Nose wrinkling, Kenna glanced at a sticky note adhered to the corner of the computer monitor. “Mrs. Felvus called and insisted on having her appointment moved up. Hers isn’t for another month and a half, but you’re booked solid for the next two weeks.”
“And did you tell her that?”
“No, I didn’t think it was in good taste to deliver bad news over the phone from a psychiatrist’s office. I told her I’d consult with you and get back with her this afternoon.”
Dayton leaned against the wall, hands slipping inside his pockets. “How professional.”
Professional. He’d made peace with that label and yet in spite of his forced gentlemanly behavior it was the last thing he wanted to be. She wore a dress, a form of clothing he had rarely seen her in. Tiny red flowers were printed all over the black fabric. A scooped neckline without showing an excess of skin.
Leave it to Kenna to make modesty seem teasing.
“Thanks?” Her brows pulled in. “What should I tell Mrs. Felvus?”
She crossed her legs and the motion hiked up the skirt of her dress to reveal more of her thigh. His focus was drawn to that smooth expanse, a visual reminder of the night she spent in his bedroom. Those legs had locked around him with startling strength.
A strength he’d long underestimated.
He ignored the dilemma with Mrs. Felvus.
“Special occasion today?”
It wasn’t what he wanted to say, but he thought Kenna could do without being hit on in the workplace; especially one in which she had a complicated romantic history with her employer but, god, she was beautiful and he burned to tell her so. He bit his tongue, awaiting her reply.
“Sort of. I had a group presentation in Personality Assessment.”
“I miss hearing about your classes.”
A hard smile ironed itself onto her face. “Last I checked, bullshit isn’t on the schedule today, Dayton. You don’t care one bit about my life.”
He stiffened as rage coiled around his ankles, ready to strike. If only she knew.
The problem was that he could not stop caring.
Why else did she suppose he’d hired her? Oh yes, her entirely useless threat of blackmail.
Dayton abandoned his post on the wall, shoulders squared, muscles tense. His jaw ached from its clench. “You’ll address me as Dr. Merino while we’re in this practice,Miss O’Callaghan.”
She rose slowly, with purpose, and came up to him. Heat spread within him as Kenna searched his face, lingering on the scar cutting across the hollow of his cheek.
“I don’t think so, and if you think you can speak to me in that manner, you’re sorely mistaken.”
With her this close, the bite of her spewed words and sumptuous curl of her lips begged Dayton to sin.
Her sweet breath, that gentle fire, swept over his skin. The heat in his core turned blistering and he yearned to pin her to the wall and remind her of what they once had. But he had learned his lesson. He wouldn’t scare her away again.
Frames of conflicting emotions reeled across her face.
His open palm cradled the back of Kenna’s head and their lips met. To his surprise, hers moved against his. No restraint. Her mouth remained cloistered during the exchange but he did not mind. Excitement hummed through his veins like a narcotic every second she allowed him to feel the soft caress of her lips.
Though she denied him a taste, he smelled the toothpaste on her breath. Tea tree oil. Vanilla. The scents that haunted him in his office and they were resurrected as a part of his life as he threaded his fingers in her hair and silently vowed to never again let her go.
His darling lamb had come home.
He was hardwired on her, tuned out from anything else. The chiming of the security system’s digital bell as the door opened escaped his notice.
A voice soon broke them apart.
“Oh, dear. I’ll call and reschedule.” The woman, who looked as mortified as Dayton felt, turned on her heel and scurried out onto the street.