Nervous energy shoots through my body, sending shockwaves down my spine. I haven’t been able to sit still all day, not with Aiden on my mind. Seeing Aiden again only complicated things. I need to either break out the emergency cigarette from the bottom of my desk drawer or find a way to wipe Aiden from my thoughts. He looked worse than before, the sex-crazed hunger on display for me to see. For me to study.

He could have been my most successful case. I could have fixed him. We could have been more. The feelings I had for Aiden years ago are slowly resurfacing, and I am annoyed with myself because of it.

Aiden has me so off my game that my head is spinning. My patient sits across from me on the couch, fiddling with the tension ball in his hands. He’s driving me fucking crazy. Watching him makes me more anxious than I was before our session. I want to rip the ball from his hand.

Sitting in a leather chair across from Colin, I doodle on my notepad, trying not to think about my patient from hell. Every week he shows up ten minutes early and demands to see me before our time slot. He wears down my secretary and irritates me to the point I give in so that I can get rid of him.

Colin is on his last leg, about to get the boot from this office for good if he doesn’t stop with his bullshit. He likes to play games with me, even more so than what Aiden had ever tried on me.

Like Aiden, Colin has a sex addiction. But his addiction is to porn, which is a whole other story. In some ways, Colin’s issue is even harder to treat because he has become obsessed with women on a screen, making it impossible for him to form connections with women in real life.

“Colin,” I say, my voice firm. “Have you listened to a single thing I have told you in our sessions?”

He stops yapping about his latest Internet porn searches and quits playing with the ball in his hands. Our eyes lock for a second. We both know he has a problem. He’s so much like Aiden in many ways that it almost sickens me. But I want to help him even more because I couldn’t get through to Aiden. Ever since I walked out of his life, every patient has been Aiden in my eyes. They are all helpless men who need me to break them of their habits.

“Colin, you’ve been coming here for months, yet you haven’t taken any of my advice. You need to find someone who you can experiment with.”

He gives me a blank stare. “Like an actual girl? You know I can’t…” His voice trails off as he goes back to squeezing the ball between his fingers.

“Yes, like an actual girl—a living, breathing human. Your problem with intimacy is your lack of intimacy. If you spent more time around women, you would be less nervous about approaching them. I can’t help you get the courage to hit on women in bars, but you could give online dating a try.”

“I created a profile last month.” He bites the inside of his cheek, mulling it over as he stares out the windows that overlook the city.

“Did you meet any women? Did you engage with any of them? Maybe send them a message or say hello?”

Every week we have the same conversation. I am getting sick of the repetition with some of my patients. They do not want help. All they want is someone to listen to their complaints. Because their health insurance covers these dreadful appointments, they still show up like clockwork. As a doctor, I want to see them change. I only succeed if my patient completes treatment.

“Well…no.” He shrugs. “I tried it.”

“No, you didn’t.” My anger with Colin radiates off me in waves, even though it’s Aiden that has me so mad. “Making a page is not enough. You have to follow through, post a picture, tell women about yourself, and then send them a message. We have gone over this, Colin. You have to take this seriously.”

“That’s easy for you to say. Look at you.” He points his index finger in my direction. “I’m sure you have no problem getting a date, yet you’re not married. So, who are you to dish it out when you don’t even practice what you preach?”

My teeth clench along with my fists. I have had all I can take of Colin and his nonsense. “I am unmarried by choice, and I have no problem getting a date. Worry about yourself and your problems. We’re not here to discuss my love life. We are here to discuss your lack thereof.”

“No, let’s talk about you, Dr. O’Brien.” He kicks his feet up on the coffee table to get comfortable, staring me down with a devious look.

“We’re not having a discussion about my life when you are here to talk about yourself and why you can’t have sex with a woman unless she’s on a screen.” I come to a standing, walk over to my desk, and drop my notepad next to the keyboard. “I think it’s about time you see another doctor. I have a few therapists I can refer you to in the city. We are not a good fit. You don’t take my advice, and the treatment is not working because of your lack of intent.”

“But you’re a doctor. I pay you to listen to my problems.”

With the pen in my hand, I scribble a few names of doctors here in Los Angeles onto my stationary and rip the page from the pad with a loud tear. “That is where you are wrong, Colin. I see no reason why you can’t find a girl to have sex with in person other than your lack of desire to find one. You are perfectly content with getting off to a porn star because you are too afraid to speak to a woman, and there is no medical diagnosis for that. Grow a pair, and your problem will go away. It’s that simple. If you are looking for someone to talk to every week, then I think you are better suited to one of the psychologists on this paper.”

I hand him the list, and he accepts it, keeping his eyes pointed down at the ground. He’s ashamed, and he should be. The fucker wasted both of our times for far too long. I have had enough.

A knock on the door is a welcome relief from the awkwardness in the room. Brittany, my secretary, steps into the room, leaving the door ajar.

“Dr. O’Brien, your next appointment is here,” she says, interrupting the session.

Colin gets up from the couch and blows past Brittany in a huff, his cheeks puffed out in anger. He doesn’t say another word, which suits me just fine.

“About time,” Brittany says with a wicked smile.

I shrug. “You hated Colin.”

“Hate is a strong word. But I am glad to see Colin go. He was wasting your time. Some addicts don’t want help; they just want someone to complain to about their problems.”

After I sit down at my desk, Brittany follows, standing over me. I tap the mouse on my desk and scroll through the software on my computer. “Who’s my next appointment? I don’t see anything on my calendar.”

“It was an emergency. A new patient.” She bites her bottom lip as if she’s keeping something from me.

Brittany leans over me, the scent of her flowery perfume trapped in my nostrils. “I’m here for you if you need anything.”

Glancing up from my computer, I stare at Brittany, confused. “Why are you so cryptic?”

“Because you know him. He’s a doctor.”

Meeting her gaze, I fold my arms across my chest as I sink into the leather chair. As if I wasn’t already a nervous wreck, knowing that Aiden is my next patient makes it hard for me to focus. “Dr. Shaw is here?”

“Yes,” she says, throwing her hands on her hips. “You never told me Dr. Shaw was so good looking.”

“I didn’t think it was important.”

“It’s not often we get Tom Hardy lookalikes in this office.”

“Too bad he doesn’t have a sexy British accent,” I joke, trying to lighten the mood. It doesn’t, at least not for me.

“He would be even hotter if he did.”

“He’s not the kind of man you would want to date.”

“Who said anything about dating him?” She flashes me a wicked smile.

I roll my eyes at her. “Stay away from Dr. Shaw. He’s a patient who needs my help, not some guy you met at a bar.”

“I wish I’d met him at a bar. I would have been all over him.”

I wave my hand to dismiss her. “Stop talking like that and send Dr. Shaw into my office.”

“Yes, Boss,” she says, laughing.

A minute later, Aiden Shaw walks into my office with a devilish grin on his handsome face. My entire body trembles under his intense gaze. Now that we are face-to-face, and not inside a women’s restroom, I can get a better look at Aiden. He always did things to me that I could not explain. And it wasn’t just his looks. It was never about his physical appearance. Aiden commands a presence that everyone around him can feel, a palpable energy that sets my skin on fire.

Aiden closes the door behind him and locks it, before walking over to me. “Scarlett,” he says in a husky voice that causes my nipples to harden.

I suck in a deep breath, terrified of what will come next. “Aiden.”