“Oh, she’s having a panic attack,” North said.
When had he come in? Also, her lungs were really starting to burn.
She needed to breathe.
“I know that. Angie, come on, breathe. You’re going to pass out.”
“Angie,” North said sharply. “Listen to me. I need you to do exactly as I say. Now, look at me.”
She raised her gaze to his, staring at him through blurry eyes.
“Put your hands up in the air. That’s it. Now make a circle with one finger. That’s it. Then the other.”
As she followed North’s directions, her heart rate started to grow slower and she could take a few shallow breaths.
“Now, breathe in with your belly.” He placed his hand over her stomach.
If she hadn’t still been trembling and feeling ill and breathless, she might have liked that more.
Why was she always in a terrible state around this man? Vomiting? Panicking? Launching herself at him in a rage?
Well, he’d set himself up for all of it, hadn’t he?
“Breathe in through your belly. Come on, push against my hand. You can do better than that. In, one, two, three, four. Now, out slowly for six.”
“Good girl,” Jared told her, rubbing her back.
Oh God.
That was something she definitely liked. It had been rare for her to ever hear praise growing up. And now she didn’t trust it when people told her that she was doing a great job or that she was smart or really, for anything.
But she seemed to lap it up from Jared.
“Not yet, she’s not,” North said, shattering the soft glow she had going.
Lord, he was a dick.
“Not until she gives me three more belly breaths. Then she gets the praise.”
She felt her lower lip drop out in a pout.
“And put that away. You know it doesn’t work on me,” North ordered.
No, because he had no heart.
She turned the pout on Jared who also shook his head. “It’s cute. But it’s not going to work on me either.”
North guided her through some more belly breaths and to her shock, she did feel her nervous system start to calm.
The shaking stopped. And her heart rate slowed. Her body moved out of fight or flight mode.
“When you concentrate on breathing through your belly there’s no room for thinking about anything else,” North toldher. “It calms you down if you're overloaded. And it can also make you sleepy.”
Right.
She’d agree with that assessment.
As though he’d just realized that he was touching her, North snatched his hand back and stood. “There, you should be okay now.”
