A scream lodged in my throat, but I suppressed it. I wasn’t going to scream like a sissy girl. My father had called me that name since I started painting, and I would not make his assessment true. For Christ’s sake, he was forcing me to do this stupid internship. If that was really what he thought of me, why would he want me in his sacred office?

I lifted my hand to press the red button once more but then decided against it. Continually pushing the button was the equivalent of screaming. I’d pushed it enough already. Help would come eventually. Only the best for the Wolfes, after all.

The fucking Wolfes.

I inhaled, trying to hold it for a few seconds, and then exhaled. Breathe in, breathe out. That was supposed to relieve stress, right?

Fuck if I knew. My mother practiced a bunch of breathing exercises with her yoga. But really, it was probably just an excuse for her to get together with her other first-wife friends to bitch and whine. She even had a wine glass that had “bitch and wine” etched on it.

Odd. Thoughts of my neurotic mother actually had a calming effect on me. Breathe in, breathe out. My eyes adjusted to the darkness and I shoved the files back into their box. Then I stacked them all back on the dolly. I was ready when that damned door finally—

I squinted as the light came back on.

I stood, hoping I didn’t look like I’d nearly pissed myself waiting for the elevator to move.

But it didn’t move.

Instead, the doors opened.

“Roy?”

I jerked out of my thoughts. Charlie had moved slightly away and was looking into my eyes.

“Yeah?”

“Are you okay? You got kind of…rigid.”

The elevator. The fall. My stomach in my throat. The fear. The panic.

Then the lights.

The doors…

I closed my eyes, squeezing out any remainder of the memory that threatened to come forth. No. Not now. Not now. Not now.

I pulled Charlie back to me, enclosing her in my arms. I drew comfort from her warmth, from her closeness.

From her.

“What can I do for you?” she asked, her breath a sweet breeze on my neck.

“Just stay here. Be with me.”

“I can do that.”

We stood in the studio, embracing, for a long, long time.

47

Charlie

We didn’t make love. When I finally got Roy to leave the studio, we went to the bedroom, shed our clothes, and lay down in each other’s arms. He was asleep almost instantly.

Poor thing hadn’t slept the night before.

I snuggled up to him, his arm around me, listening to the comfortable sound of his heartbeat.

What was it about the Wolfes?

First Lacey fell for Rock in a week, and now I fell for Roy. Would someone crawl out of the woodwork and fall for Reid next week?