Page 63 of Karma

She didn’t realize she was shaking, rocking back and forth, until Dare moved in, pulling her against him in an effort to stop the trembling. She couldn’t tell if the tremors stopped, but she liked the warmth and strength he provided. Needed the comfort.

“This shouldn’t be so easy for me to believe,” she whispered almost to herself. “I should be arguing with you. Calling you a liar. But it makes so much sense. The whispers, the secrecy, the meetings with my parents’ best friend, the old district attorney.”

Oh my—her parents. They knew. Brian knew. And they all covered it up. As if a boy’s death and how it happened hadn’t mattered as long astheirson’s life was spared. And for what? What had Brian done with the future his parents had no doubt bought for him except drink it away? No wonder Dare hated him so much.

She forced herself to turn and face him, pushing out of his arms to look at his tortured face. “What did you do?” she asked him.

He didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “Everyone did one of two things. Stayed and cleaned up the mess while preparing a cover story or ran.” He splayed his hands in front of him. “Both choices left Stuart Rossman bleeding out on the ground.” He blinked hard. “I ran.”

His words were short and clipped, filled with suppressed rage, pain, and the obvious guilt that had been eating at him ever since.

“You were only fifteen,” she reminded him.

“Should age excuse your brother?” Dare asked.

She looked down and shook her head. “It doesn’t excuse me either. If I’d been home like I was supposed to be, there would have been no alcohol. No party.” She swallowed over the painful lump in her throat. “No death.”

“Would have, could have, should have,” Dare muttered. “It doesn’t change the past. For any of us. What matters is who we are now. And I made sure I would never forget that night.”

She looked at him in confusion.

“The tattoo? The reason I snapped when you asked me about it the other day? I had the ink done as a permanent reminder.” He turned so she could see his left arm, the detailed etching of the band encircling his bicep. “Look closely.”

She ran her fingers over his muscled flesh.

“There’s a Sanskrit symbol for karma, which I translate as atonement or getting out of something what you put in,” he said gruffly.

She traced the foreign lettering and nodded. “I see it,” she murmured.

“And here…” He turned his arm to reveal the inner flesh, normally hidden. “There’s the date of the party.”

“The date Stuart Rossman died,” she whispered, understanding and humbled that he’d finally let her in. “Thank you for sharing.”

On impulse, she leaned down and pressed her lips to the inside of his arm, directly over the date. His entire body shivered in response, and despite everything, her inner core contracted with yearning. She needed him.

But first they had to finish this. For all she knew he might not even want her when they were done. “That’s why you hate Brian, isn’t it? Not just for what he did but for who he became?”

Dare shrugged. “I’m not sure myself. It’s so complicated and tangled. I just wanted you to know so that you can understand my extreme reactions. And trust me when I tell you they’re not about you.”

“I know that now.” But she also knew that what stood between them was a whole lot bigger with more gray areas than she’d originally thought.

There might be more than attraction between them, but they could never contemplate a future. And it wasn’t just that Dare was a cop and she was enabling her troublemaking sibling. It was because her brother was a living, breathing reminder of Dare Barron’s biggest mistake.

And by extension, so was Liza.

Oh, the tattoo was a daily reminder, but Dare had willingly taken that on knowing that he’d work hard to make his life meaningful and worthwhile. But by virtue of his very existence, Brian had done the exact opposite. So no matter how attracted she and Dare were, no matter how much he tugged at something deep and untapped inside her,sexwas all she could let herself share with him from now on.

Or else her heart would be in serious jeopardy.

Dare glanced her way. “Hey. I didn’t tell you so you’d pull away.”

He was reading her again and getting it right. Liza didn’t respond and suddenly found herself pulled and flipped on top of him, her entire body prone against his.

“Hey! What was that for?” she asked, trying to sound outraged and failing.

He grinned, his face this close to hers. “To get you to stop thinking.”

Easy enough. He was hot and hard beneath her, all male, and she couldn’t help but be aware of his erection, which pulsed against her core.

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