Taylor laughed again. “Ew! That’s Oak! He’s our brother.”
“Right, our brother,” Evie said and patted his chest before pushing away to stand on her own two feet again. “Go get your purse, Tay, honey, and lock your door so the creepy clerk can’t jerk off on your chair again.”
His sister blushed but giggled as she swept out of the office. Evie grabbed his tie and started for the door, pulling him with her. “Creepy clerk? Who’s jerking off on her chair? What the hell is—”
“Shh,” she said, closing the door and putting her back to it to pull him down for a kiss.
Ok, he’d argue with her about that in a minute.
“Taylor was upset, that’s why we had a drink,” she murmured, turning her face to push higher to deepen their next kiss. Although she was buzzed, she didn’t quite seem as drunk as she had a second ago. “Ethan called her, said he was laid off and they lost the venue for the wedding…”
“You put me to work,” he said, flattening his hands on the door because he didn’t trust himself not to touch her like he wanted to; Taylor would be back any second. “His car’s being repossessed this afternoon and he’s going to lose his apartment deposit when his lease isn’t renewed at the end of the month.”
Preoccupied with his mouth, Evie’s hands climbed higher up his tie. “Very difficult to keep my clothes on,” she whispered and tugged him down to slide her tongue into his mouth.
They were a good team. He could take care of the practicalities while she nurtured Taylor who was oblivious to what was going on behind the scenes. “If you want to come over later—”
“Taylor wants me to do her hair,” Evie said, and when her hands slid away from his tie, they snaked to loosen his fly.
“Oh, hey, honey,” he said, pulling his hips back to zip up again. She tugged his tie and pressed her mouth to his even though he wasn’t prepared for her kiss. “Taylor will be back any minute.”
“I can’t come over to yours later. You’re meeting your future wife tonight,” she said, rubbing her hands up his chest over his shoulders beneath his jacket.
“What the—shit, the mixer… Are you going?”
Her shoulders bobbed up, and she laughed. “Oh, baby… Lana, you’re meeting Lana tonight.”
“So you’re staying home to do Taylor’s hair?” he asked, kind of returning her kiss, but his eyes stayed open as he thought about tonight from her perspective. “Does it bother you to see her and me together?”
“It would bother me less if you let me touch your dick when I wanted to,” she said, digging her nails into his shoulders. “Are you keeping it for her?”
Evie was still laughing. Her eyes stayed closed as she joined her mouth to his, but he took her chin and put some space between them to look at her. If she was tipsy, she might be honest.
“Are you worried about me falling for her?”
Searching his gaze for a second, she didn’t say anything. “Can I get back to you on that?”
“Back to me—why?”
“I’m going to see Noel this afternoon,” she said, looking at her watch again then easing him aside to go over to her desk.
Closing her laptop, she slid it into her leather briefcase, then bent to pick up her purse.
“Noel?” he asked. “Do you want me to come with you?”
Shaking her head, she picked up the coffee mug on her desk to gulp down what was left in it. “No,” she said, putting the mug down. “I need a solo session.”
“To talk about us?”
Smiling, she came over and put a hand on his chest. “Yes, my egotistical lover, to talk about us.”
It might be arrogant of him, but Oak also felt it was important to acknowledge that he was a big development in her life and one that she’d use her therapist to help process. “But you will schedule a session for us to talk to him together, right? You’re not going to let him break us up without giving me a chance to put my case to the guy.”
“He told me not to have more sex with you and how did that work out for you?” she asked and bounced up to kiss him quickly. “Noel knows I’m not easy to control.”
She started for the door, but he caught her hand to take it to his lips for a kiss. “Do you want me to drive you over there?”
“I want you to take Taylor home. I want you to make her strong coffee and I want you to listen to her.”
“Listen to her?” he asked. “You…” He figured it out. “She’s making excuses for him?” Right on Evie’s schedule. Sometimes he couldn’t believe that she had her own issues, she seemed so together, so sane and level-headed and perceptive. Shit, the woman could read people, she just didn’t trust herself. A sudden curiosity made him ask. “Did you like him?”
“Who?” she asked, straightening the strap of her laptop case on her arm.
“Gemmell.” The surprise that made her look at him wasn’t drunk or distracted. “If you don’t want to—”
“No, I…” Oak didn’t blame her for not expecting the question, and after she’d recovered from her surprise, she answered him without any anger. “I didn’t like him, no. But I don’t know if that was because of him or because of how Beth reacted to him. He didn’t come across as controlling. Beth and I were living together so I saw Gemmell a lot, he seemed like a sane guy, I didn’t see red flags, but her mood changed depending on his mood like… she was so in love that she… she became him.”
Kissing her knuckles again, he felt his love for her grow. It made him want to hold her again, all night… always. “I love you.”
He didn’t even care that she got a look on her face like she was amused and humoring him whenever he said it. “I’ll tell Noel you said so… now I have to go before Taylor comes back and asks where I’m going. Please, Oh…”
Releasing her hand, he let her fingers drift away from his as she backed to the door. Blowing him a kiss, she winked, and then she was gone.
eighteen
The next day, Evie had put her head around Oak’s office door. She didn’t even go in, just waited for him to take his eyes from the tablet on his desk.
“Friday work for you?” she asked. “Three o’clock?”
“I’ll make it work,” he said. “Where are we going?”
He didn’t even care where they were going or what they were going to do. “Downstairs to one of your hotel rooms…”
Evie did usually go to Noel’s office, but it didn’t seem fair to take Oak so far away from MatchMate HQ when he had actual work to do. It also meant that if he wanted to leave the session early, he didn’t have to hang around waiting for her to give her a ride back.
Evie didn’t even know what would happen in the session or how long Noel expected Oak to be there and her therapist hadn’t been forthcoming when she asked. Evie had a feeling that Noel was going to let Oak be the guide on that, not as any kind of test but because he found actions as telling as words.
“Which one?” he asked.
Tutting, she pretended to be disappointed. “You don’t know? You can’t be that in love with me if you don’t know—”
“Thirteen,” he said and when she grinned, he relaxed. “I’ll be there.”
And so there they were.
Noel had texted her to say when he arrived at room thirteen. Evie was halfway along the corridor to meet him when she felt someone behind her and turned to see Oak leap to the top of the stairs. He closed most of the gap between them while she was knocking and waiting for Noel to open the door.
When he did, she went inside. “Just wait a second,” she said, holding the door as Noel went into the room. As soon as Oak was there to take the door from her, she left it and went to Noel. Pushing to her tiptoes, she kissed each of his cheeks. “This will look so bad if anyone catches us in here.” She laughed and turned to present Oak. “Doctor Noel Brewer, meet Oakley Orion… the man who says he’s in love with me.”
“Yes, indeed,” Noel said.
The two men shook hands.
Oak tried to thread
his fingers through hers, but Evie took her hand away from his reach and shook her head.
“No, don’t touch me,” she murmured the instruction, but turned to use his hips to maneuver him onto the couch that was against the wall opposite the end of the bed.
This room contained a dressing screen meant for decoration and probably to give women cover to protect their modesty if they were in here on dates. When she and Noel had a session, they put the screen at the end of the bed to conceal the majority of the room.
In the sessions they had just the two of them, she and Noel would sit at opposite ends of the couch, but this time the couch was empty for her and Oak. Noel had brought the wicker chair out of the bathroom, and he was seated in that, facing them.
After Evie sat Oak at one end of the couch, she went to the other and sat down. “That’s interesting, Evie, why did you do that?” Noel asked. “Why did you put space between you and Oakley?”
Growling at her serious therapist, she got irritable. “Don’t do that, Noel,” she said. “Don’t start analyzing me, we haven’t been in the room two minutes.”
“It’s about as interesting as you introducing Oakley as the man who claims to love you.”
Groaning, she let her head fall back, but rolled it on the back of the couch to look at Oak. “This man hates me. The doctor thing is a complete sham.”
Noel laughed. “Would you prefer me to analyze Oakley?”
“Yes,” she said, cheering up. “If you say something about his behavior I’ll feel much less picked on.”
“Ok,” Noel said, scrutinizing Oak for a second. “Strong handshake and he showed up, those are points in his favor.”
Evie shouldn’t let Noel rile her, but he knew her buttons. “Something judgmental about his behavior,” she said. “Geez, Noel, you’re not going to be nice to him just ‘cause he signs your paychecks, are you?”
“Hey,” Oak said. Suddenly, he relaxed and lit up. “I hadn’t thought about it that way. Excellent.” Resting one arm on the back of the couch and the other on the arm, he got comfortable. “I’m sort of your boss, Brewer.”
Evie sneered. “You’re kind of my boss too.”
“And that has never stopped me from acting inappropriately with you,” Oak said. “So why shouldn’t I take advantage of my position of authority with this guy too?”
Great. So he was chilled enough to make jokes. He might be meaning that he’d take advantage of Noel in a different, less salacious way, but Evie chose not to take his statement that way.
“Well I hope you enjoy having sex with Noel,” she said and surged to her feet.
“Evie, sit down,” Noel said. She didn’t want to, she wanted to storm right out of there. Therapy had the power to make her more emotional than she ever liked to be. Sometimes it was fine, water off a duck’s back, but bringing Oak was a big deal. “We’re going to acknowledge it, just sit down and take a breath.”
She could feel Oak looking back and forth between her and the therapist, he might be worried, he might be laughing. Evie didn’t know which it was because she maintained eye contact with Noel until she calmed and then she dropped down into her seat.
“Acknowledge what?” Oakley asked.
Folding her arms, she looked toward the window even though the curtains were shut. “How significant this session is,” Noel said. “She’s never brought anyone to a session before, much less a man she’s romantically involved with. And, Evie, do you realize what you did?”
His soothing voice made her turn because she didn’t know what he was talking about. “What did I do?”
“You put Oakley between you and the door,” Noel said. “You never do that. You never put yourself in a corner. Either you don’t mind being cornered by him or you have an expectation that he would protect you in the event that someone was to come in here and threaten you, which do you think it is?”
“I’d protect Evie with my life,” Oakley said.
Although he was vehement, she was focused on her doctor again, trying to figure out why she’d done that and more, why she hadn’t even noticed it.
“Oakley went exactly where you told him to go,” Noel said. “He let you put him there.”
“He’s never been in therapy with me before, I was letting him know the procedure,” she said, but the stilted words were absent; she was trying to figure out if there was significance behind the gesture.
“Oakley, is that why you let Evie direct you?”
“Maybe,” Oakley said. “I usually go where she tells me to go… I do what I’m told.”
Hissing, she scowled at him. “I don’t tell you what to do.”
“Ok,” he said.
Her mouth opened. “Damnit, I do,” she said, and he smiled, slouching even further into the couch. Kicking off her shoes, she twisted her whole body toward him, bringing up her knees under her. “Why do you let me do that?”
“Most of the time,” Oak said. “Because I don’t give a fuck.”
“About me?”
He shrugged. “About whatever it is,” he said. “If you bat your eyes at me and tell me to get you a drink, I’ll get you a drink. Why wouldn’t I?”
“And when she directs you somewhere?” Noel asked. “Like into that seat.”
Oak seemed to think about it for a second. “I guess… I want to make her happy and…”
“And?” Noel prompted.
Oak’s eyes slunk to hers. “I usually get a reward.”
“A reward?” Noel asked.
“She kisses me or touches me.”
“And that’s your version of a reward?” Noel asked. “Physical gratification?”
“Sometimes.” Oakley shrugged, but even after he turned to Noel, Evie kept her attention on his profile. “But I guess it’s not the physical act as much as it’s the acknowledgement that there’s a connection between us. When she touches me, she’s giving me a sign that she wants to be near me. Sometimes it’s a wink or she smiles at me in a certain way and it makes me feel like I’m…” Lifting his hands at the wrist, he took a second to find the word. “Important in her life, I guess, different to other people.”
“That’s very interesting,” Noel said.
As the doctor examined the couple, she exhaled and folded her arms. “Ignore him, Oh, he does this. Now he’ll just sit and look at us for a minute without saying anything… a minute I’m paying for by the way, doctor.”
“I’ll deduct it,” Noel said, seemingly more interested in Oakley than her right now.
“Deduct a whole minute?” she asked. “Thanks very much.”
Because her doctor was used to her sarcasm, Noel ignored it to ask, “Evie, do you have your—”
“Yes,” she said, leaning forward to pull her notebook from the front pouch of her purse.
Handing it over to the doctor, she knew it would take a minute for him to read it.
“What’s that?” Oak asked her.
“My notes, remember, like I showed you in my phone?” she said. “I transfer them into that notebook, expand where I want to, and Noel gets a quick overview of the week. We used to spend a lot of time rehashing unimportant stuff. Now he knows what was significant at a glance.”
Oak became sort of reserved. “Are we in that?”
“Yes,” she said.
“I mean are… we in that.”
“Sex?” she asked. Enjoying how he seemed to be embarrassed, she straightened her legs toward him and leaned back against the couch arm as she folded her arms under her breasts. “Yes. But it’s not a critique of your performance. I don’t go into detail, I write quick notes. A sentence or two, Noel decides if we need to talk about anything that jumps out at him.”
“We’ll definitely be talking about sex at some point,” Noel said.
Evie blinked when she saw she was under his scrutiny again. “What did I do this time?” she asked and when she saw that her feet were on Oak, she quickly bent her knees, pulling them to her chest.
But the contact didn’t see
m to be what the doctor had deemed significant. “You showed Oakley your notes?” Noel asked.
“At the speed-date thing on Saturday,” she said. “I told you that… didn’t I?”
Noel shook his head. “Have you spoken to each other today?”
“Morning briefing, that was it,” she said. “We don’t talk about sex in the morning briefing.” Picking up her hand, she shielded her mouth on one side to whisper, “His sister sits in those meetings.”
“We’d talk about it if Tay wasn’t there?” Oak asked.
His hand landed on her toes, but she didn’t pull away. Evie never knew what would be significant to the doctor, the action of pulling away or the inaction of not?
Turning her flat hand to herself, she addressed Oakley. “I talk to Taylor about sex all the time… From what she says, you’re more uptight about it.”
“Are you uptight about sex?” Noel asked. “Does talking about it upset you?”
“Upset me, no,” Oakley said, and she wondered when he folded his arms if he was feeling uncomfortable. “I prefer not to think about my sister like… that.”
“Why are we talking about Taylor?” Evie asked and clapped her hands once. “Isn’t this about me?”
She’d take Oak’s frown, yep, she was ok with him being offended that Taylor was cut out of therapy. But Noel wasn’t so reticent about his feelings.
“Evie,” he said like a parent chastising a child.
“I’ve told you, I won’t talk about Taylor,” Evie said and let her eyes slink side to side implying she was being sly and saucy at the same time. “Want to talk about Oakley’s cock?”
“No,” both men said together.
Evie exhaled and looked at Noel again. If he was going to push her about this, she’d really prefer him to do it while Oakley wasn’t in the room. But it was actually Oak who spoke.
“She’s protective of Taylor,” Oak said. “It humbles me how much she cares about her.”
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