He held out his arm for her to brace herself against and she used the leverage to lift herself up slowly. It wasn't easy and her head pounded like a son of a bitch, but she finally managed.

"Now give yourself a minute," he instructed.

How he knew her head reverberated like a bass drum, she had no idea. Thankfully, a few minutes later, the pain eased.

"Here." He placed a plate in front of her on the bed.

She glanced at the toast and jelly and realized she was starving. "I didn't have any of this in the house," she said before taking a bite.

"Kelly and Nash stopped by and dropped off food," he said, relaxing while she devoured the small meal.

More people who'd do anything for him. More people she now owed. "That was really nice of them."

He raised an eyebrow. "Family and friends are supposed to help each other," he said gently.

What could she say to that? They'd done it for him, not her, so she remained silent.

"Here. Take the pill. It should help the pain in about twenty minutes."

She smiled gratefully and did as he asked.

After he cleaned up the plate with the food and brought the dishes to the kitchen, he returned. "I think you'd be more comfortable if you changed clothes, don't you?"

She glanced down. Her legs were covered by a blanket but she knew her skirt had ridden up completely. Her shirt was wrinkled and now that he'd mentioned comfort, she realized her bra pushed at certain body parts, irritating her like crazy.

She'd love to change clothes. "In the top drawer in the dresser you'll find some things," she murmured.

He looked in the drawer and walked back to her with the only sleepwear she owned, a Victoria's Secret set of matching boxers and a tank top dangling from his fingertips.

She blushed at the sight of her small clothes in his much larger hand. "I hate feeling confined when I sleep," she murmured, sure her cheeks were flaming.

"No worries. I sleep stark naked," he said with a wink that was obviously meant to put her at ease and make her laugh.

But his words had the opposite effect, since all she could think about now was that gorgeous, tanned body lying beside her in bed. The current in the air was suddenly charged and electric.

"Do you need help changing?" he asked, that gruff voice back.

She swallowed hard. "I think I can manage. If you just..." With her fingers, she indicated he should turn around.

Like a gentleman, he faced the door and she slowly maneuvered her old clothes off and her pajama clothes on, aware of the few seconds she bared her breasts and exposed her pink lace bikinis.

"You had some phone calls," he said as she changed.

She'd appreciate the effort at normal conversation if his voice didn't sound strangled and tight. He was as aware of the fact that she was changing as he was.

"I was going to let it go to the answering machine, but I didn't want the ringing to wake you," he continued.

"You can turn back now," she said, finally dressed. Or as dressed as Victoria's Secret would allow.

He faced her again and walked closer to the bed.

"Who called?" she asked.

"Your brother...and your parents."

Her stomach cramped and she folded her arms across her chest. "What did they want?"

Dare set his jaw, wishing he could avoid this particular conversation. His brief talk with her family members had given him a glimpse into her life that was truly painful.

"Brian wasn't sober, so I wouldn't worry about what he had to say." There'd been a lot of whining and talk of how she should have let him take his turn against the cop. No mention of an apology nor did he ask how she was feeling. In fact, Dare wondered if he'd even remembered what had happened.

"Where is he?" she asked, unable to meet his gaze.

"I know that someone from the department drove him home and confiscated his car keys, so he's home. He'll have to come down to the station to get them when he's sober."

"And my parents? I'm guessing someone called and told them what happened?"

In Dare's mind, this was a tougher revelation. "Yes. They'd heard about Brian's scene."

"And that he hit me?" she asked, her eyes wide in her pale face.

He nodded.

"And? Don't hold back on me. Wait, I'll make it easy on you and tell you what they said. How could I let Brian make such a public scene? Why didn't I stop him? Is he okay, or should they come home and be with him?" She stared at him, her expression hard. "Well? Which one was it?"

He swallowed over the lump in his throat. "A combination of all three. After they got past the fact that a strange man had answered your phone and how would that look to their friends here. I explained that I was a local cop as well as a friend who was just here looking out for you until you could take care of yourself."

Liza blew out a long stream of air. "You shouldn't have wasted your breath. They don't care about me."

Though he wished he could argue, his quick talk with her parents merely confirmed what she thought. Which really made him sick. They hadn't asked about Liza or her condition. Their only concern was for Brian or, more accurately, Brian's behavior and how it reflected on them.

"You really stepped into a lot more than you bargained for by helping me."

"Why? Because your family is as dysfunctional as mine?" He shook his head, amazed that she really couldn't see it. "You do know the infamous Barron family history, right?"

"I know your parents died in a car accident," she said softly. "But I'd switched schools by then and Brian started getting into real trouble...so not really."

"Are you sure you want to hear it? It's a long story."

She smiled. "I have nowhere else to be and you volunteered to hang out here, so you might as well make yourself comfortable," she said, laughing.

The sound settled inside him. He preferred this lighter, warm version of Liza. "Is the pill kicking in?" he asked.

"Mmm-hmm." She patted the space beside her. "So come tell me a story."

He grinned and accepted 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 joy riding. 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 talelike, 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."

He knew the medication had lowered her inhibitions, but that didn't mean he minded getting whatever information she wanted to give.

She yawned and he thought that would be the end of their sharing.

"My parents should never have had kids."

He was wrong and he couldn't be more pleased she was opening up to him.

"But they had me and then they had Brian. I don't know why, but I was always in the way. Brian was the golden child, the boy who made Dad proud just by being born. But even with that, my parents couldn't really be bothered with us. They were rarely there. Even when they were present, they weren't there."

Her eyes had glazed over with the memories and Dare hesitated to interrupt. Her voice was slurred a bit and he knew she didn't have much more talking left in her.

"So Brian started acting out early on. He ran with a rough crowd, my parents never knew where he was and he'd always come home drunk or high."

She frowned, which wrinkled her nose, and it was all Dare could do not to lean over and kiss her right then and there.

"And then there was that party..." She shook her head.

That she didn't groan in pain told him the pills were definitely working. And knowing where she was headed next, Dare almost wished he could take one of those pills too.

"I was supposed to be home that night keeping an eye on him because my parents had grounded him and taken his car keys. But I'd just started going out with this older guy and he kept begging me to go out with him that night." She exhaled hard. "I agreed. I figured since Brian couldn't take the car, I could leave for a couple of hours and come back home after."

Dare didn't ask what happened next. He already knew.

"What I didn't know was that Brian had told Jesse-that's the guy I was seeing-that as long as he brought him a keg of beer, he wouldn't tell my parents I ditched babysitting."

"So that's where the alcohol came from."

"I felt so guilty," she said, her voice cracking.

"Hey, you did a normal teenage thing. You weren't the one who bought alcohol for minors."

"But I brought Jesse into Brian's orbit and I bailed on my responsibility. If it weren't for me, Stuart Rossman would still be alive."

Apparently Dare wasn't the only one who suffered with major guilt from that one night. He wondered if the only one who didn't was the man who threw the deadly punch.

"Baby, there's a lot of blame to go around," he assured her.

"You called me baby again." Her eyes lit up at the endearment that slipped so easily off his tongue. "I like it," she admitted.

He liked her. Reminding himself she was injured and in pain, he curled his fingers into fists, preventing him from reaching for her. In time, he promised himself.

Right now she needed something different. "I don't think you're in any way close to being responsible," he assured her.

"Too bad my parents didn't agree with you," she said in a small voice. The sparkle disappeared from her eyes. "Brian was my responsibility and I failed him. He never would be as bad as he is now if that night hadn't happened."