The Relationship Coach (23 page)

Now, she wanted to go home, heat up her TV dinner, and veg in front of mindless television. Something boring and dreadful where she could stare at the pictures and let her mind go numb.

She took out her keys, grabbed her purse and laptop, and walked to the door of her office. Opening it, she ran smack into Reed.

“Oh,” she said startled. “Do you know how to knock?”

“Well, I would have if you hadn’t opened the door,” he said, his gaze giving her the once over in a way that left her warm and tingling.

Her breath caught in her throat, and her pulse started doing the mambo. What this man could do to her body had her yearning for his touch.

“I was just leaving,” she said, all business, ignoring the signals from her body.

“I see that. How about I walk you to your car?” he asked, as he held open the door.

“Okay,” she responded, not knowing how to react to him. She resisted the urge to wrap her arms around him and snuggle into his hard chest, as scenes from the other night flooded her memory, her body warming.

“I’ve tried to catch you all day.”

She’d avoided him, not ready to have this discussion. “Monday is one of my busiest days.” The office was quiet as they walked down the hall to the door that led to the corridor. “You didn’t do any shooting today?”

“No, I worked on editing the film we took this last weekend. It turned out really good.”

Relief washed over her, leaving her breathing deep and shallow. No more filming her seminars. They were almost done. “Good. I can’t wait to see the finished product.”

He held the door open while Lacey walked through and then shut it behind him. She turned and locked it.

“Are you busy tonight? I thought we could go have dinner,” he invited, his warm breath tickling the back of her neck as he leaned close to her.

She shook her head. “I can’t.” She turned and walked quickly toward the elevator.

He put his hand around her wrist, halting her in the hall. “Can’t or won’t?”

His touch sent her pulse racing, like the start of a gun or a race car engine. She gazed into his green eyes. The man wasn’t stupid. He had to feel her standoff vibes. God, she wanted to go with him, but then her mind replayed Amanda’s voice warning her about being involved with Reed.

She stepped away from him, needing to put distance between the two of them. “You know my belief on one-night stands. You know I don’t sleep with someone without fully getting to know him and figuring out if we’re compatible.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know all about the twelve steps dating program,” he said, clearly not willing to give up.

“No, it’s a way to keep from getting hurt. I broke all the rules the other night,” she said, remembering the feel of his naked body sliding down hers, skin against skin. Her heart rate skyrocketed like she was running a marathon. She pushed the thought away. She had to remain focused.

“And had a great time. Maybe your twelve step program needs a tune-up.”

She stared at him as anger simmered through her on a low burn. Whirling around, she started walking toward the elevator. “My program doesn’t need a tune-up. It works fine. I broke the rules of the program, that’s all.”

He kept up with her determined strides. When they entered the elevator, she punched the parking garage button.

He took a deep breath. “What now?”

“You do your documentary, and I continue to see clients and teach them how sleeping with someone without knowing them is not in their best interest,” she said, not looking at him. Knowing if she stared into his emerald gaze, she’d be tempted to throw her program to the wind and fall into his embrace.

“Even when you enjoyed the other night?”

She turned to face him. “Don’t do this. Don’t lessen what happened the other night between us.”

“I’m not. In fact, I want to do it again. I want to take you to dinner and then back to my place and experience the passion you can’t deny exists between us once again,” he said, reaching out to brush a piece of hair away from her face.

His touch made her catch her breath, the feel of his fingers on her face shaking her resolve.

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t do sex purely for pleasure. I want a committed relationship between me and the person I’m sleeping with. And you have made it abundantly clear you do not want a committed relationship. It’s better if I end this now, before I get hurt,” she said, trying to remain focused on reaching the parking garage, ignoring the signals from her traitorous body.

He stared at her for a moment. “Yeah, we do want different things in life, but why can’t we just have some fun together? We can’t undo what’s happened already, and I know you enjoyed it. Why can’t you just live for the moment?”

Almost there, she kept telling herself, afraid to breathe in the small space, knowing the air was permeated with the scent of Reed. “Yes, I did enjoy having sex with you. But I’m the kind of woman who becomes emotionally involved, and you’re the type of guy who just wants a fuck buddy.”

The elevator bounced as it came to a stop, and the door opened.

“I’m very particular about who I sleep with. I expect more from him than just a rumble between the sheets.” She turned and stared at him, his green eyes warming her insides, turning her legs into jelly. God, she wanted him so bad, but it was wrong.

“Do you want a relationship with me? Do you want to settle down someday? Get married? Have children? Buy a house on the beach?” she asked, watching his facial expression to see his response to her demands.

His forehead scrunched up in a frown, and he didn’t say anything.

“That’s what I thought.” She got off the elevator and turned to him. “It was fun, Reed, but it should never have happened. Let’s forget it, so that one night doesn’t ruin our working relationship.”

“I don’t want to forget the night we spent together. It was fantastic, and it could be again.”

Her heart plummeted to her feet, and she knew she had to end this now. “I can’t have sex with you again without a relationship.”

He clenched his fists and said with deadly calm. “Then get prepared. There are all kinds of relationships that don’t involve marriage. You want a relationship, then that’s what you’ll get.”

He turned and walked away, leaving her standing in the parking garage, shocked at his outburst. Shocked at his declaration. What did he mean?

***

Reed stormed away from Lacey, needing time to think. He wasn’t surprised at her reaction, but she’d sneaked into his thoughts all day at the oddest moments. He’d been unable to keep away from her and wanted to pick up where they’d left off the other night. The rational part of his brain expected her reaction today, but he’d held out hope she’d welcome him with open arms this evening.

And now he’d vowed they were going to have a relationship. What the hell was the matter with him? He didn’t do relationships. Not since college when he’d thought it was forever, only to find out all it took was the promise of a sports car to tempt her away.

In his past, the objective had been to get the girl in bed and keep her there as long as possible. The objective here would not be any different. The high and mighty relationship coach would be enticed with the possibility of the two of them in a relationship, except the goal was to get her back in his bed.

And he’d do whatever it took to get her there.

His cell phone rang, and he glanced down at the number, surprised. He picked it up. “Hello.”

For a moment, he listened. “Where are you?” He responded to the answer with, “I’m on my way.”

Tonight, maybe things had happened for the best, maybe it was good the lovely Lacey had denied him the pleasure of her company. But now, he had to come up with a plan to have a relationship with her and get Lacey back in his bed, before the documentary was complete.

There was no denying the attraction he felt for her was stronger than anything he’d ever experienced, but could it be because she was forbidden fruit?

***

Reed pulled up in front of the kid’s house. Jose sat outside on the porch, his chin in his hands, his eyes swollen and bruised from the beating. Reed got out of his car and walked up the sidewalk to him.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Hunter,” he said, glancing up at him.

The kid was tall and lanky, not muscular, more boy in a man’s body. A boy who lived in a shithole of a neighborhood, where violence happened every day. Reed saw something in the way the camera and boy lived and breathed together. With training, the kid could find a new way of life without drugs and violence.

Reed eased down to the concrete porch beside Jose. “Looks like you took a pretty good beating. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, nothing that hasn’t happened before,” he said quietly.

“You want to tell me what happened?”

The kid sighed. “When the hall monitor wasn’t around, the group of kids that Big Bob hangs with surrounded me after class. They grabbed my camera and started filming. When I tried to take it back, his homies took hold of me, and that’s when the fighting started.”

“Did you tell the principal?” Reed asked, knowing that regardless of what happened, this couldn’t be good.

“It was my word against theirs. We all got ISS.”

“What’s that?”

“In school suspension.”

“Yeah, that’s not good.” Reed sighed and patted the kid on the back.

“Even worse, they broke my camera. It won’t turn on.”

“Where’s the camera?”

“In the house.”

“How much of your film project is on there?” Reed asked, angry that this kid couldn’t seem to get a break from life. Yet, the boy was still trying to get the scholarship.

“All of it. I was almost done.”

“Go get it.”

The kid jumped up and went into the frame house. In less than a minute, he returned and handed Reed the camera. “They broke the lens.”

Reed turned the camera over in his hands as he examined the case that held the disk. “But the disk is still inside, and it’s not damaged. I’ll do my best to get what you’ve shot out for you. In the meantime, I have an old camera in the car you can use.”

The kid’s expression lit up; the hang dog look gone. “You’d do that for me?”

“Here’s the deal,” Reed said, as he gazed at Jose trying to appear serious. “You’ve got natural talent. But unless you learn how to use that ability, then you’re just a kid with a camera. I’ve been helping you because you’re gifted and could learn an occupation that could take you away from all this. But you’ve got to help yourself and the way you do that is by staying out of trouble. Avoid fights. One more session with ISS or any other blemish of any kind on your record and the board at the Los Angeles Film School will not even consider you. Are we clear?”

“Yes, sir. I would have avoided trouble this time, but they took my camera, and my project is on there.”

“I understand,” Reed said, knowing a young man his age had testosterone overflowing. Fighting was survivor mode in this neighborhood.

“I’ll see if I can salvage what you’ve filmed. In the meantime, you use the camera I’m going to give you. And stay out of trouble,” Reed said, wondering if that was possible. Even good kids were dragged into situations that got them suspended.

“Yes, sir. Thanks, Mr. Hunter. I appreciate your help.”

“Just win the scholarship, Jose.”

“Mr. Hunter, I want that scholarship. I want to learn how to operate a camera and make films. I want to get out of here.”

Reed saw the hunger on the teen’s face. If ever a young man were trying, it was Jose.

“Then follow your dream. Stay out of trouble. Make sure your grades are good. I can help you, but I can’t do the work for you. You have to want to succeed.”

“Yes, sir.”

Chapter Fourteen

R
elaxing in her kitchen, Lacey took her TV dinner out of the microwave, just as the doorbell rang. She put the dinner on the counter and hurried to the door. If that were Dean, he would witness how a relationship coach expressed her anger.

She yanked open the door and jerked back in surprise. “Mom, I didn’t expect you.”

Her mother held up bags of Chinese food. “I estimated when I thought you’d be home and hoped you hadn’t eaten yet.”

“I was about to sit down and eat a Lean Cuisine.”

“This is much better than a frozen dinner,” she said, pushing past Lacey and entering the apartment.

Lacey shut the door behind her and led her into the kitchen, where she proceeded to empty the bags onto the dining room table.

“Do you have any plates?”

“Of course,” Lacey said, willing her body to move and recover from the shock of seeing her mother in her kitchen. She’d been to Lacey’s apartment once in the two years Lacey had lived here.

Pulling plates out of the cabinet, she handed them to her mother and then set out silverware. “What would you like to drink?”

Her mother dished Kung Pao chicken, fried rice, and egg rolls onto plates. “A glass of wine would be nice.”

Lacey opened a bottle of wine and poured her a glass. Then they sat down to eat. “This smells wonderful and looks good.”

“Hmm…it tastes good, too,” her mother said, using the chopsticks that had come with the takeout.

The image of her mother sitting there in her loose blouse that came right out of the sixties, her long hair, eating with chopsticks, made Lacey smile. How many women had a mother who did Yoga, meditated, burned incense, used chopsticks, and appeared young enough her looks said forties rather than fifties?

“You didn’t say much about your break-up with Dean,” her mother said between bites.

“No, Saturday was Kerri’s day, and I wanted to concentrate on her.”

“That was sweet.”

“Is that why you’re here?” Lacey couldn’t help but ask. Did her mother expect to find her broken down in a puddle of tears?

Her mother paused, her gaze seeming to search Lacey’s soul. “I’m here because you’re my daughter, and I’m concerned about you. I know you find it hard to believe, but I love you. I don’t like to see you hurt.”

“I’m okay.”

Her mother’s brows rose in that questioning way Lacey hated. The one that doubted her response. The one she’d seen since childhood.