Page 64 of Holding Out

“Don’t go—”

She got up and hurried after him, out into the main lobby.

“Jed, wait—”

But he didn’t.Instead, he slammed the door in her face.

31

When Jed ran out of the study area, Becca on his heels, Griff almost ran too.

He’d been watching her as she worked with Jed.She’d been smiling.Lit up.Full of energy, leaning across the table, talking with her hands.She loved it.Anyone could see.

So when Jed ran—

Yeah, Griff had wanted to chase that kid down, snatch him by the scruff of the neck, and shake him.

Instead, he made himself sit still and finish up the lesson with his student, Hal.He made himself put a big fat bow on Charlemagne’s empire and send Hal away feeling like they’d made some progress.

Then he went out into the lobby and found her sitting in a chair in the waiting room, looking like—

Well, like her light had gone out.Like someone had doused her flame in cold water.

He was going to give Jed a piece of his mind the next time he saw him.About not appreciating what people were trying to do for him.About not appreciating a woman who really and truly had something to offer.

What he could do now, though, was try to help Becca see it differently.“Hey,” he said.“Don’t beat yourself up.Jed’s tough.”

“I thought I was getting through to him.”

“Tell me what happened.”

She told him.When she got to the part where Jed had told her, more or less, that she didn’t know what she was talking about, she looked at him with big, sad blue eyes that said,See?I’m stupid.Thanks for putting me in this position so that I could be humiliated, just like I said would happen.

You’renotstupid, he wanted to howl.

“He’s just pissed.You know how teenagers are.They get angry at themselves and take it out on everyone else.He lashed out to bring you down to where he was.You can’t let him get to you.”

She bit her lip.

He couldn’t help it, he reached out, touched her lip just below where the tooth dug in, and freed it.Rubbed his thumb back and forth.Leaned in, kissed her.

She accepted the kiss but didn’t return it.

“Hey.Him running away doesn’t mean you didn’t do a good job.He hasn’t even been willing to let anyone else help him yet, but he let you in.That’s something.”

“But now he’ll never come back.”

“Doubt that,” Griff said.“He’ll be back, because he’s not an idiot.He knows you’ve got something good to say to him.”

“But Idon’t,” Becca said.“I don’t know how to help him.”

“Youwerehelping him, just by listening to him and sharing what you know about struggling.And he’ll figure that out.”

She rolled her eyes.“Bet he won’t.”

“You want to bet?Fifty bucks—no.The best head you’ve ever had says he’ll be back, asking for you.”

She rewarded him with a dark blush, which won an answering surge of blood to his dick.

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