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I held his hardened glare, gloating internally at the frustrated glimmer in his dark eyes. “I apologize if I’ve made you uncomfortable, Ms. Roberts,” Josh finally murmured, his anger seeming to bubble just beneath the surface like a pot of simmering water as he relinquished control of the situation.
We’re making progress already, I thought haughtily to myself.
I rewarded this good behavior with a smile and hummed, “Thank you. Now that that’s been settled, I’d like to know what your goals are for your treatment here so that we can work as a team to ‘get you back up and running.’” Rising from my seat, I came to stand beside him again, looking directly down my nose at the man I’d made to eat his words.
Josh returned my expression coolly and with a barely-there flicker of his eyes over my body—an action which made my stomach flutter—he began describing his knee-related aspirations.
Joshua
I remained cordial for the rest of my appointment, hiding any annoyance I still felt over the slipup earlier. Clearly, Amelia was not the kind of woman I could flirt with shamelessly and I had been ready to accept that the moment I saw her eyes widen at my comment.
And I would have, readily, if she hadn’t turned it into a lecture. All my adult life, I’d been the one with power in the relationship—even with Laila—and to have it wrestled from me by thisgirlwas irritating. She’d even rubbed my face in my loss by standing over me triumphantly as we discussed what I wanted done during this nine-month treatment.
It was exhilarating.
When I first met her, Amelia seemed more benign in person than she appeared in her impish profile picture and I’d felt a twinge of disappointment. But now that I knew the woman I’d set my eyes on shared my temperament, I couldn’t wait to match her wit again.
I scheduled my next appointment for the following week with anticipation, the memory of her touch still fresh in my left hand, and I breathed deeply as I hobbled out onto the sidewalk, desperate to catch a whiff of her perfume again.
My heart hadn’t beat as wildly as it had in Amelia’s office since the first few years of my marriage with Laila and I had to lean against the building to calm myself. Pride wouldn’t allow me to give in so easily to Amelia’s firm hand, no, I would have to show her the strength of my will and give her a reason to finally yield to me.
On the ride home, I called Anthony to let him know the good news. His distracted voice crackled over the speaker, “Anthony Carlisle speaking.”
“Tony! It’s Josh! How are you?”
“Hey man! I’m fine, but how are you doing? I heard about your accident, dude—fuckin’ crazy, right? I tried to call you initially, you were always asleep or in surgery so I figured I’d just wait till you got back,” Anthony said hurriedly, as though he had to apologize for not reaching me sooner.
I laughed. “Don’t worry about it. Everything’s okay except for my knee, but I’ve just met the perfect person who’ll fix it.” The playfulness in my tone must have given something away because Tony sighed as though he knew exactly what I was about to say.
“Let me guess—she’s a pretty, young thing who doesn’t put up with your shit? A physical therapist or chiropractor or something?”
“Her name is Amelia and she’s wonderful,” I added dreamily, ignoring Anthony’s chuckle of disbelief. “I really think something could come out of this, Tony.”
I could practically hear him mentally listing the reasons why it couldn’t and was grateful when all he said was, “That’s great to hear, Josh. I never thought a guy like you would find love again.”
It was hard to argue with that statement given my natural temperament and everything with Laila, and I was about to tell him I’d call him later when Anthony murmured, “Just keep it on the down-low, okay? I don’t think the press would continue to write positively about you if they found out you’ve moved on without the divorce being legally finalized.”
“Fair point,” I acquiesced. Thinking of the story I’d read this morning about Anthony and Iliana which featured a picture of them stumbling drunkenly out of a bar, I joked, “How are things with you and Iliana?”
“They’re good,” Anthony mused, seemingly just as eager to change topics as me. “Did you see that half-page article on us from last weekend?”
Joshua
When I got home, I shambled into the guest room which had been designated as my temporary bedroom since I couldn’t use the stairs in crutches. My small household staff had offered extra assistance while I was injured, but I had waved them off and said I’d try to be as little trouble as possible.
Settling onto my makeshift bed to take off my shoes, I found myself wondering what Amelia really thought of me. Her behavior this afternoon suggested that she at least found me intriguing, which was a good start, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that Amelia genuinely disliked me for something other than the comment I’d made.
Running a hand through my hair, the light-brown strands now speckled with gray, I ran through the entire encounter again to make sure I hadn’t missed something. To my recollection, I’d been as charming as possible from the start, too enamored with the possibility of Amelia to do much else.
After setting my crutch to the side, I let myself fall back on the bed, feeling like a lovesick teenager again.
Chapter Five
Amelia
I sat in the less-than-lively morning traffic on my way to my second meeting with Josh. My fingers rapped against my dashboard, tapping along to an imaginary beat, as I mentally prepared myself to deal with him for an hour.
After that initial visit where I had laid down my boundaries, I thought Josh understood our relationship, but I was about to be proven wrong—
