Page 63 of The Healing Touch

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 done it a thousand times before, and Becca closed her eyes, letting the sound of his heartbeat alongside the gentle rise and fall of his chest lull her into sleep.

Dimitri waited until he was sure she was sound asleep before he left the bed. Finding his phone where it had dropped, he opened Facebook and navigated to Becca’s page. What he saw made him see red. That fucking bitch. She was saying some truly awful things about his woman.

He called Mason.

“Yo?”

“Shut the bitch down.”

He hung up and crawled back in bed. He had to meet Viktor for breakfast in a little under three hours.

Then he’d get this damn signing out of the way, and they’d be on the first train back to LA, where he could have his woman all to himself. He just had to get through tomorrow.

Chapter Sixteen

Dimitri made sure not to wake Becca a few hours later. He hadn’t slept at all, everything running together in his head. Charlene was going to have to be dealt with. Had he known she was this much of a drama queen, he wouldn’t have given her a second glance. He didn’t do drama. Hated it.

He finished dressing and shoved his phone and wallet into his jeans. Becca rolled and muttered something. He smiled softly, watching her frown in her sleep. Sexy as sin. That was what his woman was. He should wake her, but since he wasn’t going to ask her to go with him to the signing, she could sleep in.

There wasn’t a force in Heaven or Hell that could persuade him to take her to the signing. Not after all that shit that was posted last night. She was a right mess. The panic attack last night was bad, one he wouldn’t be responsible for her reliving.

Slipping out, he found Viktor waiting for him in the lobby. His brother looked every inch the Kincaid with his dark hair and coal black eyes. Dimitri looked like his mother, blond and blue eyed. The only thing he’d inherited from his dad was the man’s height. He towered over even the twins, Viktor and Conner.

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