Wound Up by Kelli Ireland

Author:Kelli Ireland [Ireland, Kelli]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780373798322
Google: Ab22oQEACAAJ
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

11

GRACE DREW THE tattoos she’d been able to see with as much detail as she could remember, but her mind was wandering. Why had Justin let her, as a brand-new graduate, take the lead in the therapy room? Sure, he was also a new grad, but he had his doctorate. She only had her master’s. Not bad, but definitely not comparable to a PhD. Big difference in practical theory and clinical exposure. He’d seen patients on campus and had assisted in running trials for the psychology department. Still, this was different. This was his first real job.

Her hand stilled mid-design. This wasn’t Justin’s first real job, though. He’d worked as a stripper and as a teaching assistant for the university for years. He’d worked far longer than she’d given him credit for, at least initially. She’d dismissed his work history as inconsequential, and that was incredibly unfair. She had been so busy holding him at arm’s length personally that she had dismissed him professionally. He deserved better than that, deserved credit for his efforts and experience. That knowledge didn’t make it any easier to accept his praise, though.

And what about the personal aspect? Hadn’t she dismissed him just as effectively in her private life? That he might actually care about her on some genuine level terrified her. So, yeah. She might have dismissed him out of hand.

Her mind flashed on the kiss at the bus stop. The kiss had been spectacular, full of the same passion Justin had shown the night they’d been at the hotel. But the significance was far more complex. When they’d first been together, they’d set the rules. One night. No holding back. No apologies and no regrets. She’d adhered to those rules to the letter, as they’d suited her. There was no room in her plans for sentiment, no matter that she might crave more than she’d bargained for.

Liar.

There was no “might” to it.

Flinching, she flipped to a new page and began to doodle, not thinking about what she was doing. Justin’s face emerged. It was a good rendition, illustrating his dark hair, lush mouth and piercing eyes. The planes of his cheeks were a bit hollow in her rendition, so she shaded this way and that before she had the picture right to her mind’s eye.

Beneath his image she wrote and underlined a single word. Impossible. Nothing described what was going on between them any better than that. She couldn’t give up the education she’d fought to obtain, and she wouldn’t risk staying in proximity to her mother on a maybe. If she’d learned anything from that woman, it was that relationships couldn’t be counted on to solve a person’s unhappiness. That was up to her to do. She had to seize life by the throat and wrestle it to the ground until opportunity was hers to seize. She’d settle for nothing else, particularly on a maybe from someone who had wounded her emotionally. It would be sheer foolishness.

Ripping the sheet of paper free, she wadded it up and tossed it into the garbage can.

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