Bottom line? No harm, no foul. Everything would be all right if he stuck to the plan, stayed the course, and didn’t think about his therapist in that light.
In soft light. Unbuttoned. Tousled. Falling apart. Under him.
Chapter 11
Dylan always arrived at her office using the door reserved for occupants only and the elevator that accessed her privacy exit. This morning, as she stepped off the elevator on the sixth floor, she was searching the bottom of her shoulder bag for her key ring, so she didn’t see Mitch standing just to her left until she ran into him.
Hands raised and patting the air, he said, “Don’t freak out.”
Oh, God, no. Not yet. It was too soon to see him again after last night.
She would have had to face him tomorrow at his scheduled appointment, but by then she’d have had time to decompress. While in her bath, she had resolved to regard him only as a patient and reestablish the balanced, ordered life she led.
That resolution hadn’t yet gained traction. She’d slept restlessly, and morning had brought its own round of upsets. She discovered she’d failed to charge her phone overnight. Each stepof her two-mile jog had felt like she was slogging through quicksand. Her hair dryer had blown a fuse.
Nowhim. She was certain he had banked on catching her unexpectedly and alone in this rarely used hallway. Once again he had caught her unprepared to see him, and that made her furious, which she made no effort to hide.
“When someone tells you not to freak out, it’s usually because they sense that you’re on the verge of it.”
“Are you?”
“Never,” she snapped.
“Honestly? Never? Huh.”
She ignored his feigned bafflement. “Mitch, you must stop just showing up like this. It’s—”
“Against the rules. I know, I know.”
“Then why are you here?”
“I didn’t know how else to reach you.”
“By phone?”
“I tried. I called the emergency number on your business card. Twice. Both times I got this infernal,eternalrecording about your charges per quarter hour for unscheduled counseling by telephone.” He quoted, “‘If it’s a life-threatening episode—’”
“Isthis a life-threatening episode?”
“Can you be more specific?”
“Is it or not?”
“Well, depends, doesn’t it? It’s life-threatening to take the ramp onto the expressway. To pull your socks on while standing up. To eat sushi at a truck stop that sells live bait.”
She gave him a droll look. “I won’t play your straight man.”
“You should at least give it a shot. You might be good at it.”
When she didn’t return his goading grin, he exhaled heavily.“Okay, no more joking. I really did need to talk to you as soon as possible this morning, and intercepting you was the only way I knew to go about it.”
Reminding herself to think of him only as a patient in need of psychological help, she dialed down her annoyance. “If you genuinely feel an urgency to talk to me today rather than wait until tomorrow, call the office number.” She checked her wristwatch. “Ellie is due in ten minutes. I’ll tell her to work you in. For now, you’ll have to excuse me.”
She sidestepped, but he did the same to block her. They kept up that dance until he said, “Bowie put a patrol officer on my tail last night.”
She stopped her efforts to go around him. “Why did he do that?”
“Yesterday, when I learned that you hadn’t told John aboutthe kiss, essentially giving me no choice except to continue our sessions, he and I had words, and I left headquarters in a huff.”
