Ryan is a young artist hoping to make a name for himself. When he meets a man who offers to help him advance his career, he accepts. His career takes off when Merrick arranges two shows for Ryan at a local gallery. Ryan is elated, especially when their relationship becomes more personal. What he doesn’t expect is to end up being abused, physically and emotionally, as Merrick tightens his control over the younger artist.<br><br>After a vicious beating, Ryan manages to escape, naked except for a bedspread wrapped around himself. Policeman Shaun Levitt finds him cowering in an alley. Taking the battered young man under his wing, Shaun begins the slow process of helping Ryan come to grips with what happened.<br><br>Will Ryan learn to trust again? Or will he forever look at any man who might be interested in him as another potential abuser ... including Shaun?

In the Name of Love

After stacking the drawing on the table by size, Ryan gave Merrick a fast lesson on what matting entailed. Then they set to work measuring and cutting the mat boards to the proper sizes—two for each picture.


“Now you get to watch,” Ryan said when they finished. “It’s not that I don’t trust your ability to angle the blade just so…” He demonstrated on a scrap of board. “But…”


Merrick chuckled. “You’ve been doing it for years. I’m a rank amateur. Got it.”


He did watch, fascinated by the dexterity with which Ryan wielded the mat knife to turn the mat board into a frame for the first drawing. When Ryan was finished, he put the drawing on its uncut mat board, set the cut one over it, securing everything in the process, then held it up for Merrick to see.


“Looks damned good to me,” Merrick told him, earning a brilliant smile from Ryan. “Now, however, it’s time for you to give it a rest.”


Chapter 19