Page 33 of Taming a Menace
“Oh, they’re grilled salmon wraps with a pineapple dressing. I made pita chips to go with it. Trying to watch my figure and shit.” I grinned.
“Sounds good,” she said before going back to work.
“You have no idea.”
I didn’t waste any time polishing off my food before picking the clipboard back up. Pride swelled my chest at the sound of crunching that didn’t come from me. I glanced up from the questionnaire long enough to see Iyla picking up another chip. I didn’t want to make her self-conscious, so I kept my attention on the prying ass questions these folks had on their form.
Have you ever experienced significant trauma or abuse? Have you ever been the victim of an act of violence? Didn’t thesepeople know I had been to prison? I knew the paperwork was generic but still. Some things went without saying.
How do you cope with stress? Cooking. I didn’t hesitate to answer that one. It was a no brainer. I could always count on my favorite thing in the world when I needed to decompress. Other questions required a little thought. For whatever reason, I wanted to put the right answers. I wasn’t sure if there were right and wrong answers, but if there were I didn’t have them. If I had the right answers, I probably wouldn’t be sitting in therapy.
“I was heartbroken,” Iyla said, breaking the silence in the room. “That’s why I didn’t give you my number. I didn’t feel like there was any way I could think about getting involved with someone else while my heart was still in tatters. I definitely wasn’t about to try to get involved with someone I slept with on the first night of meeting them. I don’t usually do that. I don’t do flings. I had only had sex with one man in the past five years. I don’t share my body with just anyone. I knew I had already set a bad precedent with you, so I didn’t want to go any further.”
“Fair enough. I just want you to know I’m not judging you for exercising basic human instincts. I still respect you as a woman. I’m going to prove that by taking this therapy shit seriously. I appreciate you for keeping me on. You didn’t have to do that. For that, I promise to play fair and behave like I said I would, no matter how hard it is.”
“Thank you, Mr. Glover. I appreciate that.”
“I get that your career is important to you. So is mine.”
“I’m glad we got that settled. If you’re done with your forms, that concludes our session.”
“Damn, time flies,” I said, standing and walking the clipboard over to her.
“It’s a little shy of an hour, but that was all I had for the day.”
“I’m sure you’re ready to go to lunch. I could hear your stomach growling from over there.”
And there it was. Her smile. My smile.
“Whatever. I was trying to cut you some slack, Mr. Glover. If you want to stay the full hour, feel free.”
“Telling me to stay in your presence longer isn’t a threat, Ms. Fisher.”
“It is if you’re someone who hates therapy,” she countered.
“You have a good point.”
“See you next Tuesday,” she said before putting her attention back on her computer screen.
“I’m looking forward to it,” I told her as I picked up my bag from the couch and left without looking back.
Looking back wasn’t good for either of us. Instead I left with the promise of seeing her again in a few days.
Seven
Iyla
Resisting Keywan was proving to be much easier said than done. In theory, I had no business getting involved with any of my patients outside of work. In theory, I would have been breaking all kinds of ethical rules just by seeing him. In someone’s mind, I would be abusing my client if we were to engage in a sexual relationship.
What if that sexual relationship had already begun prior to me seeing the patient? What if he was big, sexy, and dark chocolate? What if he smelled like a good black man with his shit together and exuded big dick energy with the package to back it up? What if I couldn’t forget the delicious way he stretched my walls to the limit and made me have back-to-back orgasms?
I thought that shit only existed in romance novels. Now I was fighting all the temptations at once. It was enough of a struggle to resist him before he came in declaring that he would no longer try to pursue me. I found that admirable. At the same time, it turned me on.
I had been having enough trouble not fantasizing about him as I pleasured myself to sleep every night since I’d left Wyatt. Now the man had made me lunch. I made the mistake of taking the lid off the food I was pretending not to want. Now I couldn’t get over the mouthwatering aroma of the salmon and pineapple combination.
If that weren’t enough, the man made me tiramisu. Fucking tiramisu! I almost burst into tears when I saw it. Had he remembered that it was one of my favorites? Of course he had. He didn’t even make a big deal of it or anything. He just put it on my desk like it was nothing.
A man like that deserved endless pussy and blow jobs. I would have given it to him too. Fuck my ninety-day rule and everything. I would have fucked him right on my desk, if only he weren’t my patient. Now I was left to suffer in silence.
