Total Immersion by Alice Gaines Read Free Book Online Page A

talks to you,” Jeff said.
    What the hell? It couldn’t hurt. Adam reached to the soap dish and found a bar that smelled, well, purple, for lack of a better description. After lathering his hands, he set it aside and slid the suds over Susan’s back. Her hair got in his way, so he eased it over her shoulders and worked his thumbs into her spine, splaying his fingers over her ribs.
    She tipped her head forward, accepting his touch. She looked so small. Delicate. As if he could break her if he weren’t careful. She’d always affected him that way from the first time he’d laid eyes on her. She’d been frightened, her eyes nearly big enough to take up half her face. He could have pounded on the guy who’d smashed their cars together except for the fact that they otherwise would never have met.
    “I should have known our relationship could never work out,” she said. “I could have saved us all that pain.”
    “By not becoming involved with me at all?” he said. “You think that wouldn’t have hurt?”
    “I don’t know. Maybe less.”
    “I don’t regret anything.” Even though the suds had disappeared, he continued stroking her back. After all this time, it felt damned good. Somehow, this was more intimate than the sex they’d just shared. He wouldn’t tell Jeff that, though. No point giving him a puffed-up opinion of his counseling skills.
    “Nothing?” she asked. “Nothing at all?”
    She meant the last argument, of course, the one that had finally gone too far. In her anger, she’d said the absolute worst thing she could have. She’d regretted it immediately and tried to take it back, but once a word like that was out there, it stayed.
    “Nothing,” he lied.
    He shouldn’t be dishonest with her, but he’d never planned to discuss that again and certainly not in front of someone else. She stiffened beneath his fingers. Jeff wouldn’t notice. No one who didn’t have his hands on her could feel the tension.
    “Do you have anything you’d like to say, Adam?” Jeff asked.
    Lots. If he could form the words. This time, Susan took the soap and lathered it between her palms. He turned to give her his back. Soon, her fingers were digging into tension he hadn’t known was there.
    “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier about my job,” he said. “I guess I couldn’t right at first, but later . . .”
    In the euphoria following their first lovemaking, time had slipped by so quickly. Still, they had spent a lot of it talking between bites of delivery pizza and mocha-fudge-ripple ice cream and sugar cookies. Deep inside, he must have feared she’d reject him, although he hadn’t admitted it to himself at the time. Idiot that he’d been, he’d felt so sure he could make everything work.
    “Would you—” Hell, could he even ask the question now? “Would you still have become involved with me if you’d known?”
    She hesitated, her fingers stilling on his back. “Yes. I couldn’t have resisted.”
    “That’s me.” He shook his head. “Irresistible.”
    “I thought I could cope with your reality,” she said. “I tried. I really did. I wasn’t strong enough.”
    “Isn’t this the part where I’m supposed to be confessing my sins?” he asked.
    “I failed you. I failed both of us,” she said.
    He turned and put his arms around her. “No, honey. Please.”
    “She’s getting upset,” Jeff said.
    Adam glared at him. “I can see that.”
    “Well, do something.”
    “That last day . . .” Tears welled in her eyes. “I didn’t mean it. You know I didn’t mean it.”
    He pressed a finger to her lips. “Don’t. Please, Susan.”
    For the love of everything holy, he’d promised himself he’d never have to hear that word again. Not only for his own sake, but it could apply as easily to Jeff. Perhaps more so, now that Adam had taken over as manager.
    “End of therapy session,” Adam said.
    “Hey, I’m sorry, man,” Jeff said. “I didn’t think . . .”
    “Never