“Should I bother if she has a preference?”
“Are you assuming she does?” Now she has no trouble meeting my gaze. “Or do you have some kind of proof?”
Again, I open my mouth and nothing comes out. Because I don’t have proof. Just a feeling that if Lief offered her a relationship, she’d take it. If Chase offered her a week-long vacation, she’d jump at the chance. And if I asked for one date … I’d get turned down.
We continue talking about the importance of building intimacy, trust, and how to support and nurture a relationship of any kind, the right kind of wording to use, until I feel like a grade school student again.
I can tell when our time is done because she gets up, presses a few things on the computer, and lets her hair down.
“We’re off the clock now?”
“Professional office,” She warns.
“Then I’ll see you outside, Dr. Sexy.”
When she finally comes out, I’m leaning on her car, biting my thumbnail. I feel so agitated lately, like some kind of storm is about to make landfall and fuck everything up, wash her, my brother, everything I hold close right into the ocean beyond my reach.
“Hunter.” She sighs. “Please be careful talking about me in our sessions. It’s already a gray area for me to be treating you.”
“Then answer your phone when I call,” I bite out.
She looks around and rubs the back of her neck. “I’m trying to come to terms with everything, but I can’t do that if I’m watched all the time if I have no privacy. I’m going to go insane.”
“I want you safe, Valerie. I don’t care if you hate me right now as long as you’re alive and stay that way. I can take it. Make me the bad guy, just let me make sure you’re safe,” I insist.
She meets my eyes and softens. “I … I don’t want you to make you the bad guy. I want you to be the good one. I meant what I said in there.”
“Do you prefer Lief or Chase?”
“I feel like I know them better. Lief tries to open up to me, Chase is an open book, and you refuse to let me in unless we’re in a counseling session, which are getting progressively less productive.”
“Let me take you on a date.”
“Ask me on a date and I might.” She says back. “Don’t order, ask.”
I take a slow breath, already frustrated with her. She’s being difficult, she’s so unbothered by our lack of sex or touch or anything else, and now she’s monitoring my tone. Running my fingers through my hair, I close the distance between us and take her hand.
“Would you like to go on a date with me? A private dinner and movie.”
She arches her eyebrow, holds my gaze. “No sex?”
“Not unless you want it, Dr. Sex-police.”
She rolls her eyes, but I see her fighting the smile. “It sounds surprisingly dull. I’m in.”
“Tomorrow night.”
“Lucky you, I’m a good student who doesn’t make weekend plans,” She teases. “Need my address?”
“Very funny.”
“Well be careful, I have these twootherstalkers that are pretty picky about keeping me in one place.” She sticks her tongue out and it’s the last straw.
I drag her against me, pinning her between my body and the car. “Your sass ruins my control. You know that?”
She pants as she takes in our new position. “Hunter.”
“It makes me want to kiss you, makes me want to devour you and please you until you forget how wicked you are,” I growl.