Stay in control.
His eyes flick down, just for a second, watching the way my throat moves as I swallow.
That's all he needs.
He moves to my side of the desk, getting close enough that I can smell the salt on his skin and a faint trace of sandalwood aftershave. The heat of his anger is in my aura, pushing and pulling my electromagnetic field like a frantic hate fuck.
“You’re not as together as you want people to believe.”
I pant unevenly, my cock swelling and straining painfully inside my boxers as he strokes a loose strand of hair over my shoulder.
“I bet it’s exhausting,” he breathes. “Keeping up the act, playing the perfect therapist who’s got it all figured out.”
The haze is getting darker, getting deeper.
I feel the adrenaline of being wanted. Of being hunted.
“You keep everyone at a distance. But deep down?” His breath brushes the sensitive skin behind my ear now.
“You’re fucking lonely.”
No.
No, no, no.
My pulse stumbles. There’s a whisper of skin contact, but it’s enough to fire things up inside me.
He’s waiting to see if I’ll run. But I can’t. The reckless, dangerous part of me wants to be caught. I want him to sink his teeth into my neck and devour me like a wolf under a full moon.
But at the same time, his words land somewhere I don’t let people reach.
He’s wounding me.
He sees it.
He presses the blade deeper.
“When was the last time you let someone in, Yosh? Not a friend. Not a colleague. Someone real.”
Suddenly, I’m the one bleeding out.
Then he does the unthinkable. He touches the onyx stone on my necklace, lifting it between his fingers off my chest.
I slam his hand away and push him aside.
I need air.
I need space.
I rush out of my studio.
“Hey!” Tom calls after me. “Did I strike a nerve, Doc? There you go, walking out on me again!”
I don’t bother to look back. The walls inside me are slamming shut, one after the other.
I hear Scots swearing, something I haven’t heard in years.
I push through the meditation garden, past the guest studios, past the swimming pool, and take the stairs down to the beach.
