Stare Me Down (Stare Down) Read Online Free

whispered, “I’m sorry.”
    “I’m not. You never answered me about Doctor Carmichael.”
    “Maggie means well enough.”
    “That’s what would have me concerned if I were you.”
    The phrase, “He’s your patient and you can’t screw another one up”, played over in her mind until she was calm and focused once more. Straightening her shoulders she took a deep breath and slowly let it out, saying, “Not to worry. I’m taking care of it.”
    “As well as you took care of the desk shim and the oscars?”
    There were a thousand things she could have said, the most prudent being, “It’s none of your damn business”, but the words didn’t form. Instead she found herself admitting, “I’ll do better with Maggie.” She didn’t add that she had to. Just the thought of what she’d eventually have to face there had her stomach tied in knots.
    “I find you interesting, Dr. Gavin.”
    “Oh?”
    “Yeah. I think for the last two sessions we should analyze each other.”
    “What?”
    He nodded. “Yes, you set up these extra sessions to learn more about me, but I’m afraid the only way you’ll do that is if we do a Hannibal Lector. Quid pro quo, what do you say? It makes sense, right?”
    “No.”
    His smile nearly blinded her. “Sure it does.”
    Heat‌—‌no, steam‌—‌fairly percolated beneath the surface. “I’m the therapist here. I’m supposed to be interested in you. It’s my job, even if I’m not feeling it, I have to…”
    Silence. Oh, God. All she heard was the tick of the clock which sounded like the ominous countdown to a bomb going off. She’d nearly admitted that sometimes she had to feign interest in some of her patient’s problems. Not his, certainly, but—
    “Yeah, that sentence wasn’t going to end well,” he whispered and searched her face so thoroughly her cheeks flushed in a hot and telling blush. She had to fight the urge to place her cooler palms against the searing skin.
    Unmindful of her mortifying predicament he tilted his head and asked, “Is this why those two other patients complained about you?”
    “How did you…?”
    “You see? I already have a head start on the analyzing. I heard you and Doctor Drago‌—‌I mean Maggie having words in the hall earlier. It seems I’m not the only one who needs this paperwork completed and handed in to the court.”
    “You were listening?”
    He shrugged. “No one asked me to cover my ears and being that the walls are paper thin and Doctor Carmichael frequently over-talks you, it was hard not to. In fact, I’ll let you in on a little secret.” He leaned forward and continued in a mock whisper, “Your little group has a betting pool started. The odds are fifty-fifty. One half is betting you’re going to quit the profession and the other half has money on you slaying the dragon and sending her straight to hell.”
    Jaxx should have been mad. Shocked. Moderately disturbed even, but she wasn’t. Truth was she was amused. The thought of a man like Ramsey Taylor being treated to her group of emotional misfits, as he called them, betting on something like this? Priceless. “And which way did you ante up?
    “I make it a habit never to bet. Literally that is. I work too hard for my money to piss it away like that. So.” He arched a brow at her. “Was it a case of you not feeling them that has you on the bubble?”
    “Of course not.”
    There was no getting around this guy. And hang Maggie and her interfering. On the bubble? Great, now Ramsey knew Jaxx needed to have him complete the mandated sessions to qualify her as a fulltime “court approved” therapist. Attaining that stature was a near impossibility, given that she was mostly dealing with highly emotional patients who thought nothing about taking their imagined complaints of her qualifications back to her case manager. Thanks to Maggie stepping in to “help” she already had two complaints filed against her. One more and she’d be turned down for good.