Come Lie With Me by Linda Howard

presents to show you how much they loved you. I woke up and went running into her room, sure that today was the day that she would finally love me. She slapped me for waking her up and shoved me into the closet. She kept me locked in the closet all day long. That’s what she thought of my birthday, you see. She hated the sight of me.”
    She was bent over, her body tight with pain, but her eyes were dry and burning. “I was living in the streets by the time I was ten,” she whispered, her strength beginning to leave her. “It was safer than home. I don’t know what happened to her. I went back one day, and the place was empty.”
    Her rasping breath was the only sound in the room. He lay as if he had been turned to stone, his eyes burning on her. Dione could have collapsed, she was suddenly so tired. With an effort she drew herself upright. “Any more questions?” she asked dully.
    â€œJust one,” he said, and her body clenched painfully, but she didn’t protest. She waited, wondering in exhaustion what he would ask of her next.
    â€œWere you eventually adopted?”
    â€œNo,” she breathed, closing her eyes, swaying a little. “I eventually wound up in an orphanage, and it was as good a place as any. I had food, and a place to sleep, and I was able to go to school regularly. I was too old for adoption, and no one wanted me as a foster child. My looks were too odd, I suppose.” Moving like an old woman, she got to her feet and slowly left the room, knowing that the air was still heavy with questions that he wanted to ask, but she’d remembered enough for one night. No matter what she had accomplished, no matter how many years had passed since she was a lonely, bewildered child, the lack of her mother’s love was still an emptiness that hadn’t been filled. A mother’s love was the basis of every child’s life, and the absence of it had left her crippled inside just as surely as the accident had crippled Blake’s legs.
    Not surprisingly, she fell facedown on her bed and slept heavily, without dreaming, to awaken promptly when the alarm went off. She had learned, over the years, how to function even when she felt as if a part of her had been murdered, and she did so now. At first she had to force herself to go through the regular routine, but in only a moment the hard self-discipline had taken over, and she shoved the crisis of the night away. She would not let it drag her down! She had a job to do, and she’d do it.
    Perhaps something of her determination was written on her face when she entered Blake’s bedroom, becausehe promptly raised his hands and said mildly, “I surrender.”
    She stopped in her tracks and regarded him quizzically. He was smiling a little, his pale, thin face weary, but no longer locked in a mask of detachment. “But I haven’t even attacked yet,” she protested. “You’re taking all the fun out of it.”
    â€œI know when I’m outgunned.” He grimaced and admitted, “I don’t see how I can give up without at least trying again. You didn’t give up, and I’ve never been a man to back down from a challenge.”
    The hard knot of apprehension that had been tied in her stomach since he’d lapsed into depression slowly eased, then relaxed completely. Her spirits soared, and she gave him a blinding smile. With his cooperation, she felt that she could do anything.
    Â 
    At first he was capable of very little with the weights. Even the smaller ones were too much for him, though he kept gritting his teeth and trying to continue even when she wanted him to stop. Stubborn was too mild a word to describe him. He was hell-bent and determined to push himself to the limits of his endurance, which unfortunately wasn’t far. It always took a long session in the whirlpool afterward to ease the pain from his tortured muscles, but he kept at it, even knowing that he