Kyle turned Dane slowly but firmly onto her stomach. She stared down at Dane’s back, then rested her fingers against the testament of Dane’s pain. She traced each ridge of healing flesh, her hands trembling. Her tears fell on the vision of Dane’s torment. She kissed the unscarred places on Dane’s sides and shoulders, then tenderly moved her lips over the ravages of her once flawless skin. When she had finished caressing each hurt, seeking to heal each wound, she turned Dane over to face her. She leaned above Dane, her fingers gently stroking her face.

“I love you,” Kyle whispered.

Dane sighed, her soul free at last.

“I love you.”

EPILOGUE

CAROLINE LOOKED UP from her first cup of coffee of the morning at the two leather-clad figures behind Anne. Her sigh of relief was audible.

“Just tell me you’re both all right—then tell me everything,” she said in way of greeting.

Dane glanced at Kyle, who grinned at her, shrugging. Dane straddled a chair at the table and pulled one over next to her for Kyle.

“We’re both all right,” Dane said. Her tone suggested understatement.

Caroline stared from one to the other, aware of the glow in Dane’s eyes that had been absent for years. Kyle looked tired, but relaxed. And from the way Kyle’s eyes kept returning to Dane’s face, Caroline was certain Kyle looked tired for a very good reason.

Kyle turned to Caroline, her face suddenly serious. “Is Nancy still here with you?”

Caroline shook her head. “Her husband came to pick her up early this morning. I would have called him last night, but she was so strung out, I thought it was better that she stay with us until morning.” She looked carefully at Dane, knowing how sensitive she was about certain subjects. “She’s been into some pretty heavy drugs. I think she’ll have a hard time for a while.”

“Nancy’s tough. She’ll make it, as long as she stays away from Brad,” Kyle said, her expression pained. “I haven’t been much of a friend to her lately. I could have prevented this.”

Dane shook her head. “I don’t think so, Kyle. Brad—” Dane stopped for a second, drawing a long breath. “Brad can be very enchanting when she chooses. And she reads people’s needs very well. She knows how to find their weaknesses, and she uses them. Then, with the drugs—” Dane looked away quickly.

Kyle’s hand strayed to Dane’s back, and she gently stroked her, knowing her flesh as her own. She didn’t try to stop Dane from remembering. She knew it was the only way for Dane to be free of it. All she wanted was for her to realize that Kyle loved her, and respected her, regardless of what had happened before. Dane needed her respect, probably more than her love. Kyle had shown her that last night, by entrusting herself to Dane sexually, and emotionally.

Caroline couldn’t believe it! Dane was sitting there, obviously reliving the dark road she had gone down with Brad, and at last, she did not travel it alone. If love could truly purge old wounds, Dane finally had a chance to heal.

“When someone has a need, a need they can’t even define, and another person not only calls it by name, but answers it—that’s pretty tough to resist. I don’t think anyone could have stopped Nancy from getting involved with Brad,” Anne said as she joined them. “Or you either, Dane—back at the beginning. What counts is that you made it through it, right?”

Dane smiled at Anne as Caroline watched, open-mouthed. Even Caroline rarely confronted Dane about her past quite so openly.

“How come you never said that five years ago, Chicken?” Dane asked.

Anne shrugged. “I was just a kid then—what did I know?”

They all smiled, the tension of the last tumultuous hours beginning to fade.

“Dane,” Kyle asked quietly.

“Hmm?” Dane replied.

“The woman you went to—for discipline. Who is she?”

Dane shook her head, smiling sadly. She reached for Kyle’s hand, drawing it to her thigh, covering it with her own, connecting them. “Her name doesn’t matter. She’s what remains when love dies, and we no longer believe in its return. All that’s left is anger and then, not even that. Just the need to define ourselves, our existence, by the power we can wield over someone else. She’s the person either of us might have become if we hadn’t risked loving one more time.”

They kissed softly, two women bound, at last, by love.