Falling for My Old High School Bully (Complete)

Chapter 21 - Couple's Therapy

Her heart started beating faster as her eyes took in the sight in front of her. Axel Hart was standing five feet away with no shirt on. Her eyes slowly raked over the v-shape just above the waist of his jeans and across his rippled abs, up to his strong chest that was covered by his smooth tan skin and over to his broad shoulders and strong arms. 

She swallowed hard and felt her breathing become heavier. She had never seen him without a shirt and seeing it for the first time was shocking and left her speechless, her mouth falling open slightly. He surpassed all the fantasies she had had about him over the years. His body was chiseled and sculpted by the gods, like he was too good to even be real.

"You've got a little drool right there," he whispered close to her with a flirty smirk, pointing to the side of her mouth, making her face flush red and her mouth to snap shut. 

"I'm taking a shower," he said, walking past her and she turned and watched him walking away, taking in the toned muscles of his smooth, tan back.

He turned and looked at her, hesitating at the bathroom door and she realized he had caught her staring so she looked away, clearing her throat and rubbing the back of her neck. 

"You want to join me?" he asked. 

Her eyes shot back to him and widened. Was he being serious? He had to be messing with her.

"Ha ha. Very funny," she said rolling her eyes. 

He smiled, laughing to himself as he closed the door and she heard the shower start up. She flopped over onto the bed and groaned, covering her face with her hands. Something was telling her he hadn't been joking. If she walked into that bathroom right now and joined him in the shower she was certain he would give her what she had been fantasizing about for all these years.

That's all he would be able to give her though. He couldn't give her his heart or a commitment or a future. That's why she couldn't let herself go there. She would just get hurt. A few minutes later the shower clicked off and Axel came out of the bathroom with wet, tousled hair and a long white towel wrapped around his waist, water glistening from his chest. He had never looked so good. 

Her phone dinged and she looked down to see a text from Mr. Tipton sent to the whole group. 

"Mr. Tipton says that we need to meet in the lodge in fifteen minutes because we start our couples' therapy sessions tonight." 

"Couples therapy?" he asked with a laugh. "Are you serious? How are we going to do that when we're not even a real couple?"

"We'll just have to pretend, improvise," she said with a laugh. 

He got dressed and pretty soon they were in the center of the huge lodge that had a moose, elk and bear head hanging on the wall above a huge stone fireplace that had a roaring fire burning in it. The lodge had couches and chairs with an Indian pattern on them, hand-made clay pottery and a tiki totem pole in the corner. 

Mr. Tipton spoke to the group and said, "So this retreat is to help us connect with our co-workers and the people they love. How can you really know those you work with without knowing the person that's most important to them in the world? We're going to be doing some team-building exercises this weekend and at the end of the retreat we'll have our big annual Battle of the Bind. That's where all the couples compete against each other to see which pair can work as a team the best to defeat the other couples. The winning couple gets a special trophy, bragging rights and this year I decided they'll also get an all expenses paid trip for two to Bora Bora." 

"What!?" everyone gasped and started whispering amongst themselves. 

 "We're also here though to strengthen our connection with our spouse, or future spouse, so we'll be having individual sessions with a love guru to help us work through any problems we have and by the end of the long weekend we're going to feel refreshed and more in love than ever. The first session starts right now so come find your names on this list to see which room number you need to meet your love guru in."