Chapter 1
BRYAN
I tap my pen on my desk and look up at the clock. Anticipation and excitement flow through my veins when I see the time. Three fifty-five. My favorite time of day on Thursdays. I’ve been waiting for this since the moment she walked out of my office last week.
I’m a sick bastard for wanting this, but it’s getting harder and harder to care.
“Dr. Erikson,” my secretary’s voice sounds over the speaker, “your four o’clock is here.”
I press the button. “Send her in, Maryann.”
I exit out of the patient file I was looking over and close my laptop. After grabbing a white legal pad and pen, I get up from my desk and go sit on one of the leather arm chairs in the middle of my office. Another chair just like it sits opposite, with a round coffee table between the two. Usually, I sit behind my desk while my patients use the leather couch. Not with her though. I sit in this chair while she sits across from me. I like it this way. It gives me an unencumbered view of her.
There’s a light tap on my door before it swings open. Maryann steps to the side, the door at her back, and a woman walks past her into the room. I keep my eyes on Maryann for the moment, not yet ready to look at the stunning woman beside her.
“Thank you, Maryann.”
“If there’s nothing else you need from me today, I’m going to head out.” She looks down at her watch. “Bonny’s plane should be landing in about thirty minutes.”
“That will be all. Tell Bonny I said hello.”
“Will do. See you tomorrow.”
After she closes the door, I take my first look in a week at the silent woman before me. Just like every time I see her, she takes my breath away. Straight, midnight-black hair, almond shaped, light-blue eyes, and a naturally tanned body any man would fall to his knees to worship. Today she’s wearing a deep-blue, long-sleeved, silk shirt, tucked into a black, knee-length skirt and black heels.
“Good afternoon, Charlotte.” I gesture to the chair across from me. “Please take a seat.”
“How are you today, Dr. Erikson?” she asks, dropping her purse on the table before gracefully sitting down. Her skirt rides up her leg when she crosses them, showing the side of her thigh. It takes iron will to not look at that tempting sliver of skin.
“I’m fine.” I click my pen open and set it down on the notepad. “How has your week been going?”
She lifts a slender shoulder. “The same as usual.”
Her usual is not the same as most people. It’s the reason she’s been coming here every week for the past six months.
“I assume the exercises we spoke about last week didn’t work?”
“No. I tried, but the impulse was just too strong.” She traces an imaginary line on the arm of the chair, her gaze following the movement. “I’m afraid I may not want to curb them. I think I enjoy what I do too much.”
I tilt my head and regard her. “If that’s the case, then why are you here? These sessions are supposed to help you learn to overcome these cravings.”
When her eyes connect with mine, she gives me the look she’s given me on several occasions that always has my heart hammering in my chest and my dick growing painfully hard. It’s a look that suggests she wants something. Wants something from me.
She uncrosses her legs, and the second before she re-crosses them, I think I catch a hint of black in the shadow up her skirt. I quickly avert my eyes, gritting my teeth at the forbidden sight. I pick up my pen and pretend to write something down on the notepad.
Get your shit together, Bryan.
Instead of answering my question, she asks one of her own. “What about you, Doctor? Do you have any dark, secret cravings?”
Her question catches me off guard. I do have a dark craving. A secret I’ve had for the past couple of months. One she can never know about, because I could lose my medical license. Not to mention it could end with a big fat restraining order against me.
I look back at Charlotte, and my mouth goes dry. Her skirt has ridden up way too much, showing the black strap to her garter belt. Did she lift it higher on purpose, or does she not realize she’s damn near flashing me?
I laugh internally at the irony of that thought.
Fuck my life.
I clear my throat and meet her eyes. “We all have secret desires.”