Read JR for Free Online Page B

can get dressed. We’ll start work on the study tomorrow. Your normal duties are suspended. The project is most important now.”
    Disappointment zinged through her. That was it? He was going to let her walk away?
    Of course he was, their encounter hadn’t been personal to him. He’d simply needed to examine her. She’d nearly forgotten.
    Hadn’t he come, too?
    In the heat of the moment, it had seemed so but maybe she mixed fantasy with reality.
    As she reassembled her clothing, he treated her with the same respect and professionalism he always had.
    While that should have eased her nerves, it only made them more ragged. She hadn’t comprehended the depth of her longing until now.
    Had she imprudently risked her emotions by getting involved?
    He’d promised to let her stop at any time but her honor would make her see this through regardless of how vulnerable it made her to explore her sexuality with him.
    Rebecca finished dressing and walked to the door but, as she opened it to leave, she sensed him close behind her. His warm breath feathered across her shoulder and his hand, his wonderful hand, covered hers on the door. She turned to look at him with questions she couldn’t voice written in her expression. Bridging some of the distance between them, he bent down to kiss her cheek.
    “Thank you,” he whispered.
    She started to reply but he had already turned and headed back to his desk.

Chapter Three
    When Rebecca awoke to the orange light of morning, she blinked several times then tried to remember the cause of the exquisite tenderness in her muscles before it all came back to her in a rush. Oh, God! Had she really been such an idiot?
    The mental image of herself in Dr. Foster’s office, contorted on the patient’s chaise, muscles tight and straining under his dexterous ministrations, snapped into focus. Lying in the comfort and security of her warm bed, she could admit the episode had nothing at all to do with her altruistic commitment and everything to do with her long-unsatisfied daydreams of Kurt.
    For the past six years, Rebecca had watched the way he helped his patients face their fears and attain their dreams of sexual freedom. But, as maturity enhanced her discerning vision, she had begun to see through his easygoing mannerisms. He had an innate sense of how to dominate and cut to the heart of someone’s desires even when they remained oblivious to their own secret longings. Like a maestro playing a well-tuned instrument, he also knew when to back off a patient who’d reached their limits. He was gentle but demanding, quietly insistent, a combination that had stirred her imagination for years.
    Groaning, she rolled out of bed, disgusted with herself. She’d cast herself in the role of one of Dr. Foster’s patients, which couldn’t be conducive to advancing her career. Entranced by his smoky eyes as he peppered her with questions about her sexual history, she had detected his unspoken conviction. Kurt thought she was repressed. Hell, it might be the truth but her single-minded focus had been necessary to achieve her goal.
    Rebecca didn’t regret the path she’d taken. It was just that the idea of her mentor perceiving her as weak or constrained disheartened her. While she dreamed of exploring her fantasies with him, she would never accept his pity. She’d seen him convince recalcitrant patients often enough to realize he’d used some of his infamous charm to get her to proceed with his unusual experiment protocols but it didn’t matter because he’d coerced her to overcome her inhibitions and reach for something she desired.
    He’d presented her with a golden excuse.
    She planned to snatch it and run but she wished it didn’t mean he considered her, in some way, lacking.
    Applying her scholastic knowledge of emotions to the feelings swirling inside her proved more difficult than she would have imagined. Logic couldn’t solve this problem.
    Following the completion of her dissertation, Rebecca