Her eyes flared as she gazed at him. “I can say all sorts of words. I’m actually educated, unlike most of the women you date, I’m sure.”

“So we’re dating now?” he asked, only choosing to focus on the end of her sentence.

All of a sudden her arm lifted, and a surge of water hit him in the face. When he wiped it away, the shocked expression she wore was priceless. The doc had lost her temper and had acted without thinking. That was progress.

“I don’t think that was too professional, doc,” he told her as he took a step nearer.

She immediately began backing up. “I’m sorry about that. It was a reaction,” she said, the warning clear in her eyes.

“Too late for apologies. Just remember you started this.” He moved closer, closing the distance between them.

“I don’t want to play,” she warned. She turned to flee, and that’s when he propelled himself.

Nick grabbed the back of her suit and tugged, then wrapped his arms around her. With his good leg, he kicked himself off the floor of the pool and launched them both into the air.

Chloe screamed as they began going back down, but the momentum was too much. She couldn’t get away. Her cry was drowned out when they both went underwater. Nick didn’t release his hold on her as they rose above the surface for air.

She was spluttering as he spun her around so she was facing him. Her nipples were hard, poking through the material of her black bathing suit, and he relished the feel of them pressing against his naked chest.

Without thinking twice, one hand wound in her wet hair and he held her in place as he closed the distance between them, taking a taste of her sweet pink lips. It was even better than he’d imagined it would be.

This therapy stuff wasn’t bad at all, he thought again as he began losing control, tugging on her hair to get better access to her mouth. She struggled against him for a moment and then melted as her lips responded to his touch.

He was thick and hard and wanted their clothes out of the way. Nick reached into the water and grabbed her leg, wrapping it around his back as he felt the soft curve of her ass. He grew even harder as he pulled her center tightly to him and pressed up so she could feel exactly how turned on he was.

Moving them through the water, he reached the wall and pressed her against it as he devoured her mouth. There was no resistance as he swept his tongue inside and explored the velvet of her tongue.

She moaned against him, and he felt the small circle of her hips as she tried to seek relief for herself. She wanted him as much as he wanted her. She was just a hell of a lot more resistant to admitting that.

“I want you so damn bad,” Nick said as he wrenched his lips from hers and trailed his mouth along her jaw to her soft neck, where he sucked the skin.

Her fingers moved to his hair as she held him in place. Nick slipped his fingers beneath the band of her swimsuit and touched the soft skin of her ass, groaning at how good it felt.

“Let’s go to my room.” Though Nick wasn’t opposed to making love in the pool, it wasn’t his favorite place.

His words made her stiffen, and he groaned inwardly. He shouldn’t have said anything. He should have just pulled her swimsuit away and given her what she was too afraid to admit she wanted.

She began struggling against him, and this time he released her. Nick was more than willing to seduce her, but he would never force a woman. She took several steps away from him, her cheeks flushed, her body trembling.

“There’s nothing wrong with wanting each other,” he told her as he moved back toward her.

“That shouldn’t have happened,” she said as her fingers lifted and traced her very kissed lips.

“Yes, it should have. We want each other,” he said.

Each step he took forward, she took two back until she reached the stairs of the pool, which she quickly ascended, giving him a spectacular view of her glorious body. She had curves in all the right places, her breasts full and firm, her hips wide and graspable, her legs lean with muscles running through them.

“Therapy is over for the day,” she said as she grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her, closing off his view.

“We didn’t even get started,” he told her as he reached the stairs.

She practically ran to the door before she turned back around.

“If that happens again, I’m leaving,” she warned. There was a bit of panic in her eyes at the thought, and Nick knew then she needed this job. It was the leverage he desperately had to have.

“I’m a patient man, Chloe, but trust me, it will happen again, and it will be because you can’t keep your hands off me,” he told her.

She scoffed at him before running out the door. Nick smiled as he jumped back into the water and began swimming, hoping his arousal would eventually die. She wasn’t going far . . . he could let her escape for now.

In one day, this woman had swept into his home and brought him back to life. He wasn’t willing to let her run away until he explored what he was feeling a hell of a lot more. He liked Chloe Reynolds―he really liked her.

CHAPTER FIVE

Chloe knew she had to pull it together. She couldn’t allow what had happened with Nick in the pool the day before to happen again. Not only was Chloe a professional, but she couldn’t forget Nick was also the enemy.

It had only been a couple days of her being around the man, and already the lines of right and wrong had blurred so badly she wasn’t sure they could be repainted. When her father had demanded she be on his side, she’d hesitated―a first for her. Fear of her father had always made her do his bidding without pause.