slipped the drug. Forget this night ever happened. Can you do that? Please?”
    He might have said no if her voice hadn’t cracked with her
final plea. She was holding it together, but just barely. He couldn’t deny her
this kindness.
    Hell, he couldn’t deny her anything.
    He had his hand on the knob when he realized he still had the
key card to her room. She hadn’t asked for it back, but in a last ditch effort to
seed her trust, he slipped it onto the dresser on his way out the door.

Chapter 7
    As soon as the door clicked closed, Kate slid the deadbolts
into place and stripped off her nightgown, leaving it in tatters on the floor. Confused
and mortified, she dashed into the bathroom and turned the shower to scalding. Her
body still thrummed from the aftermath of her spectacular orgasm and the depth
of her humiliation. Shaw had known precisely how to pleasure her, not because
of his innate skill, but because she’d told him what she wanted in intimate
detail.
    She wasn’t sure how long she stayed under the stream,
washing away the make-up and perfume and lotions she’d applied in anticipation
of her grand