The Love Doctors Read online

  Oh God… that voice. It was him.

  The oafish asshole toad.

  Instantly, my fury retuned in a nanosecond, and I didn’t care how good he looked. That was a distraction. One I wouldn’t afford. He was like chocolate. Pretty wrapping and presentation, smelled good too with that musky cologne that tickled my nose and set off the nest of butterflies in my stomach, but I was a tough cookie who wouldn’t be bamboozled by looks.

  I marched over to him, and he raised his brows.

  “You. You’re him.” I flared up, squaring off my shoulders with him. I must have looked comical next to him because even in my heels, the top of my head just reached the start of his chest.

  “I sure am.” He infuriated me by looking amused.

  “Who do you think you are embarrassing me on a live show like that? It was truly unprofessional and out of character. You aren’t professional at all.”

  “Not professional for calling you out on bullshit?” He smirked with a cocky smile that introduced me to the gorgeous dimples in his cheeks.

  “How dare you? That is my work. How very dare you call it bullshit? You are an asshole who doesn’t know who he’s messing with.” I folded my arms across my chest and stared him up and down.

  To my surprise, he just smiled at me. He tilted his head to the side, and a lock of hair fell over his eye, making him look sexier. He then did a slow walk around me, looking me up and down, making me actually feel uncomfortable.

  “Oh, yes. I definitely am going to enjoy myself with you,” he stated, dropping his gaze to my breasts, then down the curves of my waist.

  “Excuse me,” I snapped, and he stepped closer.

  As he did that, I swear to God every single nerve in my body came alive. It was like someone attached a wire to the nerve endings and sparked them with electricity that made my whole body buzz with the energy from the current.

  He moved even closer into my personal space. The closeness made everything and everyone phase out, and I almost forgot why I was furious with him.

  He shocked me further by moving to my ear. “Don’t tell me you don’t feel that. That insane chemistry we should absolutely explore.”

  I stepped back, astonished by his words. “Something is wrong with you.”

  “Maybe, but I’m right, and you know it. Chemistry, Dr. Dane. It’s the start of everything. Either you purposely left that out of the book, or you didn’t know. Chemistry and insane attraction you can either work with or not. There is no point of assessment in that. It either happens or it doesn’t. Like just now, Goddess.”

  A few people had gathered and were listening to him. I was listening to him, against my will and much to my annoyance.

  “Chemistry is a thing best left in a lab,” I countered because chemistry made us little more than animals who did what they wanted with no control, no thought of consequences.

  “We’ll definitely see about that. I can’t wait to prove you wrong, amongst other things.” He chuckled and walked away.

  I just stared at him.

  I came here for a fight, lost the fight, and opened what seemed like my very own Pandora’s box.

  What the hell kind of ride was I in for?

  Chapter 3

  Ivan

  “Man, you are playing with fire.” Patterson laughed as he adjusted his tie.

  He walked around the desk and glared at me.

  “Worry about yourself, man. Don’t you have a meeting in Japan tomorrow morning?” I laughed. I couldn’t wait to see how my best friend was going to pull off this mission of his.

  This crazy-assed mission of getting to a very important business meeting in not just Japan, but Sapporo, Japan, which I knew was a nightmare to get to from the airport. Flight time to Japan was at least eleven hours. Add on the checking in time at the airport and getting to the meeting and I saw at least fourteen hours ahead of him.

  His family ran a multinational property development company, and Patterson should have been there last night. Instead, he was with some woman, overslept in their hotel, missed his flight, of course, and rushed in to borrow my motorcycle so he could beat traffic to get to the airport for a flight that was boarding in an hour.

  I thought I was bad, back in the day when I was bad, but shit, I wasn’t crazy.

  This was going to be as interesting as watching my situation unfold with the beautiful Dr. Dane.

  Fucking hell, was she even more beautiful in real life. I did not expect that.

  Her pictures online were flawless, to the point where I could accuse them of having them air brushed, but seeing her today up close and in living color showed me there was no magic at work with that warm honey-colored skin.

  The dark-skinned beauty was exactly that and much more. She was a goddess who was going to be more of a distraction than I’d initially thought.

  “Look at you,” Patterson threw back, interrupting my thoughts. “Thinking with your dick.”

  I straightened up in my chair and sat forward with a smirk.

  I shook my head at him and smiled wider. “Patterson, if I were you, I wouldn’t piss me off. You need my bike, remember?”

  “Whatever, man, I’m just trying to impart some wisdom before I leave. You have two minutes of my time, then I got to run get my passport from Georgie.”

  I frowned at him. “Georgie is bringing your passport?”

  “Yeah. Need that.”

  She was his PA who was more like a work wife. The woman had worked for him for over five years, and there wasn’t a damn thing she wouldn’t do for him. If I were her, I would have left his ass long ago, although I suspected something more to her feelings for him. Something more than the professional care she displayed. I’d never say it, though, and put an elephant between them.

  “You’re an ass, you know that?”

  “No more than you, my friend. I heard what you said on the show. That was lowwwww even for you.”

  “Let me worry about that.”

  He got here about ten minutes before Jada did. His first words were about that instead of what he’d come here for. I knew I’d shocked a lot of people with my little stunt, but there was a method to the madness.

  Long story short, Jada was in the way of me getting what I wanted.

  Years ago, my life took a serious turn in a direction I never, ever expected. Definitely not in a million years. The thing about it was, I was one of those people who’d lived several lifetimes in my thirty-six years.

  I lived two dreams, got a second chance at life and a second chance to do something more for the community.

  Seventeen years ago, when I got signed to my first team, I thought football was going to be my life. I was fortunate enough for it to take up a substantial part of my life, but this was more me. It was like I found myself in a time where I felt like I was wandering in a dark tunnel and came out through the light a new person.

  That was what I wanted to bring to people. Not these mechanical methods Jada proposed in her book. My methods worked for men and women. Equally. I didn’t even have to state that as a fact.

  Sure, she was revolutionary, alright, but that didn’t mean she was the way forward. There wasn’t a damn thing in her book or methods that I agreed with, and for that reason, I didn’t think she deserved to be the host of a show that was supposed to inspire people.

  “Ivan St. James, what the hell are you up to, and why in the fuck would you conjure up this magical plan of yours when I’m going to be gone for the week?” Patterson frowned and shook his head.

  He was my partner in crime. Literally. We were grown men who got away with the craziness you were expected to come up with in your teens.

  Our excuse was that we never grew up. We claimed to be born with the wild and reckless genome, and as time went by, we’d just got better at being ourselves.

  “Gonna miss that flight of yours, buddy,” I taunted, tossing him the keys to the bike.

  I owned a midnight-black Kawasaki demon that could get you through any type of traf
fic.

  He caught the keys and laughed.

  “Ivan, don’t go crazy without me.”

  “Did you see her?” I had to ask because I didn’t know what type of cautioning that was.

  “She’s hot, but everyone knows that. You just rubbed her the wrong way.”

  “I’m about to do worse, but there’s no harm mixing business with pleasure.” There wasn’t, and definitely not in this instance.

  “See you, man.” Patterson laughed as he walked through the door.

  He knew me too well, and knew I had something up my sleeve. My sleeves just got heavier this morning.

  What I said to Jada was true. I wasn’t just talking out of my ass.

  Chemistry.

  We totally had it, and it was off-the-charts crazy.

  I meant it when I said we should explore it. I really did.

  I also meant it when I told her we’d see about it being reserved for the lab.

  She got my interest piqued in a big way, but that didn’t mean I was going to be swayed by beauty. Also didn’t mean I was going to be a fool either and not take whatever chance I could with the beauty. A chance I outrightly saw.

  She fell right into my trap.

  I knew she would come for me after talking with her on the show. I knew she would. It was down to plain old intuition and pushing a person to the limit where you knew they would retaliate.

  That was what I did. That was the aim of this morning. Getting her all riled up in a way where she had no choice but to come to me and attempt to put me in my place.

  Secretly too, I’d wanted to meet her. Admittedly, I hadn’t really known about her until early last year. But to me at the time, I was still setting up and didn’t take note of how influential she was.

  I’d just completed my Ph.D., and my private practice was growing in strength. I’d also only been seeing patients for marriage counselling for the year prior to that after going to a conference. I’d done a minor in psychology back in college when I did my business degree because I thought it was interesting. However, actually doing it in real life was so much more than interesting. I went back to complete the core studies and took it right to the top.

  That interest, however, wasn’t all just pure interest. It came from the one person I’d ever had in my life who’d helped me find myself.

  I loved the way I felt after a session. The good and the bad. It was something I didn’t always experience in my actual specialty of sports psychology.

  My initial goal was to help athletes like myself who’d gone through trauma and were either trying to deal with it, move past it so they could continue to play their sport, or, like in my case…

  Find a new path in life. I still did that because not only was it close to home, but it was close to my heart. It felt like where I truly began.

  It reminded me of the one woman who’d changed me into the man I was today and had such a massive impact on my life. Though short our time may have been, I kept the memory of her alive.

  Catherine.

  She’d be damn proud of what I became and how far I’d come. She’d be damn proud that I found my path because of her, and that I continued to do what I do because of all she taught me, but fuck… I was certain she’d be looking down on me from heaven shaking her head right about now.

  Why change the good things about a person?

  That’s what she told me, and wrote it down too, in her journal. She loved my wildness. That was my good thing that she’d wanted to keep.

  She would also be the first one to call me out on the hidden agenda I had in that little stunt of mine this morning.

  She’d know that I’d wanted to meet the famous Jada Dane. She’d know it and see that attraction sparking in my mind. It was there even before Jada got here.

  My agenda ran a little deeper than that, though, which was quite unfortunate because I was certain Dr. Dane would hate me even more than she already did by the end of the week.

  People were already calling her The Love Doctor. How convenient for her.

  That was probably about to change too.

  My accusations would cut deep. The worst thing in our world and a world where we were trying to get on a show like The Love Doctor was bad publicity.

  It caused doubt.

  I straightened up in my chair and started tapping away at my keyboard.

  I googled Jada Dane and smiled when my favorite picture of her came up. Her with her hair up in a ponytail that draped over her shoulders, running along the pink camisole top that looked like lingerie with the lace adorning her breasts.

  The pink was striking against the rich golden brown of her skin tone.

  The woman was by far one of the most beautiful women I’d ever seen.

  I’d seen the image on a Google article several times before, but this was on Twitter. In the last hour, the trend was all about her and the shade that I threw her way. The three top-trending conversations were:

  Do you think Dr. Dane is full of bullshit?

  What do we think of Ivan St. James’ accusations?

  Is the Go with the Flow method a farce to take our money?

  Those were a few of the trending questions.

  I must have looked like the asshole she called me as I smiled because there beneath all that were my interview discussion questions on The Conan O’Brien Show the other night.

  The top was Why Men Cheat and How to Stop It From Happening?

  That was my foot in the door. The day before the show, I’d sent in my application for The Love Doctor position. I wasn’t going to, but I’d had the unfortunate occurrence of counselling a couple who’d been through Jada’s methods.

  The Brysons. They were possibly one example of a couple who she got it wrong with. An example of a couple whom she told it was best for them to split because they never had love and were completely incompatible from the beginning.

  I proved her wrong, and the Brysons were now expecting their second child.

  It was their situation that made me take a deeper look at Dr. Dane and her methods.

  When I read her book, I realized I had to step in.

  That interview of mine happened because of my position here at L.A. Times. I’d been doing the advice column for a month, and if Dr. Dane weren’t so full of herself, she would have seen that the numbers of people who read my column on a daily basis were very close to hers.

  My column got me on the show, but being on the Conan O’Brian show got me the publicity and kick-started the votes. Jada was currently in the lead by a thousand votes.

  I clicked on the dashboard for The Love Doctor landing page and smiled even wider. This morning, I’d been third in line. That was the kick-start from the show.

  After this morning and the radio call, I was five hundred votes behind Jada.

  No, sir, was she going to like me one damn bit, and I didn’t care.

  Time to get those other votes and catch up with her fine ass.

  I flicked to my files and brought up a new doc for tomorrow’s article.

  I typed in the heading:

  Myth-Busting Jada Dane and her Methods one day at a time …

  Chapter 4

  Jada

  Myth-Busting Jada Dane and her Methods one day at a time …

  My hands were still shaking as I read that damn paper. I had to buy one on the way in this morning.

  Freddy, my publicist, called me in the early hours when the papers hit the stores, and the online version came out too.

  Freddy was in full damage control mode while I froze up and saw all my hard work falling apart all around me.

  I’d called Olivia, who met me a little earlier at Jake’s Spot, our little morning meet-up café.

  This was our daily thing. We’d come here first, then she would go next door to Silvermans, and I’d either head to my office or to New Woman depending on where I was needed.

  I lived for these breakfast meetings. Usually, I wasn’t the one with such deep problems. Usually, it was me who was
providing support and giving the pep talks.

  Not today. This damn man was out to get me. Out to destroy my ass and all that I was.

  How low and dirty.

  This morning’s breakfast meeting was also not the lighthearted type Olivia and I would have had over a cup of coffee or hot chocolate.

  I was talking about suing. Taking this to court for some sort of libel or defamation suit, to which Olivia informed me I couldn’t do.

  That was where we were at.

  I’d gone quiet after she said that. Quiet, just staring at the article, trying not to cry.

  The first thing the man chose to attack me on was the fact that I was single and had never been in a solid relationship that he could see. Then he brought up all the social media images and whatever pictures Google had on me with various guys. Anything that supported his argument that I wasn’t qualified to give the advice I was dishing out.

  Olivia reached across the table and placed her hand over mine.

  “Jada, you’ve been quiet for the last twenty minutes. I don’t think you’ve ever gone that long without talking.” Worry etched her beautiful features.

  I just shook my head at her. “I don’t know what to say. It’s wrong that he’s just going to get away with this. What am I going to do? Go back to L.A. Times and scream at him?”

  “Maybe you could talk to him,” she offered with a little smile.

  I frowned and tilted my head to the side, allowing my ponytail to drift over my shoulders. “Really? And say what?”

  “You’re Jada Dane, Jada. I know you’ll think of something.” She chuckled. “Also…” A mischievous glint flickered in her eyes.

  It deepened my frown because I knew exactly what she was going to say even before she said it.

  “What?” I asked a little too sharply.

  “Well, you never told me what he whispered to you yesterday.”

  There it was.

  “Because it wasn’t important. The man was crazy.”