“So, the patient broke his knee several months ago…” Patellar fracture. Skeletal? Ligaments? My mind was racing through everything that I knew. “Corrective surgery was performed after the secondary damage was done. The patient was supposed to start his PT a few weeks ago but never showed.”
“The secondary surgery? Was he in a cast for that? Did he re-fracture something? Was there any program worked out for him or should I be creating my own?”
“No, no cast. He was recommended to our facility because of our aquatherapy and I know that’s where he started yesterday. Other than that, I didn’t see anything specific noted in his chart.” Later, I would attribute my frazzled ADD to the fact that it was my first day and I didn’t realize that I was going to have a patient. Later, I would also kick myself for not stopping to listen to what Dr. Lev was saying. Maybe then, what happened next wouldn’t have made me feel like I was having a stroke and a heart attack all at once.
Dr. Lev held the door open for me as we came down the stairs. “I wanted to…” he cleared his throat, “give you a head’s up that he might be… difficult.”
Just what I needed for my first day. Difficult.
“I’m sure I can handle it,” I said confidently.
“Well, if he gives you any trouble, don’t hesitate to come find me.”
We rounded the corner and I stopped so hard I’m surprised I didn’t give myself whiplash.
I would have taken difficult any day. Any. Day. Over Chance Ryder.
“Mr. Ryder,” Dr. Lev greeted my gorgeous ex with a firm shake and a curious eye back at me. “I wanted to come down and introduce you to your new trainer, Ms. Jessa Madison.”
It didn’t matter that I didn’t move. Chance walked to me. He preyed on me. And all the while, his dark smirk that mirrored the one from his warning grew.
He knew the whole time. This was all a game for him.
“Ms. Madison and I already know each other, don’t we, Jessa?” He drawled my name like he knew just how far he could string me out.
I gulped. Pull your shit together, Jess.
“Yes.” Forcing a smile was like trying to punch through a rock wall. “From high school, right?”
That looked like it gave his pride a little bit of a bump. He deserved it—and more—for this.
“Thanks, Dr. Lev.” I brushed by Chance, grabbing my iPad from its dock behind the staff counter. “Mr. Ryder, if you want to follow me. We can get your session started.”
I didn’t wait for him to follow as I walked into the gym. I didn’t want to make any more of a scene and I needed a few steps to compose myself. My dream job was quickly taking a turn for the worse.
“Surprised?” He grinned, coming up next to me.
I couldn’t have been more surprised if he’d shown up and proposed to me.
“About what?” I asked sweetly. “That you’re my first patient? Yes. That you did this on purpose because you’re an ass? No.” I kept my eyes focused on anything except for him—the doors to the gym, Monroe giving me an ugly look as I walked by her, the entrance to the aquatherapy room—while he laughed beside me.
“And here I thought you would be so happy to see me—to help me.”
I spun on him, my hand on the door to the pool room. “Should I be? Knowing how you feel about me?”
All the twisted amusement dropped from his face. His head came towards mine so fast I thought he was going to kiss me. The memories of the things those lips could do were arguably worse than the kiss would have been.
“No, J-bird. You shouldn’t,” he rasped as his blue eyes brewed into a storm. “You should be afraid.”
“Afraid?” Even my whisper broke underneath his stare.
“I’m going to break you, Jessa. And I’m going to enjoy every fucking minute of it.” It was strange to hear about your own downfall from someone who said it with a smile on his face.
There were only three things in this world that could survive a nuclear holocaust: cockroaches, Twinkies, and Chance’s hatred for me.
This was my problem with Chance Ryder. No, not the fact that even his anger made me ache for him. From the very start, I ate up every sign that he was bad news as eagerly as Hansel and Gretel ate the candy that was only leading them to their doom.
His lips were so close and he wasn’t the only one who wondered if some things still tasted the same. And he knew it, too. Damn him.
“Good luck with that.” I pushed the door open behind me, practically falling back into the room.
Please don’t let us be the only ones in here.
I bit back my groan as my quick scan of the room confirmed I was not that lucky.
“Ok, so your chart says that you started in the HydroWorx yesterday, so I’d like to keep that the same for now until I review everything and come up with a tailored plan.”
“Whatever you say, J-bird.”
My eyes flicked up to him from underneath my eyelids. I expected pushback. Or at the very least some sort of comment. Instead his face was blank—devoid of the vengeful determination that had been there a minute ago.
I knew I was in trouble—I knew he was out to destroy me the moment I saw him for the first-time a few weeks ago. Our subsequent conversations, followed by his most recent admission only confirmed it. Even though he’d taken me by surprise this morning by becoming my patient, my guard was up.
My guard was up like the fucking ice wall in Game of Thrones—built high and thick to protect me from the one man who had nothing else to lose.
And even though Chance was a whole lot hotter than any White Walkers, his eyes were just as blue—and those eyes that told me he was going to rip my life from me if it was the last thing that he did.
His lips curled up slightly, waiting for my next instruction.
“I… umm… ok, well if you want to get in the pool, we can get started with the same exercises that you did yesterday.”
“Are you asking me to take my clothes off? I don’t think you’ve ever asked so nicely before, J-bird.” His smile got even bigger as his hands went to his waist, tugging his shirt from his jeans.
“Please stop calling me that.” A pointless request that would probably only have the opposite effect. “And yes, unless you normally get in a pool fully clothed—“
“You want me to call you Jessa? Or how about Miss Madison?” Dammit. The way he said my names was like he was fucking each and every syllable. I should have let him stick with J-bird.
“Either,” I grit out, returning my gaze to my iPad. I didn’t need to watch him strip. I wanted to, but I didn’t need to. I scrolled through the poorly written notes, figuring out what to say next. I needed to keep it professional. He was only here for five weeks.
Five. Weeks.
That’s it.
I needed to stomach this—and try to keep my hands and my eyes to myself—for five weeks. If he’d requested me, that meant he had pull. I’m not surprised. The SnowmassHoles ran this town. Not only would refusing him potentially cost me my job if he reported it, but I’d be damned if I caved to him.
I’d lost enough to Chance Ryder—my innocence, my heart, my reputation, my home; I wasn’t going to give him this, too.
The sound of his belt buckle hitting the tile floor stirred me and before I could stop them, my eyes looked directly at him. Not at his eyes though, oh no. They didn’t make it that far.
I should have run. I should have run when I had the chance.
I hadn’t smiled this big in months. Standing there, butt-ass naked, I watched Jessa’s jaw hit the floor for the second time in under fifteen minutes.
God, if I had known how enjoyable this was going to be, I would have figured out a way to force my presence on her sooner.
Alright… It was a little fucking uncomfortable because of how badly I wanted to fuck her. Even with her damn hot pink hair up in a messy bun and scrubs that should not fit her like they did.
She looked different—all professional and in work mode. Yeah, she’d had her
moments of focus back when we’d dated, but outside of those, she was so fucking wild and free. Never made sense to me why she wanted to go into healthcare—all rules and structure.
My cock was feeling a lot better now that it was free of my jeans, pointing decisively at exactly where it wanted to be. Damn thing had J-dar—always knowing when she was near.
And before… it was never a problem because she was always near—and always ready for me. No—always begging for me.
“If you leave your mouth open any longer there, J-bird, I’m going to assume it’s an invitation.” I smirked as she immediately closed her lips. Damn. A man could hope.
And so could my dick. With a memory fucking eight years long, it remembered exactly what those lips could do.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she ground out, frantically looking around to see if someone was coming or could see in through the glass door to the room.
“You told me to take off my clothes.” I held my hands up. “I’m just doing what I’m told.”
I caught the towel that she whipped at my head.
“Yeah because I thought you had a bathing suit on!”
“And when did you give me time to go change?” I asked with a pleasantness that sounded like nails on a chalkboard. Her cheeks flushed and my dick jumped at the sight.
“Can you please cover yourself before you get me fired?” she hissed, her cool faltering.
Perfect.
Laughing, I took my time wrapping the towel around my waist, enjoying every second that she couldn’t take her eyes off of me. “Nothing you haven’t seen before, J-bird.
“Yeah, well, I’ve also seen the Texas Chainsaw Massacre before. Doesn’t mean I’d like to repeat the experience.”
I watched the second she realized that her retort had backfired. I was the one who made her watch it because I knew it would end up with her in my lap and me in her.
“Whatever you say, Jessa.” I smirked and opened the door to the gym, not giving two shits as I strolled through with only the towel on, winking at Monroe as I walked by. She’d been pissed to see me with Jess; maybe this would soften her up a little. I might need her at some point.
I changed and made my way back to the pool, somewhat surprised to find her still waiting there for me. She was too stubborn to do what was good for her—which was anything that got her as far away from me as possible.
Time doesn’t heal all wounds. Time allowed what she did to me to fester and slowly eat away at me. My career had distracted me—the drive to win, to be the best, driving out memories of me at my worst. She didn’t have that luxury anymore.
“You sure you wouldn’t rather join me? I remember how much you love making waves,” I teased.
My suit that was definitely too fucking tight twitched over my dick as it remembered the night in my parent’s hot tub, too. That was the first night that she’d let me into that sweet ass of hers. I’d told her that I wasn’t fucking lying when I said that I was going to claim every last inch of her; I’d told her that it was her last chance to run. And she’d untied the tiny-ass strings to her bikini.
“Just get in the pool, Chance.” Arms over her chest, she looked at me like I was a naughty child. But she was the one whose cheeks matched the pink of her hair. Grinning, I slid into the warm water.
I did the exercises as she instructed and with a smile on my face even when my knee started to complain. She wouldn’t see my weakness. No fucking way.
“What happened?” she asked.
“To what?”
“To you.” My jaw spasmed at her response. My knee was starting to scream and now she wanted to talk.
“I fell. Didn’t you hear the story?” I breathed out harshly.
“I want to hear it from you.”
“And I want to hear those little moans you make when I stick my tongue inside your pussy. We can’t always get what we want. Especially you. Especially from me.”
That shut her up. Pink returned to her cheeks as she focused on her iPad, probably typing in notes about how the patient was a gorgeous, giant dick.
Or gorgeous with a giant dick.
I kept my gaze locked on her. It was the only way to push through the healing burn spreading in my knee. Mostly, I was waiting for her to bend over. I wanted to see if she was wearing underwear. I made sure to get rid of that habit early on in our relationship and I wondered if it had stuck. That shit was too many barriers. Because when I needed her—I fucking needed her.
That part didn’t seem to have changed. There were at least five places in the gym that I envisioned using for sex-ercise—including this damn pool.
She sighed and the noise only made my imaginings worse.
“Ok. I think that is good for today, Chance.”
The treadmill in the water came to a stop while she grabbed me a towel—bending over to get a fresh one.
No fucking underwear.
“How do you feel?” she asked objectively as I climbed out of the water, taking the towel from her. “You look like you’re in pain.”
Captain Obvious over here.
“I blame you for that.” Those eyes of hers watched me as I dried off.
“Well, if you want your knee to get better, unfortunately, you are going to be a little uncomfortable.”
“Wasn’t talking about my fucking knee.”
At this point in our relationship, every time I brought pink to her cheeks felt like I’d given her a fucking orgasm.
Her groan and eye-roll brought a smile of success to my face. “Just go change and then you’ll need to stretch and then we are done.”
All this talk of stretching was making me itch to stretch her. But I had weeks—weeks to push her, tempt her, and eventually break her. Too much, too fast would defeat the purpose. I wanted to make her suffer like I did in the weeks after she’d kissed Frost and then disappeared down South.
I wasn’t stretching.
“I think we are done now.”
Her eyes flared. “Chance, you are here for a reason. You can’t skip out on one of the—“
I hauled her against my chest. “I’ll do whatever the fuck I want, J-bird. Including you.” She felt so damn good against me—she always had. I pressed my hips into hers because I couldn’t stop myself. And neither did she. Her soft hands on my chest. The water on my body soaking into the front of her scrubs.
“Let. Me. Go.” I smiled because her body didn’t agree with her words.
“Or what, Jessa? You’ll smack me? You’ll complain to Dr. Lev? On your first day of work? You’ll quit?” That’s it, gorgeous. Find that anger. I could see her rage simmering underneath the surface and it spurred me on. “Go ahead, J-bird, run out of here and complain about me, go request I get a different therapist.
“No. I can’t.” Defiance at its sexiest. “I won’t. This is my dream. I won’t let you ruin it.”
Good. I didn’t want her to.
“Stay and I’ll make it your nightmare.” And that was a promise.
“Yeah?” She fired back. “How? Are you going to make my life miserable for the next five weeks? Sorry, Chance. You can try all you want, but that’s only five weeks. I’ve been working towards this job for a long time and I’ll be damned if I let you ruin that, so go right ahead and give it your best shot.”
“I don’t care about ruining that, J-bird. I care about ruining you.”
“I won’t let you ruin me either, Pride.” She never used my nickname except when she thought that I was letting my pride get ahead of me. Anger sizzled through me. She didn’t get to judge me. Not now. Not after what she did.
“What makes you think you have a choice?” My mouth quirked up on one side as I dropped my face against her neck right where it met her ear and rubbed my throbbing erection against her. Fucking thing jumped when I heard her breath catch in her throat. Christ, my body wanted this woman like a fucking crack-addict wants cocaine. “What makes you think you won’t be begging for it by the end?”
Everything up until this moment had been going according to plan. Until I realized how close her soft, jasmine-scented skin was to my mouth. I couldn’t stop myself as my lips pressed gently onto her cheek, savoring the feel of her flesh underneath my mouth once again.
For one fucking second I pretended.
I pretended that life hadn’t happened to us.
And then I convinced myself that the whole reason I’d maneuvered us together again was solely motivated by vengeance.
And then I ripped myself away from her and stalked out of the room, cursing myself for having to pretend.
I knew my girl. I knew her better than she knew herself. And I knew exactly the steps I had to take to lead her right into the palm of my hand. Or onto the dick in my pants.
Step one: Let her know exactly what I was planning so she had no one to blame but herself for falling for it.
I wasn’t worried about that. I just needed to make sure that when she fell, she didn’t take me down with her.
Step two: A little jealousy thrown in the mix would only make this better.
Step three: Watch her fall and then walk the fuck away. Just like she’d done to me.
Smirking, I saw Monroe in the gym, trying to give me the cold shoulder. Let’s see how long that would last.
“Monroe.” Step two was going to be fun.
“I see you are working with the new girl.” Attitude, really? She should know better. Yes, the new girl who was watching us right now.
“Did you miss me?” Now, she at least turned to face me.
“I mean…” I was half-naked. Only Jessa would have the balls to lie and say no to my face if I were having this conversation with her; Monroe wasn’t that type of girl.
“New girl says I need to stretch.”
“Well,” a coy smile spread onto her face, “I think I can help you with that.”
Knight of Cups (Reversed): This card indicates that the person involved has let his emotions control his life too much, rather than acting on logic. He may be moody, jealous, or emotional to the point of incapacity.
Enjoy the Ride (Winter Games Book 3) Page 4