Chapter Five
"Are you sure you want to cancel Mr. Connelly Melissa?" Sandy asked her. "He's due here in under an hour, he might be on his way already."
"I didn't ask you if we could discuss it Sandy, I just told you to do it. I'm paying you to work reception not to question my decisions."
Sandy stared into Melissa's bloodshot eyes disapprovingly and a wave of guilt went through her.
"I'm sorry Sandy, I didn't mean--"
"It's okay Dr. Price. You're right. I'll make the change."
I'll make it up to him. She thought as she ducked back into her office. It had only been half a glass of wine but the hangover was a doozey and it was something Melissa was definitely not accustomed to. The Tylenol she had taken didn't seem to be making any impact on her headache and her stomach didn't feel too good either. It had been nearly 1am when Jason had called to make his appointment and she had gone to bed soon after, but that was late for Melissa. She usually called it a night at 9pm so that she could get up at 5am to start her long early morning routine.
It had been considerably shorter this morning and with an annoying soundtrack of one thought going constantly through her mind.
Am I doing the right thing with this client?
Melissa wasn't superstitious but she clearly remembered and still felt the sense of foreboding that she had experienced when Jason had been sitting in front of her. Her counseling supervisor had forbidden her to see him. She had had intensely sexual thoughts about him. He had phoned her home number at 1am in the morning to demand an appointment at 10am the following day.
There was nothing right about seeing 'this client'.
How can this be the right thing to do?
She sat in her office listening to the pounding inside her skull. It was still only 9.25am. She had another half hour at least before Demovic would arrive, unless he surprised her like the day before. She couldn't escape the sinking feeling that she was digging herself a hole she would never be able to get out of.
He'll arrive. I'll tell him we can't do this. I'll be honest and explain to him exactly why we cannot work together.
But if any of that was true then why was she so excited about the prospect of seeing him again as well?
Was it just because he was some kind of celebrity? Surely not--but Jason Demovic wasn't an ordinary client in any respect. He wasn't an ordinary man in any respect. This was an A-list celebrity, one of Manhattan's elite and currently one of its most eligible bachelors. Plus it was still a complete mystery as to why he needed her. Professionally she was intrigued, but that didn't explain the flutter of excitement she felt every time she thought about meeting him again.
Her buzzer went and she heard Sandy's soft voice announce Mr. Jason Demovic.
Shit. She looked at the wall clock. He was a full half an hour early. He seemed to like catching her off guard.
"Please send him in." She said in her most composed voice.
She stood up as the door opened and there he was, standing in her doorway again. He looked every bit as jaw-droppingly, toe-curlingly sexy as he had the day before. Knowing that he was a multi-billionaire didn't take anything away from the effect either.
"Mr. Demovic. It's lovely to see you again." The words came out painfully. Her head was still pounding and she ground her teeth to help hold herself together.
Come on Melissa, this won’t take long.
Jason came in and shut the door behind him.
"Thank you for seeing me on such short notice." He said. "I'd like to get started on our program of therapy as quickly as possible."
He walked to the therapy area and his athletic body plopped down onto the couch. There was no trace of his late night anywhere on his face. Melissa wondered about the three women he had just spent the night with. Could he really have dispensed with all three of them at the same time while she had been comatose in her bed and then come straight here--fresh as an ice-cube and dressed like the President for his therapy session?
"You're a little early." Melissa said. "I have you in for 10am."
"I'm going to need more of your time, but don't worry, I'll pay for it. Whatever it takes. Money is never an issue but my time is. And of course so is yours. Shall we get started?"
Her phone was on silent but she saw a call coming through from David. She ignored it and walked over to her analysis chair. She felt hot. The hangover no doubt.
It's time. Come on Melissa, let's get this over with.
Her heart was beating. If he wasn't her client then that would mean… It was the first time that thought had occurred to her. No therapeutic relationship meant the freedom to act as she pleased, but with all her years of study and damned celibacy she would have no idea where to even begin.
"Where would you like me to begin?" Jason asked, seemingly plucking the thought from her mind.
"Mr. Demovic--"
"I think you better start calling me Jason, don’t you think? Now that we're going to be spending so much time together."
"Uh… okay, well Jason, about that, I'm afraid there's been a change of plan."
His demeanor transformed instantly.
"I don’t like last minute changes to plans." He said sternly. "Please elaborate."
"I have this… issue… unfortunately… that will prevent me from working with you."
"I don’t understand Dr. Price, you'll need to be more clear."
This wasn't going to be easy. How could she explain that she had been forbidden to take him on as a client because of a powerfully intense sexual attraction to him that she had revealed to her supervisor?
Keep it simple. She counseled herself.
"I'm in trouble with the ethics committee that oversees my professional body."
"I know." He said. "What does that have to do with us?"
"How do you know about that?"
"I make it my business to know about people that I have to enter into any kind of relationship with. Don't worry about the ethics committee. My understanding is that there will be no problem with your case and you will be allowed to continue in your practice. So can we get started now?"
Melissa was reeling again under what emotions, she wasn't quite sure. On the one hand, she wanted to believe him, on the other, how the hell could he know such private details about her life?
"There's more to it than that." She said. "I've been forbidden to see you by my counseling supervisor."
"Who is your supervisor?"
"What difference does that make?"
"All the difference. What's her name?"
"I'm surprised you don’t already know."
"I know what I need to know and now I need to know your supervisor's name. So please tell me what her name is and my people can sort all of this out."
"His name."
"Excuse me? Your supervisor is a man?"
"Correct and he has advised me not to work with you."
"On what grounds?"
"That's confidential."
Jason rested one manicured hand down onto the table between them and began drumming his fingers softly while he held Melissa's gaze.
She held her ground and stared back at him.
"Dr. Price, you know that I can easily find out who your supervisor is even if you are not personally at liberty to reveal it to me."
She nodded her head. "I suppose that is very probably the case." She said.
"Okay, so we can assume that I will go ahead and do that and then once I do I can absolutely assure you that it will no longer be a problem. So can we begin this therapy session now?"
"Mr. Demovic, that may be how things work in the business world but unfortunately that just isn't how things work in the world of professional psychotherapy. This isn’t about rules and regulations but about right and wrong--"
"Then please enlighten me as to what exactly is wrong about taking me on as a client? I'm sure if you explain it to me then I will understand and this will not be a problem."
Melissa began tapping her foot nervously under the table. This cat and mouse game hinged on her revealing to this gorgeous man the truth about her attraction to him. How much did she have to swallow her pride in order to make this situation go away?
"Mr. Demovic, I only have your word that the ethics committee has already decided to exonerate me. Why on earth should I even consider believing you?"
Her heart had begun to pound. That was definitely not the question she should be asking. Demovic should have been already out of her office by now. She had no obligation to treat him and every good ethical reason not to. All she had to do was ask him to leave and he would go or if he wouldn’t then Sandy could call the cops.
"You can believe me or not Dr. Price, but trust me, it won't be a problem. I've built my professional reputation on making problems go away. Your ethics committee is no different to any other group of people calling themselves a committee and believe they will be perfectly satisfied with your explanations as to what happened with your client."
"If you're so good at making problems go away, then why are you here looking for my help?"
He smiled.
"I know my limits Dr. Price, and I know when to ask for help. I had an experience last night that convinced me that I've been mistaken and that in fact I do need your help with my personal problems. You might consider doing the same yourself. Despite what you might think, you may not be quite as in control of your life as you think you are."
Melissa's heart was racing. She felt as though she was being probed, exposed, challenged and it was proving to be a more sexual experience for her than a week at the Playboy Mansion. She was scared by her own responses, both physical and emotional.
"Mr. Demovic, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave. I can't treat you and I can't tell you why. It's as simple as that."
Melissa stood up but Jason didn't move.
"You need to leave my office now." She said firmly, looking down at his adorably ruffled hair. One very physical part of her longed to run her fingers through those thick locks.
She took a deep breath to calm herself.
As long as he agreed to leave he wouldn't be her client. But then he would be just a man; a single man. 'Up for grabs' the TV presenter had said. A bad boy who needed saving…
Jason stood up to go.
"Don't worry." he said. "I'm leaving, but before I go I need just one thing from you. Do you understand?"
Melissa waited, her blouse trembling with the beating of her heart. She wanted him out of her office right now but she also wanted him to go straight into her bed.
Just one night. She thought. She knew she was being unrealistic, that she was in the throes of a deep neurosis, fantasizing that sex could solve all of her problems. She had treated clients like this before but now she understood what the compulsion felt like from the inside.
She watched him closely, licked her dry lips and then spoke.
"Before you say another word Mr. Demovic, and before I respond--if I respond at all--I need to make it very clear that you are not my client."
He nodded his head.
"We have not entered into any professional agreement." She continued.
"I understand that." His eyes were dark and hooded now, obscuring any possibility of reading his thoughts. His face was very close to hers and she could smell just a hint of his high class expensive cologne. She felt his shadow come over her and in a moment his hand was to her lower back, drawing her in towards him and his lips pressed to hers.
"Yes." She hissed, opening herself to him fully, allowing his tongue to explore and plunder her. The feel of his hips against hers was intoxicating. No man had ever felt like this before, no man had ever made her feel like this before. Fire ran through her and she felt her the needy throb of her clit crying out to the crush of his body.
"No." She gasped and started to push him away. He released her immediately. There wasn't a hint of an expression on his face but his eyes burned.
"I knew it." He said. "That's the reason your supervisor doesn’t want you to see me."
"That's ridiculous." She blustered, straightening her clothes. "You need to get out of here right now."
Don't go. Please.
"I'm going Dr. Price--for now--but this changes everything." There was a hint of a smile on his lips. "Here's my personal number." He took out a card and put it down on the table coming dangerously close to her as he did so. The proximity sent a near unbearable thrill through her body.
"Very few people have this number, so please keep it to yourself."
"I won’t be needing it."
He stood up and came close to her again, making her back up a step.
"I'm not your client, so don’t worry. Nothing unethical has happened here today. Nothing yet." He added with just a hint of sinful smile.
Melissa felt dizzy. Maybe it was the hangover or maybe it was the turn of events.
"I have to go but I'll send a car for you tomorrow. Clear your day. The whole day."
She looked up at him again, his gaze was burning into her.
"That's impossible--" She said.
"Nothing's impossible."
Those eyes.
When he looked at her it was like she belonged to him. She was struggling to hang on to her objectivity. No wonder those women had been fighting over him outside the night club.
"I want you for the whole day tomorrow." He said.
Her heart pounded.
"I've never felt an attraction to someone like this before Dr. Price, do you understand me?"
"Yes. Yes I do. But--"
Before she could answer his sensuous lips were against her own again, stifling her words and sending thrills coursing down through her body that threatened to set her on fire.
He released her and she gasped for breath.
"8.30am." He said. "The car will be outside your home. Don't be late." He turned and strode to the door.
"And Dr. Price?"
Her head was reeling.
"Yes?"
He stared at her, breathing hard.
"What is it?"
He walked back over to her, looming above her and making her feel like a little girl in the school yard again.
Her heart was thundering.
"Dr. Price…" He raised her chin up gently with his left index finger.
"Thank you." He said in a low, intense voice, almost as though he were ashamed of his gratitude.
He took her left hand in his own and then pressed her fingers to his lips, forming an urgent kiss with his rugged yet sensuous mouth.
By the time her heart stopped beating he had left the office and Sandy was standing in the doorway with a huge, boyish smirk on his face.
"Cancel all appointments tomorrow?" He grinned, sending a flash of annoyance through his boss.
"No. Who told you that? I'm busy all day."
Sandy stood there smiling in response to Melissa's glare.
"Is that so girlfriend?" He smirked again, incensing her even more.
"From now on I need you to address me as Dr. Price. Do you understand?"
"Anything you say, Dr. Price, just so you know though, tomorrow is Saturday, so according to your work diary at least, you are free all day. Dr. Price."
Melissa felt her color slowly rise, singeing its way up her neck and into her cheeks.
"It's okay Dr. Price." Sandy continued. "We all can get a little confused when love comes to town." He turned quickly and closed the door behind him.
God damn you Sandy.
She cursed her receptionist but made no move to reprimand him. If he was being fresh with her it was only because she had given him cause and the truth was he was a whole lot more to her than just a receptionist. She went to her office door and opened it. Sandy was sitting innocently in his seat with a celebrity gossip magazine open in his hands. Jason Demovic was on the front cover in a shot taken from the footage the previous evening. The billionaire looked as sharp and impeccable as ever.
"Yes Dr. Price?" Sandy said. Somehow the 'Dr. Price' thing was annoying Melissa even more now than his use of the term 'girlfriend' had.
"You can drop the Dr. Price. Just call me Melissa but don't call me 'girlfriend'."
"Okay Melissa." A trace of a smile played around his lips.
"How did you know Mr. Demovic wanted my schedule cleared for tomorrow?"
"Are you kidding me?"
She glared at him without a trace of a smile.
"He marched out here and gave me one of those smiles that made my knees go weak and my, well, you know, something else went hard. He asked me if you worked weekends and I told him you weren't that busy yet."
"Oh Sandy." Melissa said despairingly. "What is wrong with you?"
"Melissa." He looked at her disapprovingly. "Don't you know that when love comes to town, all the rules in the book need to get broken? Don’t you even know that much honey? You're the one with all the high falutin' degrees after all."
"I'm not in love. There is no love here. Nothing is going on."
Sandy held his magazine up to cover his face while he sniggered loudly.
"You are seriously going to annoy me Sandy. What the hell is so funny?"
He lowered the magazine but his face was nearly bright red from the laughter.
"You should have seen yourself just now. When I stepped inside your office door you looked like you'd just been touched by an angel. Right on your G-spot."
Melissa's jaw dropped open. Sandy mimicked her shock with his own round friendly face.
"Oh my God Dr. Price, I'm so sorry, I should never have said that, please forgive me."
Melissa closed her hanging jaw and softly bit her tongue.
"Sandy…"
"Yes Dr. Price?"
"How does Jason Demovic know my cell phone number and home address?"
Sandy's color went from the pink flush of laughter to the burning red crimson of embarrassment.
"I'm so sorry Dr. Price, I just couldn't say no to him. It's something about the way he looks at me. It's like he owns me and God I just so want it to be true. I want him to take whatever it is he wants from me and in whatever way he wants it from me and whenever he wants it. God what I wouldn't give to be a hot straight woman like you when that man walks into the room."
Melissa should have been furious but all she could feel was empathy. Sandy was busy digging pretty much the same professional hole in the ground for himself that she was except that hers was a whole lot bigger.
"Do you think I'm hot?" She said
He looked up at her with a huge smile.
"Are you shitting me girlfr--" he stopped himself. "I mean are you kidding me Melissa? You are one hot momma. In that funky little school mistress, follow my instructions kind of way. You know, a lot of men are into that kind of thing. Why do you think nearly all or your clients here are men?"
"That's ridiculous." She sputtered.
"Name one of your female clients." He challenged her.
"There's… that woman, what's her name again? Miriam?"
"Exactly. Melissa, don't you get it? Half these guys are fantasizing about their therapist doing them and you don't even notice it. You've got that whole Angelina Jolie with a brain thing going on."
"Angelina Jolie with a couple of extra dress sizes maybe. And with Melissa Price's completely different face, body, personality and hair."
"They love it. They love you. And don't get me wrong, it totally works, otherwise you wouldn't have Jason Demovic drooling over you. Don't be surprised if New York's hottest, youngest, sexiest billionaire gets a serious case of transference for his therapist. You might end up having to beat him off with a stick. That's only if you want to beat him off that is."
Sandy left his words hanging in the air.
After years of profound self-analysis and intense therapy with David, Melissa had every right to believe that she had arrived at some level of self-knowledge. She found it hard to swallow that her flamboyantly gay and mildly irresponsible receptionist of all people should be the one to point out her psychological blind spots to her. She certainly didn't need him to remind her about the dangers of transference; the phenomenon of a patient projecting strong feelings, usually erotic, about another person in their lives onto the therapist.
"If I don't beat him off then you're as good as out of a job. Flirting with clients is breaking the golden rule in psychoanalysis."
"Only if you get caught." Sandy watched her with a mischievous look in his eye. "Don't we all have little indiscretions? Hell I'm a gay man from a small mid-western town, don't you think I know all about forbidden love and keeping things secret?"
"Sandy… God damn it…" This whole conversation was crazy and would have been unthinkable even just a few weeks ago, or maybe even a few hours ago.
"Life is short Melissa. Way too short to hide who you really are."
"That's not it at all. I'm not hiding anything, especially not who I really am."
Sandy's desk phone rang and he held up a finger to silence his boss while he took the call.
"Dr. Price's office. Uh huh. okay. I'll see if she's available." He put the call on mute. "It's David, I mean, Dr. Smith." Sandy had never taken to his boss's supervisor in the one or two times he had interacted with him.
"He says it's urgent."
Melissa hesitated. Her mouth went dry.
I haven’t done anything wrong. She reminded herself. He's not my client. Not yet. He's not anything yet.
David had tried to call her just before the session with Jason. He had ordered her to stay away from the man who had just succeeded in putting her head into a tailspin.
But on what grounds and under what authority? She asked herself defiantly.
"I'll take it inside." She said and headed into her office.
She sat down and picked up the receiver.
"Hello David, what's up?"
She looked at the cell phone on her desk and saw that he had called her multiple times, at least ten, during the time she had been with Jason.
"Why did Jason Demovic just leave your office?"
Melissa set the receiver carefully down in front of her and sat with her arms rigidly stretched out onto the desk.
"Melissa? Hello? Melissa, are you still there?"
********************
Jason Demovic was still shaking as he walked unevenly down the steps of Melissa's building. His experience with Melissa was the last thing he had expected this morning--but then, she hadn't given him anything he had expected up until now so why should he be so rattled, so surprised?
"Fuck." He said slowly and ran a trembling hand through his thick, tousled hair.
His limo slid up in front of him as though the vehicle could read his thoughts. He got into the car without a word, glanced at the child booster seat next to the passenger side window and then took out his phone.
"It's me." He said. "Have the Boeing 727 at my disposal for the whole day tomorrow." He put the phone back into his pocket and then buzzed his driver.
"Where are we going today Mr. Demovic?" He asked.
"The offices of Channel Five television."
"Very good sir."
Jason took out his phone again and called his brother Zach.
"Asshole." His brother offered by way of greeting.
"Good morning to you too little brother."
"Exactly what kind of stupid do you call this stunt?"
"Which stunt would that be?"
"Upskirt? Channel Five? Ring any bells or were you too drunk to remember?"
"I'm taking care of it. Nothing to worry about. And I wasn't drunk."
"Taking care of it? Do you have any idea of the shit storm I had to deal with this morning? There are companies with very conservative values who are threatening to take their business elsewhere."
"Social media companies? Don't make me laugh. Half their traffic comes from people sex-stalking each other on-line so don't talk to me about moral values. And besides, no-one else does what we do. They can complain all they want but they need our software or they'll be dead in the water. So relax little brother. I'm fixing the channel five thing. I'm on my way there now."
"Do you remember what I told you? I'm serious. I'll start taking steps to have control of the company put into my name until such time as--"
"You told me if I slept with my therapist you would do that, not if I helped a reporter out of her wet underwear."
"Stop there. I do not want to hear any details."
"It's not what you think it is. She was on the way to the powder room when--"
"I'll hang up."
"Okay, okay, but it really isn't what you think it is and I'm calling you for a reason. I need your help."
"Oh come on Jason. Since when do you need anyone's help. You haven't needed my help since the day you were born."
"Well I need it now."
Zach was uncharacteristically silenced. This was a strategy that Jason had never used on him before. In fact Jason Demovic asking for anyone's help was absolutely unheard of. With his genius level IQ he had always been able to figure things out for himself, even as a small child and it was one of the reasons he was so intolerably arrogant. Jason helped other people but nobody was ever allowed to help him.
"What is this Jason? What's going on? Are you okay?"
"No. I'm not okay, not at all."
Zach took a nervous breath in.
"I'm listening." He said. If asking for help wasn't Jason's thing then listening had to be Zach's weak point, but for his big brother in crisis he was willing to give it a shot.
"I told you my problem had a sexual component right?"
"I'm not listening anymore. Did you hear me? This is for your shrink, not for me."
"You threaten to take away control of the company I built from the ashes of our father's ruinous behavior because I might sleep with an attractive woman, but then you won't even listen to me when I ask you for help with the single biggest problem I've ever had in my life? Do you even want me to get better?"
Zach was struggling. He had the same impassive mien as his older brother but inside he was in turmoil. He did want to help, but talking sex problems with his older brother was going above and beyond.
"What is it?" He said with a deep sigh. "Some kind of… some kind of premature--"
Jason let out a burst of laughter.
"Zach, for Christ's sake, stick to coding little brother and forget the psychoanalyzing. It's nothing like that."
"Is it erectile--"
"No! Stop it. You don't need to know. But I do need your assistance with something else. Something you're actually good at. Now are you going to help me or not?"
"Of course I am big brother. Are you kidding me?" He was relieved. "I've been looking for a way to help you all my life. If this thing finally gives me a chance to do this then it'll be a blessing in disguise."
"I knew I could count on you Zach. And you're the only person I really trust, except for mom and Harrison is on his own little trip, but believe me she can't help me out on this one."
"Come on then. Get to the point. I've got people to meet. What is it I can do for you?"
"I need you to help me with this therapist."
"What does that mean?"
"She's getting to me."
"And what does that mean?"
"I'll admit to you that I chose her because I thought she would cave into a deal with me about signing off on therapy sessions but I'm beginning to see that you've been right all along about this. I do need help."
There was a gasp from the other end of the line.
"Are you okay?" Jason said.
"I don't know. Jason Demovic just admitted to maybe, possibly being wrong for once in his arrogant life. I have to confess that I'm impressed Jason, really impressed, I wasn't sure you'd be able to do this.