Taken by You (Taken by You Book One) by M.L. Young Page A

party or something and you have to introduce me? What am I?” I asked.
    “ Yes, it will be a secret from the general public. I suppose we’ll have to cross that bridge when we get there,” he said.
    “ This is just all so overwhelming, you know? I came in here today hoping to score that internship, and now you’re springing this on me. It’s not that I don’t like it or am saying no or anything, but it’s just a lot,” I said.
    “ I could understand what you’re thinking right now. I didn’t come in here thinking you’d even give me an answer today,” Blake said.
    I looked out the window before taking a sip of my cappuccino. I hoped the caffeine would calm my mind and get rid of the headache that was starting to set in. My heart was racing, but I wasn’t sure if it was from the coffee or the thought of being some upper-class paid hooker. Well, I guess all hookers were paid, but I’d be really paid.
    “ How long will this go on for?” I asked.
    “ As long as the two of us see fit,” he replied.
    “ So it could end at any time by either party? Just like that?” I asked.
    “ Just like that. I feel that both of us are taking a risk in this, not just you,” he said.
    “ I have one more question,” I said.
    He looked at me, waiting for the question, as I thought of how to phrase it. I didn’t want to accuse him of anything, and I definitely didn’t want to turn him away, but I felt as if it were something I needed to know before I went forward.
    “ Have you ever done this before?” I asked.
    “ No,” he sharply replied.
    “ Then okay, I think we should give it a try,” I said.
    “ Really? That fast?” he asked.
    “ Yeah, why not? But you have to take me out on dates and all that. I’m not going to just put out,” I whispered.
    “ Deal,” he said with a smirk.

CHAPTER EIGHT
    Penelope
     
    A few days had passed since Blake and I sealed our little arrangement and made it official. Well, it wasn’t official as in dating, but I guessed it was as close as I was going to get to dating a man like him.
    I had to admit that I didn’t enter into this for all the right reasons, if there was such a thing as right reasons in a situation like this. I could tell that the internship either wasn’t up to him, which I didn’t know how it couldn’t be, or he wasn’t going to give it to me and was offering me something else that would take care of some problems I had. With barely any money left in my account and my federal student loan being sucked up by tuition and transportation, how else was I going to pay my bills and get what I needed?
    I saw this as an opportunity for myself to be liberated from the slum of a life I was living. Sure, I had a nice apartment, but that was only because of Nicolette and her job. Hell, we didn’t even share the rent halfway. She paid almost seventy percent of it and in exchange I did pretty much all the cleaning. I wasn’t going to use Blake for material possessions unless he insisted on them, at least. I wasn’t that vain. I was just going to get food in my stomach, heat on my body, maybe a couple new shirts, and a lot of good sex that would do my soul good. That wasn’t so bad, was it?
    When Nicolette got home the other night, after my lunch with Blake, she immediately pounced on me and wanted to know what he wanted. She was so excited for us to be working at the same place she could barely stand it, and I had a hard time telling her I wasn’t going to be working there at all. When she asked what he wanted and why he wanted to see me, I knew I couldn’t tell her the truth. Blake agreed that we’d keep it a secret, and even though Nicolette was my roommate and best friend, I just couldn’t afford to ruin something before it ever really even started. She had a rather big mouth and I knew she could slip it to somebody at the office, and then not only would Blake dump my ass faster than I could blink, but she could lose her job and then we wouldn’t be able to