The Harem by Paul Preston Read Free Book Online Page A

felt like I was going to start crying again, so I told him I had to go. I got out of there quickly, without even leaving money to pay for my coffee. I heard him call after me as I raced out the door.
    “I hope to see you Friday night, Evelyn!”
    I debated with myself all week whether I should go on Friday. There’s no way I was going to talk to my parents about Jeremy and there was certainly no one at church I could confide in. No one would understand. They would all think I was crazy to meet a guy at his home I had only met once, especially through a dirty website. I tried to pray about it, but I could no longer hear God’s council. When I shut my eyes to pray, the only image in my mind was Jeremy, holding my hands so tightly and whispering into my ear how sexy and pretty he thought I was.
    I showed up a little after 9 at his beautiful mansion and a well-dressed older gentleman, a butler I believe, greeted me at the door. He escorted me into a large library with brown leather chairs and couches. In the shadowy light, another woman was already there, waiting. I smiled at her and she gave me a tight grin back, appearing to be just as nervous as I was. Jeremy’s butler gave me this two page document to read, with a pen. It looked like some kind of contract I was supposed to sign. I noticed a similar document on the side table next to the other woman. I looked down and tried to focus on the words. At first, there didn’t seem to be anything in it out of the ordinary. I had to promise not to sue Jeremy, that I had come to his house out of my own free will, that I wouldn’t form an emotional attachment, (too late for that, I’m afraid), that I was in complete control of the relationship and that I could come and go at any time. On the second page the contract stated, “While in the house, all members of the Harem must wear clothing chosen by the Lord and Master.” I wasn’t allowed to wear my own clothes? What did that clause mean? And who was this ‘Lord and Master’? Was it Jeremy? Was Jeremy the polite gentleman he appeared to be, or did he have some kind of dual personality? It was certainly sacrilegious of him to refer to himself as a Lord. Who was he, really? What had I gotten myself into?
    I started having very paranoid thoughts, like I had come to the wrong address. Had I wandered into a house of ill repute? I kept rereading the contract. The word “Harem” was repeated several times throughout the document and it made me nervous each time I read it, like I was joining some kind of weird cult or something. I asked the butler when Jeremy was coming and that I had a few questions I needed to ask him before signing the contract. The gentleman called Jeremy through some kind of high-tech intercom system on the wall. I looked back down at the bottom of the second page of the contract. There was a line where Jeremy had already signed the contract and a line underneath for a second name. I picked up the pen and clicked it with a shaking hand. What was I thinking? Was I actually considering signing my name to this strange contract and becoming another woman in Jeremy’s Harem? Had I lost my mind? I noticed the butler staring down at me with a peculiar look in his eye. Suddenly, I felt trapped, like a bird in a gilded cage. Part of me wanted to get as far away from Jeremy as fast as I could. I wanted to run out of there and not look back, before they locked the door and trapped me in this madhouse forever. I tried to take a deep breath to calm my pounding heart and stop my hands from shaking.
    I tried to remember the reason I had come to Jeremy’s house, to rescue him from his life of debauchery. Rather than running off, I decided the best thing to do was try to relax, take a few more deep breaths, clear my head and wait for Jeremy to come talk to me.
    A few minutes later Jeremy finally arrived. Seeing his handsome face calmed me down somewhat. I smelled the familiar scent of his cologne. He looked comfortable,