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And Bea was coming in closer, and Alli could smell her, could feel her warmth, could remember the touch of her dream body, could just about lose her breath all over again as…

“Bea, there you are.” The door swung open. Alli and Bea jumped apart just as Luke walked in. “Lex was looking for you. Something about this morning’s group sessions.”

Alli took a breath. Whatever that had been was… nothing. A distraction and one that needed to be forgotten. There was a job at stake here.

Though looking at the way Bea looked at Luke, there were two jobs at stake.

She turned and walked away. There’d be no more dreams. And definitely no more touching.

Chapter Fourteen

“The point is mostly to get them bonding with each other, to test their boundaries, trust issues, that sort of thing,” Lex was saying as she walked toward the group therapy session with Bea.

“So… I just let them talk?”

“Pretty much. Try and steer the conversation in safe directions, stay on topic. Initially, it might be good to discuss why they’re here in the first place if they want to share, and you’d be surprised how many do. Most programmers don’t think they should be here, so sharing those stories promotes sympathy in the others, or occasionally forces the others to look at their own actions.”

“Right.” Bea could see an inherent problem with this. “Um, and what about if they get, well, angry?”

“Josh will be in the vicinity,” Lex said. “You have nothing to worry about. You might get shouted at occasionally, but nothing worse.”

Shouted at. Normally, that might not be so much of a problem. Except just this morning Alli had shouted at her and quite inexplicably, Bea had ended up crying. Maybe it was hormones or something. She just couldn’t understand it.

One minute, Alli had her all up in arms and ready to defend her own honor, which was completely out of character. The next she had her in tears, which was slightly more in character, butnot by much.

It really didn’t help that for some reason every time Alli came close enough for Bea to smell guava, Bea felt a little hop of electricity, like she was about to be shocked, like her hair might stand on end.

“You’ll be just fine,” Lex said now.

“You say that with authority,” smiled Bea.

“I’ve done this before,” Lex said, suddenly looking very young.

“How many times?”

“In training? Plenty,” said Lex. She coughed. “Here, just one set of sessions. But I really need to concentrate on the individual sessions, that’s where I can be most helpful.”

Bea nodded thoughtfully. “I’m sure everything will go wonderfully,” she said with more confidence than she felt. Not that she had much choice. She had a job to keep, a paycheck to get, and a flat deposit to pay for.

“Best of luck,” Lex grinned at her.

The programmers were seated in a circle of chairs and they looked at Bea expectantly when she walked in. All except one. Alli was seeming to find the floor particularly interesting. Oh well, there were worse things. Bea swallowed to wet her mouth and then sat down in the one spare chair.

“Welcome,” she said, just the same as she did when she started a yoga class. “Is there anyone that has any concerns or something they’d like to say before we begin?”

Lex had told her to say this, but she was greeted with silence and more expectant looks. She swallowed again.

“Alright, then why don’t we begin with a little self-introduction. We’ll start with…” She looked around and saw Charles. He’d so far proven to be obedient, questioning nothing, and seemed harmless. “We’ll start with you, Charles. Would you like to share why you’re here?”

“For group therapy,” he said, looking puzzled.

“I mean, more in the big picture sense,” Bea said helpfully.

He frowned harder. “Um, like the meaning of life sort of thing?”

There was a shuffling in the room. “No,” said Bea. She blew out a breath. “Alright, let’s start over. Why are you in an anger management program, Charles?”

Charles’s face cleared at the prospect of a question he could actually answer. “Easy, I’m getting divorced, my ex wants custody of the kids so she can move them up north, so she’s told her lawyer that I’ve got a temper. The court ordered me into a program so that I can prove that I don’t have one and hopefully I’ll get to see my kids.”