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Raven took a few seconds before she answered, “I’ve been that bad?”

  Ava shrugged, then nodded. “I mean, you’ve never been Little Miss Sunshine, but this is really not like you.”

  Raven spread out her arms in surrender. “I apologize.”

  Ava’s arms wrapped around Raven, and they embraced warmly before pulling away.

  The security men held out their arms for a hug, too, wearing smiles wide enough to serve as ship’s sails. Ava chuckled as everyone shared high-fives.

  As security escorted them through the second set of glass doors, Raven sighed, whispering to Ava, “I don’t know what’s wrong. I just…I don’t know.”

  “I think I know what it is, sweetie. We’ll talk after the meeting,” Ava said, straightening Raven’s collar. “But for now, put on your game face.”

  Raven and Ava both tried to look serious. They burst out laughing instead, and security hooted right along with them.

  Eight

  Eric lingered in a conference room on one of MEG’s lower floors, waiting to hear the outcome of Raven Armand’s visit. He hadn’t been this nervous since he’d had to confront his mother about his choice for medical treatment. He and his Aunt Avie had sat across from Raven at the condo, discussing his tumors. The panoramic view of downtown Chicago and Lake Michigan hadn’t provided the normal comforts.

  ❤ ❤ ❤

  “Mama, I’m done with treatments. I don’t want anybody cutting me, shocking me, starving me. None of that.”

  Raven blinked twice, then cleared her expression, making the worried lines on her forehead vanish. “You’re having the operation and that’s final.”

  “Not exactly,” he said slowly, almost reluctantly. He locked gazes with the woman he loved more than life itself. “If you force me, I’ll file for medical emancipation.”

  The light in her eyes suddenly dimmed. “You wouldn’t,” Raven shot back, suddenly turning to glower at Ava.

  Ava’s expression reflected her own sadness. “He doesn’t want it, Raven. He already went to another lawyer. That lawyer, as a courtesy to me, called and let me know that I should have a little talk with Eric. He couldn’t tell me more than that, but when I spoke with Eric, he told me everything.”

  After a moment the words seemed to penetrate. Raven’s voice quivered. “I can’t just let him die.”

  Ava closed her eyes and took a breath. She hadn’t been happy about Eric’s decision either, but she’d come to terms with it. “It’s his choice, Raven. As hard as it might be to accept it, it’s his body and he feels it’s right for him.”

  “He’s just a child!” Raven pushed away from the dining room table. “He doesn’t get a choice. I want him alive, damn it!”

  “He’s thought long and hard about this.”

  Raven stood, walked to the window, and stared out at the grayish-green water.

  “The procedure’s a gamble I’m not willing to take, Mama,” he informed her, his mouth set in a thin line. “Fifty percent isn’t winning odds to me. I’d rather be as close to one-hundred-percent successful as I’m allowed, instead of being fifty-percent closer to being six feet under.”

  “If you don’t have the surgery, you’ll be closer to zero percent. Every day you don’t have it, you’re closer to death,” she said in a voice so low it was barely audible.

  “Yes, but it’s a different kind of death—a quick one—not one where I’m lingering on life support with you crying at my bedside every day. It’s a one-shot deal—kaput—finito—happy trails—”

  “Eric!” She whirled to face him.

  “People die every day.”

  “Not my son. And not on my watch!” Her hands balled into fists. “You just got here. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.” She wiped her tears with the back of a trembling hand. “Every decision I’ve made in my adult life has been because of you!” she sobbed.

  Eric was instantly at her side. “And maybe that’s part of the problem. It’s time you found someone else to focus all that love and attention on. Mama, it’s time for you to get some real dick.”

  Ava let out a whoop and her hand flew up to cover her mouth, eyes widening with shock.

  Raven’s round face darkened with anger, and her voice was low and deadly. “No, you didn’t say that to me.”

  “You stopped crying, didn’t you?” he said with a grin and a couple of comedic lifts of his eyebrows.

  Raven sighed, then released a short hiccup of laughter. Ava didn’t bother hiding her relief, but it was short-lived when Raven focused her attention on her friend.

  “I don’t appreciate you siding against me on this.”

  “I’m not siding against you,” Ava replied calmly. “I’m for Eric’s dignity. The other lawyer on the case wouldn’t have cared as much about your feelings as I do. And it would have become a media circus—national bestselling teenage author sues his national bestselling author mom for the right to…”

  Raven closed her eyes.

  “I’m trying to avoid that because I love both of you,” Ava said softly, finally leaving her seat to place a hand on Raven’s shoulder. “I learned my lesson from another case. The media got so out of hand that it wreaked havoc on the children involved. I didn’t want that for you. Didn’t want it for him.”

  Raven took a slow, pained breath that seemed to swallow every other sound in the living room. “So, he doesn’t get the treatment.”

  “He doesn’t want this type of treatment.”

  Raven wrapped her arms around her midriff. Her silent sobs tore at his heart.

  “Mama, you’ve given me so much, and I love you, but please let me have a quality of life that’s more like the one I have right now instead of one chained to a bed, living off machines.”

  Raven glowered angrily at him. “I don’t agree with this. I can never be okay with this!”

  “I know, Mama,” he told her gently as he wrapped her in a hug, then looked up at her tear-stained face. “But you’ll still love me anyway, right?”

  Raven nodded and gave him a tired half-smile.

  ❤ ❤ ❤

  Eric looked at the beautiful woman beside him, the woman he wanted to introduce to his mother and Ava. “Marie, they’ll be here any minute to meet Pierce—the man who I know is right for my mom. My plan’s about to come together.” He scratched his head and shrugged. “At least I hope it is.”

  He would move a mountain, outrun a speeding bullet, or sprout wings if that was what it took to see Raven Ripley in the arms of a man who would take care of her, live and die for her.

  Calling it an uphill battle was putting it mildly. Eric hated failing; he didn’t have time for failure. Although at the rate things were going…No, he wouldn’t think like that. This time it had to work. It just had to!

  “I want to walk my mother down the aisle. Then I can—” He caught himself before saying the word leave. “Then I know she’ll be okay. I came to New York to check Pierce out. I didn’t plan on falling in love. But I met you and…” His lips lifted into a smile. “And your crazy little behind fell in love with me.”

  She returned his grin with a lopsided one of her own.

  “So please, don’t stress out. I want everything to work smoothly when my mom meets you. Okay?”

  “All right.”

  Eric lifted her chin with an index finger and kissed her gently.

  She returned his kiss, then said, “Eric, don’t be mad, but I don’t think I’m up to meeting your mother today.”

  He examined her freckled, heart-shaped face. “Okay, you won’t have to meet Mom right this minute, but sometime this weekend you’re going to have to meet my family.”

  “I know, I know.” She placed her hands against his chest. “Just not today. Please?”

  Eric held her and ran a hand through her reddish-brown hair, then pulled away to trace the freckles as he nodded.

  “And we are going to Baltimore to meet with those doctors tomorrow morning, right?”

  Eric grimaced.
Dodging the appointment again was out of the question.

  Nine

  Raven and Ava entered the contemporary office lobby. Frame after frame of platinum records were hung strategically at eye level on clean white walls. Posters of signature album covers encased in silver and glass also covered the area, Grammy winners on one side, up-and-coming artists on the other. Bright white, recessed lighting was angled expertly to spotlight each one.

  The first hallway opened into a maze of offices and sleekly curved cubicles. Very modern. Definitely masculine. Raven leaned over to Ava, her gaze darting from one place to the next. “Do you know where Eric sits?”

  “Keep it moving. We’ll hunt him down later.”

  As they settled into a waiting area just outside frosted-glass double doors labeled conference rooms A and B, Ava checked her voice mail. “Shoot! Eric won’t be meeting us for lunch. He’s working on a project.” Ava pulled the phone away from her ear. “Asked about an early dinner tonight and said there’s someone he wants you to meet on Sunday.”

  “Sunday? Damn,” Raven huffed. “I hadn’t planned to stay in this crazy city any longer than I had to.”

  “You’ll live. I’ll call him when we’re done.”

  Shadows of people sat around the conference table. Raven didn’t relish the thought that so many MEG staff members were there to discuss her work, with just Ava and herself to represent her side. She never went into anything with those kinds of odds.

  Ava went over the details of the talking points once again. The deal was excellent. Amazingly, the novel she swore up and down would have women, especially wives, sending assassins to her door, had outsold her first novel more than three to one. Wife-in-Law, the story of two women, best friends, who decide to train one man and see if they can share him, had actually struck a chord with women and would soon surpass her more popular novels’ success.

  Raven loved to write stories that made people talk—ones that made them uncomfortable or angry. And all it had taken was one incident to unlock her hidden talent. She had begun penning erotic stories with a man she’d met in an Internet Spades room. Before long, instead of playing cards with other people online, they’d entered their own private chat room. On the day he sent her two short paragraphs describing how he wanted to pleasure her, she sent back ten pages of the areas, points, and techniques he had missed. The erotic stories she’d sent to him became chapters sixteen through twenty-two of her first steamy novel. And thanks to the encouragement of Sesvalah, the counselor who was still helping her come to terms with Eric’s decision, she’d been writing ever since. Somehow her internet “friend,” who was an aspiring writer himself, felt intimidated first by the fact that she had starting writing at all, then by her success. She had never met him in person as they had planned. Another casualty of her ambition.

  Doubt had plagued her for weeks leading up to that first book release. Over and over, she’d asked herself who she thought she was to try and run with the big dogs instead of staying her ass on the porch. She’d never taken writing classes, and she certainly hadn’t dreamed of being an author. Yet here she was, flying on the heels of Kimberla Lawson Roby, Zane, Mary B. Morrison, Brenda Hampton, and E. Lynn Harris, who had started companies to publish their own books, garnering them mainstream success with six-figure deals at major publishing houses. To be considered with the same esteem as some of her favorite authors had far surpassed Raven’s wildest dreams. A movie deal was definitely the next logical step. So why was she so hesitant?

  Raven flipped out her iPhone and to a picture that Eric had taken with Jaylon. He had finally forged a relationship with Jaylon, a grandmother who had been there in body all of his life, and had finally arrived in spirit when he turned fifteen. Then she selected the next picture, which he had taken recently with Raven’s extended family. Eric was staying with Anita and Lorrie while doing his intern stint at MEG, and even though Raven still grappled with her personal pain regarding the way they had treated her, she wouldn’t deny him the opportunity to bond with a part of her once-estranged family. He had so little family to begin with.

  Through Eric’s efforts, Jaylon and Anita were better friends, not the silent enemies they had become over the years. And if her suspicions were correct, all those recent trips Anita had made to Chicago were all about rekindling a love once lost. Eric Ripley, the champion of romance strikes again!

  Raven shook off thoughts of her family, trying to focus on the upcoming meeting. She looked at her watch again—a sleek, elegant sapphire Movado Eric had given her for her birthday. “How much longer are they going to make us wait out here?”

  Ava patted her hand. “We’re early. They have some time.”

  Raven folded her arms over her full breasts, sighing. “I left my tablet in our bags downstairs.”

  “You’ll survive.”

  As Raven tapped her foot, she thought about Pierce and what was missing in her life. Romance worked well in theory, but it fizzled at the first sign of trouble. Her fans would have been ashamed of her, but thanks to her exposure to men, she simply wasn’t ready to put romance, or even any erotic notions, into practice.

  As soon as she opened up with her…issues, most men felt comfortable enough to voice their own. One man only wanted to be with her until she had Eric. For some reason pregnant sex turned him on. She took a pass.

  Another offered her a ridiculous sum of money for breast milk—double the amount if she allowed him to get it from the source. Eeek!

  A third would-be contender could only get a hard on if she allowed him to take it up the ass. He didn’t make it pass go.

  Three duds back-to-back were enough to let her know that the dating gene pool was tainted.

  An uneasy feeling crept into Raven’s soul. She lifted Ava’s arm and checked her watch.

  “Cut that out,” Ava said, snatching her arm away.

  “Now they’re late. You know how much I hate that, especially when they want something from us.”

  “They paid for our airfare and the hotel. We’re on their dime, so quit your bitchin’.”

  In the limousine from the airport, Raven had prayed that she wouldn’t run into Pierce. She had too much explaining to do. They had planned a weekend at the a private resort and she flaked out at the last minute. Sometimes at night, alone, sleep eluding her, she wondered what would have happened if she had went to dinner with him that first night? If she had followed her heart? Or was it just lust? Could’ve been the fact that it had been years since she’d slept with a man.

  She had been hit on by some mighty interesting men, but none had caused a reaction quite like Pierce. The bald, handsome one was so unlike any of the male characters she had created—almost perfect, but flawed male specimens every woman could love.

  She shuddered to think what Ava and Eric would do if she had told them the truth. They were forever trying to find her the “perfect mate.” No matter how much Raven protested their interference, they both saw it as their God-given right to pair her up with some unsuspecting male to their—not her—satisfaction. If they had picked someone as commanding and handsome as Mr. MEG, maybe, just maybe…they might have a winner.

  She’d even forgiven him for taking her tablet. Dear God, had he read what she had written? It was a story based on her life, with her and Eric as main characters. Contacting him to ask for its return would’ve taken balls, the one thing she didn’t have in this situation.

  Coming back to reality, she leaned over to Ava. “I’m not getting a good feeling about this.” Raven shifted in the black leather chair once again, then stood. “We’ve been out here longer than we were supposed to. My time is valuable. Let’s go!”

  Ava grabbed Raven’s hand and yanked her back into the chair. “Don’t make me sit on you.”

  “I have a good sixty pounds on you. Is that supposed to be a threat?”

  A familiar vibration had Ava scrambling to find her phone. She gestured for Raven to stay put. “Hey Eric, where are you?”

  Raven
grabbed the phone away and blasted, “I come all this way to see you and you dismiss me like an old shoe after a Macy’s sale.”

  “Oh, come on, Mom. Don’t go drama queen on me,” he said with a weary groan. “This project can’t wait.”

  “Hmph!”

  “Hey, and I’d appreciate it if you don’t tell anyone you’re my mother.”

  Raven gasped, shocked by what his statement could mean. “You’re ashamed of me? After all these years?”

  Eric cleared his throat. “I don’t want anyone to think you got the deal because of me.”

  Raven shifted the phone to the other ear, glanced in the direction of the conference room. “And they would think that because…”

  “I was the one who gave them your books.”

  She peered at Ava who suddenly pretended to pluck an imaginary piece of lint from her skirt, then looked anywhere, everywhere—except at Raven.

  “Serving me up to the music hounds, eh?”

  “No, trying to make sure they knew what they were getting into. Good luck, Mom. You’re the best.”

  “And so are you. I love you.”

  “Love you more.”

  Raven held out the cell, which soon disappeared into Ava’s pocket. People were now walking around the conference room. Raven checked her watch. They were way behind schedule. “Two more minutes and I’m out of here.”

  Ava sighed sadly. “Okay.”

  The doors opened and a petite strawberry blonde sauntered into the waiting area. “We apologize for the delay. Will you follow me, please?”

  Raven stepped forward, strolled into the room, and instantly noticed the two empty chairs at the head of the table and another set at the end nearest the door. She chose the latter so they could make a quick exit if necessary.

  As she put her hand on a chair, she scanned the room.