The Scandalous Billionaires Collection (17 page)

He motioned for her to sit down. There was
one table only conspicuously laid out and with a particularly
spectacular view of the city below.

"This is the best spot in the best restaurant
with the best view of Paris." He said.

"Where are the other diners?" She took her
seat while he held the chair for her.

"I wanted privacy so I reserved every table.
I hope that doesn't make me seem like too much of a cliché."

"No. Not at all. Not
too
much." She
said, rolling her eyes and wondering at the size of the ego that
would go to these lengths to impress and manipulate. As wonderful
as it all was she still felt a visceral determination to resist and
not lose control.

Not again.

"There's something we have to discuss Mr.
Demovic, before all of this goes too far."

"I'd say were well past the point of 'too
far' already Dr. Price, wouldn't you agree?"

The oblique reference to their indiscretion
set her on edge. She had screamed out, told him to fuck her like a
man. She had relived the memory in exquisite pussy moistening
detail over and over on the journey from New York, but now she
cringed inside at the thought.

"It went far enough and it stops right
there."

Jason allowed one of his infuriatingly sexy
smiles to cross his lips.

Sure it does.
It said.
Just you
wait.

"I've changed my mind about therapy. I
believe we can work together professionally after all."

He raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"Excuse me? I thought you said your
supervisor had advised you not to work with me because of your
hearing? Has something changed?"

"Yes. Everything has changed. He has advised
me to take you on as a client and to work with you."

Jason drummed his fingers on the table and
then looked towards the approaching waiter. When the man arrived
Jason ordered two Kir Royale's with pink Champagne. The waiter
melted away and he turned back to Melissa.

"Is your supervisor aware that you begged me
to fuck you?"

"Stop it Jason. We hardly know each other.
There are no emotions at stake here. You wanted to work with me and
now you have your chance. We put the last twenty-four hours behind
us and then start from the beginning again. I want to know your
story, I want to help you, but that means there can be absolutely
no repeat of what happened this morning."

"Well what if I don't like those terms?"

Melissa glared at him.

"Take it or leave it. One way or the other
there won't be any repeat performances. I'm in deep enough as it
is."

"In over your head if you ask me."

"That may well be, but those are my terms. So
what's it going to be? Will you work with me professionally or
not?"

He nodded his head and smiled.

"Of course I will. That's what I wanted from
you anyway but your deranged supervisor had an issue with it. I'm
glad he's come to his senses. Now can we finally just relax? You're
in Paris Dr. Price and I've reserved a booth at Guy Savoy's for
later. Do you think you can still have dinner with me tonight and
keep it strictly professional?"

Melissa had heard of the restaurant. She had
dreamed of eating there.

"As long as we keep it strictly
professional."

"That's wonderful. Now why don’t you try your
drink." He raised up the elegant Champagne flute in front of him
and nodded for Melissa to raise hers.

"A toast." He said. "To success in our work
together. And to Paris."

She raised her glass and fixed his gaze with
her own.

"To keeping it strictly professional." She
said.

He smiled and took a sip of his drink.

"There's just one more thing." She said. "You
made me miss a meeting with my supervisor tonight. He was going to
vouch for me in my hearing on Tuesday but now… well, now I'm not so
sure. All I know is that we have to keep it strictly, and I mean
strictly
professional or there will be repercussions that
will affect not only me but my family as well, and I can't allow
that to happen."

"I've told you before Dr. Price, there's
nothing to worry about. I don’t want that to happen either. I need
you to have your qualifications and license to practice intact.
Without them I'm not sure you can help me."

It was a revealing admission.

"That's very interesting Mr. Demovic. Would
you like to elaborate on why that is?"

"Is this a 'strictly professional' question
now Dr. Price? Are we on the record here already?"

"Everything is on the record from now
on."

There was no way to read his reaction to what
he said; Jason had reverted back to inscrutable billionaire
mode.

"In that case, and in the interests of our
mutual benefit from this relationship, I should tell you that your
qualifications are very important to me. I need you to be an expert
in your field, whatever we are doing together."

Did a slight smile cross his lips there?
Melissa couldn't tell.

"I'm realizing that your words carry a lot of
weight for me and it's the whole package; the business suits, the
uptight appearance, the glasses, the hair and of course the
academic achievements. You are what I need to test myself against
and if you become just another attractive woman then I'm sure we
would enjoy our time together but I'm not sure that you could cure
me. Your effect on me in the last days is unlike anything I've felt
from any woman in the last three years since my 'issues' began. If
anything changes then you may become valueless to me. I want you
just the way you are, just the way I met you in your office last
week unless I choose to change something. In which case we can
discuss openly what it is that I would like to see changed."

Melissa didn't move as though. This was more
than he had told her about himself in all the time they had been
together. Unfortunately, it didn’t give them good odds.

"In that case, Mr. Demovic, you had better
hope that I can cure you before Tuesday because after that I
there's a very strong possibility that I might not have a license
to practice anymore."

"I've told you before, don't concern yourself
with that. I won't allow that happen, so just relax and start
getting to know me on the basis that we have all the time in the
world to work together."

"I would like to think that, but despite what
you may believe about your power and influence, which I'm sure is
very considerable, I don’t think even you have any choice in what
the board can do. And besides," she dropped her gaze, avoiding his
eyes, "maybe I deserve to be struck off. After all, you don't even
know what it is that I did to get myself into this situation."

Jason took another sip of his drink and
didn't say a word.

Melissa lifted her eyes again. "Or do you?"
This was Jason Demovic after all. "You do know don't you?"

He nodded his head slowly.

Fuck.

"How did you find out? Did you have a PI
break into my office? Or maybe into the offices of the professional
association? Was it something that low?"

"Let me ask you this Dr. Price; do
you
think that what you did was wrong?"

Melissa had thought through her actions a
million times over since the day it happened and she still couldn't
make sense of the what or why of what she had done.

"It was just stupid." She said. "Plain dumb.
A clumsy attempt at trying to think outside the box to help a
client I thought I knew very well and instead I thought outside of
the ethics of professional behavior and crossed a line that should
never be crossed between therapist and client."

"Like the line we crossed in your bedroom
this morning?"

Melissa's eyes darted away again. He had her
pinned down in every direction she turned, like an exotic butterfly
on a cork board.

"No. It was nothing like that and as we
discussed,
that
won't happen ever again."

"Never say never Melissa. I'd say we both had
the time of our lives today, so once I've achieved my goal in
therapy I don’t see why we couldn't strive for the same," he
searched for the right word, "the same intensity again."

Her heart was beginning to speed up again.
Intensity was the right word alright and technically he was
speaking the truth. Therapist and ex-client relationships were not
proscribed per-se provided an interval of minimum three years was
allowed to pass before anything was initiated.

But was this anything like a relationship? Or
was it just intensely hot sex?

"Why is William Kingsley so determined to see
you lose your license?" Jason asked.

"You know his name. I suppose that shouldn't
surprise me anymore. I don't know what his issue with me really is.
I've thought it through a million times over and I come up with a
different theory each time." She a long sip of her Kir Royale. It
was really excellent.

"Is there alcohol in this?" She asked,
remembering her intolerance to liquor.

"Not so as you'd notice."

She took another sip. "So tell me this Jason,
why are
you
so determined to see me lose my license?"

Jason's sexy mouth fell open and he set his
drink down.

"Me? See
you
lose your license? I
thought I just explained that to you. You're the first therapist
who's even come close to helping me. Why would I want you to stop
practicing? Let's get one thing absolutely straight between us
here; I
need
you to have that license. You lose it and
you're no good to me anymore. If you're not qualified then none of
this will work."

"So it's about authority for you. Is that
it?"

"Partly, but that's not all."

"Female authority." Melissa was feeling less
and less uptight, willing to take risks again. She glanced at her
harmless looking pink beverage and then continued on. "That's it
Mr. Demovic, isn’t it? This is all about control. The control that
women have over you and the control you have over them."

"I've already explained it Dr. Price. This is
becoming a little tiresome--"

"This is why you're making sure the last two
female therapists you had are going down for minor infractions of
ethical--"

"Minor infractions? That so-called therapist
tried to have sex with me and then extort money from my family.
That is not minor. And there's only one case, one therapist. Your
information, wherever you're getting it from, is completely wrong.
It looks like I'm not the only one willing to snoop around and
break a few rules to get the information I need. Isn't
that
right Dr. Price?"

"I didn't do any 'snooping', the information
was volunteered to me."

"By who?"

"I'm not at liberty to say."

"That's alright, my people can find that out
for me. Just like they found out that all you did to that Kingsley
asshole was kiss him on the damn forehead because he was crying to
you about never having been kissed by his mother when he was a
little boy. Trust me Dr. Price, there's a world of difference
between what my therapist pulled and what you tried to do to help
that weasel Kingsley. I won't let him destroy you and
that
is a promise I'm more than happy to make."

"You really just think it's okay to break all
the rules, don't you? All you have to do is say the word and you're
'people' go digging into other people's lives, buying and stealing
and bribing and whatever else they need to do to get the
information you need to bend and control their lives."

Melissa's head was beginning to swim a
little.

"I'd say we're pretty much even there
Melissa. And besides, you'd be surprised how simple it was for me
to get the information I just shared with you and by who I got it
from."

Melissa stared at him and the young couple
locked into a standoff.

She cursed David again.

Even by sharing information with her he had
weakened her position. Blackmail and counter blackmail weren't her
style and neither was manipulation. Clearly this wasn't the case
with Jason and she would be no match for him on that level, but she
did have a quick mind and a high IQ; she could learn fast.

Her mind raced as she held his stern
gaze.

He was the best looking man she had ever
seen, easily the most successful and in some ways the most
intimidating. He knew everything about her private and professional
life, most likely from his massive network of contacts and paid
investigators, but in her favor it was obvious that he had intense
and complicated feelings for her. He had some kind of problem with
women in authority and he was about to relinquish control of his
privacy to her; his female therapist.

There was a chance. All she had to do was
leverage this control, if she could just stay focused. A wave of
dizziness passed through her head and she glanced at her drink
again. Kir Royale. She had never heard of it before.

"I can be very persuasive when I want to be."
Jason broke the standoff. "You should give me a chance to persuade
you sometime. You might be very glad you did. Most people are."

Melissa's heart was beginning to pound and
looking around she smiled.

The Eiffel Tower, Paris, Jason freaking
Demovich. Who fucking cares about that stupid ethics committee.

She glanced at her drink again.

Oh shit.

It was too late. It was clearly an alcoholic
drink.

Stay in control. Stay in control.
She
told herself.

What's so freaking great about control?

She took another long drink from the slim
glass.

"Jesus, can't you stop being so uptight one
God damn minute and enjoy this gorgeous view in front of you." She
looked at Jason and grinned. "And the city doesn't look too bad
either."

"Melissa?"