Relish: A Vicious Feast Book 2 (14 page)

My question came too late because we stood outside the door of another suite. Luka knocked and seconds later a voluptuous brunette in a cream suit answered. She had the most amazing garnet eyes I’d ever seen. Her sharp features reminded me of a bird of prey, and I was the field mouse she was eyeing for breakfast. I swallowed, suddenly intimidated by her.

“Luka?” She looked at me a second longer before shifting her gaze to him. This early and she already wore makeup? Didn’t anyone sleep in this hotel?

“Forgive me, Samrah,” he said quickly. “I know our session isn’t for another hour, but I believe your time would be better spent helping her.” He tilted his head toward me and the bird of prey eyed me again.

So she was the shrink Luka carted around to help him with his issues. And he thought by bringing me to her I would spill my guts like it would be that easy? Oh, hell no! I yanked my arm out of his grip, turned on my heel, and stomped toward the elevator.

A couple of steps later a hand touched my shoulder. I whirled back around with a ready retort, expecting Luka. Instead I came face to face with shrink lady, and in her six inch heels, she actually stood taller than me. Like Amazon proportions. I gulped, inhaling the lavender of her perfume. She flicked her gaze to my patch before looking me in the eye.

“Hello,” she reached out, “we haven’t been formally introduced. I’m Samrah Ulric. It’s a pleasure finally meeting you.”

Like an invisible force tugged mine to meet hers, we shook hands. Her tight grip woke me from my stupor. Only when she let me go did her words fully register.

“Finally?” I tilted my head, forced to function without my prerequisite gallon of coffee.

“Luka has told me a lot about you.” She glanced over her shoulder at him.

I had to look around her to catch a glimpse of the usually confident rock god rocking on his heels with his hands inside his pockets. A slight blush colored his unusually pale face. It was like all the blood drained from his body before it rushed back up again.

Unthinking, I side-stepped the gorgeous Samrah and charged Luka. “You talked to her about me?”

He actually staggered a step, like I’d hit him. He lifted his gaze to meet Samrah’s, who sauntered toward us. She touched my shoulder again and gestured into her suite when I tore my damning gaze from Luka’s still red face.

“Why don’t we discuss this in private?”

Her suggestion seemed reasonable enough, even if I had no reason to be calm. But before I stepped into her suite, I poked Luka in the chest. “Don’t think for a second you can charm your way out of this, mister.”

He shrugged so hard his shoulders almost touched his ears. “Wasn’t planning to.”

Samrah threw her head back and laughed.   

C
HAPTER
F
IFTEEN
T
HERAPY

I went straight for the coffee pot on the suite’s kitchenette counter without being offered a cup. To hell with my rudeness. I could always apologize later. If Luka brought me here to spill my guts to some sexy shrink he’d been talking to for months, I’d better get my caffeine on. Anyway, Samrah invited me in already, so like a vampire I assumed I was welcome to have a drink.

“I apologize for being unprofessional,” Samrah said as she slinked into the room with Luka trailing behind her. I pretended to concentrate on mixing the right amount of cream and sugar into my morning sludge when really I watched them from the corner of my eye. Damn gorgeous people in the morning. Even Luka’s idea of casual made me feel severely underdressed. “I shouldn’t have mentioned Luka speaking about you in our sessions. But what am I if not a rebel?”

I heard the joke in her tone as I took a careful sip of the steaming liquid. Should have gulped it down in the hopes of burning my tongue so I wouldn’t be able to speak. Luka, on the other hand, snorted; his handsome face in an equally handsome scowl. He clearly didn’t appreciate being outed by someone he shared doctor patient confidentiality with.  

“Samrah thinks it’s funny to unsettle me in front of others,” he grumbled, slumping into one of the plush couches. He spread his arms over the top and rested his ankle on one knee. “Can you make me one too?” He tilted his chin at the coffee pot, tapping his fingers like he always did.

“The usual?” I only asked because he might have changed his coffee drinking habits in the last three months. He nodded once and I proceeded to add a dollop of cream and one packet of brown sugar into his cup. All the while Samrah observed our interaction, or the lack thereof, from a reading chair. She had her long legs crossed and her fingers steepled in front of her.

“So you’re the shrink,” I said without facing her, tapping the teaspoon against the mug’s rim.

“I prefer the term emotional counselor, but yes.” I caught her nod when I brought Luka his cup before I sat on the other couch across from him. Sitting beside him unnerved me. We weren’t in couples counseling, so why sit together? Samrah continued while I settled in. “I’ve worked very hard for my degrees, so calling me a ‘shrink’ gets on my nerves. Although, I do practice several holistic forms of therapy as an alternative to medication.”

“Making her, as Yana puts it, a quack.” Luka winked at me.

Samrah shook her head. “Your sister should really sit down with me sometime. I believe we’ll have much to talk about.”

“You don’t prescribe medication?” My question brought me a great deal of comfort for some reason. I figured if I didn’t need to take anything for what bothered me then maybe it wasn’t as bad as I initially thought. Why think of yourself as sick if you’re not taking any meds, right?

“Only as a last resort. I am still an M.D. after all.” Her lips quirked up. “I’d rather exhaust all other options first.”

Another plus in her favor. Maybe Larry had been right and this shrink thing wouldn’t be so bad. I mean, what could it hurt to talk to someone about the dreams and make some sense of them? They freaked me out enough, might as well share them with someone who could give me answers.

Samrah leveled her garnet gaze at me. “Luka tells me you’ve been having nightmares bad enough to wake you from a deep sleep.”

I growled at the snitch, pinning him down with a cutting glare. “What else has he been telling you about me?”

He leaned over and placed his cup on the coffee table with an air of nonchalance. I wanted to stab him. Stupid, talkative Luka!

“It might have come up during our session last night,” he said with a shrug.

Ugh! My fingers curled into a fist, wishing they closed around a knife. “What session? We got here pretty late.”

“I am available for Luka twenty-four seven. He felt the need to talk last night after you left the band’s suite.” She raised a well-manicured hand, stalling what I opened my mouth to say. “Don’t blame him. I’m quite curious about this as well. Nightmares are common place, but to have them consistently is a problem. Aren’t you tired of these dreams taking over your normal routine?”

“Actually,” Luka interrupted before I could respond, “she’s cultivated a nocturnal routine to keep from going to sleep. I believe she’s become a workaholic because of the nightmares.”

“Don’t talk about me like I’m not here,” I hissed.

“I apologize.” Samrah gifted me with a smile that transformed her hawk-like features to something softer. “I take it that Luka brought you here this morning because you’ve had another one of your dreams?”

My gaze darted to Luka as I gnawed at the corner of my lower lip. He sat there with a blank expression. I gripped my half-filled coffee mug with both hands, drawing strength from its warmth. What to tell the sexy shrink about the dreams? They’d become two pronged now. The nightmares were always followed by my sessions with my subconscious Luka. I wasn’t about to spill everything with the real Luka watching. Sure I was attracted to him to the point of distraction, but he didn’t need a verbal confirmation.

It took me a second to respond, but when I did, I said, “Fine. I’ll talk, but not with him here.” I pointed at Luka, whose eyebrows arched, one taking the silver bolt with it.

“I’d have to agree with her on this one, Luka.” Samrah nodded at him. “For us to connect on a doctor patient level, you will have to leave the room.”

“But—”

“No,” she cut off his impending argument. “You have your own sessions without her, so should she. These dreams have nothing to do with you. At least I don’t believe they do.” She looked to me for confirmation. I shook my head so fast, I thought I would cause a concussion. I caught a spark of something in her eyes before she returned her intelligent gaze to meet Luka’s worried one. “If I believe it will serve her recovery for you to be here, then I will be the first to invite you to a session. But for these initial visits, I would like some alone time with her. You can come back in an hour for yours.” She waved her hand as if shooing away a naughty pet.

I almost choked on my coffee at the mix of devastation and shock on Luka’s face. For a second I wanted to hug him. Poor thing. I was pretty sure no one spoke to him with that much authority every day. The rock god had been struck down and damn if it wasn’t awesome to watch.

Without a word, he unfolded himself off the couch and stuffed his hands into his jeans pockets. He’d been doing that a lot lately. Like he used the action to conceal something. I wondered what it could be as he made his way to the door. The scowl on his face and the stiffness of his shoulders told me his bossy nature warred with giving in to Samrah’s request for him to leave. The old Luka would have bullied his way into staying. In fact, not even an industrial-sized crane would be able to move him.

“I’ll be back in an hour,” he said with equal authority. And could that be a hint of a threat in his tone?

“I will take good care of her,” Samrah replied with confidence. She and Luka shared a quiet look before he left the suite.

“Well…” My eyebrows shot up. “Color me impressed. I half expected Mr. Ego to put up a fight. Well done, Doc.”

Samrah barely suppressed a smile. “He’s getting better at relinquishing control to others.”

At the click of the door, Samrah uncrossed her unbelievably long legs and pushed off the reading chair. She sauntered toward the mantel and picked up a bundle of sage and a lighter. A couple of strikes later, she leveled the flame over the tip. When the bundle caught fire, she blew at it and let the smoke curl to the ceiling. Soon the acrid scent reached my nostrils, waking me further than the caffeine did.

“I’m not sure how you want to do this,” I said after she returned to the reading chair with a digital recorder and a notepad and a Mont Blanc fountain pen.

“I take it this is your first time?” The tip of her pen touched the pad. Taking notes already? I hadn’t even said anything yet. “Most therapists use tablets for their notes these days, but I still prefer the sound a pen makes on paper. Some patients find it soothing.”

“I’ve never really felt the need to talk to anyone about the things bothering me.” Suddenly unsure of what I should do, I placed the mug on the coffee table to join Luka’s abandoned one.

“Not one to have many friends?”

The shrug came naturally. “I’m comfortable being by myself.”

“Does this have to do with what happened to you?” She indicated my patch by pointing the butt of her pen to her own eye.

My fingers instinctively reached up to touch the velvet dome. “I thought we’re here to talk about my dreams?”

Samrah studied me for a long second. “I apologize. Yes, your dreams. Do you mind if I record this conversation? I assure you that no one but myself will listen to it. I just like having a digital record for future reference.”    

I took a picture of her before I slung the camera off my neck and placed it beside my already cold mug, the last of the coffee there forgotten. “I guess.”

“Do you always like to use the camera as a barrier between you and the world?”

Again with a question outside what we were supposed to be talking about. “Why do we keep digressing?”

“It’s the shrink in me,” she teased. “Would you feel more comfortable lying down? I find that most of my patients prefer it.”

“Does Luka lie down?”

“What he does during his sessions is none of your concern.” The harshness of her tone shut me up fast. Then she backpedaled with a softer tone. “What I mean is, he has his own way of feeling comfortable around me as should you. I may drop hints of our conversations when others are present because it’s part of his therapy. He needs to learn that he can’t control everything in his life as evidence of my asking him to leave. He’s still struggling. I’m pretty sure I won’t hear the end of it when we meet later.”

“That one of your unconventional methods, Doc?”

She tilted her head, tapping the butt of her pen to the corner of her lips. “You can call it that. You know Luka as well as I do.”

“Not as well as I’d like.” I stretched the length of my body over the couch cushions, giving the good doctor the back of my head. Then I entwined my fingers over my stomach.

“You care for him.”

I was caught mid-inhale. I paused before exhaling slowly. “You sure no one else will know about what I’ll tell you here?”

“Yana may think of me as a quack, but I do adhere to doctor patient confidentiality. Whatever you tell me will remain within these four walls, or wherever we find ourselves.”

“So you’re assuming there will be more than one session?” A smile tugged at my lips. Did she really light sage because I was suddenly mellower than when we first started this thing? The edges of the room took on a softer quality. The colors dimmed. Whoa!

“I certainly hope we’ll have more than one.” She paused. “But if you believe I won’t be able to help you, or you think one session is all you’ll need, then no hard feelings.”

I weighed my options. No sense in making up my mind about Samrah after just one session. If I really wanted help for the nightmares, I should stick with this therapy thing. But it was still a wait-and-see for me. Might as well get one thing out of the way first.

“Yeah, I like Luka,” I said. “I like him more than I should.”