Author: Jaci Burton

He rolled his eyes. “Fine. What do you want to talk about?”

“What happened earlier. In the workout room.”

“Nothing happened. You made it clear you didn’t want anything to happen. I’m no rocket scientist, Alicia, but I hear the word no when it’s stated.”

“Okay. That’s good, and I appreciate it.”

“But you know as well as I do that the no from your lips isn’t what your body is telling you.”

She shuddered in a breath. “What I want and what I’m going to have don’t have to be mutually inclusive. I’m your therapist. This is my job. You’re my patient. Your recovery is paramount. Getting involved with each other would alter our client/patient relationship and might end up hurting both of us—professionally and personally.”

He stretched out on the sofa, looking lazily sexy. “We don’t have to get ‘involved,’” he said, using air quotes around the word. “But we can ease some tension and have fun at the same time.”

“I take sex very seriously, Garrett.”

He pushed off the sofa, coming over to her side. His breath was warm on her cheek as he tucked one of her curls behind her ear. “Oh, believe me, Alicia. So do I.”

Oh, God. She shouldn’t have said that. “That’s not what I meant.”

His gaze roamed over her face, his eyes meltingly sexy, his lips just a fraction of an inch from hers. “Then tell me what you meant.”

She swallowed, her throat so dry she could barely speak. Her heart pounded so hard she could barely hear, her carefully formed list obliterated by Garrett’s close proximity. She laid her hand on his chest to push him away, but the solid feel of him tempted her in ways she could no longer deny. She clutched his shirt in her hand instead, her nails digging into that solid wall, testing and teasing. She wanted to scrape her nails across his bare skin as he pounded relentlessly into her.

“Alicia.”

His voice, his breath, whispered across her cheek.

She lifted her head to look at him, moistened her lips, and like an animal tracking prey, his gaze followed.

“I love my job, Garrett. I won’t do anything to jeopardize it. You know what the risks are for both of us if we get involved.”

“I would never do anything to jeopardize your job. If this isn’t what you want, I’ll back away.”

“You have to think about your career, about your recovery.”

His gaze narrowed. “I’m so fucking tired of thinking about it. It’s all I’ve thought about for months. I want to shut it down for a while and think about something else, like holding a beautiful woman in my arms.”

Alicia shuddered. Torn between knowing she shouldn’t and wanting him so badly she vibrated with the need for him, she didn’t know what to do.

She swallowed, her whole body consumed with hunger for him. She was tired of this battle she had no hope of winning. The only option was surrender.

“Dammit, Garrett.”

He cocked a brow. “Is that a yes or a no?”

She fisted a handful of his shirt and hauled him closer. “Kiss me.”

 

 

FIFTEEN

“I’LL TAKE THAT AS A YES.”

Tight with tension, Garrett breathed a sigh of relief, then took her mouth in a kiss he felt like he’d been waiting months for.

Her lips were sweet and moist and he sank into the kiss, sliding his tongue between her lips to taste her.

She tasted like wine and chocolate—sweet and sexy, just like he knew she’d be. His cock sprang to life, hardening as he pulled Alicia across him, folding her into his arms to deepen the kiss.

Her body was perfect against his. He’d been dying to touch her, to run his hands over her hips and legs. She’d changed from her jeans into a pair of cotton shorts, and her thighs were buttery smooth as he caressed her. Garrett wondered if her chest was as tight as his, if she found it as hard to breathe as he did.

He never went crazy over a woman. He liked them, and he loved having sex with them. Fortunately, there were always plenty of women around, and he was lucky enough not to have to work hard to get one into his bed. That was mostly due to the allure of his career and his success, and he knew it. But Alicia was something different, and she had been since the first day he’d noticed her in the pack of therapists all claiming to know what was best for him. Despite the ugly uniforms, he’d picked her out, liked her smart mouth, and being with her the past few weeks had only increased his desire for her.

And now that he had her in his arms and she was winding her hands in his hair, moaning as he rubbed his lips against hers? Yeah, that was the jackpot.

That she was torn about doing this with him only ratcheted up his desire for her. It was wrong that her internal battle fed his hunger, and he knew it, but there wasn’t a goddamn thing he could do about it. He wanted her, and she’d said yes. Unless she changed her mind, he was going to touch and kiss and lick every inch of her tonight, because short of his goal to return to the pitcher’s mound, she’d been all he’d been thinking about.

She shifted, and her scent wound around him. Whatever it was she showered or shampooed with drove him crazy, and whenever they worked together he found some way to breathe deeper. She sifted her fingers through his hair, letting her nails massage his scalp as she leaned into the kiss, her breasts rubbing against his chest.

Her touch was a magic balm to his sore shoulder, and every ache seemed to melt away when she laid her hands on him. He knew the difference between a medicinal touch and one meant for sex, and when Alicia touched him now, there was a tenderness that had nothing to do with therapy.

Or maybe she’d always had that magic touch, and he’d been so wrapped up in his own head he’d never noticed. All he knew was he shared some kind of connection with her. Maybe that was basic chemistry. He didn’t want to define it. He just went with it, and what he knew was he liked her hands on him, in whatever way she touched him.

He pulled away, loving the way her eyes had changed. She was always so . . . in control. Now, her eyes were half lidded, drowsy from passion, and her lips were plump from kissing. Her hair was messy, and desire was written all over her face. She had no control now, and he liked her that way.

If someone could bottle that look and sell it on the open market, they would make billions, because nothing could rev a guy up faster than a woman who looked at a guy the way Alicia looked at him now. She made his balls tighten, and he wanted to throw her down on the sofa and bury his cock deep inside her until she screamed his name.

“Change your mind yet?” he asked, rimming her bottom lip with the pad of his thumb.

She shook her head. “No.”

“Good. Because we’re all in now, so if you want to stop, now would be the time to tell me.”

She let out a soft sigh. “Don’t stop.”

He drew the strap of her tank top off her shoulder, then the other, leaving them at her elbows. There was something about a half-dressed woman he found so sexy. He leaned in and pressed a kiss to the side of her neck. She shuddered.

“Cold?” he murmured against the soft column of her throat.

“No. Just keep doing that.”

“This?” he asked, flicking her earlobe with his tongue.

“I’m pretty sure I’m going to like anything you do with your mouth.”

He growled out a laugh. “I hope so, because my mouth is going to be all over your body tonight.”

She held tight to his shirt, clinging to him like she was afraid she was going to fall. He liked that he could drive her crazy.

And they hadn’t even started yet. But they were about to. He kissed his way across her shoulder, taking a little nip out of her skin, feeling the goose bumps pop up there. He was unable to resist a smile. Her body was so responsive; he couldn’t wait to get to all the good parts.

He drew her tank top down. Her breasts were contained in a very hot black and pink satin bra that made his cock tighten. A matching checkered bow sat in the center of the bra.

He lifted his gaze to hers. “My guess is the panties match.”

She looked down at him and graced him with a wicked half smile and a nod.

“Let’s take a look.” He dropped to his knees and grabbed her shorts, then pulled them off, sitting on his heels to admire the view.

“Wow.”

“Stop it,” she said.

“Alicia. You’re beautiful.”

Especially when she got those two bright spots of color on her cheeks, adding to the overall effect of her slender body, small breasts, and beautiful long legs. Her dark hair, a little mussed, spilled over her shoulders, one curl teasing her right breast. He spread her legs and nudged between them, easing closer so he could play with that curl, teasing the swells of her breasts with it, watching them rise and fall with her heaving breaths. And when he bent to kiss the mounds, she let out a short gasp.

He lifted his head, studied her. She was breathing rapidly. “How long has it been for you?”

She took her bottom lip between her teeth, obviously deciding whether or not she wanted to tell him.

“About a year.”

He arched a brow. “That’s a long time.”

“I’ve been busy.”

He laid the heel of his hand against her pussy. Her mouth opened, and she moaned. “You should never be too busy to have sex.”

“I didn’t say I haven’t had an orgasm.”

He rubbed his thumb over her clit, soaking in her soft moan. “Giving them to yourself isn’t the same as having someone do it for you.”

“Don’t I know it.”

“I’ll take care of you tonight, Alicia. I’ll give you as many as you can stand.”

* * *

OH, GOD. GARRETT WAS GOING TO KILL HER, AND SHE was going to be dead before she could ever come. The way he talked to her in that low, sexy voice, making promises about giving her orgasms . . . She could die on the spot. Or just climax from his voice alone.

She pushed aside all reservations, that annoying voice in her head that told her they should be concentrating on Garrett’s recovery, that she was being unprofessional. She’d likely suffer a major guilt crisis—tomorrow.

Tonight, she was going to have him, though right now he was having her, drawing circles over her sex with his fingers. And he hadn’t even taken her panties off yet. Her body pulsed and she lifted her hips, arching toward the center of that pleasure.

All he had to do was keep rubbing her, and she’d come. It would be so easy. She was pent up and ready. After all, she’d been thinking about him, fantasizing about him, aching for him. It wouldn’t take much to send her right over the edge. Her body was an inferno, a tight knot of pent-up nerve endings just waiting to burst. A few caresses from his magic fingers and she’d get there.

Instead, he moved his hands over her hips, her belly, the intensity only getting worse as he rested his fingers on her rib cage, his gaze roaming over her body as if he’d never been with a woman before, when she knew damn well that wasn’t the case. But she had to admit, she liked the way he looked at her. It caused her breasts to swell and her sex to coil with need.

And when he rolled his hands over her breasts, she bowed back, offering them to his questing hands.

With one deft move, he released the clasp at the front of her bra and pulled the cups aside, baring her.

“So pretty,” he said, leaning forward to take one bud between his lips.

Watching her nipple disappear in his mouth was torture, the sensation arcing like hot lightning between her legs. She tingled all over, and she never did that.

Then again, she never did a lot of things, like fantasize about a man, invade his privacy by watching him get off, or jeopardize a patient’s recovery by getting personally involved. And she’d done—was doing—all of those things. It was like she was in some other woman’s body, a body she’d lost all control over.