The Scandalous Billionaires Collection (2 page)

This made her current situation with the
ethics committee even more galling. One tiny mistake, one human
error after years of study.

It didn’t seem fair. It was a beginners
mistake and she prayed they would see it like that too.

Just hang in there.
She kept telling
herself.
We've been through worse times than this, the light is
there at the end of the tunnel. Just a little longer now. We can
beat this.

If her little sister was stoical about her
illness, Melissa herself always put on a brave face about the
medical bills, but in reality she was almost to the point of paying
interest only on their accumulated medical debts. She never said a
word of this to Suzy and never would as long as she could keep on
paying the bills.

The ethics committee would have to clear her
and the business would have to be a runaway success because there
was no other option.

Just hang in there.

She took a small mirror out of her bag to
check her appearance. Her auburn hair was pulled back tightly into
a neat, if not particularly attractive bun, but it made her look
older and more professional which was the desired effect. Her
spectacles were serious rather than fashionable and tended to make
her look older; something else she needed with her youthful face.
The glasses also made her face look thinner. Although petite she
often thought she was a little too rounded. With college, work,
looking after her sister and now setting up a psychotherapy
practice as well, she had never had the time to worry about getting
into better shape.

Needless to say dating had been out of the
question since forever.

She heard the door in the reception area open
and sat up straight. Her receptionist Sandy was behind schedule
today so she would have to meet and greet by herself unless that
was him arriving already. She had left the door open to allow her
first client to come into the waiting area.

She stood up and went to her office door but
it opened abruptly after a short, heavy knock before she could get
to it. The man who entered the room was unbelievably good-looking,
even to Melissa; with all her worries and pre-occupations it took a
lot for her to notice attractiveness in the opposite sex.

"Where's Dr. Price?" The well dressed man
said gruffly.

Someone needs manners.
She
thought.

"I'm here to see Dr. Price." He added.

"Mr. Demovic?" She asked.

"Jason." He said, softening slightly. "Look,
I'm already late. Are you Dr. Price?"

Melissa held out her hand.

"Dr. Melissa Price. It's a pleasure to meet
you Mr. Demovic. Won't you take a seat?"

"Pleasure." He said, and took her hand,
sending a sharp jolt of electricity crackling through Melissa's
body. She jerked her hand away and a hint of a smile came to his
face.

"You need to get that carpet changed. Too
much static." He said. To her complete surprise a vivid image of
herself making love on the carpet to the mouth watering man in
front of her flashed through Melissa's mind.

Come on Melissa.
She berated herself.
You’re a trained psychotherapist, not a schoolgirl
.

She smiled and indicated her analysis area to
him to one side of her office, where there was a coffee table an
armchair and a couch.

"Mr. Demovic, would you like to take a
seat?"

He nodded and began to cross the room.
Melissa followed behind him, watching his tall, muscular frame move
in front of her. She couldn't help but notice that he was superbly
healthy, radiating strength and athleticism. The suit he wore
looked like a thin veneer of civilization on a man who was
obviously a primal and instinctual being. Most of her few clients
were older, or had the appearance of age. They were fatigued,
anxious, worn down by their troubles, but not this tall, straight
and self-assured man. He was downright hot and Melissa was feeling
the heat.

He sat down on the couch and she took a seat
next to him in the armchair.

"Make yourself comfortable." She said. "This
is your hour, so I suggest we get started before anymore time is
wasted."

"I'm all for that." He said. "I don’t want to
waste any time at all with you Dr. Price."

What did that mean?

Before we fuck.
The words crossed
Melissa's mind like a voice from a stranger in her head. She sat up
straight in the armchair, taken off guard by her own reactions. She
had been attracted to clients before but never quite like this. If
she had felt things before it was after a period of getting to know
the person, gaining insight into who they were and building a
relationship of sympathy and trust. No one had ever walked into her
office before and made her just want to...

A feeling of foreboding crossed over her.
This client was bad news. Somehow she could feel it.

Just tell him to leave.
Another voice
inside her spoke with urgency, but she dismissed the thought.
Don't be ridiculous, Dr. Melissa Price! This is just a client
like any other. A little more attractive than usual but nothing to
come undone about. Just pull yourself together.

And besides, she needed the money. What kind
of therapist would send a new client away just because they felt an
unusually strong sexual attraction to them?

"Would you like some water?" She offered.

"No thank you." Jason looked around her
office, first to her degrees and then to the collection of prints
next to them. Melissa watched and waited.

"You obviously like Fernanda Salazar." Jason
said without inflection, as though the preference were commonplace
and the artist well known. Melissa was stunned. Almost no-one had
ever commented on her wall art and not a single person had ever
known the artist's name.

"Yes I do." she said. "Do you know her?"

"Not that well, but she has been over to the
house a few times. I see you have one original."

Melissa tried hard to look unimpressed at his
intimacy with her artistic hero. Fernanda Salazar was an artist she
revered not only for her work but for her dedication to the plight
of poor women in rural Latin America.

"Mr. Demovic, as much as I would love to,
we're not here to talk about my interest in art--"

"It's what I want to talk about. It'll help
me with my problem."

"And your problem would be?"

"Well, firstly, that my new therapist is an
extremely attractive woman."

"Mr. Demovic--"

"We need to deal with that. I have it on good
recommendation that you are one of the best new psychotherapists in
the city, but I hadn't expected you to be the most beautiful as
well."

His voice was calm and totally serious.

"Mr. Demovic--"

"But that's not the main problem. The truth
is that I don't really need to be here at all."

Melissa laid down her pen and pad on the
table between them and then sat back in her chair.

"Okay, then. If you don’t need to be here,
can you explain to me why you
are
here?"

He watched her silently for a moment,
thoroughly considering his reply.

"Not quite yet." He said at last.

Melissa had infinite patience for those she
believed she could help with her training, but for silly mind games
she had no time at all. 'Not quite yet' sounded like playing around
to her.

"That's odd Mr. Demovic, because you give me
the impression of being someone who likes to get straight to the
point. Why don't we cut to the chase here and save us both a lot of
time."

Jason looked mildly surprised, but not
unpleasantly so.

Are you here for therapy or for something
else?" Melissa continued.

"I thought mental health professionals liked
to do everything slowly Dr. Price. Are you rushing me for answers?
I've only been in therapy for..." he checked his watch, "just under
fifteen minutes and you want to cut to the chase already?"

He looked her fully in the eyes and Melissa
had the awkward feeling of being caught out. Had she been too hasty
in challenging him?

His intense eyes watched her mercilessly as
color began to rise from her rapidly beating heart, through her
slender neck and then slowly, slowly into her face.

This is ridiculous.
She thought.
Ridiculous or not, her blush response was outside her conscious
control.

"Is it getting hot in here?" Jason asked with
a hint of a smile that Melissa couldn't help but find incredibly
sexy. She gave a resigned sigh, took off her glasses and then
lifted her reddening face defiantly towards him. She sat up
straight again.

Okay Mr. Beautiful Asshole.
She
thought.
You win. For now.

Jason continued to smile as she undid the top
button of her blouse. It surely was getting hot in there. He raised
an eyebrow and then frowned in disappointment when she stopped
after the second tiny button.

She folded her arms across her ample breasts
and felt the subtle swell of her nipples. No man and certainly no
client had ever made her feel quite this way before.

"Well done Mr. Demovic." She said. "You
managed to make me feel uncomfortable. Are you happy now?"

"It's only fair." He grinned. "You've made me
feel uncomfortable from the moment you looked at me with those
gorgeous green eyes of yours and now I'm supposed to tell you about
my problems? Just imagine how I feel."

Melissa looked at him and mercifully felt her
heat and color gradually recede.

"Do you always blush when men comment on how
attractive you are?" He said.

Bastard.
She thought.

"Do you always use flirtation as a means to
gain power over women?"

"Only those I find unusually attractive."

"Mr. Demovic, this isn't going to work if you
continue to behave like this. Now why don’t you tell me why you're
here and then we can decide if we want to continue our professional
relationship together or not."

Jason's expression became serious again.

"I'm here because my board of directors
insists that I see a therapist. They say I'm giving too much of
their money away to charity. Of course the idea is nonsense. There
is no issue here--I'm just continuing a tradition of philanthropy
begun by father. Therefore, I would like to propose a deal with
you."

"A deal?"

"Yes. A deal. I propose that we save your
time and my money. You sign off on twenty-four hours of therapy and
I'll make sure that you're more than adequately compensated. I'll
even consider putting you on retainer and having Demovic Inc refer
employees to you who might need counseling. Say at a cost of one
hundred thousand dollars per annum?" He spoke matter of factly, as
though it were already agreed.

Melissa had to hide her amazement yet again,
but the truth was that one hundred thousand dollars a year would be
an instant fix to all of her and her sister's immediate problems.
She was slowly realizing that the smoldering guy in front of her
was not just a successful man but one of quite considerable
means--definitely not just a pretty face and a smoking hot
body.

She felt her mouth go dry as she considered
her response. Another first from a client.

Jason Demovic waited for her approval and his
gaze felt like a hot midday sun beating down on her. She was used
to all kinds of pressure as a responsible adult and as a
psychotherapist, but business world financial negotiations were
outside of her comfort zone. One hundred thousand dollars was a lot
of money and would enable her to do a lot of good, but for sure the
ethics committee wouldn't see it that way.

"I'm sorry Mr. Demovic, but I'm afraid it
doesn't work like that. How about you explain to me why the board
thinks you need to see a therapist? I think that might be a good
starting point for our session today."

"I don't have time for this." He said
shortly. "I run a multi-billion dollar company so every minute of
the day counts and I absolutely have no need for any kind of
psychotherapy."

"If you don't have time for any of this then
why the silly game? Why even come here to see me? And for goodness
sake, why try to flirt with me?"

Jason watched her, considered her. She had
refused his offer, which he didn’t like, and she had rebutted his
attempts at flirtation. On the other hand, she was tilting her head
ever so slightly to the left as she waited for him to speak and
watching him with rapt attention through her nerdy glasses. All of
this he liked very much indeed.

He liked it enough that his cock began to
stiffen under the thick fabric of his hand cut, tailor made
business suit.

He had taken in every detail of her office in
a moment. Her credentials with Harvard and Stanford he had known
about already but her appreciation of Fernanda Salazar had been
unexpected. His attraction to her had been unexpected as well. She
wasn't his usual type but there was something about her he knew he
really wanted. He had chosen her because he knew she was a young,
inexperienced therapist in trouble both professionally and
financially. He had counted on her being a push over and easy to
manipulate, but that seemed to be backfiring.

Her resistance to him was annoying, but
somehow it only made him want to fuck her even more than he had
wanted to when he first laid eyes on her.

That buttoned up little outfit.

That miss prim hair bun and the serious
glasses hiding the sensuous, beautiful girl underneath.

You want to play hardball little lady? You
don’t know who you're dealing with.

He smiled.

"I'm here because of the board Dr. Price." He
paused. "But I'm flirting with you because I like you."

"I'm flattered Mr. Demovic but unfortunately
that complicates our relationship."

"We don’t have a relationship Dr. Price--not
yet--and don’t make the mistake of thinking that just because I
like you that I'm going to let that get in the way of my goals. I'm
here to achieve an outcome and one way or the other it's going to
happen, with or without your compliance. But trust me, your
compliance will make things go a lot smoother, a lot quicker and
will work very, very much to our mutual satisfaction."