Daniel followed me to the living room. Even without looking, I was aware of his eyes on my ass, and I fought against the intense attraction we still shared. I was just going to tell him what I’d seen in that lobby and that we were finished. I wasn’t going to let him get into my head again.

I took a seat on my couch, relieved that he chose to sit in the armchair across from me and not on the couch next to me.

“How did you get my address?”

“I went to your clinic a few hours ago and found Claire. I told her I was serious about you and I needed to talk with you and make things work out between us. In the end, she gave me your address.”

I was going to kill Claire. For real. This was the second time she did something like this, and it was starting to get on my nerves. What was she now? A matchmaker? Cupid?

“Serious, right,” I replied sarcastically, not believing it at all. “You can’t make things work out between us because there was nothing between us, to begin with.”

He clenched his jaw, his hands curled into fists on his lap. “Will you finally tell me what the problem is?”

“I saw you with another woman, Daniel.”

He frowned. He clearly hadn’t expected this answer. “Another woman? What do you mean?”

“I wanted to surprise you, so I went to your company last week. Little did I know that I would be the one who would be surprised in the end. Quite unpleasantly, I must say, since I saw you in the lobby with some blonde chick. You two were hugging each other.”

His eyebrows furrowed deeper, his face displaying his utter confusion. “What are you talking about? What blonde—” He stopped, his frown disappearing with a sudden revelation. “Oh, you mean Anna.”

Anna. The way he said her name as his eyes lit at the mention of her showed that this woman was more important to him than I’d thought, and hurt spread through my chest. He was clearly fond of her, which only made me more infuriated. He played me all along. He’d never even given me a chance.

I was breathing heavily now, about to say some harsh words that I’d probably regret later, but I couldn’t stop myself.

“I thought I saw a slight change in you, but I was wrong. I was so wrong. You never actually changed. You’re a cheating bastard who will never stop screwing around, and I don’t plan to allow you to walk all over me and use me however you want.”

He winced, staring at me like he couldn’t believe what had just come out of my mouth. “Marissa, what the fuck are you talking about?”

Was he seriously going to act now? I couldn’t believe him! “Don’t play dumb! You were screwing that blonde, Anna, behind my back. I was so stupid for giving you a chance. I actually thought that you wanted something more serious with me and that you would try to be better for me. I was totally wrong.”

He stood up and started pacing around, pissed off. “No. You’re totally wrong now because I haven’t done what you’re accusing me of!”

“What?” I jumped to my feet, too restless to continue sitting. “Stop lying to me!”

“I’m not lying to you! Are you seriously accusing me that I slept with Anna? Are you seriously thinking I’m still messing around when I’m with you?”

“We were never in a relationship to begin with, so expecting you to be loyal to me was a long shot at best. Now you know why I don’t want to see you again. You got your answer, so can you please leave?”

“No. I won’t leave until I explain myself.”

“I don’t care about your explanation! So—”

“She’s my fucking sister, Marissa!” he roared, closing the distance between us. I stopped, staring astounded at him as I processed the information.

“What?”

“Anna is my sister,” he repeated, less loud this time.

“But you were hugging her...”

He cocked his eyebrow. “You do realize that brothers and sisters can hug each other, right?” he asked, his voice laced with sarcasm before he ran his hand over his face. “Look, I don’t know why the hell you immediately assumed that I was cheating on you. If you stayed and let me tell you my side of the story, all of this could’ve been avoided. I can’t believe you jumped at such a twisted conclusion so quickly.”

He turned around and walked away to the other side of the room, hiding his disappointed face from me. I was left speechless, astonished with how everything turned out.

Oh, God. He was right. I immediately accused him of cheating and didn’t even let him explain himself, pegging him as the worst. I couldn’t believe how judgmental I’d been in this situation. I hadn’t even given him a chance to talk to me and clear things up.

As a therapist, I was supposed to know better. I was supposed to be understanding and nonjudgmental, but I messed things up with Daniel. I’d let my emotions get the best of me.

“I...” I heaved a long sigh, suddenly too tired. Now that I saw this from a different perspective, I realized how wrong I’d been. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I jumped to conclusions, and that isn’t fair at all. You didn’t deserve that.”

I reached for him, wishing I could place my hand on his back and feel those hard muscles, but I didn’t dare. He remained silent, still facing away from me. I took a deep breath, deciding to tell him the truth.

“I was so afraid, Daniel. That doesn’t justify my behavior, but I just want to share with you how I really felt. I was afraid because I was falling for you.”

My heart was beating too fast now. I noticed his body become tense, my words affecting him in some way. I continued talking before I chickened out.

“I was supposed to know better. You’re a sex addict, which means that it’s harder for you to control yourself, so expecting you to commit to a monogamous relationship is beyond absurd. Still, I made that mistake. We were already crossing the line with our sexual relationship, so I wasn’t supposed to develop any feelings for you. Everything should’ve been strictly physical, but it didn’t turn out like that in the end.”

I pressed my hands together, overwhelmed with emotion. Speaking about this actually made me feel better because I’d been bottling up my feelings, which wasn’t healthy at all.

“Even though I fell for you, I was supposed to make some boundaries from the start. I was supposed to wait for you to begin recovery, and then maybe start something with you. That way no one would get hurt—”

He spun around and grabbed me by shoulders, his heated eyes penetrating me. “No. Don’t say that. What we had... It wasn’t wrong at all.” He looked away for several moments, his eyebrows furrowed together. “Look, there is something important I want to tell you.”

“Tell me what?”

“The truth is... I don’t believe I’m really a sex addict.”