Page 34 of Brage & Dinah

Chapter 14

Dinah woke with a start. Peering in the darkness, she grabbed on to her bearings.

She was in Brage's room.

In the clubhouse where Brage lived.

Brage was beside her.

She panted for breath. The woman hovering above her was only in a dream.

Slowly taking the blanket off her, she scooted to the end of the bed and put her feet on the floor. She sat, trying to calm down. The dreams came more often lately. Stress always brought them back with a vengeance.

From experience, the remnants of the dream that left her floundering to understand the odd feeling inside of her would disappear once she came fully awake. She looked to the door. Stuck in the room and unable to leave only multiplied her stress.

"Bad dream?" asked Brage.

Her back stiffened. Living side by side, he noticed everything about her.

"It's nothing," she murmured.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Brage's voice deepened as he stretched on the bed.

She shivered. For as long as she could remember, anxiety plagued her when her defenses were down. During the day, she had no problems facing her problems and taking care of Brad and Tony. When she'd finally moved out on her own, she'd hoped the dreams would stop.

And, in some ways, they had. Unless she was under stress and in need of rest.

"I'm just..." She exhaled loudly, trying to relieve the tension. "I dream a lot when things are bothering me."

The mattress shifted. Brage's legs appeared on each side of her, and his hands landed on her shoulders. Situated behind her, he worked his fingers into the tight knots on the side of her neck.

"Close your eyes." He massaged her overworked muscles.

He contradicted himself too often for her to relax around him. She was still mad at him. He wanted to enjoy sleeping with her but kept her under lock and key.

If she had one person in her life who cared about her and her safety, he wouldn't be able to keep her here. The police would be knocking at the door looking for her.

But she was alone. Brad was in prison. Tony was deep in his own shit, he wouldn't or couldn't help her.

"Why does everything have to be so hard?" she muttered.

"You're making things more difficult for yourself than they need to be." He worked his thumbs down each side of her spine.

She arched her back. His manipulations hurt in a good way.

"Yeah, right." She grimaced, pressing back into his hands. "You're not me. Ever since I can remember, I've struggled. School was hard. Friendships were difficult. Every test caused me to panic. I couldn't even make sense of the rules of the road when it was time to get my driver's license on my fifteenth birthday, and no one would help me. Things were supposed to get easier, but trying to work to pay my rent when I've been laid off adds more stress. My brothers..."

"Your brothers...what?"

"Nevermind." She pulled away from his touch and stood, hating that she was blabbering and feeling sorry for herself. "You don't want to hear about me. You don't care."

She waited for him to disagree and tell her that he wanted to hear about her life. Instead, he stood from the bed and started dressing.

A soft glow shone on the curtain covering the window. It was late enough; she could get up for the day. She stood on the other side of the room, fully naked. The time to be self-conscious around Brage gone.

He'd used her, and to be fair, she'd used him. There was not a part of her he hadn't seen and enjoyed.

"I'll meet you in the kitchen for breakfast." He stayed by the door.

---