by Kyle, Celia
“You don’t remember anything from before the accident?”
She shook her head. “It’s very classic amnesia. I still remember basic things, like how to check out groceries or work a cell phone. But I don’t remember anything about who I used to be.” She took a deep breath and looked right into his face, making his hopes rise. Maybe, she was about to open up to him.
“Do you know if I had any family?” She was so hurt and full of hope he wished he could answer her more thoroughly.
“I believe so, but none that were very close to you. I’m sorry, we just didn’t get much chance to get to know each other before the kidnapping. You didn’t mention your parents, only some family who lived up north that you hardly ever saw.”
She frowned. “If we fell in love and we were so right for each other, why didn’t I talk to you about my family?”
He looked into her eyes, shaking his head a little. The girl who had fallen in love with him was fiery and quick to laugh. She was always ready for an adventure. She had mentioned her family flippantly, as if they simply couldn’t keep up with her.
That was a far cry from this timid, guarded creature.
“I honestly don’t think they were very important to you. We met in Greece and it was all a big adventure. You actually seemed to look down on your family members for having such little appreciation for excitement and the unknown.”
She smiled. “That doesn’t sound like me.”
“You don’t know yourself.” His voice was low and yet it rumbled around the room. His lion would not be denied. It would not stay quiet, not when she was so very close—her scent filling his nostrils and her eyes dancing with the light.
She looked into his eyes, surprise flashing across her face. He kept up his intense glare and let the lion come out. His fangs grew, his eyes shimmered gold.
“You are my mate.” He said it with such animalistic passion his hands clawed at the table.
“Mate?” She frowned, rejecting them term. He felt fear in his stomach, hoping he hadn’t scared her with his lion. “What do you mean, mate?”
She might have been objecting, but part of her was responding. He could smell it. She was becoming warm, in between her breasts and legs. He could sense the heat rising, and her arousal hung on the air. Part of the reason she was fighting his words was because she was also fighting her own body.
Part of her knew. Her blank mind might be getting in the way, but part of her knew they were meant to be.
Desperately he searched for something to say. Anything that might trigger her memory.
“What about your shoulder?” he said suddenly, with a burst of inspiration. “You have a scar on your shoulder. How can you explain that, if you have never seen me before?”
He was referring to the mate mark. He didn’t want to say those words out loud, just in case he offended her again. He was hoping drawing her attention to it would be enough.
She shook her head, smiling. “That proves nothing. You could have seen me in a bikini sometime and noticed it. It doesn’t mean we used to be lovers—mates—whatever.”
He sat in silence for a moment, unable to believe that his mention of the mate mark didn’t trigger her memory. She didn’t even touch it. He thought it would be throbbing just by him being near her.
She looked up and her expression was a little more open. She was curious. This gave him hope.
“I need real proof.” She sighed, as if coming to terms with something inside herself. “I’m willing to believe this, or try to, but I need you to give me something real.”
“I can do that.” He tried not to react too exuberantly, not wanting to scare her off.
“In a public place.” She glared at him and her depth of emotion was something like the old Avery. “I’ll meet you again but only in public. No funny business.”
He nodded. “Of course. How about dinner tonight?”
She stared at him as if trying to remember him, desperately mining in her brain for any reference to him. He prayed for her to find it.
“Yes,” she said. “Dinner tonight. And you’ll show me something that proves we were together.”
With that, she left the room as swiftly as she could with her pregnant bulk. It was as if she needed to escape from him, desperate to clear her head.
Chapter Six
Avery’s steps on the concrete were hesitant, nothing like the jaunty, light steps of this morning’s walk to work. She was on her way to meet Elias at a fancy Greek restaurant and she struggled with her nerves with every stride.
She wanted to see him. It was obvious he knew things about who she had been before, and she desperately needed those details. The longer she spent with him the more complete she felt, as if the answers she had been searching for were right at her fingertips and all she had to do was reach out.
But he scared her, too.
She stopped at the front of the restaurant and peered through the window, searching out Elias. Avery enjoyed the anonymity that came with standing in the darkness for a moment, looking in and seeing everyone inside while they remained oblivious to her presence. She spied Elias sitting at a corner table, a glass of wine untouched and tearing up a bread roll. It made her smile.
Nothing in his manner looked nervous. He could be prowling across the prairie with that assured gaze and assertive manner. There were tiny quirks, though… Things that told her he was not as calm as he appeared.
How do I know? she asked herself. She had no memories of him. Her mind remained a vast space where she only glimpsed flashing edges of who she might have been, but there was nothing solid, nothing real.
She rubbed her belly gently. The way he had stood so close to her in the elevator and his interest in her pregnancy almost caused her pain. Was he the father? Did he know who the father was?
She squeezed her eyes shut and pushed away the tears that threatened. She had done enough crying. It was time to face up, be brave and let Elias tell her everything he knew. She had asked him for proof, standing back and maintaining her air of skepticism because she knew it was the right thing to do.
The wrong thing to do was run to him, leap into his arms and kiss him senseless. She had to keep her barriers built high and keep her wits about her. Otherwise, that was exactly what she would do—what everything inside her demanded she do.
She entered the restaurant and smiled at the concierge before letting him take her coat and allowing him to escort her to the table.
The moment his gaze fell on her, Elias seemed to relax, smiling up at her with a wide grin and surprise in his eyes. “You came.”
“Of course I did.” She smiled as she sat, and the moment held a breath of familiarity, as if they had done this before.
They looked at each other for a few seconds and Avery felt like his gaze sucked her in, pulling her down into its depths. They shimmered with knowing and a sharp stab of excitement pricked her deep inside. It was like she stood on a precipice, knowing at any moment she would jump. She took a deep, shuddering breath as she looked away, shattering the sensation into a thousand pieces.
The waiter chose that moment to appear, and she couldn’t have been more grateful. She ordered sparkling water and some pasta, feeling hungry even though her stomach jumped up and down from stress. Elias urged her to get anything she would like, so she shyly added a side and some dessert.
“Thanks.” She pushed back a lock of hair as she looked up at him. “I’m just so hungry all the time.”
“Of course you are.” His words were light, but his expression was serious. “You have a very strong baby inside you.”
She gulped, looking away. She wanted the truth… But she didn’t want it to break her, either.
“How about you start dinner with your proof?” She tried to glare but ended up smiling at him instead—the joy of his presence too much to contain, even if she wasn’t sure why she was so happy to be close to him.
He pulled out his phone and scooched his chair close so they could both look a
t the photos displayed on the screen. He flicked through a couple and she snatched the phone from hand, pinching the screen to look at the background of the pictures and zooming in on their faces.
The sunsets were lit with orange gold, spreading like ink across flawless blue horizons. The plants were lush and green, flourishing with flowers. The hotel pool, the sparkling beach, the café—every single photo was breathtaking.
And she was smiling in every single one.
A lot of them were just Avery, as if Elias took the pictures and just couldn’t get enough of her in every way. She graced the screen in bikinis, flowing dresses and even in oversized casual shirts that must have belonged to Elias.
One was taken in the dark on the beach. The glow of the bonfire lit the air around them. The phone was held at arm’s length by both of them so they could both fit in the selfie. She had a bright red hibiscus tucked behind her ear and their smiles were identical.
Not only were they happy, they were both full of wonder and anticipation. They were both surprised and excited. So excited that the eager faces seemed to leap out from the screen.
“The night we met,” he said softly. “A few people were playing on the beach, a guitar and a flute. Someone had a little drum. They were just rolling out traditional Greek melodies by the fire. I came down from the hotel to listen. Then I saw you walking along the beach.” She tore her attention from the photo to look into his eyes. They were dark and shining, as if he was back on that shadowed beach with only the bonfire to light his vision. “You walked out of the darkness, strolling along right next to the waves. You made a little dancing motion as you came near, listening to the musicians. I just walked up to you and put the flower behind your ear. Then I asked you to dance.”
Avery kept flipping through the pictures. When she saw one from a distance, the band caught in the bonfire glow, she could almost hear the music.
“You took plenty of pictures that night, as well,” he murmured.
But she shook her head in denial. “I had nothing when I was found. My clothes were torn, and I had no wallet, keys or phone,” she answered him absently, clutching his phone as if it were a life rope.
She hardly recognized herself. Any picture where she wasn’t smiling, she had this dreamy, lazy expression. She had gotten so used to her tense, drawn face that this seemed like a completely different woman.
There was a selfie of them kissing. Even tilted at an angle and glinting with light distortion from someone awkwardly holding it, she couldn’t deny the intimacy of the pose, the attraction, passion and… love?... shared between them.
Her hands curled around his neck, teasing his hair at the nape. The way they leaned into each other and how his hands caressed her shoulders.
With some reluctance, she handed the phone back to him. She wanted to keep falling into these images where she was so happy, but the beginnings of a headache teased her temple.
I just can’t remember.
“What happened next?” She tried to keep her voice calm as the food was placed on the table. “Did we dance?”
He smiled, joy overtaking his features. “We did. We danced for ages. As long as the musicians played. We headed back to the bar and one guy was in there playing the piano. We sat and talked all night, telling each other everything about ourselves as fast as we could.” He was barely even looking down at his plate of salad and steak with thick, fried pieces of Greek bread. He toyed with his fork, his entire focus on her and on the memory. “By the time we got upstairs to my room, we were exhausted. Dawn was just breaking over the horizon. We curled up in bed together and fell asleep.”
“We didn’t… make love?” She was almost embarrassed to ask. To her, he was a stranger.
“No.” He shook his head gently. “We were too tired. When we woke up, though, we got in the hot tub. Then we couldn’t keep our hands off each other.”
“Oh.” She looked down at her plate, her cheeks burning red. He reached out with one hand but didn’t touch her. He wanted to, that was obvious, but he held himself in check.
“So, after that?” She took a big bite of food. He put his bread down, almost untouched.
“After that we were never apart. You moved your things to my room, and we spent every day together, eating, dancing, shopping. One night we went to a carnival. You wanted to enter a dancing competition, but we were horrible.” He laughed softly. “We enjoyed dancing, but compared to the professionals, we were pretty poor.”
Avery was so transfixed she had barely realized she was finished with her food. She tore into some bread and Elias passed over his salad.
“You were always finishing my food.” He grinned. “An appetite like a lioness…” His voice trailed off as if the memory caused him pain. A lump rose in her throat, but she swallowed it down. She was still hungry. She couldn’t deny it. The baby kicked her firmly as if to agree. She brought her hand up to her belly.
Elias looked at her intensely. His gold eyes darted between her eyes and her belly. She wanted to ask him. Oh God did she! The air was humming with tension and promise. Surely he was the father. After the stories he had just told…
If he was, wouldn’t he just say so? Maybe he didn’t know. Maybe there were complications she didn’t know about.
Thankfully, dessert arrived and spared both of them from asking anything further. They kept the conversation light for the rest of the meal, both of them sensing they had come far enough for one evening.
He walked her to the front doors after paying for the meal, almost putting a hand on her back but stopping himself at the last second.
“Will you have dinner with me again?” he asked gently.
She nodded, loving his smile and feeling safe looking into his eyes. He felt so familiar, and Avery needed comfort. It would be so easy to go into his arms and let hm hold her against his strong chest, especially after seeing the photos and knowing they had been close.
He took a step closer to her and at first, she didn’t move. Her body was lighting up, just like it did the first time she saw him in the elevator. For a few seconds, she was frozen in place, watching his lips get closer.
Then she scurried back, gulping in quick breaths. She turned to go, calling out a goodbye over her shoulder.
No matter how comfortable he made her feel, no matter what evidence he had, she still didn’t know him, and that was the hardest part of all.
Chapter Seven
Heading back to his New York City apartment from the restaurant, Elias decided to walk for a while. His lion was restless, and the beast wanted to prowl the streets. A nice hard run after some hot-blooded prey would have gone down well about then, but he was in the concrete jungle, not the savannah.
Elias let the cat growl and snarl in his blood, almost enjoying the feeling of denying the beast. He had to keep his animal on a short leash in the city, and the skill needed constant attention to be effective. Balancing the human and animal sides, not giving in to one or the other, was the great challenge of a shifter’s life. Having them in harmony brought out the best in both.
Around Avery, that was almost impossible. He had spent the entire night holding his lion back from roaring out and claiming her all over again—asserting its dominance and announcing to one and all that the delicious female belonged to him.
Going through the photos was torture. Seeing those memories while she was right beside him, smoldering with the heat of her pregnancy, drove his beast to madness. It tore the man’s heart in two. How could he sit beside her and not hold her, not kiss her, not tear her clothes off and lick every inch of her skin?
Absently, he pulled out his phone. He should be checking in on his brother and second-in-command, Christos, and now seemed to be as good a time as any. He didn’t think Christos would be able to soothe either the man or the cat, but another set of ears was always of use. Lions lived and worked in prides for a reason.
He pressed the button, waiting for his brother to answer.
“Hey! Elias. What’s h
appening?”
“I found Avery.”
For a few seconds, silence stretched out across the distance between them. Christos was clearly shocked but trying hard to recover. “What? How?”
“She just appeared under my nose.”
“You mean she didn’t come to you? Didn’t find you? After everything—”
“She’s got amnesia. She doesn’t remember me.”
More silence. Elias could tell by the change in his breathing that his brother searched for the right words. “I don’t know, Elias…”
“I know how it sounds.”
“Do you? I know you must be overcome. You won’t be seeing anything clearly since she is your mate. You will be driven by the mating urge to believe her.”
“I’ve examined the situation objectively.”
“Oh, I’m sure.”
“No, I mean it.” Elias sighed, stopping to run a hand through his sandy hair. “I’ve talked to her… It’s genuine.”
Christos thought a minute, pulling his mind back on track. “Where has she been?”
“They found her in the river. She woke up in a Greek hospital and they cared for her. She was hurt very badly, Christos.”
“How badly?” Elias could hear the simmering of protective anger in Christos’ voice.
“Bad. She has a nasty scar above her left ear. It’s deep. They hit her and threw her in the river, as if she was garbage.” His lion flexed in his blood, screaming for retribution.
“Shit.”
“Yeah. She was hurt and alone for a really long time. She said the embassy helped her get home. It must have been something to do with her travel record.”
“But why wouldn’t they contact you?”
“It’s not like we were married. She didn’t have time to update her documents and she might not have put me down for emergency contacts even if she had.”
“What about all the detectives and lions we sent sniffing for clues?”
“They may have been fucking idiots. I didn’t think to look far past the place where her scent ran out.”