Forbidden Temptation

by R. L. Kenderson

  Then, she ran into the other room. By what little he could see of it, it was the kitchen.

  She returned with a bottle of water and some medication. “So, your head really hurts?” she asked as she passed him the H2O and pills.

  He sat up and immediately got light-headed. He waited for the dizziness to pass and swallowed the tablets down. “Yeah.”

  She took the seat next to him. “Okay, so you don’t remember anything before now. But do you know anything?”

  He set the bottle of water on the table next to the couch. “What do you mean by, know anything?”

  She bit her lip. “Um...do you know what you are?” She touched her chest. “Do you know what I am? Do you know that we’re different?”

  “Do you mean, do I know that I’m a cat-shifter and that you’re a human?”

  “Yes.” She sighed with relief. “Thank God you remember something.”

  He was glad that he’d done something to make her happy. He liked her happy. He grabbed her hand, brought the back of it to his lips and nose, and inhaled, trying to determine if he was right about his earlier assessment.

  “Uh...what are you doing?”

  “I’m smelling you.” He turned her hand around so that he could sniff her palm.

  “I can see that. Why are you smelling me?”

  Because her lemony aroma had only a trace of his earthy scent on top of it. “I’m just trying to confirm what you are to me.” He was definitely confused now because his scent was deep in her pores yet not as strong as it should be. Something didn’t add up because either—

  She yanked her hand away. “What in the hell are you talking about?” She stood up and grabbed her hat and gloves. “You know what? Don’t even tell me. I don’t have time for this right now. I need to go and dump the car.” She pointed a finger at him. “You stay here. Do not go anywhere. Don’t even go outside. I have enough to deal with, without having to look for a cat-shifter with amnesia. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  It raised his hackles a little that she was talking to him like he was a child, but he could see that she was under a lot of stress at the moment, so he didn’t push her. They could discuss things after she returned. He really needed to find out what had happened before he lost his memory.

  He wished that he could help her more right now, but with his headache and vertigo problem, he knew it would be better if he stayed back. “I understand that you are worried right now and you need to take care of some business, but we really need to talk when you get back. You need to tell me everything that you know.”

  She put on her hat and gloves. “I agree. We can talk as soon as I get back.”

  “Sorry you have to do this by yourself.” He shook his head. “I should be the one doing it.”

  A small smile reached her lips. “There’s a bit of the Sawyer I know and hate.”

  Hate? She had to be joking because how could she hate—

  Before he realized that she’d even left, the door slammed, knocking the rest of his thought right out of his head.

  Chapter Two

  SAWYER—HE WONDERED what his last name was—slowly rose from the couch. Even with his gentle movements, his head began to spin. He paused once, standing still to let the stars clear from his vision. Deciding that he might be better off on four legs rather than two, he stripped off his clothes and changed into his cat.

  He still didn’t feel good, but his cat form would make it easier to scope out his surroundings. The blonde—Kenzie—had said it was her brother’s place, but he still wanted to make sure that he would be ready for anything. He couldn’t just take someone’s word that this was a safe place.

  On the main floor, there was the living room, kitchen, dining room, an office, and a half-bathroom. So far, the whole place had an empty vibe, as if no one had been there for a while. No dirty dishes were lying around, the office’s desk was tidy and empty of a computer or paperwork, and the bathroom had a freshly cleaned smell.

  Sawyer made his way upstairs and found the master bedroom and bath, two extra bedrooms—one with a bed and the other used as storage—and a third bathroom. Everything smelled clean upstairs, too, as if a cleaning lady had come and gone, and no one had touched anything since. The house was obviously lived in...just vacant.

  Feeling that everything was safe for now, Sawyer eyed the shower through the open door of the bathroom. A shower, food, and a nap sounded great, and since he was already upstairs, he might as well start with a shower.

  He put his paws up onto the counter and was met with the sight of a tawny-colored big cat with matching eyes. As a cat, he was about the size of a jaguar but had the coat of a cougar. He braced his paws on the counter and shifted into his human form.

  He immediately cringed. He looked like shit. His shoulder-length hair was ratty, and his eyes were bloodshot. He leaned over to get a closer look. Thankfully, his pupils weren’t dilated, so it looked like he didn’t have a concussion. He stepped back to balance on his feet and to make sure he wouldn’t pass out in the shower.

  He had a good amount of muscle mass, but his ribs were showing. He’d lost weight.

  He frowned. How did he know that he’d lost weight? Was he starting to remember?

  He looked himself up and down, hoping something else would come to him, but he was coming up blank. Disappointed by the lack of memory, he got in the shower and turned it on.

  He took his time, enjoying the warm water, and his thoughts turned to Kenzie. Something was going on there, something to do with the two of them, and he needed to fix it. Once Kenzie returned, he was going to make sure that there was no mistaking where the two of them stood.

  After he was finished washing, he shut off the water and grabbed one of the towels hanging on the towel rack. He dried his hair and body and hung the towel back up.

  He exited the bathroom and made his way downstairs. He needed some sustenance. Looking for something easy, he decided on having the frozen meals in the freezer. There were five of them, and he was so hungry that he ate all five. He would figure out a way to pay back Kenzie’s brother. He didn’t know how, but he would figure it out later.

  After he had stuffed his belly full, he was hit with an overwhelming wave of fatigue. He lugged his tired body upstairs to the second bedroom and flopped down on the bed. He didn’t even take the time to pull the comforter and sheets down before he fell asleep.

  Kenzie breathed warmth onto her hands through her thin gloves. It was so cold outside, and she still had two blocks to go before she would be back at her brother’s house.

  At least she had successfully gotten rid of the stolen car. She’d remembered to wipe it down with a rag from her brother’s garage. Hopefully, there would be nothing that could lead the vehicle back to them if the police were the ones to find it. She wasn’t too worried about the stolen part of the equation because the only reason that they had taken it was to escape their kidnappers. But if she explained this, the cops would wonder why no one had reported her or Sawyer missing.

  She stopped in her tracks. At least, she hoped no one had reported her missing. She’d totally forgotten about her job. She’d never missed work without calling in. They were probably wondering where she was. Had they called the police and sent someone to her apartment? Had the cops started investigating her disappearance, and she would be the reason that the shifters’ cover was blown?

  She started sprinting back toward the house. She was only a couple of houses down from her brother’s when she saw a black SUV one block up. Her heart began to race, and her breathing became shallow. The worst part was that she froze on the spot. If it were the kidnappers, she was out in the open, like a sitting duck. Just when she thought that she might faint from lack of oxygen, the SUV turned left on the street in front of her.

  She had no idea how much longer she stood there until some sense came back to her. Her heart rate slowed, and she took a couple of deep breaths. Realizing that she was still standing in the same spot, she resumed her step
s and made it the rest of the way to Bastian’s house. She opened the garage door with the code again, hurried inside, and closed the big door. Once in the house, she rested her back against the door and counted to ten.

  She needed to remember that she was safe now. She was away from the abductors. She was in her brother’s house, a familiar place. The kidnappers didn’t even know who she really was. When Sawyer and she had been taken, they had thought that she was her best friend, Naya, and that Sawyer was Naya’s mate, Vaughn. They weren’t going to look for her at Bastian’s house. And now that she had gotten rid of the captors’ vehicle, there was nothing to trace back to her.

  Even if they found their car, they sure weren’t going to go to the police and tell them it had been stolen. “Yes, officer, my car was stolen by the people I kidnapped.”

  She snorted. Yeah, right. Like that would happen.

  She was safe. Sawyer was safe. Nothing bad was going to happen to them now.

  Her biggest worry was going to be how to let Vance Llewelyn, Sawyer’s alpha, know that they were safe. But even if she had to wait for Sawyer to regain his memory, they would be fine. She felt bad that the other cat-shifters would be worried about them, but she only had so much to work with.

  Pep talk finished, she opened her eyes and went to see how Sawyer was doing. The first thing she noticed was that the couch was empty. He’d better not left when she’d told him to stay there. The next thing she saw was the pile of clothes next to the couch. She went over to inspect them and saw that they were the clothes Sawyer had been wearing earlier.

  What the hell? Why were they lying on the floor?

  She threw off her winter gear and went in search of the missing amnesic cat-shifter.

  He wasn’t anywhere downstairs, so she headed for the second floor. She found him in her brother’s guest bedroom, facedown, sleeping on the bed. He was butt-ass naked. And what an ass it was, along with the rest of him. Muscular back and thighs did not have a single mark on them. She had seen some of the other cat-shifters’ tattoos, but it figured that Sawyer would keep his body free of any markings. She loved tattoos, but Sawyer’s unmarred skin was beautiful, too.

  She felt a little dirty for looking at him, but she had never seen his bare butt before. She’d briefly been naked with Sawyer once, but it had been anything but romantic or sexual.

  It had been the first day in their captivity, and the only reason that they had been naked was so that they could talk privately in the shower. At the time, they hadn’t known if the room they were trapped in was wired for sound, and they had needed the water to drown out their voices. They had both been under stress, and she had made sure to keep her eyes on his face, no matter how much she had wanted to look down and see what the man carried in his pants.

  He was such a confident asshole that she was certain that he had to be hung like a fricking horse, and she’d be lying if she said that she had never thought about seeing it, touching it, licking it, or feeling it inside her. Sawyer and she might get along as well as a valley girl would in a third-world country, but he had been the main source of her spank bank lately. Sometimes, it’d only take her a few minutes to come just from imagining the angry sex that they would have.

  Deciding that she’d done enough gawking, she went to the linen closet in the hallway and grabbed an extra blanket. She went back to the bedroom and placed it over Sawyer. She’d let him sleep for now. He probably needed it. Hopefully, the rest would refresh his memory.

  She went downstairs and grabbed his clothes. They were the only ones that he had, so she might as well wash them while he was sleeping. Her brother wouldn’t have anything for Sawyer to wear. Bastian was five-six and a beanpole. His clothes would fit Kenzie better than Sawyer, which was good for her but bad for Sawyer. With any luck, they wouldn’t be here for long. Even with Sawyer’s memory loss, there had to be a way to get ahold of the cat-shifters. She just needed to brainstorm.

  In the basement, she threw Sawyer’s clothes into the washing machine. She looked down at the oversized outfit she was wearing. Thankfully, their kidnappers had been too stupid to realize that all the clothes they had provided for Naya were too big on her.

  Idiots.

  Wanting to wash away the memory of being held captive, she threw her stuff in there, too.

  She started the washer and sprinted up the two flights of stairs, naked. She peeked into the bedroom just to make sure Sawyer was still sleeping. Relieved to see that he was, she got in the shower and began to scrub the last week and a half off her skin. While she let the water run down her body, she began to come up with some other ideas for how they could get out of there. She just needed her brother to get home.

  When she was done with her shower, she dried off with a towel, wrapped it around herself, and went searching for clothes in her brother’s room. She found her brother’s plain V-neck T-shirt and gray zip-up hoodie and a pair of black yoga pants that had to belong to her brother’s girlfriend. Anna and Kenzie didn’t really care for each other, and Kenzie could just picture Anna curling her lip at the thought of Kenzie borrowing her clothes. But Anna wasn’t there, and they were very close in size. What Anna didn’t know wouldn’t kill her. Kenzie also found a package of briefs that her brother hadn’t opened yet, and she was relieved that she wouldn’t have to borrow anyone’s underwear. The only thing left was a bra, but her boobs were so small that she didn’t really need one. This was one of the few times that being a member of the Itty Bitty Titty Committee came in handy.

  The sun had started to set while Kenzie was in the shower, and even though it was a little early for dinner, she decided to go in search of something to cook. They’d been living on protein and granola bars while they were kidnapped, and the thought of real food made her stomach rumble.

  Before she went in the kitchen, she checked on something in her brother’s office. Her findings, or rather the lack thereof, were a major disappointment. She wasn’t ready to lose hope yet, so she pushed away all thoughts, except for food.

  Once in the kitchen, she noticed a dirty fork in the sink. It looked like Sawyer had already eaten. There were no other dirty dishes, so she checked the garbage. Is that five microwave meals?

  She looked in the freezer. Sawyer had cleaned her brother out. Well, at least she didn’t have to worry about feeding him. She could let him sleep, which was good.

  She knew they had things to talk about, but after everything she had been through recently, all she wanted to do was eat, go to bed, and worry about her problems later. They could discuss everything the next day. It didn’t look like they were going anywhere anyway.

  Kenzie made herself a grilled cheese sandwich from the bread she had removed from the freezer and thawed in the microwave. Then, she sat in the living room and watched TV. She needed some mindless entertainment for half an hour or so. Once she was done eating, she cleaned up her dishes and then went downstairs to throw Sawyer’s clothes in the dryer.

  With no other excuses to keep her mind off of it, she looked at the time and told herself she had to face the fact that her brother wasn’t coming home tonight. It was getting late, and he still hadn’t arrived. Sure, he could’ve grabbed drinks or dinner with friends, but there were other signs as well. His house was incredibly clean, which meant his cleaning lady had been there and her brother hadn’t been back to disturb anything. His thermostat had been turned down very low to conserve energy while he was away. And the worst part was that his computer was missing.

  No phone. No computer. No hope. Her brother was clearly out of town for the time being. What a shitty ending to a shitty day—no, make that a shitty week.

  Kenzie sighed and dragged herself upstairs to bed. She turned on the hall light to peek in on Sawyer one last time. He hadn’t moved, but she made sure his torso was moving up and down to confirm that he was still breathing. Convinced that Sawyer wasn’t dead, she ambled to Bastian’s room and climbed into his bed.

  Promising herself and the universe that she would fac
e all her problems tomorrow, she closed her eyes and was asleep within minutes.

  Chapter Three

  THE NEXT DAY, Kenzie awoke to see that the alarm clock next to her brother’s bed read well past noon. She rolled over onto her back and stretched. She must have been more tired than she’d thought if she’d slept that late. She wasn’t really a morning person, but she had gone to bed really early the night before.

  Suddenly, Kenzie realized that while she had slept a long time, Sawyer had slept even longer. She hoped he was okay. She jumped out of bed and ran to the other room. He had rolled onto his side. She took this as a good sign since he had moved sometime during the night. People in a comatose state didn’t move. At least she didn’t think they did.

  She frowned. Maybe she should check to make sure he was okay.

  “Sawyer?” she whispered once she reached his side.

  No response.

  She had assumed that he hadn’t woken up in the car the day before because of his head injury, but maybe he was a heavy sleeper.

  She shook his shoulder and spoke his name a little louder, “Sawyer?”

  Nothing.

  It’d worked the first time, so she patted his cheek and practically yelled his name, “Sawyer!”

  “What?” he grumbled, keeping his eyes closed.

  “Are you okay? You’ve been sleeping for, like, twenty hours.” She wasn’t sure on the exact time, but that had to be about right.

  “Yes. Just healing.”

  She waited for him to say more, but his chest was already rising and falling to the rhythm of someone in a deep slumber.

  She shrugged and went downstairs to find coffee and food. After she had her fill of caffeine and dry cereal, she sat down in the living room to brainstorm, but she didn’t get very far because she woke up, drooling on the couch.

  Great. She had fallen asleep. That shouldn’t even be possible.

  She should have been so rested from all the sleep she had gotten last night that she shouldn’t have needed to sleep for a day, but instead, she had taken a nap. Now, a whole day had passed since they got there, and they weren’t any closer to getting home.