Corrine.” To me, Stella had been like a big sister who was never mean but never loving—she’d tolerated my presence but hadn’t wanted my company. “Maggie would sometimes scold Corrine like an imperious aunt. Deacon would deal with her if he caught her hitting me, but he only physically harmed her the one time.”
“Simon never dealt with her himself?” There was no judgement in the question, only curiosity.
“No. It was like Simon was too intimidated by Corrine to stand up to her. I think she reminded him of his mother, in some ways. Although he hated his mother, abusive relationships were all he’d ever known. To him, that was ‘love.’ I guess we’re sometimes most comfortable with what we know. Other times, we set out to find the opposite.”
“Did Corrine deal with Simon’s DID well?”
“She was too wrapped up in her drug addiction to care much what was going on with others. I learned that her father has schizophrenia, so I suppose being around someone with mental health issues was the norm for her.”
“Did any of Simon’s alters ever hurt you?”
I frowned. “Oh no, none. That was why Melinda and Wyatt were so supportive of my contact with him. They knew he wasn’t a danger to me. There’s so much stigma attached to DID that some people judged Melinda and Wyatt for not keeping Simon out of my life.”
“I don’t think they’d have managed it anyway. He would have found some way to see you. He loves you.” Dane dragged his hand down my spine, over my shorts-clad butt, and down to the back of my thigh. “He sings your praises to me constantly, like I don’t already know you.”
I felt my mouth hitch up into a smile. “I know. I’ve heard him.”
“He’s proud of you. And so he should be.”
I swallowed. “You don’t have to answer … but what wakes you those nights I catch you sitting in my chair?”
He twisted his mouth. “Not dreams or nightmares. I’m a very light sleeper. The slightest noise can wake me, and sometimes I can’t get back to sleep. If that happens, I’ll do some work to pass the time.”
I licked my lower lip. “Thank you for telling me.”
Dane smoothed his hand up my bare thigh and under the leg of my shorts.
I gasped as his fingertip slid past the gusset of my panties and swiped at my slit.
“Spread your legs wider,” he ordered.
I lifted a defiant brow. “Maybe I’m not in the mood.”
He scraped his teeth over my shoulder. “And maybe you’re being a brat. Spread them wider.”
I sniffed. “You’re just cranky because your plan to sexually torture me into showing you my dress didn’t work.”
“How can I be mad when you asked me so nicely to let you come? There was begging involved, as I recall.”
I felt my face heat. It was no surprise that the dominant bastard got off on it. “Which was a one-off. It won’t happen again.”
A wolfish smile crept onto his face. “Baby girl, you really shouldn’t have said that.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Knuckles rapped on my car window the next day as I sat in Dane’s garage, trying to make my car start. Grinding my teeth, I eased up on the ignition and looked up to see him sipping from a cup. I rolled down the window and glared at him. Oh, I could kill him right now. Or maybe just rearrange his face with a shovel.
“Problem?” he asked, playing clueless when we both knew he was anything but.
“The engine won’t start.”
A line marred his brow. “At all?”
I felt my lips thin. “No. It’s as if the battery’s dead. Or as if someone’s taken it.”
One brow hiked up. “You think I stole your car battery?”
“I think you did something to my car, because it was working just fine up until now.” I’d been trying to get it moving for a full two minutes, but nothing was happening. I could lift the hood and check things out, sure, but I wouldn’t have a clue what I was looking at.
Dane shrugged. “It’s an old model, baby girl. Sometimes they just give out.”
“And sometimes people tinker with them when the owner’s back is turned.”
Really, I should have known he’d do something like this. He hadn’t tried pushing me to drive the new Audi he’d bought for me. He’d been so sure I’d eventually give in and accept it that he hadn’t once complained about me not using it. But Dane wasn’t a man who waited around for people to start dancing