Page 37 of Done with You

“Nothing terrible.”

“Then you’ll have no problem telling me.”

She rolled her eyes again. “She told me about how she took Jordan to a hot yin yoga class, he farted, it stunk, so to make him feel less embarrassed, she farted, too, in solidarity. But then they ended up stinking up their whole corner of the studio, to the point where they made a dude start coughing. It was a whole thing. Jordan was not happy.”

Aiden’s eyes widened again, and his lips twitched. “That was it?”

Oona nodded. “That was it. I swear. I get giggly when I’m with my sisters. We haven’t always been close, but we’re working on that. And since Rayma and I are the youngest, she and I have a lot of little inside jokes and stuff.”

“Noticed you didn’t drink the wine last night.”

She shook her head. “If you weren’t here, I would have had a glass. But …”

“But what?” he rumbled, the timbre having the same affect on her like melted chocolate on a sun-kissed strawberry. He leaned in closer. So close, their noses practically touched.

“But, my wits and smarts can sometimes be affected when I’ve been drinking and I wanted to make sure I didn’t say,” or do, “anything that could …”

“That could?” Her pussy vibrated from his purr, as if he’d spoken while his lips were rested directly against her heated, damp flesh.

She swallowed hard and breathed out through thinly parted lips. “Compromise or add drama to this week for Rayma and Jordan.”

“You mean like the fact that you and I slept together, then you refused to help me.”

Sucking fortifying oxygen into her lungs, she placed both palms into the center of his chest and shoved him away. “I ethically can’t. I could lose my job.”

He rolled his eyes and scoffed. The look and sound far sexier, far more arousing, than it should be. But he was right there in front of her in nothing but a towel, smelling delicious and radiating everything she knew was wrong, bad. and off-limits, but wanted nevertheless.

Her muscles went rigid in frustration and she pressed her fingers to her forehead before dropping them to her thighs with a slap. She was annoyed with herself for being turned on and attracted to him, but that needed to come out in another way, and being pissed off at Aiden and his unbelievably thick skull was the way to do it.

“Are you really that self-absorbed that you can’t see past your own needs?” she asked, wrangling every last ounce of disdain she had for this man and holding onto it with both hands in tight fists. Because if she didn’t, she was going to throw caution to the wind, whip off his towel, and bend over.

“My own needs?” he said with indignation. “You’re just thinking about your career while holding mine hostage, because you can’t put one night where we used aliases and were not even therapist and client, aside, and do what’s right.”

Ooh, this man was infuriatingly dense. Why did the dense ones have to be so hot?

“What’s right? What’s right?” Her voice went up a couple octaves until she was on the south side of shrill. “If I lose my license to practice, if I lose my job, the fifty other clients I have right now would suddenly be without a therapist, not to mention all the future clients that I can help, will be trapped on waitlists for even longer. Not getting the help they sorely need. The help that I can give them. Did you think about that? No, of course not, because Aiden Lassiter doesn’t think about anybody but himself. My refusal to see you, based on ethics, based on a conflict of interest because we slept together, is bigger than just keeping you on the waitlist longer. In fact, that has nothing to do with it. I don’t want you to be on a waitlist. I feel bad for everyone that is stuck on one.

“But I had to refuse you treatment so that I could continue to help a lot of other people.” She plunked her hands on her hips. “And I happen to know that Astrid Kramer has agreed to start seeing you in the new year, so you’re really only waiting like three more weeks. And yet you still can’t get over it. It’s like you’ve never been told no before. And now that you have, you’re behaving like a toddler who was denied a second cookie for the first time in his life. I’m surprised you haven’t stomped your feet or thrown your body to the ground.”

Her chest rose and fell like she’d just done twenty minutes uphill on her elliptical. Her body was hot, and her temper was raging.

But it was nothing compared to the inferno that was staring back at her. Green flames danced in his eyes, and his defined chest expanded and deflated quickly, which caused his nostrils to flare like a bull preparing to charge. His chin jutted out, and the muscles and tendons strained from his neck. A quick glance down at his hands made her pulse spike. His fists were bunched and the veins and cords of his arms stood out like a map with three-dimensional topography. Valleys and ridges were broken up by planes dusted with soft, dark brown hair.

Despite the burning ire inside of her, she couldn’t deny how much she appreciated his beauty.

How much she was attracted to him.

Usually, people become more attractive when their personality was attractive. The two really did go hand-in-hand. But the more she got to know Aiden, the less she liked him. And she hoped that she’d eventually find him less attractive, too. But that simply wasn’t the case.

The man was a work of art.

A miserable, broken, hurt, and hurtful work of beautiful art.

“Just leave me alone and I’ll leave you alone,” she said, her shoulders dropping as the tension started to seep from her body. “I don’t want to do anything to cause Rayma or Jordan any extra stress. And this,” she pointed back and forth between them, “isn’t healthy for anyone. This is stressful. My cortisol-level is probably through the roof.”

She turned to head to her room, but found herself plastered back up against the wall, this time, he made sure he was touching her. One hand was on her hip, the other on the back of her head. “Think you’re better than me?” he asked. His words, his breath, stirred the strands of hair that had escaped her braid throughout the night. They stirred feelings deep down inside her she’d never experienced before.

Not with anyone.

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