Too Wilde to Tame

Ray stopped squirming and started listening intently to Cameron. His breathing was labored, and his body had grown tense.

'So I'm going to issue you a friendly warning. I'm sending your ass to jail, but if I ever see your face again, or if you harass Gina or Mia, all it will take is one phone call to ensure you're dead meat. That is, after I've had my turn with you. Got that?'

Ray stubbornly, and stupidly, refused to agree.

Cameron took great pleasure in giving his arm another forceful twist and added a sharp, digging pressure against Ray's shoulder blades with his knee. 'Got that?' he repeated, harsher this time.

Finally, the other man complied with a fierce, yell. 'Yes, I got it!'

Cameron smiled grimly. 'Good, I just wanted to be sure we understood one another.'

MIA came home to chaos, with the police and the paramedics walking in and out of her apartment and a handcuffed Ray being escorted out the door by a uniformed cop. She immediately panicked, and fearing the worst, she rushed inside and found Gina sitting on the living room couch with a female medic putting a butterfly bandage on her roommate's forehead and another checking her blood pressure.

Stunned, Mia glanced around, seeing the lamp that had fallen to the floor and shattered. Her stomach cramped at the thought of what had happened while she'd gone by the gallery for a few minutes to drop off some new designs for Amy to display. If only Mia had come home right after work, maybe she could have stopped whatever had happened.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw someone heading her way. Shaking herself out of her stupor, she looked in that direction and found Cameron approaching her.

'Cameron?' she said, confused now. What was he doing here? Had he stopped by to see her? Her traitorous heart picked up its beat at that thought, forcing her to realize just how much she'd missed him the past week. 'What happened?'

'I found out some information on Ray. Actually, his real name is Billy Dearborn. I came by to tell you and Gina what I'd discovered about him.' His tone was all business, though his eyes seemed to drink up the sight of her. 'Instead, I found Ray in the apartment, roughing up Gina.'

He went on to tell her how he'd handled the situation, and Mia shivered at the replay of events. 'Oh, God,' she said and peered around Cameron to look at Gina again. 'Is she okay?'

'Ray gave Gina a pretty nasty cut above her eye, and she'll probably bruise pretty badly, but at least that will be the last time.' Cameron pushed his hands into the front pockets of his jeans, as if to keep from reaching out and touching her. 'She's pretty shaken up right now, but she'll be okay, especially because I highly doubt she'll ever have to deal with Ray ever again.'

'Really?' Mia asked hopefully.

He nodded. 'Not only does Ray have a warrant out for his arrest, but he has a past he doesn't want to catch up to him. He and I came to an understanding of sorts.' Cameron gave her a rundown of Ray's past transgressions, and the threat still looming over him, and how Cameron had no qualms using that information if Ray ever contacted Gina again. 'Trust me, between jail time and his theft, he's gone for good.'

She trusted Cameron unconditionally. The guy was solid as a rock and as good as his word. Her own thoughts startled her, but before she could reflect on her realization, Cameron spoke again.

'Gina has already given a statement to the police, and so have I,' he said and nodded his dark blond head toward Mia's roommate. 'Why don't you go over there and let her know you're home.'

Mia suddenly didn't want to leave Cameron, even to cross the room to Gina, but her friend undoubtedly needed her comfort and support, and that was more important at the moment.

A cop came up to talk to Cameron again, and Mia took that opportunity to walk over to where Gina was sitting on the couch. She settled in next to Gina and wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

'I'm so sorry you had to go through all this alone,' Mia said, wincing at the large band-aid the medic had put on her forehead, certain it hid a sizeable wound. 'But I'm so glad you're okay.'

'Because of Cameron,' Gina said gratefully. 'I don't want to think about what could have happened if he hadn't showed up when he did.' She shivered.

'The guy is a regular white knight,' Mia joked, and that comment earned her a smile from Gina.

After a moment, Gina's expression grew serious. 'Mia, there's something I need to tell you.'

Mia tipped her head. 'What is it?'

'Even before today with Ray, or Billy, or whatever his name is,' she said with a frown, 'I'd already made the decision to move back near my sister. Spending last weekend with her and my nieces made me realize how much I miss being close to my family. And right now, I think that's where I need to be.'

As much as Mia would miss Gina as a roommate and friend, Mia understood. As the medic asked Gina a few last questions about how she was feeling, Mia glanced to where she'd left Cameron, but he was gone from the apartment.

Just as he was gone from her life.

THE turnout for Mia's stained-glass art show at the Brennan gallery was a huge success, more than anything Mia ever could have anticipated. When Amy had told her she was sending invitations to more than one hundred of her best clients, Mia had been skeptical and figured she'd be lucky if a fourth of that number showed up. But now, as she glanced around the crowded gallery, she found herself overwhelmed by the number of people milling about and perusing her artwork-even if a good two dozen of those guests were her immediate family.

Even Cameron's sisters had shown up with their husbands, and it was so nice to see all of them again. But their presence made her all too aware of the fact that Cameron had obviously opted not to come to the showing. It was a good twenty minutes into the event, and although a part of her understood why Cameron might want to stay away, another part of her had secretly hoped he'd attend. After all, he was the reason why she was having the show in the first place.

Sighing, she accepted a flute of champagne from a passing tray and took a sip of the bubbly liquid as she watched Scott and Alex and their wives, Ashley and Dana, disappear into the far room where Amy had displayed her erotic stained-glass pieces. Mia's stomach dipped nervously, because while her family had been surprised to learn that she'd put her stained-glass designs into an art gallery, they still didn't know just how provocative some of her art was. But they were about to find out, and she could only imagine and anticipate their shocked reactions.

However, no matter what they thought, she'd decided their approval no longer mattered. This was who she was, and there was a piece of her in every design and picture. If her family didn't learn to appreciate her art, she knew many others who would.

She'd spent every spare moment of the past few weeks making as many designs as she could for the show- most of them the erotic pieces, because that's what had captured everyone's interest the most. She'd been grateful for the distraction because it left her little time to think about Cameron and her aching heart, or just how empty and lonely the apartment was now that Gina had moved out. But after tonight, she was going to have a whole lot of time to think about things she'd put out of her mind for weeks. And she wasn't looking forward to dealing with herself, for fear of what she might uncover.

The next hour whirled by in a quick blur. Between being introduced to dozens of Amy's clients, to doing a quick interview for the local newspaper for a piece they planned to write up about her and the show for an upcoming article, Mia was swept up into the excitement and satisfaction of a successful event. It wasn't until she saw Scott and Ashley heading her way that she realized she'd yet to talk to her family about the erotic aspect of her artwork.

'Wow, this is quite an event,' Scott said, seemingly awed by all the people and the flurry of activity around him. 'And I have to tell you, none of us had any idea you were putting naked pictures into your designs.'

Mia couldn't tell if Scott approved or not. 'I just put those into some of the artwork. There's plenty of stained- glass designs without naked people in them,' she said, waving her hand toward a collection of floral pieces that were very G rated.

'Those erotic designs are beautiful, and very impressive.' Ashley looped her arm through her husband's and smiled up at him adoringly. 'Scott bought me the mermaid one.'

Mia stared in shock at her brother. 'You did?' She couldn't believe he'd spent that kind of money on one of her