The Healing Touch - Apryl Baker Page 0,68

you. Nothing I can really do there unless you want me to hack her?”

“What kind of stuff?”

“Oh, the usual spurned lover shit. How you’re horrible, selfish, tossed her aside for some new whore. By that, I think she means the woman you’re with?”

“The woman I’m with is Becca. She came down to help out with the book signing.”

“Your PA Becca?” Mason asked, surprised. “She sounds hot as fuck.”

“She is, and get your mind out of her pants. Charlene isn’t…”

“What the hell?”

Becca’s shout yanked his gaze over to her. “What?”

“Your ex-flavor of the week is posting shit about me.” Her brown eyes were almost black with anger. “People are sharing her posts on my page, Dimitri. I don’t do this drama crap. She’s calling me a sixpence whore.”

Dimitri snorted, trying to keep from laughing. Sixpence whore? Leave it to Charlene to try to sound smarter than she was. “That is kind of funny.”

“It is not funny!” Becca screeched, shoving her laptop aside to jump up and start pacing. “People are going to read this shit, Dimitri. They’re going to believe it, and then they’re going to start asking me questions, all of them everywhere, crowding me…”

She bent over, her face going red. “Let me call you back, Mason.”

Becca heard him hang up with his brother, but barely. The thoughts of everyone talking at her, surrounding her, it was too much. She couldn’t breathe, her lungs constricted, black spots appeared in front of her, and she couldn’t stop shaking.

“I’m here. Calm down, sweetheart.”

“Don’t touch me!” She pulled away when he tried to comfort her. “This is all your fault.”

It wasn’t his fault, not really, but her brain needed to blame someone for this, and he was the obvious choice. Her teeth started to chatter, and she fell down, her arms wrapping around her legs to try to stop the uncontrollable shaking.

Faces swam up, faces from the signing, Henry hugging her, Sara Jane moving closer, Dimitri telling her she had to go. No, no, no, no. She couldn’t do this. It was too much. She wheezed, trying to pull air into her lungs.

Her inhaler was thrust into her mouth, and she did her best to inhale as the medicine sprayed. Please, just breathe. Four puffs, and she started to feel the effects of the lifesaving medicine. She didn’t need it, but her brain thought she did. It was a trick to fool the body. Air filled her oxygen-starved lungs.

Dimitri pulled her into his lap and started to rock her. Her panic was so severe, she barely registered it or the way he spoke to her in Russian. All she could think about was what people would think, how they’d react, how they’d make her talk to them, crowd her…

It was the humming that finally broke through her panic-induced haze. It was low and right by her ear, broken and horrible, but it was a constant. The melody started to edge out the mind-numbing paralysis that was her personal brand of anxiety.

Dimitri. He was rocking and humming, his arms tight around her. Her breathing slowed, and her heartbeat stopped its rapid staccato. He patiently rocked her, humming while her body relaxed, the panic receding. No one, not even her brother, could calm her panic, make it completely dissipate.

But Dimitri could.

“Better?” he whispered, the warmth of his breath tickling her ear.

She nodded, not trusting her voice. Music played in the background, so softly she couldn’t even make out the lyrics, but the tone was definitely country. So much for his hating on the genre. The thought tugged a small smile from her, and she went from hunched in on herself to relaxing against him, her ear pressed to his heartbeat, which was slow and steady.

“It’s going to be okay. I promise. I’ll deal with Charlene. She’ll never bother you again.”

His ex-flavor of the week had already done the damage. There were people calling her a whore, a homewrecker, a slut…she buried her face in Dimitri’s shirt, trying to not think about it.

“People believe her, D.” She sniffed, trying to hold back her tears. “They are calling me all kinds of awful things.”

“I’m so sorry, sweetheart.” He stood, picking her up with him, wincing. His legs were on fire, but he ignored the pain. “Let’s get some sleep and deal with this in the morning, okay?”

“No sex,” she mumbled.

He laughed and strode into the bedroom. Pulling the blankets down, he put her on the bed and climbed in behind her. She rolled into him like she’d