Behind The Woods: A Romantic Suspense Thriller

by Emma Vikes

  “Yes, I think I could handle not getting this hand wet, right?” I gestured at the hand that was hooked up to the fluids. Jasmine had explained that it was important to keep that hand dry as well as the part of my chest that was bandaged. It sounded easy enough.

  The man nodded his head and then made his way to the cabinet. He pulled out a fresh hospital gown and handed it to me. “We provide disposable underwear if you want that.”

  I stifled a chuckle and shook my head. I’d been going commando since I woke up; it wasn’t a big issue. Besides, I would be stuck here for a while. Maybe tomorrow I could ask Jasmine for them. When the man left, I staggered my way to the bathroom. My legs felt wobbly and unused but I was told that I’d only been here and unconscious for, like, sixteen hours.

  The warm water was soothing as it washed over me. My hands were gritty from dirt so I washed them thoroughly then I closed my eyes as I tried to relax my tense muscles.

  That’s when crippling pain suddenly shot through my head, making me gasp. Through the agony, the image of a man conjured in my mind; a memory, teasing me, sitting at the tip of my reality yet refusing to form any substance. It was as though he were made out of smoke and I couldn’t make out his face. The smoke kept twirling and drifting and changing. The memory of him was painful, like he had stuck a large screw into my head and was spinning it excruciatingly slow.

  The door of the bathroom burst open as I sunk to my knees, crying out in pain. Jasmine was there in a flash, her arms all around me, the heat of her skin enveloping me in a warm embrace, trying to bring me back to the present. “You’re fine, hey, you’re fine.”

  She helped me back to the bed and gently pushed me so I would sit down. I heard her voice, soothing, trying to console me, but I couldn’t focus on her words. The searing pain made me curl into a ball, falling against the bed as I held my head in my hands, begging for the pain to end.

  I wasn’t sure how long it took until the pain slowly dulled and then disappeared into nothing. I was lying on the bed and I looked up to see Jasmine looking a little frantic, her brown eyes watching me closely.

  “It doesn’t hurt anymore,” I told her.

  Her mouth was in a grim line as I slowly sat up. I was still disoriented and I was seeing two blurry versions of her. I had to close my eyes and then try again to get a clear picture of her. I blinked a couple of times, eyebrows furrowed. She stood in front of me, a deep look of concern on her face.

  It was only then that I became aware of how naked I was in front of her. Jasmine noticed and flustered, turning away to give me some semblance of privacy as she tossed me a fresh hospital gown. I fastened it on myself and wrapped myself with the blanket for good measure.

  “What happened?” she asked me.

  I was feeling better. I could think clearly and respond in a coherent sentence. “My head throbbed when I was taking a bath.”

  “It didn’t sound like it simply ‘throbbed’,” Jasmine commented and finally looked at me. “I’ll see what I can do with your MRI schedule. That might give us some answers.”

  “Or maybe headaches are normal since I suffered head trauma,” I said softly, my hands playing at the edge of the blanket. The fear that crippled me when my head was in agony remained. But what bothered me was the image of that man that flashed in my mind. I couldn’t remember him clearly nor draw out his features let alone explain it in detail to someone but his identity seemed to tickle my memory. The desperation of wanting to remember almost made me hyperventilate.

  Jasmine place a hand on my shoulder, the touch easing my nerves instantly. She suddenly leaned closer to me. I could smell the scent of her skin. I wasn’t entirely sure what she was doing, or why this all seemed so sudden. Was she making a move on me? Weren’t there any hospital protocols that stated how the staff could never mingle with the patients? Or maybe there wasn’t and I had no idea why I just made that up when I was as attracted to her as she seemed to be with me.

  “Jasmine…?” I whispered her name but my low voice trailed off, the proximity forcing me to swallow the rest of my words. She turned to face me at the sound of her name and because of how close we were to each other, our lips accidentally brushed, sending waves of crackling electricity between the two of us.

  The sudden intimacy made us jump apart, Jasmine almost crashing against the table that held my lunch. She stood up straighter, blinking. She touched her lips and she might’ve thought that she had done it subtly but I noticed it. “I wanted to check if you still had enough fluids. I should’ve gone around you.”

  “It doesn’t matter. I don’t mind,” I murmured in response, not thinking of what I just said. The intoxication I felt from our proximity, and the scent of her skin giving birth to hungry desire, was just as crippling as the headache had been. I heard Jasmine suck in a breath. The sexual tension that filled the room dissipated when there was a knock on the door.

  The door opened and Jasmine jumped farther away from me to greet whoever it was. “Paul!”

  My eyebrows shot upward. It sure as hell was late to point out that she’d seen me naked earlier. But before I could do anything stupid, I realized she was talking to the person that had entered the room.

  It was a guy without a uniform, but the golden badge that glinted on his jacket gave him away. “Hello, John. I hope you’re doing well today.”

  John. John Doe. The thought of Jasmine had made me forget how uncomfortable the name made me and it was only when he said the name that it made me wince. “Could you call me something other than that name? I understand it’s protocol but it makes me feel uncomfortable.”

  Paul glanced at Jasmine and then sat on the chair near the bed. “Do you have any names in mind?”

  I wasn’t sure if he was trying to prickle my memory with that question but I shook my head at the question. “I just know that I really don’t want to be called John Doe anymore. It makes me less of a person and more of a body lying on a table and being dissected or something.”

  Jasmine pursed her lips and then stepped forward, placing a hand on Paul’s shoulder. The gesture seemed to be natural between the two of them and Paul didn’t seem to find it out of the ordinary. He looked up at her but her gaze was focused on me. “I’ll leave you two alone. I have a few patients I need to check on. I’ll wait for you for lunch, Paul.”

  Something seared in my heart at the thought of the two of them having lunch together. Paul didn’t seem to notice because he turned back his attention on me, a slightly smug look on his face. “We don’t have a name for you for the time being, but we need to get this interview over and done with as soon as possible. You’ll have to let the ‘John’ thing slide for a while.”

  I didn’t have much of a choice. “What do you want to know?”

  Paul pulled out a notepad from his jacket and his phone. He wasn’t subtle with the voice recorder, showing it to me as plain as day. The cautious way he looked at me, the calculative look in his eyes, made it clear that he was wary of me. He probably thought I was faking my amnesia, too.

  “Name?”

  “John Doe,” I replied in a monotonous tone.

  Paul pursed his lips, seemingly unimpressed with my response. “You were found in a ravine by one of the hospital staff. You had a bullet wound to the chest, a deep laceration on the head and extensive bruising. Do you remember how this happened?”

  I scoffed and crossed my arm over my chest, my eyes narrowing as I looked at Paul. “I can’t even remember my own name, why do you think I would remember what happened to me?”

  Paul shrugged as he wrote on his notepad. “I’m not sure if I should buy that. You might as well be a terrific actor.”

  I could see the amusement dancing in Paul’s eyes at his response. He wasn’t treating me like the poor man everyone else here thought I was. To him, I had an agenda. “I don’t remember anything, officer. And I’m not lying about this amnesia thing. I don’t remember how I got into that ravine or why someone wanted to kill me.”

&nbs
p; “Since you woke up, has there been any memory, anything that has spiked up suddenly?”

  I thought about the crippling head pain I’d just suffered and the smoky image of the man in my head. I considered mentioning this to Paul but something made me decide against it. Whoever that man was, I was going to find out for myself - before reporting it to anyone.

  “No. Just a crippling headache earlier but no memory.”

  Paul seemed uncertain but then nodded at me and turned off the recorder. He closed his notepad and stood up. He looked at me for a moment and then shook his head.

  “Is there anything else I could do for you?” I asked.

  Again, he shook his head. “No. I just hope your case isn’t related to the cases that I’ve been handling.”

  Chapter 3

  Jasmine

  The candles that flickered in the room created soft, seductive lighting, emanating a sensual warmth. What struck me as odd was that the candles filled a hospital room. But not just the any hospital room: it was his.

  Blue-green eyes stared at me from the middle of the room, startlingly brilliant, making my stomach twist at the sight. As I moved closer to him in the dim light, his arms wrapped around me in an urgent embrace. The lust, the desire, hummed beneath my skin. I let out a gasp when I felt his lips brush my neck, a gentle teasing that fueled the hunger brimming inside of me. I pulled away from him, staring at eyes that looked like the ocean.

  “Jasmine.”

  Like magnets, we were drawn to each other, our lips crashing, teeth clashing and tongues battling for dominance. We pulled the other closer, bodies against each other, mouth against mouth.

  I could feel his hot breath on my skin as he lowered himself to kiss every inch of my body, his nimble hands tearing at the uniform that I was wearing. “You have no idea how badly I’ve wanted to do that.”

  His voice was husky and deep. The sound of it sent a shiver straight to my core as I pushed him onto the bed. I wore only underwear and I grabbed the top of his hospital gown, pulling it off of him roughly, the strings that tied it snapping apart.

  He was naked and hard beneath me and I didn’t waste any time, kissing him the way I had imagined when I first saw his body. The planes of his body were smooth beneath my palms, smooth and warm. I reached the ‘V’ that would lead me to the part that had been on my mind since I’d seen him naked.

  His dick was long and hard and truly inviting. I couldn’t restrain myself from the desire of licking his entire length, which earned a groan of pleasure in response. I didn’t wait for him to give me any sign that I should suck him. I dove into the action immediately. I swallowed his entire length. When his cock hit the back of my throat, I restrained myself from gagging.

  I sucked him, my teeth grazing his dick, my fingers massaging his balls. I relished the sounds of his whispered groans, the quiet voice that repeated my name over and over again. When I felt his cock tense in my mouth, I quickly let it out and positioned myself an inch away and was showered with his cum.

  “Fuck, that was so sexy,” he murmured, pulling me back up to him and kissing my mouth. He flipped me on my back and kissed my collar bone, nibbling on it and leaving his mark on my pale skin. “It’s my turn.”

  The excitement of that statement turned me on even more. He kissed every inch of my skin, savoring the taste of me in his mouth. When he reached my pussy, he blew hot breath on my already heated core and I moaned at the sensation. He put two fingers inside of me, stretching me wide and then I felt something wet and hot in my vagina.

  It was his tongue.

  Oh, dear god.

  Just as I was about to come, he flipped me on my front and then pulled my ass up so I was on my all fours, ass up in the air waiting for him to take me. I could feel his dick at the edge of my pussy, the head rubbing and teasing.

  “Damn it, stop teasing me.”

  I heard him chuckle. Then I felt him pushing himself inside of me, the sensation so amazing that I swear my eyes rolled to the back of my head. Just as he was in deep, a sudden shrill and annoying sound filled the room, sounding like the fire alarm.

  My damn alarm clock.

  Sitting up, I groaned and hated myself for even dreaming that dream and hating my alarm clock for ruining it. I would’ve come if the shrill beeping hadn’t ruined everything. I got out of bed and ignored the tingling sensation I felt all over my body. This wasn’t the first time that I dreamt about him nor was it the first time that my alarm clock rang just when he was about to fuck me.

  Dear god, this was a problem.

  When I stepped foot into my living room, shopping bags littered everywhere. I had shopped for him yesterday afternoon at thrift stores. Since he didn’t know who he was and basically all alone in this world, I thought it would be a nice thing to do for him. And he needed underwear. I didn’t want him going commando and giving other girls the luxury of what I had experienced.

  Fuck, there I go again, thinking of him like he’s mine when he was nothing but a patient. If only there wasn’t a spark of chemistry that sizzled between the two of us, this would’ve been easier to deal with.

  I’d nursed attractive patients back to health numerous times but with him, it felt so different. Every time our skin touched there was this wave of pleasurable electric current that ran throughout my body and jolted my senses, making me want him even more.

  Or maybe I just hadn’t had sex in a very long time and nursing an attractive, sexy man was giving me hot fantasies.

  It was 5 am and I decided to clean up my house a bit to pass the time. I was going to bring the clothes to him at the hospital later. I knew that visiting him on the days that I didn’t have work would spark rumors but I didn’t really care. I liked being with him and he seemed to talk more whenever I was around. Maybe our conversations would trigger his memories.

  At around 8 am, I was finishing my makeup and preparing to head to the hospital. I gave myself a once-over in the mirror, wondering if he would appreciate how good I looked. The hospital was a fifteen-minute walk away and I usually used the short distance as my means of exercising. Today, though, I driving in because of the shopping bags I was bringing. And I didn’t want any questions from co-workers that might be walking by.

  “Hey, Jasmine! What are you doing here?” Cristina asked me with a smile. She was wheeling a patient out of Imaging. “I thought you weren’t working today.”

  I smiled at her and gave her a small wave. “Just visiting someone.”

  “Don’t tell me it’s that cute John Doe we have. I’ve been hearing rumors about you two.” Cristina wiggled her eyebrows at me suggestively, a teasing smile on her face. “We can’t blame you if it’s true, Jasmine. He’s one fine man and it’s not every day that someone as gorgeous as him shows up here in Norwynne. Most of the fish in our sea have been taken; the remaining ones are assholes. You gotta nab this one up, girl.”

  I rolled my eyes at Cristina, but I was amused by her statement. We reached his room and I gave her a small wave, knocking on the door and entering.

  He was on his bed, the head of it propped up so he was in a seating position as he watched TV. His eyes brightened when he saw me. “Jasmine!”

  I couldn’t stop the smile that appeared on my face. The way his face lit up when he saw me tugged at my heart, deepening the attraction I already had for him. “I have clothes for you. I thought it might be time that you changed out of the hospital gowns.”

  “Or maybe you don’t want anyone else to see what’s underneath,” he retorted, winking at me suggestively. He was teasing me, which made me smile. “Anyway, I have this brilliant idea that you could do for me.”

  If he was going to ask me to give him a blow-job, after the dream I had, and knowing how tempting he truly was underneath the blanket and gown, I probably wouldn’t say no. Which would leave me unemployed if I did it. I sat on the edge of his bed, careful that our skin didn’t brush against each other, knowing the repercussions of what a simple touch could do.

 
“And what would that be?”

  His blue-green eyes darkened at the short distance between us. If he leaned in a bit closer, if he laid a hand on mine and pulled me close, I wasn’t sure what would unravel between the two of us. “I don’t like the name John Doe. If you were to give a guy a new name, what would it be?”

  I remembered the name that I chose for my little brother, the one that was stillborn. Automatically, I answered him, “Wes.”

  His eyebrows shot up in surprise as if he didn’t expect me to come up with a name that fast. He said the name to himself, his voice low and quiet. The sound sent heat to my core as I imagined him saying my name the same way. Slowly, his lips curled into a smile. “Sounds fitting.”

  We talked for a while about how he felt and how his night went. For a moment, I was brought back to the dream I had and how my desire for him gave birth to that fantasy. Being in the same hospital room with him, the dream seemed plausible.

  When it was noon, I offered to buy us food from the cafeteria; a treat for him since he’d been having bland hospital food for four days. As I made my way to the cafeteria, I bumped into a tall man decked in navy blue scrubs.

  “Oof. Oh, I’m sorry,” I said, looking up at the person to put a name to his face. But I didn’t recognize him. I’d worked in this hospital for five years, been in and out of here my whole life because of family illnesses. I was closer to the people who worked here than I was with the family that I was left with.

  “It’s okay,” he said. I caught sight of his ID. Andre Blackthorn. I knew who Andre was because I went to high school with him. This guy wasn’t him.

  He seemed like he was going to ask me a question but decided against whatever it really was and went with a different one. “Visiting a loved one?”

  I flashed him a tight smile and nodded. “Sure. Making sure she’s well.”

  There was something very wrong here. He was not Andre. And he held himself in a tense way, like he could leap into a fight at any possible moment. He gave me a small curt nod and then pushed past me. But not before I caught sight of what he was carrying on his tray. A vial of potassium and sterile syringe.