Owning Her

Chapter Ten

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The following day, frustration grew in Vivian's chest as she and Greyson sat in a different therapist's office. This therapist specialized in couples therapy and decorated her room in a far more mature and modern fashion. They had only been at this for five minutes, but as the silence continued to grow, she found herself digging her nails into the slightly rough fabric of the beige couch they occupied.

Dr. Rosalie Viermetz was a rather tall red-headed woman from Germany if the slight accent she had upon greeting them was any indication. She had tied her hair back in a single braid draped over her left shoulder, and her light green eyes bounced between Vivian and Greyson every so often.

"You know this only works if one or both of you speak," she mused as her eyes fixed on Vivian again. Vivian dropped her gaze to the black leather-bound notepad Dr. Rosalie held and tried not to let it roam to the woman's partially unbuttoned emerald blouse.

"It's rather hard just to start airing grievances about each other in front of each other unprompted," Greyson said.

"No one is saying to start ragging on each other," Dr. Rosalie chuckled a little bit.

"Then where should we start?" Vivian huffed and resisted the temptation to cross her arms. She felt Greyson squeeze her knee and watched the doctor mark the movement with her malachite eyes.

"How about we start there," the doctor pointed with her pen to where Greyson's hand remained on Vivian's knee. "Why did you feel the need to squeeze her knee just now, Greyson?"

"I could tell she was getting frustrated," he answered.

Dr. Rosalie wrote in her notes as she nodded slightly. "Good, and how did you want the knee squeeze to affect Vivian?"

Greyson swallowed, and Vivian turned slightly to face him.

"I just wanted her to reign her emotions in," he sighed.

"This is therapy, after all. Emotions are safe here no matter what they are or how easily they are triggered," Dr. Rosalie chided. She wrote more in her notebook and uncrossed her legs at the keeps, making the dark grey material of her pants sway a little bit. "Do you feel like you need to control Vivian?"

Vivian tensed slightly as Greyson's hand moved from her knee to drag through his hair.

"I wouldn't say I feel a need to control her, but there are some times when she could use a reminder about how to behave." His voice had dropped into that calm, neutral tone Vivian had heard him use with irritating clients at his studio.

"And you believe it is your job to correct these behaviors?" Dr. Rosalie's tone was a perfect mirror of his. She could see the subtle tells in his face and body at the response. His eyes crinkled slightly, his mouth turned up at the corner, and his knee jerked. All signs he was dying to challenge the doctor until she submitted and ceased using his signature "you're on my last nerve" tone of voice.

Vivian had tried it once and had spent every free moment outside of work locked in her kennel for a week, save for when she needed to bathe or relieve herself.

"According to the contract we both signed, it is," he said, his tone shifting to that deeper timbre. The one that screamed, "Mind your fucking business." She had heard plenty of it almost a week ago when he had snatched her phone midway through her conversation with Alistair.

Dr. Rosalie shifted forward in her chair. "Is that contract legally binding? Did you have it drawn up by a lawyer, reviewed by separate individual lawyers, and then get it notarized when you signed it?"