Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 81083 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81083 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
“It’s difficult. Especially when he’s so open about his interest in me, too. And last week…I kissed him.” I hid my face behind my hands. “After a session,” I groaned into them.
“Omigod,” Nora said.
“Hell yeah,” Ella said at the same time.
“Not hell yeah,” I said, dropping my hands. “He’s my client. It was after a session. I totally abused the system—”
“Did you use the intimate details of his emotional struggles to manipulate him into kissing you?” Ella fired at me.
“No!” I shook my head. “Of course, not. I would never do that.”
“Then how did you abuse the system?”
“I don’t know,” I said, stumbling over my words. I gripped my coffee mug just for something to ground myself. “It just feels wrong.”
Nora flashed me a sympathetic look. “You could still reassign him. Pursue dating him with a clean conscious.”
I nodded. “I should. I know I should. But there is something about his case—strictly the case—that makes me desperate to help him. He’s not someone who was born naturally irritable,” I explained. “His anger isn’t constant. It’s more complex,” I continued, without giving away any personal details about his situation. “And I’ve learned so much about it over the last two weeks. About him. I really think I can help him.”
Nora nodded.
“Plus, he keeps telling me his team said I’m the best, so he needs that to get cleared and get the league commissioner off his back. He needs me, but makes no attempt to hide that he wants me too. He even jokes he’s got a bet with his billionaire friends going that he can make me fall for him. It’s hilarious, but also exhausting because the feeling is so damn mutual.”
Ella arched a brow at me, and I laughed. “Not the falling for him part,” I hurried to say. “I mean wanting him. I do. The kiss…”
Holy hell, the kiss.
It was so different from the first trial kiss we’d shared outside the burger restaurant that first night. We knew each other now—maybe not every little detail about each other—but enough to feel it. Feel that chemistry I couldn’t deny radiating in my bones, feel it curl and tighten inside me until I could barely breathe around it.
No one had ever kissed me like Ethan had—all consuming and tender, deliberate and explorative. He kissed me like there was nothing more important than making me tremble against him with just the efforts of his lips. He kissed me like he was starved for my touch. He kissed me like I was his.
Just the thought of it made heat streak beneath my skin, awakening a desire in me so intense I wanted to scream.
“Maybe you should just sleep with him,” Ella said with a shrug. “Get him out of your system.”
I laughed. “I don’t know if that would work.”
“Why not?” she asked. “You have your rules. They’ve protected you in the past. Who’s saying it won’t work with him?”
“Unless,” Nora said, eyes widening at me. “Unless you really are falling for him?”
“What?” I furrowed my brow. “No, of course not.” I couldn’t be falling for him. “It’s only been a couple of weeks. I barely know him.”
Then why couldn’t I stop thinking about him? Why did it feel like the time we were apart it was hard to breathe, but once I saw him again, I found my lungs filled with air? No one got to me like this. Ever. What was wrong with me?
“I still vote sleep with him,” Ella said. “One and done.” She tilted her head, smirking behind her coffee cup. “Maybe one night and done,” she amended. “He looks like he can handle an entire night of non-stop frolicking.”
We all laughed, and I shook my head. “You did not just say frolicking.”
“My filter is firmly engaged,” she said. “School day and all that.”
“Right,” I said, sighing.
“What are you going to do?” Nora asked more seriously.
“I’m resolved to helping him,” she said. “He’s a good person, despite what the media is trying to make him out to be right now. He deserves help. Deserves to get his life back.”
“Holy shit,” Ella said. “You are falling for him!”
“I am not,” I chided her. “Your fourteen minutes is up.”
They laughed, taking their empty coffee mugs to my sink before heading toward the door. I held it open for them, leaning my head against the frame.
“Consider it,” Ella said, lingering in the hallway. “It may help clear your mind so you can really focus.”
“And I say wait,” Nora said, and Ella rolled her eyes but gave her an affectionate smile. “You’ll be done coaching him in another two and a half months, right?” she asked, and I nodded. “That’s not that long,” she continued. “If you’re still interested in him by then, that will be sign enough that he’s worth the try.” She shrugged. “But if you go with Ella’s advice, I’ll support you.”