Risk It All (Risqué #2) Read Free

Lyssa asked in an ever-patient voice.
    ‘I’d rather not, you know… I’d rather not get into that in our first session.’
    ‘Ok,’ Lyssa said. ‘That’s completely fine and I’m glad that you were honest with me. It’s important that you are honest. You can always tell me if you’re uncomfortable with any subject, don’t ever feel under pressure.’
    ‘Thanks. I mean, I’m sure I’ll maybe get there… though I can’t be sure, can I? But it is why I’m here, what happened that night is why I’m here.’
    ‘I told Blaser that I would help you process that trauma and move on, that’s why he wanted you to come to me,’ Lyssa said to Bri. ‘But we can’t expect it all to happen in one session.’
    ‘No, I suppose not. I’ve been carrying my experience from last year with me since then. After it, I… I didn’t get in touch with Blaser. I shut myself off and stayed in Jersey. I didn’t want anything to do with anyone.’
    ‘That’s understandable.’
    ‘But my brother, Gary, was so worried about me, it was him that… He persuaded me to come home, to come back to North Carolina. He thought it was a good idea that I try to build a life for myself here, closer to home and family.’
    ‘That’s a very good suggestion. Gary must care for you a great deal.’
    ‘He does.’ Her brother wasn’t always the best at showing his emotions and they often manifested themselves in the wrong way. But Gary was her brother and the only family that she had left. Other than knowing that her father was in prison, she had no other connection to relatives. Her mother had been AWOL ever since her father went inside.
    ‘So you came back here?’
    ‘Three months ago,’ Bri said. ‘So many things have changed… but some things are just the same.’
    ‘You mean Blaser?’
    ‘Yeah,’ Bri said. ‘I’m staying with a friend, at least I was until she took off ten days ago. But I’m still living in her apartment. I didn’t want to stay with Gary and get sucked into his world again. I wanted to maintain my independence, I knew that it would be too easy to rely on him to do everything for me.’
    ‘That’s very sensible.’
    ‘A few weeks ago Blaser showed up at Erika’s door,’ Bri said. Her faded smile returned when she replayed that night. After hearing Erika say her name, Bri had approached the apartment door behind her friend and the vision of Blaser’s concerned scowl poured a warmth of familiarity into her even now. ‘We talked.’
    ‘And you’ve been seeing each other since?’
    ‘Not like that, not like seeing each other,’ Bri said, certain that she didn’t want Lyssa to get the wrong idea and pass those ideas on to her fiancé, Blaser’s brother. ‘He’s come over a couple of times and we’ve talked. We talk on the phone. When Gary was arrested a couple of weeks ago, Blaser came straight to me, you know? He didn’t even care that I whaled on him for what had happened between the two of them. He just… held me… You’re probably one of the few people who can understand what it’s like to be held by a man like Blaser because you’re marrying his twin.’
    ‘When things are going wrong in my life, if I panic or I’m scared, there’s only one place that makes me feel better.’
    ‘Right,’ Bri agreed, thrilled that someone else could understand it. ‘They just make you feel like no matter what it’s going to be ok. That as long as they are there and they can hold you…’ Her elation began to drain.
    She didn’t notice the silence between her and Lyssa at first and she couldn’t have verbalised the visions playing through her mind if she had wanted to. All she could comprehend were the darts of ice meeting her skin as she considered the last time she’d thought like that.
    ‘Maybe we should call time for today,’ Lyssa said. ‘We just met this evening and you weren’t expecting a full session. Would you like to call it quits or carry on Brianna?’
    Snapping out of her