Page 49 of Color of Love

“What are two things you can smell?”

That was easy, it was her. He smelled her this whole time, her scent forever branded in him. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, getting the full hit. His jeans tightened over his crotch, and he inhaled again, reveling in the delectable scent of her.

“Vanilla and chocolate,” he replied gruffly. There was a pause, and he opened his eyes to find her staring at him. Her cheeks slightly pink, she seemed to drift off somewhere, her eyes getting a faraway look before she came back to herself with a small jolt.

“What is one thing you can taste?” she asked, her voice slightly huskier. He blinked at the sound of it and tried to force himself to focus on the question and not on the sinful lips that had formed it. He couldn’t taste anything except mint from his toothpaste. What he was dying to taste was her, but she didn’t think she would appreciate that response.

“Mint,” he answered eventually.

“And you’re done!” she cheered and clapped her hands. His lips twitched at how adorable she was. “It’s not very difficult but it requires focus and attention. Having to think about everything to list will distract your brain from what it’s trying to do, it disrupts the pattern of the attack,” she explained. “It’ll take some practice. It’s hard to train your mind and we want you to get to a point where you’ll be able to recall quickly, but don’t be discouraged by setbacks.”

He had reservations. He knew what he was like when he had an attack—nothing could break him out of it—hell, he’d been trying to do that for years. It sounded like a good technique, but he didn’t know how successful he would be at implementing it and didn’t want to disappoint her.

“So, let’s go again and start from the top,” she said.

They spent the rest of the session going over it again and again. She pushed him to come up with different answers each time and he got frustrated, growling, and snapping at her the more exhausted he became. But by the end, he felt a little…calmer? Like he’d been armed with a weapon for the next attack, that was how she put it. He found it sweet that she put it in a context that would speak to him and that he would understand.

When she walked him to the door to say goodbye, he was so desperate to kiss her that he had to clench his fists to stop himself from reaching for her. He knew she wanted to remain professional here and he could at least give her that after essentially blackmailing her.

He said goodbye and left her office feeling lighter than he had for a while, all thanks to her. The only problem was his old insecurities rearing their head. He’d let his guard down, he had been vulnerable and weak. He didn’t want her seeing him like that and needed to work out how to reset the boundaries.

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