"To be honest, Cathy, I'm a little freaked out. But I can't let someone intimidate me." I was standing in Charles' office looking over the city while he and Brian the security guard looked at more footage on Jessica's computer and planned how to beef up security from the perspective that someone on the inside was working with the intruder. Cathy sighed into the phone. "I know, sweetie. But are you sure? Maybe this person isn't after you."

Sally was still frowning at her laptop screen, and she didn't smile at me when she looked up at me entering the conference room. "Come sit over here next to me, Elena," she said. I sat down, folding my hands in my lap. I waited. After a moment of looking off into space, Sally finally spoke. "What is it about this story? Why can't you let it go?" It wasn't what I expected, and it took me a moment to get my brain working again. "I'm also an orphan," I began. "But I'm lucky. The place I came from was well-supported. Our city orphanages, well, there's something going on that's not right. They're having trouble with basic operations, and it's putting the kids at risk." Sally was quiet. I assumed this meant she wanted more, and I rushed to fill the silence. "I have something else I'm working on if you really don't like it, but I honestly think it would work for Social Scene because it has a good combination of heart-warming and..." "You say something is going on?" she in

"It think it's fine, Charles. I would have smelled someone if they were here!" Charles ignored me, sticking his head under my bed and then proceeded to the bathroom. He looked in the bathtub, and even the cupboard where the extra towels were. "Now you're just snooping," I said, laughing at the way he searched every closet and cupboard, like a hound dog looking for clues. "It's important!" he said, trying to keep a serious face as he rifled through my coats in the hallway closet. That's when I realized he was actually stirring up my scent, moving around my things to release it and enjoying surrounding himself with it, as if he were spritzing himself with fragrance. I sat on the couch and watched him, his large, strong form in my house, like a dream from my teenage years. Back then I wouldn't have cared if he was just using me as a scent object. I would have thought it was worth it. Now, however, I had too much at stake. My self-esteem, my reputation, I had learned to stan

I didn't think I would ever fall asleep. The idea that Charles Rafe, the boy I'd dreamed about every night of my teenage life, was laying on my couch in the form of a full-grown sexy man made me toss and turn. Go back out there, Elena, I told myself. Who cares about your reputation or what bad path it might lead to. Take Cathy's advice. It can go both ways. You can use each other. I must have finally fallen asleep, however, because I was suddenly sitting with Cathy in the cafeteria of our old school, only it was the later, adult versions of us. "What's the worst that can happen if you go out there?" she asked. "I'm never taken seriously again and have to move?" "Away from me? Then never mind. Don't do it." She was suddenly one of the orphans from Mrs. Addison's, the one named Charlotte. "Are you sure you don't want to try? You've always been lonely, and his company isn't bad, even if it's not everything you want." I looked at her sadly. "That's exactly wh

I usually enjoyed Matilda's freshly cut grass smell. It was refreshing and natural, just like her character, and over the few assignments we'd shared I'd come to have respect for her abilities and to appreciate her kindness. But when I walked into Charles' office her scent was overwhelming, enhanced by her happiness pheromones. She had been very happy about something when she was talking to Charles in there and I struggled against my suspicious mind. I felt like I knew them both well enough to think they weren't a very good match. But then again, I had no idea what Charles was thinking half the time. His Alpha logic defied my more intuitive way of thinking about people. Still, I tried to believe nothing untoward happened and sat down to think about dinner. Charles sat and relaxed on the seat across from me, looking the same as ever. There was no trace on his face to show he had slept somewhere other than his usual bed, nothing to show he had perhaps spent a night snuggling wi