Page 68 of The Wedding Pact

I shouldn’t let her distract me like this. I have things I need to keep a close eye on. So, with a huge effort of will, I put both hands onto her hips to still her movement. ‘But I can’t do this right now.’

She mock-pouts. ‘Spoilsport.’

‘I know.’

Folding her arms and clearly not intending to budge off my lap, she asks, ‘I have a question. Why don’t you think you deserve a day off?’

‘I don’t think it’s about deserving it.’

‘Why don’t you allow yourself time off then? What’s driving you so hard, do you think?’

‘I want to succeed.’

‘Doesn’t everybody?’

‘Not like I do. I’m a special case.’

She nods, then leans down and kisses me gently on the lips.

‘What was that for?’ I ask.

Her grin is wide. ‘I’ve always had a weakness for troubled souls.’

‘Yeah?’

‘Yeah.’

‘What is it that you find so attractive about them?’

‘They always seem to have this crazy kind of sexual energy,’ she says with conviction.

‘Interesting,’ I say, rubbing my thumbs across the tops of her hipbones.

I feel her shiver with delight and my cock gets even harder.

Dammit.

‘Why do people choose the partners they do, do you think?’ I ask, trying to bring the mood back to chatty banter, so I can find a way to persuade her to leave me be for a while and let me keep on working.

Which is going to be hella difficult when I’m so wound up and turned on.

‘Well.’ She fixes me with a serious expression, as if she’s about to give a lecture. ‘Freud had a theory called repetition compulsion. Apparently, we choose partners who act in a way we found challenging when we were young – usually behaviour we found tough from a parent or someone we were close to. We then spend our time with that new person trying to resolve whatever we weren’t able to get a handle on or solve in our youth. Hopefully the benefit being that this time we’re in a safer environment, with someone who’s equal to us and who’s prepared to support us on our journey of self-discovery and help us heal our damaged soul.’

‘Whoa. That’s heavy. Where did you hear that?’

‘I read about it. Probably online somewhere. I’m a fount of useful information.’

‘So it seems.’ I nod slowly. ‘Interesting. So, I’m destined to get together with someone who’s going to constantly put my needs second to theirs, or just disappear on me out of the blue?’

She frowns at that. ‘If that’s your childhood trauma, then yes. I guess so. It depends whether you put much store in Freud’s theories. They do have some flaws, I feel.’

‘Doesn’t everything?’

‘True.’

‘And what about you?’ I ask her.

‘I guess I’ll be going for someone that’ll never give me the attention I crave and will constantly bugger off and leave me to deal with whatever crisis I’m going through on my own.’