Stare Me Down (Stare Down) Read Online Free Page A

She should have just signed the papers and been done with him. Curiosity be damned. Too late now.
    “All right. To get you to open up I’ll share a few things about myself, providing you sit on my couch and don’t try to analyze me.”
    “I don’t want to sit on your sofa .”
    She narrowed her eyes. “Lay on it then.”
    “With you?”
    She gasped. “I’m your doctor.”
    “I could make a very accommodating patient given the chance.”
    He winked at her, which was bad, but then what was worse? She blushed again and now he’d know she liked this kind of teasing. She had no business liking it. She was a professional for God’s sake.
    “I am your doctor.”
    “You’re good at that.” He was pointing at her face.
    “At what?”
    “Talking without moving your lips.”
    One minute she was melting and the next she was ready to scream. Rip her hair out. Stomp her foot maybe, but then he stood.
    “I’ll see you next Tuesday.”
    She blinked and twisted in the chair. “Where—?” The phone rang and she snatched up the receiver and slammed it down. Maggie could wait for once, “—are you going?”
    He was at the door and turned around. “Time’s up,” he said, tapping his watch.
    “Oh.”
    “I liked that,” he whispered, nodding toward the phone.
    Warmth raced through her and the pleasurable sensation landed right between her legs in a tingling thrill. She did her best to appear normal and unaffected by it. “See you next week, then?”
    “Yes, but now that I think about it, would you like to be surprised about the topics I want to cover in our next session when we analyze each other, or should I email you the list?”
    “List?”
    “No problem. I’ll send it along.”
    She stared at the closed door for a second and then looked around. What the hell just happened here? You got hijacked, that’s what .
    “Son of a bitch.”
    Getting up, she walked around her desk and put a hand to the leather chair back. It was still warm from him. How did the guy manage to get to her? Every single time? His cologne surrounded the space, and she went to breathe in deeply but caught herself. What was she doing? Sniffing around after him like a…‌a—
    “Careful, Jaxx,” she whispered and spun the chair out of her way. “He’s dangerous in more ways than one. You should have ignored your curiosity. Strangled it. Killed it. Not given into it by making him hang around you longer.” Yanking open the top drawer, she got out her cell and dialed the number as she walked to the fish tank.
    “Tropical Sea aquarium service,” a voice trilled over the line.
    “Yes, I need to speak to someone about some fish. Oscar fish.”
    *****
    Aries examined the collar. It looked beautiful against her flawless skin. He’d been smart to use a combination of metals. Although the design looked lacey and elegant, feminine, it was in truth a weighty reminder that she belonged to him. Drawing his index finger over the gold, silver and copper threads that knitted together in a complex web design, he smiled when she shivered.
    She was warm, and the scent of her desire rode the short space between them, filling him with a satisfaction he hadn’t experienced in a very long time. He slipped two fingers under the metal and tugged against the band. Pulling until her head was forced back. He wanted her features out of the shadows, but the lighting changed and the ropes that held her in place tightened. The slight shift in position gave him a better view of her back. That expanse of skin was bathed in a pearly-white glow that highlighted the marks he’d made. The swirls of dusky pink impressions his flogger had meted out. Such a nice pattern.
    He leaned down and kissed her shoulder. Then the center of her spine as his hand trailed down that solid line of her vertebra. Testing the texture of her skin. Chasing the prickles of gooseflesh away with the warmth of his palm. Until he reached her bottom. He wasn’t gentle as he massaged her ass.