Adam had completely forgotten about the mess out on the road. “Okay, well, call me when you’re done, I guess,” he said.
“What’s the matter, Adam?” Vincent asked, his voice full of laughter. “Are you afraid to be alone with her?”
He gave his friend a dirty look. “No, I’m just not sure what I’m going to tell her when she wakes up,” he said. “I don’t think the truth is a good idea, but I know she saw me and the demon.”
“I’m sure you’ll think of something,” Michael said, slapping him on his back. “Don’t you wish you’d listened to me?”
“Don’t remind me that you were right again,” he said, looking over at the woman and once more feeling the spark of attraction.
After they left, Adam wandered back to the kitchen and sat down at the table. He was too exhausted to think clearly, but one thing was certain: he’d have to come up with a good story, and soon. The woman would wake eventually, even with the sleeping spell, and she’d have lots of questions, questions he wouldn’t be able to answer truthfully. It was something he was very accustomed to; lies had become a part of his life. But for some reason, he didn’t want to lie this time.
It made seemed ridiculous, but the thought of lying to her left him with a hard lump in his stomach and a vague feeling of guilt that made no sense. Wishing that he’d never left the house that night, he went back to the bedroom and made himself as comfortable as he could in the chair next to the bed. He couldn’t leave the woman alone, so it was the chair or the floor, and the chair looked more comfortable.
He’d barely gotten settled when she started to whimper and thrash around the bed in her sleep. Reciting the sleeping spell, he waited for her to calm, but the whimpers turned to sobs, and tears started streaming down her cheeks as she pounded her head on the pillow. Reaching out, he took her hand in his, alarmed when he felt how cold it was, but the contact seemed to calm her, and the tears dried up after only a minute.
Very aware of the electricity flowing up his arm from her hand, he smoothed the hair off her face and wiped her tears away with his thumb. Her eyes fluttered open for only a second, but it was just long enough for her green eyes to meet his blue ones, and a bolt of desire erupted inside him. Shocked, he pulled his hand away and stared at her for a long time, but she was sleeping peacefully again. He shook his head to clear away the feeling and sat back in the chair again, sure that his reaction was only a product of his exhaustion.
***Molly***
Molly knew that she was asleep and fought against the urge to succumb to the numbness it provided, finally managing to surface with a gasp as pain shot through her arms. She didn’t open her eyes, a vague awareness that she might be in danger keeping her still as another wave of pain rippled through her. But the feel of gentle hands on her arm and a deep soothing voice she didn’t recognize calmed her enough that she finally cracked them open.
A man was sitting on the bed next to her, a pile of bandages in his hands, when she finally managed to get her eyes to focus. She waited for the fear to rear up, but all she felt when she looked at him was a wave of comfort, so she closed her eyes again and drifted back to sleep. When she woke again hours later, the man was sitting by the bed in a chair, asleep, and she studied him silently for a moment, trying to figure out who he was.
It was clear from his cramped position in the chair that he was tall; how tall, she couldn’t quite tell. His dark curly hair was cut short, the stubble on his chin dark, his shirt straining against the muscles of his chest and arms, and she felt a wave of attraction deep in her belly. Shocked at the pleasant feeling when the rest of her body felt so terrible, she gasped and closed her eyes.
She heard him stir in the chair, but kept her eyes closed, trying to sort out her feelings. When she finally opened them again, he was smiling down at her, looking as nervous as she suddenly felt. “How do you feel?” he asked.
The sound of his voice triggered another wave of attraction, and she felt her cheeks beginning to get warm, a sure sign she was blushing. “Confused,” she answered. “What happened to me?”
“You were in a car accident,” the man said. “I found you right after it happened and brought you here.”
Molly looked around the room. “Is this a hospital?” she asked, still confused.
“No, this is my house,” he said. “We don’t have a hospital in town, but I had the doctor take a look at you and he says you should be good as new in a couple of days.”
“Who are you?” she asked.
A strange look appeared on his face, and she felt a moment of panic as a barrage of terrible things flew through her mind. “My name is Adam Landry,” he finally said. “You’re safe here with me. I promise.”
Molly released the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding and closed her eyes, the truth of his words sinking in. She wasn’t sure why, but deep down, she knew that she was safe with this man, that he wasn’t going to hurt her, that in fact he had saved her from something very evil. The feeling was so strong, but the more she tried to focus on the memory, the more it eluded her. Finally, exhausted, she let herself drift off to sleep, Adam whispering the comforting words she remembered hearing.
When she awoke the next time, sunlight was streaming through the window, and the chair next to the bed was empty. Wondering if she’d dreamed the entire thing, she looked around the room, but it gave her no clues. Searching her mind for her last memory, she found nothing. Sitting up in bed, her heart hammering, she tried again, but there was nothing there.
Trying to calm her pounding heart, she leaned back against the headboard and looked around the room, silently naming everything she saw in her head. Relieved to have that much, she closed her eyes and tried again, but nothing was there except a shifting cloud of images that made no sense to her. Slamming her eyes closed, panic rising to the surface, she tried to remember her name, and when nothing came, the fear took over.
By the time Adam made it to the bedroom, she was hyperventilating, her chest heaving, and she didn’t resist when he sat down on the bed and pulled her into his arms. “It’s okay,” he said, rocking her gently. “You’re safe here with me. I promise.”
It was a long time before she could speak, the knowledge that her memory was gone sparking a new wave of panic each time she found her mind only a swirling mass of fog. But the feeling of his strong arms around her and the steady beating of his heart finally penetrated the anxiety, and she began to calm down. When her breathing returned to normal, Adam pulled back just a little and looked down at her, his blue eyes full of concern.
“What did you remember?” he asked, and she was sure she felt him stiffen just a bit.
“Nothing,” she said, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I can’t remember anything; not my name, not where I’m from: nothing.”
He pulled her into his arms again, stopping the panic before it rose. “It’s okay; it will come back,” he said, stroking her hair. “I know it will.”
Molly wanted to believe him, needed to believe him, so she relaxed against him again, too exhausted to do anything else. She heard him whispering the words of comfort she’d come to recognize and let them wash over her, sinking into a deep sleep almost instantly.
Chapter Three
***Adam***
Adam stumbled out of the bedroom, a mixture of emotions flooding his system, and made his way to the kitchen where Michael, Gabriel, and Vincent were all having breakfast. His body was still tingling, and his arms felt empty without her in them, but it was the driving need to protect her that concerned him the most. None of this was supposed to be happening with a human; he was a dragon shifter after all. It just wasn’t possible.
Stunned, he slumped down in one of the chairs, his mind swirling. When he didn’t say anything, Gabriel prompted him, “Well, do I need to go in and sedate her? How much did she remember?”
Adam shook his head to clear it of the thought he was having and looked at the three men around his table. “Nothing; she didn’t remember anything,”
he said.
“That’s good,” Vincent said. “What did you tell her happened? Did you use the bear story again? We’re getting quite the reputation for bear attacks around here.”
“You don’t understand,” he said. “She doesn’t remember anything, not even her name.”
Gabriel got to his feet. “I’d better go look at her,” he said.
Adam shook his head. “She’s asleep again. I didn’t know what else to do,” he said.
They all fell silent, then Michael voiced what they all were thinking. “What if the demon got her memory before you killed it?”
Adam let the scene from the night before play through his mind, then shook his head. “I’m sure I got to it before it sucked any of her lifeforce in,” he said. “Could it just be the shock of what she saw? I mean, meeting both a demon and a dragon shifter could have done it, right? And I’m sure she woke up when I was bringing her here.”
There was another long silence, all eyes on Gabriel. “I suppose it’s possible,” he said.
“Well, we’d better figure out who she is, and fast,” Michael said. “Someone’s going to start looking for her when she doesn’t show up where she’s supposed to be, and this town doesn’t need anyone poking around.”
“Didn’t she have a purse or a phone in the car?” Adam asked. “You did remember to get her stuff out of the car, didn’t you?”
Vincent shifted in his seat. “I got some of it, but the car was packed; now that I think about it, it looked like she was moving,” he said, getting to his feet. “It’s out on the back porch.”
Michael groaned. “Sometimes I wonder about you,” he said to Vincent. “That might buy us some time; good of you to mention it.”
Vincent went out the back door and came back with a big leather purse, which he turned upside down, letting the contents spill out onto the table. They’d learned long ago not to rifle around in a woman’s purse, thanks to a few surprises, and a few wounds. When the phone clattered onto the table, he grabbed it and tried to turn it on.
“It’s dead,” he said. “Where’s her wallet?”
Michael dug it out of the pile and flipped it open. “Molly Clifton,” he said. “Looks like she lives in New York.”
“What’s she doing all the way out here?” Vincent asked, beginning to sort through the rest of the contents of her purse. “Maybe I was right and she was moving.”
Adam let the name float around in his brain, then said it out loud just to feel it on his tongue and knew that like it or not, something was happening. “What?” Michael asked, interrupting his thoughts, much to his relief.
“Oh, nothing. I was just thinking out loud,” he said, getting to his feet. “I’m going to charge this and see what I can find.”
“I’ll go down to the station and run her name through the computer; if she’s anywhere in the database, I should be able to find out more about her,” Michael said. “I’ll let you know if I find out anything.”
“I’ll go down to the paper and see what I can turn up with our sources,” Vincent said, gathering up everything from the table and shoving it back into the purse.
“I have patients to see, but call me if anything changes,” Gabriel said. “I’ll leave something you can give her if she gets too upset. Something like this can be very scary.”
Adam nodded. “I’m scared and it’s not even me,” he said.
As he waited for the phone to charge, he paced the kitchen impatiently, anticipation making it impossible to sit still. When the phone had enough charge to turn it on, he stood at the counter waiting for it to come on, hoping that he wouldn’t have to navigate a password. When the home screen appeared, a picture of Molly standing on a beach, he immediately opened up her social media accounts and began searching.
It wasn’t long before a picture of Molly’s life began to emerge, and he realized that there wouldn’t be anyone looking for her. A strange feeling began to creep over him as he pried into her life, a feeling that fate had finally sent him the one thing his life was missing. When a crazy idea popped into his head, he pushed it away, but as the morning passed and he got to know Molly through her phone, it started to sound better and better to him.
His friends would probably think he’d lost his mind, but for the first time in a long time, he felt a burst of hope that he’d be able to keep the life he loved so much. But he was going to need help, and a little luck to pull it off. He powered down the phone, grabbed Molly’s purse off the table, took them to his office, and put them in the safe, already planning the speech he was going to give.
***Molly***
Molly had been awake for a few hours watching the sun rise in the sky and letting her thoughts roam. After she’d determined that she wasn’t in any immediate danger, she tried to summon any memories she could, but it was still a blank, and it scared her so much she stopped trying. Frustrated, she’d spent the rest of the morning staring out of the window, hoping that not thinking about it would release them.
By the time there was a quiet knock on the door and Adam poked his head into the room, she was more than ready for some distraction, and hopefully a few answers. He was carrying a tray with a steaming bowl of food on it, and her stomach began to rumble in response to the smell.
“I’m glad you’re awake,” he said, setting the tray down on the nightstand. “I thought you might be hungry.”
She couldn’t stop herself from scooting away from him just a little bit. “Thank you, I am a little hungry,” she said.
Adam backed away a few steps. “Do you need me to help you?” he asked.
“No, I think I can manage,” she said, her cheeks turning pink when she thought about him feeding her.
“I’ll just put this on your lap then,” he said, picking up the tray and placing very carefully across her legs.
When he leaned over her, she got a whiff of his scent, slightly spicy but sweet, and her insides tightened and tingled. “Umm, thank you,” she managed to say, but kept her eyes on the tray of food, afraid to look at him.
She knew that her reaction to him was ridiculous; no man as gorgeous as Adam would ever be interested in her; it was probably just a reaction to him taking such good care of her. The feeling would pass with time, but until then, she promised herself to hide it; the last thing she wanted to do was make a fool of herself, especially since she had no idea who she was. She might be married, she realized with a shock, might have kids, might have people looking for her.
Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she picked up the spoon and took a bit of the soup, sighing when it tasted as good as it looked. After a few more bites, she looked over at him where he was standing at the window looking out at the mountains in the distance.
“Do you think there’s anyone looking for me?” she asked, her voice small in the quiet of the room. “I mean, there must be someone out there looking. Where are my phone and my purse?”
It took him a long time to answer. “I’m afraid your car exploded only a few minutes after I got you out. Everything inside is gone,” he finally said.
She set the spoon down, no longer hungry. “How will we find out who I am? I can’t just stay here. I have to go home,” she said, her voice filling with panic.
Adam turned away from the window, crossed the room, and sat down next to her. “I wasn’t supposed to tell you this,” he said, taking a deep breath. “But this is home.”
“What?” she asked, looking around the room.
He picked up the tray, set it down on the nightstand, then sat down again and took her hand in his. “This is your home; your name is Molly Landry; we’ve been married for three years,” he said.
She pulled her hand out of his. “That can’t be right,” she said, her mind reeling. “How could I not remember you?”
“It was the accident, I guess,” he said, but his voice sounded strange. “Gabriel was here a little while ago; he’s the doctor that’s taking care of you. He thinks your memory will come back in time.”
&nb
sp; It hit her then that if what he said was true, it must be very difficult for him to know that the woman that he married didn’t remember him. “I’m sorry,” she said. “This must be really hard for you too. I wish I could remember but it’s all just a swirling fog of images.”
“That’s okay,” he said, just a little too quickly, a look of discomfort on his face. “I’ll just have to make you fall in love with me all over again.”
A huge thrill shot through her when his words sunk in, and then it hit her that her reaction to him might be because some little part of her recognized him. “I umm...you do make me feel better when you’re around, not so scared,” she said, stumbling over her words. “Maybe a little part of me does know you.”
She expected that news to make him happy, but instead, he looked a little guilty. “I hope so,” he said. “But I think that’s enough talk for now; you really should try to eat that soup. You haven’t eaten anything for a long time now.”
Molly let him put the tray back on her lap, trying not to stare at him, then ate everything on the tray, her hunger back at full force. When she was finished, her eyes had become heavy again. “I can’t believe it but I’m sleepy again,” she said.
“Let me get that out of your way,” Adam said, taking the tray. “Take a nap and we’ll talk some more afterward.”
She snuggled down into the bed, hardly able to keep her eyes open, but when Adam started to leave the room, she said, “Will you sit with me until I fall asleep?”
“I’d like nothing better,” he said, his voice full of pleasure.
Chapter Four
***Adam***
Adam sat watching Molly fall asleep, wondering if he’d lost his mind. When she’d mentioned her purse and phone, he’d panicked, and the lies had come pouring out of his mouth. Now, he’d taken what had only been a vague plan and put it into action, with no idea how to pull it off. His mind began filling with all the things he hadn’t considered when he’d opened his mouth and blurted out that they were married.
Guardian Dragons of Prospect Falls: (A Paranormal Shifter Romance) Page 2
