Heat Exchange(22)

Janey immediately felt insecure.

Amy's gaze zeroed in on Janey and she looked her up and down. "No way, you're Janey? Hey, Ny. This is Oliver Dalton, our moderator dude."

"Thanks for coming, Oliver." Nyall shook the hand of the skinny man and stood back, shutting the door behind the pair. Janey didn't miss Nyall's squeezing of Amy's arm or the quick, friendly punch she gave him in the chest. It was a little surprising, but maybe that's the way long-time sex partners liked to greet each other.

"Sure, not a problem at all," Oliver said. "I'm glad to be here. This is a terrific chance for me."

"Oliver's the author of Resynthesis, you may have heard of it," Amy said. "Changing the face of workplace counseling in the Pacific Northwest and all that shit."

"Can't say I have," Nyall said.

"Don't worry about it," Oliver said in his soft-spoken, well-modulated voice. "When Amy told me you wanted to try out my system, I knew it was the perfect opportunity to throw it out into the wild. You'll be the first in vivo couple to try professionally guided resynthesis. You must be Jane." His eyes shone out warmth behind his spectacles as he offered his hand, which Janey took shyly.

"Janey," she said, deciding that despite his nonsensical words, she trusted his compassionate-looking face.

Nyall took her by the shoulders and moved her in front of him. "Janey, say hi to my friend, Amy."

"Hello," Janey said, wondering what he was implying with the emphasis on "friend." Then, because she couldn't think what else to say to Amy, "You're very beautiful."

"Hey, thanks. I've got a system for getting the package on. Fifteen minutes flat. I'll show you sometime if you want." Amy grinned. "You're totally not what I expected. Nyall hasn't even banged you yet?"

"Behave, Amy," Nyall said.

"My sweet," Oliver said mellowly, wrapping his arm around Amy's waist. "Remember, Janey's not used to you yet. Time is the first principle of acclimation."

Amy ran her finger down his chest, and Janey guessed that they were a couple, becoming even more convinced of it when the other woman said, "I'm totally jumping on you later for the psych talk."

"Amy's best in small batches," Nyall murmured, guiding Janey to the seating area by the hand, adding to the trailing Oliver, "You're a brave man to work with her."

Amy followed them, taking a smartphone out of her purse and squinting at it. "No, seriously? None of the data after September 18? My ass is toast." She glanced up at Janey. "Nyall's so pathetic. He, like, cut me off for you. Shag him or he won't buy me any more scones."

"Thanks a hell of a lot, Winch," Nyall said, and Oliver said, "Remember that discussion we had about sensitivity to nuance."

"Oliver's a trip," Amy said. "But he's onto something with this resynthesis crap. Where are we doing this, here?" Without waiting for a reply, Amy plopped down on an armchair, pulled her feet up flat on the cushion, and propped her elbows up on her splayed knees to hold her phone. She got caught by the screen. "Incompetence? Geez, Paul, it's not like Brian friggin' pressed delete. Those guys need a latte."

"What is this that we're doing again?" Janey whispered nervously. Nyall had dragged her with him onto the sofa. She didn't like being this close to him and inched away, but he pulled her back between his legs.

"Fixing us," Nyall whispered back in her ear, and Janey moved her head away because it reminded her too much of the elevator.

"Very interesting place you have," Oliver said, taking a seat on an ottoman. "Very open. Natural light brings healing energy in through the pupils."

"It's like the boarding area at SeaTac," Amy snorted without looking up.

"You'll need to keep it down during the session, my sweet," Oliver said softly. "Now. What is all this about? Amy said you were having some relationship difficulties. Janey, Nyall, you're involved in a relationship together?'

Janey shook her head, while Nyall said, "Yep."

Oliver looked thoughtful. "I see you're not in agreement about whether or not you're in a relationship."

"Janey and I are supposed to spend the week together," Nyall said. "We have a special arrangement."

"That's true," Janey said hurriedly. "But I don't want to talk about the specifics. It's personal and private."

"Well, we might have to talk a little about it," Oliver said mildly. "So is that the conflict? Trying to come to a common ground in defining your relationship?"

"No," Nyall said. "I want Janey to stay, and she wants to go. You're here to convince her to stay."

Janey scowled and wiggled away, moving to the other end of the sofa. Nyall's eyelids lowered but he didn't stop her.

"We'll see how it goes," Oliver said soothingly. "Let's tackle this with the seven stages of resynthesis. The first stage is backtracking."

"Also known as angsting," Amy piped up. "You guys have to spill your guts. Just puke it out, all the drama."

"Er, what Amy means is that this is where you tell your side of the story," Oliver said. "Nyall, why don't you start."

"Sure," Nyall said lazily. "I wanted Janey, so I made a deal with her. I suggested she stay with me this week. I was an ass and lost my temper with her when my assistant called at an inopportune time. Now she wants to run. I want her to stay."

Janey's mouth opened and closed.

"Janey? What about your side?"

"Uh. Well, that's…that's not the whole story." Janey couldn't believe they were all sitting here, discussing this. Was this, then, how the rich half lived? "I guess I could, um. Is this private? I mean, will you talk about this with anyone?"

"Not if they value their lives, their income, and their social standing, they won't," Nyall said.

Over in the armchair, Amy lifted her head to stare at Nyall for a moment. She looked over at Janey. "You've got to fuck him," Amy said. "That's just yum."

"What do you mean?" Janey said, her face burning.

Amy waved her hand in Nyall's direction. "He's going all caveman for you."

"Oh." She bit her lip. "Nyall's being discreet to protect me. I'm a virgin," she blurted out.

"Whoa!" Amy planted her feet on the floor. "No fucking way!"

"Winch, if you—"

"Amy, I told you…"

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Janey hopped up and dashed for the kitchen. She grabbed an oven mitt and removed the browned cheesecake from the oven and then deactivated the timer. Tempted to dawdle, she made herself go back into the living room with all signs of dignity. She took her seat again slowly, aware of everyone staring at her, but she addressed Oliver with lifted chin.

"I know it's not normal at my age," she said. "But there it is. I'm a virgin and Nyall was kind enough to offer to teach me how not to be. Only I couldn't follow his rules. There are rules I have to follow if he's going to help me. But I couldn't do it and so that's that. He wants me to stay because he's sexually frustrated and can't be bothered to call someone else to relieve that problem. I don't want to. End of story."

Their jaws had dropped during her speech. Uneasily, she looked across at Nyall. He had one leg crossed sideways over the other and was leaning back, twirling a pen in one hand, a cushion shoved between his legs. Something about the hard way he was looking at her and ignoring the other two made her glance hurriedly away and fan herself.

"Er." Oliver drew in a breath and gathered himself. "All right, thanks. So now the next stage is isolating. We need to isolate the problem here exactly—what we think is really going on. Janey? Why don't we start with you this time. What do you think is the underlying dynamic here? What's really happening?"

She said instantly, "Nyall should be spending his vacation hiking, not helping me. He's being stubborn. He says he, uh, wants me but he really just wants sexual release and I'm the wrong person for that. I've figured out I'm not good mistress material."

Oliver cleared his throat. "Right. So, Nyall, what would you say is really going on? Try not to let Janey's answer influence you."

Nyall kept twirling the pen, his gaze never moving from Janey's face. "Janey's got a blind spot the size of Puget fucking Sound. She thinks I'm doing her a favor in exchange for casual sex, when what I want is to fuck the hell out of her because my dick won't calm the fuck down since I met her."

"Nyall!"

"No, Janey, it's good," Oliver said. "This is what we want. We're hearing what's in your heads, both of you. Okay, so the next stage is goaling. Goaling is where we pinpoint together where you both want to be by the end of this discussion. Now, we've already established that you, Nyall, want Janey to stay with you in your home this week, and you, Janey, want to go. What we want is a common goal. To get there, we project what happens with each outcome in terms of what's best for both of you."

"I'm not following this at all," said Janey.

Oliver frowned, then reached in his pocket and took out a pen. "Just want to make a note here. Not…following…goaling. Okay, where were we? Let's start with staying and let Nyall go first. If Janey stays with you this week, Nyall, what effect will that have on each of you?"