Page 32 of Karma

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He grinned andaccepted the invitation, easing back into bed. To his surprise, she curled into the crook of his arm, resting her head on his chest. Man, that pill vanquished her inhibitions, he thought, his every breath filled with the scent of her shampoo. He was hard and aching. He wanted her badly.

Good thing he knew just how to take the edge off that particular problem. “My family was a mess even before I knew they were,” he admitted. Yeah, that took the edge off his desire, all right.

Until he felt her easy breathing against his chest.

“Keep going,” she murmured. “It takes my mind off the pain.”

“Well, it turns out my dad was having an affair with his assistant. I didn’t know. I’m not sure my brothers knew. We just knew it wasn’t always happy around the house. Ethan stayed out more and more and got into trouble. One night when I was fifteen, he was arrested for joyriding. My parents went to bail him out, and they were killed by a drunk driver.”

She sucked in a breath. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s been a long time,” he assured her. Yet the pain accompanying those words never went away. “Ethan was eighteen. Nash and I thought he’d take care of us, but…” Dare shook his head, still unable to believe what happened next. “He took off without a word.”

“God.”

He found comfort in her presence and began to run his hand up and down her arm, her bare skin soft to the touch. “We ended up in the foster care system. Nash went to the Rossmans.”

“I don’t think I really knew this,” she murmured.

“You’d have been away at school by then.”

“Stuart Rossman’s parents?”

“That’s them.”

“You didn’t go with him?”

He shook his head. “It’s a long story.” And one he wouldn’t get into now since ultimately it involved the night her brother threw the party and the punch that killed the couple’s son. He had no desire to get into a discussion over her brother or that part of his past. “It wasn’t the right place for me, so I ended up with the Garcias on the other side of town.”

She struggled to sit up, but Dare held her in place. He didn’t want her looking into his eyes and seeing his pain, his guilt, or anything else. “You need to rest, so keep still and relax,” he said.

Liza immediately snuggled back into him. “Was it bad?” she asked.

“It was livable. A lot of kids, which made it easy for me to fly under the radar. And Nash used to bring me his old clothes and extra food at school.” And though he was grateful, he still felt so damned guilty accepting anything from the couple at all.

“What happened when Ethan came home last year?” she asked, perceptively jumping ahead to the real family drama.

“Nothing good. Nash and I wanted nothing to do with him, and I doubt we would ever have made peace if it weren’t for Tess.” As always, he couldn’t help but smile when he thought of his half sister. “She was the result of the affair we didn’t know my father had.”

“Ouch.”

“Yeah. Kelly is her half sister too. They share the same mother, and she’s another story all on her own. But she abandoned Tess, and when Kelly couldn’t deal with her anymore, she dropped her off on Ethan’s doorstep for the summer. And that’s what forced us to come to terms with the past and with each other.”

“And you’re all living happily ever after?” she asked.

“Nothing so fairy tale–like, but yeah, we’ve become a solid unit.”

“You’re so lucky,” she whispered.

Dare was uncomfortable, his arm falling asleep. He readjusted his position on the bed, helping Liza settle into the pillows beside him. Then he propped himself up on his other arm and met her heavy-lidded gaze.

“You need sleep.” The pain pill had obviously kicked in.

“Soon but not yet.” Her brown eyes studied him earnestly. “I like talking to you.”

Dare smiled. “I do too.” In fact, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d bared his soul to anyone about his childhood, but he couldn’t regret having done it with Liza. “Your turn, though.”

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