Facing Fear by Gennita Low

person she tried to stay away from, and she had retired from the business because there was no way to keep from seeing too many of his sort. Stadler and his kind generated negative feelings that she would rather not have. Once upon a time, she had plenty of that, churning out hate and anguish until life seemed hopeless.
    Hate was a strong word. She understood hatred like the back of her hand.
    Unclean. There were many ways to make a woman feel dirty and helpless inside. One didn’t break a human being down with physical pain. That would be too easy. And a woman’s self-identity could be dismantled piece by piece, if she didn’t learn to disassociate from what was happening to her.
    With an ease that came from years of training, Nikki deliberately blanked her mind of the invading memories. She turned the water off, her eyes still closed. The unbidden image of Rick Harden appeared out of nowhere. Funny how she knew what he looked like when she had never been within two feet of the man.
    His eyes were a piercing green, with an uncompromising spirit that reminded her of the rocky mountains of Tibet. His face had the same strength of will that bordered on ruthlessness, and the proud tilt of his head challenged as well as distanced anyone who came too near. She could almost taste his lips, as if she had touched them before. They belonged to a man who rarely smiled, with a cynical curl that edged the corners. It was a jaded mouth, meant to punish as well as give pleasure.
    Rick Harden with all his unfathomable complexities burst like a sudden revelation into a simple truth. He was a man standing still, waiting. For what?
    She shivered at her own thoughts. Pushing open the shower door, she grabbed the towel hanging from the hook and wrapped it around her. Her stomach was roiling with panic at the unexpected insight that had jumped into her consciousness. She walked quickly to the sink to look into the mirror, her breathing uneven, because she was hearing her grandmother’s warning from years ago and her mind was now making connections she had been too blind to see before.
    Beware of the center. It will betray you.
    Release the frozen heart. It will burn you.
    Nikki stared into her reflected dark eyes, wide with shock. For years she had thought she was the frozen one, unable to move forward. That she couldn’t ever get over her fear of men to love like a normal person. But meeting Rick Hardenhad changed something in her because she had responded to his gaze, and yes, his eyes seared her like fire each time.
    She picked up the hair dryer and turned it on, deep in thought as she ran a comb through her hair. Release the frozen heart . The man might look like he was trying to climb up the career ladder, away from his past, but he was frozen. His heart was frozen.
    Her hair was too long to dry completely and she gave it a quick towel-off. She usually braided it before going to bed. She opened the bathroom door, clicking off the lights. Her hand was still on the inside wall of her bathroom when another hand grasped that arm from the outside, jamming it and making her gasp. She hadn’t seen or heard anything. She pushed off with her free hand, going for the solar plexus. Not quick enough.
    It was over in a few seconds, and she found herself trapped against the side doorframe, her hands behind her back. Her towel had loosened, hanging on precariously. The stranger tugged at her hair, forcing her head up.
    He was dressed all in black and the backlight from her bedroom put his face in the shadows. He looked like the devil she had conjured up in her mind. And he was much too close. Closer than she had allowed any man in years.
    “I heard you were researching an agent who runs a lot. I’m here for the interview.”
     
    Rick knew he shouldn’t be there. It was rare for him to follow impulse, but he couldn’t seem to help himself. There was something going on here, more than the suspicious nature of Nikki Taylor’s sudden appearance in