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like a slap in the face. Oh God! She silently cried as the sexual haze was blasted away by full-blown panic.
    She needed to leave, to escape before he came back. Slipping off her heels, she reached down and grabbed them in her hand and she bolted from the room to the front door on bare feet, grabbing her purse from the table in flight. She raced out the door and jammed the button to the elevators heading to the main entrance, consumed with the thought of escape. She jumped into the elevator as it opened and pushed the button to the lobby, trying to hold back a sob.
    Fingers clenching her purse and shoes, she raced through the lobby to the front entrance, just barely noticing the startled security guard half rise from his seat as she bolted past.
    A man was getting out of a cab in front of the building as she came crashing out of the doors. The man held the door open for her as she all but dove into the security of the waiting vehicle.
    So focused on leaving, she hardly noticed the man’s curious glance change to shock as his jaw dropped with surprised recognition as he watched the taxi sped away.
     
    * * * *
     
    Opening the door to her apartment silently, Bella threw her keys and purse down on the table in the hallway after setting the alarm. Gasping for air, tremors took over her body. The uncontrollable panic consuming her was making her shake with a force that rattled her teeth together. She stripped the clothes off her body on her way into the bathroom, barely registering that she had no panties on, as she turned the scalding water to full blast.
    Getting in, she let the spray of the water warm her body as the tears were torn from her. Her sobbing body collapsed onto the floor of the shower. Curling into fetal position, she hugged herself tight, feeling as if she wept out her very soul.
    She wanted Jason, had wanted him so much that her body had responded to his slightest touch. She felt ashamed, not at being with him, but at this uncontrollable fear that had taken over after.
    The fear that she had been fighting for a year.
    The fear of letting someone touch her again, fear of needing someone to chase the demons away and make her feel alive again. But she had lived tonight. Jason had forced that dormant part of her to the forefront with the subtlety of a cannon blast. He had made her feel so much in such a short time, she didn’t know what to do with all of these feelings. All of the emotions she had been trying to hold back came crashing into her in that single moment after the mind-blowing sex had ended. Then he had walked away from her and left her there in a melted puddle of emotions. She felt as if he had fucked her brains out and left her raw and exposed.
    Normal. For that short time she had felt normal again, for the first time in a year, and it scared her to death. Horrified now at the way she had run out on him, she sighed.
    None of this makes any sense.
    Bella turned off the water and dried herself off with an oversized towel. She groaned as she put on her robe, her body deliciously sore from being so thoroughly used. Walking back to the front door, she rechecked the lock on her door and the alarm as was habit.
    Mentally exhausted, she got ready for bed, turned the lights off, and padded over to her bed. She took off her robe and let it slide to the floor as she crawled into bed naked. Overcome by her emotional breakdown, Bella wanted to sleep for a year if possible.
    As she slipped under, silently she prayed, as she did every night, for a deep sleep where nightmares couldn’t reach her.

Chapter Five
     
    God, was she glad the day was finally over. Bella rode the elevator up to her suite in the hotel where she worked. She had moved into the hotel suite after she had started working there. It was one of the perks of her job.
    Exhausted from the long day of work, Bella wanted nothing more than a hot shower and sleep. Her sous chef Rick had been struck down and injured in a hit-and-run accident last night, so