He swallowed down his panic. “What are you going to do now?”

She shrugged. “Finish the new client’s project and call the other one Kenzie gave me. Hunt down more future clients.” She paused. “Maybe start my own business. Katie mentioned us working together. I’m not sure, but… I don’t know. I kind of like the idea of taking charge of my future.”

He felt so proud of her but didn’t want to come across as condescending. “Yeah, that’s how I felt when I joined MYM. I work with other doctors and therapists, but I take my own clients and run my own schedule. Well, mostly. None of us work nights.”

“Heck, I was working day and night for a long time, and it got me nowhere.” She huffed. “What a great team player I was.”

“But you stood up for yourself. I am so happy for you.”

“How happy?”

Despite needing to figure out why he’d been having such a tough time mentally committing to Justine, emotionally, he loved her. And physically… He couldn’t get enough of her.

She stripped him down and had her mouth on him in seconds.

He moaned, lost in lust and love and tired of stressing over it.

Pumping harder, he cupped her head, unsure how he’d lost all control around the woman. She licked and sucked, nibbling under the head of his crown, and he came hard, moaning her name.

What is she doing to me?

He was breathing hard when she stood, stripped, and led him back to his bedroom. He couldn’t be anywhere in his apartment without thinking of her. She’d ingrained herself in his brain, in his bed, in his heart.

Yet a part of him remained distant, unsure why when the pleasure between them was so damn good.

He followed her down to the bed and immediately sought the wet heat between her legs. Feasting on her sex, he pumped a finger, then two inside her, loving how she trembled and sighed his name. He wanted to celebrate with her, to show her how much he cared while the words failed to pass his lips.

He would bring her close but not close enough, edging her several times before he crawled up her body and thrust fast and deep inside her. She keened his name as she came, squeezing him, so that he thrust twice more then came again.

She continued to kiss and hug him, shivering as she experienced that rush of pleasure. A combined meeting of mouths and bodies.

He kissed her back until they lay spent, together.

And he stopped thinking so hard about what everything meant and why he couldn’t make that last step to give Justine what she needed. What she deserved.

Justine had no idea why, but she felt Xavier retreating into himself. It had only been a few days since they’d confessed their feelings, but she felt like she knew him so much better now. And something had been bothering him for a while.