Page 56 of Locke

“Same time next week,” I say, smirking down at her.“By my calculations, that will be my last session and then I’m done with you.”

She looks up at me, completely composed, pen still in hand, notepad on her knee.Like we just had a completely normal professional session.Like she didn’t just tell me she liked it too much when I made her orgasm.

“I’ll send you a calendar invite,” she says smoothly.

I walk out.

The door closes behind me and I stand in the corridor with my jaw tight and my dick semi-hard.

Jesus, she’s dangerous, and I don’t know if I’m smart enough to stay away from her.

I walk toward the ice.

I have practice in twenty minutes and I intend to hit someone very hard.

Chapter 18

Livia

TheLosAngelesskylinetwinkles brightly, and I watch it without any real appreciation as we take the team bus back to the hotel.

There’s a lot of exuberant chatter among the players after the stomping we just handed the Demons.I should be celebrating with them because I feel like I’m as much a part of this team as anyone and I’ve been welcomed as such.

But I’ve been distracted the last few days by how I left things with Locke.Or rather, how he left things before walking out of my office.The man has so far managed to kiss me into submission multiple times and then banged out a fast orgasm in his car that had me seeing stars.

And then he had the audacity to tell me that I’d be begging him for it at some point.

As if.

I’m feeling pressure, for sure.

Locke agreed to three sessions with me, and I’ve burned two of them already.The Thanksgiving dinner at my parents’ house gave me a start just by being able to observe him.The second session pulled back the curtain a little more.The Beacon Hill brownstone, the father who never came to a game, the mother who was simply absent and by all accounts, self-absorbed, the billet families he kept at a distance because he’d already learned the math of temporary attachments.

Two sessions, only one left, and I don’t know anything really.

And now Locke Donovan has gone silent on me.

I’ve sent him two emails and a text with a scheduling link to my calendar.He’s not responded, even though I can tell from the read-receipts he’s received them.He’s avoided me in the halls, in the locker room and the team plane, and I’m going to have to call him out on it.

I know what he’s doing.

I understood it as soon as I watched him walk out of my office with that stubborn set to his shoulders, the tight jawline, and the cold exit that told me he’s recalibrating while putting distance between what happened in those chairs.

What he said before he left doesn’t help.

I want you begging for it.

Is he simply trying to scare me off?

From a personal connection?

I don’t know.

The professional problem is straightforward.I have one session left to get what the team actually needs from him, which is not the childhood history I’ve accumulated, as useful as that is, but the real thing.The team trust issue.The reason Locke Donovan plays like a lone wolf.I’ve been circling around the outside of it for weeks and I know the shape of it, but I have so much to uncover in only one more session.

The personal problem is less straightforward.

The personal problem is that I sat in that chair two feet away from him and watched him give me things he doesn’t give anyone and felt a shift in me that remains resolutely stuck and unwilling to move.The man has managed to tear my entire nervous system apart with a few dirty words and hot touches, and I don’t think I’ve ever wanted someone as much as I want him.