Page 301 of Dirty Discipline, Vol. 1

When she shook her head, he placed the call.

The EMTs came over to ask her some questions to make sure she was okay and then the cop, who had apparently already taken her statement, informed her that the asshole who hit her was uninsured. At that news, she sagged visibly. He put his arm around her shoulders and squeezed. “It will be all right,” he said when the cop walked away.

“How will it be all right?” she asked, the sound of despair giving her voice a tinny pitch. “My car is totaled and I don't have insurance to cover it. I have no way to get to school or to my jobs. And my keyboard was in the trunk!” At that, she started crying again. “I'm fucked.”

He put his arms around her again, soothing her as best her could. “Keyboards are not that expensive to replace and you can use my car during the day. I need someone who can run errands for me in the daytime, anyway. Would you be my gopher girl?”

“I don't need your charity,” she said with a sniffle.

“It's not charity. I really do need the help. Alex was doing some of it, but he lost his license, so he can't drive anymore.”

She tipped her head up and looked at him seriously. “Really?” she said uncertainly.

He nodded. “I really need the help. It'd be a favor to me.”

“Thanks.” She looked like she knew he was blowing smoke up her ass, but was happy to have a solution to her problem.

“You up for performing tonight? Fox has a keyboard you can use, right?”

She nodded. “Yep. I can perform. I'll text Fox.”

Of course it had to have been Dom who answered the phone at No Return. She'd been doing a decent job of avoiding him, other than the night she had played at No Return—not that she'd stopped thinking about him. But when he showed up like her personal hero at the scene of the accident, she wanted only to stand in the circle of his arms. Forever.

Okay, that was stupid, given that he'd already told her they were a no-go. But having him there, taking care of her, had soothed her freak-out more than anything else could have. And now she'd be driving his car, running his errands, communicating with him on a daily basis. The thought of it was both pleasure and pain at the same time. Kind of like a spanking. No, don't go there.

“Scoot over. I'm riding in the back with you,” Dom said with great authority after holding open the back door to Stella's BMW for her.

“Oh great, I get to be your chauffeur?” Stella flashed her a smile over her shoulder. “Are you okay, kid?”

She nodded. “Yeah, I'm fine. Just shaken up.”

Dom slid in next to her and put his hand at the nape of her neck again. It felt good there—like he was lending her his strength. Or stabilizing her, somehow.

She took a little bottle of Rescue Remedy out of her purse and squeezed a dropperful under her tongue.

“What's that?” Dom asked.

“Flower essences. To calm down in a stressful situation.”

“May I?” he took them from her and examined the bottle, then squeezed a dropperful under his tongue. After a moment, he said, “That's nice. Very nice.”

“You can feel it?”

“Can't you?”

She flushed. “Well, it's pretty subtle… sometimes I feel them, sometimes I don't.”

He gave her a strange look, but changed the subject. “What is your schedule tomorrow?”

“I teach preschool music at 9:30 in the morning and then I have individual piano lessons from 1 till 4 pm. Why, what do you need?”

“I'm going to make you an appointment with my Feldenkrais practitioner, just in case your neck freezes up after being rear-ended like that.”

“Your what? What is that?”

“It's a kind of body work. Humor me, okay? I'm paying.”

She met his eye and his look was full of tender concern. Like a sap, her eyes filled up with tears and she blinked them back and dropped them. “Yeah, okay. Thanks.”

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