Page 41 of Taken Online

He flinched. “It’s more complicated than that.”

“No. No, it’s really not.”

I hurled the phone at him. He didn’t catch it. It hit the carpet with a dull thud and slid.

“I hate you,” I said. “I hate you so much.”

I wanted him to bleed. I wanted him to suffer under the weight of the truth he’d buried while smiling at me across his big, perfect desk.

But instead of screaming, or hitting me back, or throwing me out, he stepped forward: slow, careful. Like I was a skittish animal.

“I didn’t plan to fall for you, Asher.” His voice was quiet now. “But I did. Long before you walked into my office. I didn’t even know it was you at first. I swear.”

“Bullshit.”

“I swear,” he repeated. “But once I knew... once I saw you in front of me, sitting across from me in that chair... I didn’t know how to stop.”

I backed away, not because I was scared, but because I didn’t trust myself not to break something.

“You watched me,” I said. “In my room. In my bed.”

“I never watched you without your consent. You knew the camera was on.”

I doubt it, highly doubt that he's telling the truth.

“That’s not what I mean.”

He looked down at the floor. His silence told me everything I needed to know.

I crossed my arms tightly, trying to hold myself together.

“What is wrong with you?”

He looked up. His expression was unreadable, but the pain in his eyes was sharp enough to pierce through my anger.

“Everything,” he said. “But so is everything about you. That’s why we match.”

The words caught me off guard. I stared at him. My brain refused to register what he just said as anything other than manipulation.

But it didn’t feel like that.

And that terrified me.

“You can’t keep doing this,” I said finally. “You can’t play both sides. You can’t be my therapist and Kaleb. You can’t say you care about me and then fuck me like I’m—like I’m—”

“I know,” he said. His voice cracked. “I know, Asher.”

He stepped forward again, slower this time. He didn’t reach for me. He didn’t try to touch me.

“I’ll quit,” he said. “I’ll step down as your therapist. Officially. I’ve already started the process. I couldn’t keep going after… after last night.”

That stopped me.

“You’re serious?”

He nodded. “I don’t want you in my life because you’re assigned to me. I want you in my life because you choose to be there.”

I shook my head. The world tilted under my feet. I hated him. I needed him.

---