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regret to wash over her. For shame, at comparing her deceased husband to another man, to overwhelm her.
    Both did, with aching swiftness. Her heart and stomach clenched. She braced her hand against the table to keep herself upright.
    Thankfully, Bryan either didn’t notice or didn’t care, and the weakness passed quickly. As she shoved her personal issues aside, she pulled a steel-framed chair over to the room service table Ming had set up. “Have a seat,” she said to her client.
    His arms still crossed over his chest, he shook his head. “No.”
    “No?”
    “No. I’m not a kid. You’re here to train, let’s train. But I’m not eating mush.”
    “I’m here to rehabilitate you,” she felt compelled to point out, and she was getting tired of arguing, defending and persuading him to get with the program. “You’re not ready for training.”
    He leaned toward her, fury suffusing his face. “I’m a professional athlete.”
    The moment the words were out of his mouth, he leaned back. Realization of just how wrong he was turned his face pale.
    He moved away. As oddly embarrassed as she felt having this conversation with a half-dressed man, a man who’d lost everything and had no idea how to get his life back, she sensed opportunity. She needed something from Bryan she hadn’t yet received but absolutely had to have.
    Commitment.
    “Obviously, I’m not an athlete anymore,” he began in a slow, measured voice. “But I was for a long time.”
    Now wasn’t the time to mention she’d also ordered scrambled eggs, Canadian bacon and mixed fresh fruit. Frankly, she wasn’t a big fan of oatmeal herself. She’d ordered the dish mostly out of spite.
    She should probably feel guilty, but with a take-charge man like Bryan Garrison as her client, she needed all the advantages she could get.
    “Sit,” she said to the stubborn, annoyingly aggravating, attractive…seriously hurting man beside her.
    His eyebrows raised with the practiced effort of the blue-blood set. “Excuse me?”
    Since she knew he wasn’t high society, she decided Parker had been an influence on the Garrison family. Change was inevitable. Good, even.
    She tapped the back of the chair. “This will go over better if you sit.”
    “More yoga torture?” he asked as he walked slowly toward her.
    No. Much worse.
    When he was seated, she stood facing him. “If we’re going to work together, we’re going to have to be honest with each other.”
    “You haven’t been honest so far?”
    “I have. Maybe honest is the wrong word. Let’s call this getting real with ourselves.” She paused, considering the lingering ache in her heart. “Well, getting real with you.”
    He said nothing, just looked wary.
    “I know you’re angry and embarrassed about your ex-wife leaving you. I know what it’s like to have someone you love stripped away. Everything you once had seems like an illusion.”
    “I’m fine being divorced,” he said, his jaw clenched so tightly she wasn’t sure how he spoke. “I like being alone. My feelings about it are none of your business.”
    “They certainly are when they affect my training program. You need a motivation to get better, so I’m giving you one.” She met his gaze. “Revenge.”
    Something flashed through his eyes, and she pounced on the opportunity.
    “You know the best way to get your confidence and pride back?” she asked him. “Looking and feeling amazing. Letting her know you’ve moved on, and you’re happy about it.”
    “My pride is—”
    She ignored his protest and rolled on. “Maybe you don’t want to subscribe to my theories or do the work required for my program, but you understand revenge, don’t you? That’s angry and forceful, and you can get behind an idea like that.” She paused and leaned close. “Can’t you?”

CHAPTER SIX
    S HE WAS A FAIRY ONE MINUTE and a bloodthirsty warrior the next.
    Part of him was humiliated by the personal details she knew. Another part of him was