“Wouldn’t a resort in Mexico or Cuba be more practical than driving up here this time of year, especially during a snowstorm?”
He grinned. “Glad to see that you can find some humor in all this. But it doesn’t look as though you were going anywhere warm. Your clothing is mostly sweaters and sweats—and lots of warm socks! Most of them look like gifts you were taking with you.”
A frown appeared on her face. That didn’t make much sense to her.
“And my bag and wallet?” She was hoping that he had found them by now.
“Nowhere in sight. I will have a team go back to the car and search the area for them when the snow lets up.”
“And you have no idea where I was driving to?”
She was hoping that he could help her solve the mystery. She was beyond
desperate at this point, and he was clearly the only one who could fill in the blanks.
“There are a lot of country homes and small cabins around here,” he pointed out to her. “People use them all the time, especially in the winter for skiing and horseshoeing, if they are into that type of activity.”
“Do you think I was heading to one of them? It’s strange, because I can’t remember ever coming up here to one in the first place. Something would have felt familiar deep down inside. My gut feeling just tells me that I have never been here before. I can’t even remember if I ski!” There was exhaustion in her voice.
“It’s hard to tell, but I can make some inquiries if you like. Someone must have seen you around here before.”
“I don’t know, Keane.” Doubts were beginning to creep into her mind. “Some
part of me must know, but I guess it doesn’t hurt to ask. It will definitely be a start.”
“I will see what I can do. But I can’t promise you anything. There are easier
ways to get around this,” he suggested again. “You can get the answers you need in a matter of hours.”
She didn’t want to go down that road with him again.
“I will take my chances and wait,” she told him quickly. “Maybe I’m
being paranoid about this whole memory thing, but I just feel what you don’t
know won’t hurt you.”
“I don’t think that you are being paranoid, Becca.” Keane put his arm around her. “Scared, maybe, but not paranoid, not at all.”
She managed a very weak smile. “You are saying that to make me feel better, aren’t you?”
Keane stroked her hair absently. “Yes and no. I understand that this is a lot for you to deal with at the moment. And it’s going to take some time. But in the meantime, I want you to know that I’m here for you.”
She tried not to cry. “I’m glad to hear you say that, Keane. I really do. I just wish I could remember something.”
“And you will; when the time comes.”
“You know none of this would have been happened if I hadn’t been on the road that day, or if I had been a better driver.”
“You can not blame yourself for this. I will not let you.” He took her by the shoulders and gave her a firm look. “Anyone could have had the same accident. It’s dangerous mountain road. And an extremely difficult curve to maneuver, even in the best of weather. The icy conditions certainly didn’t help. If anything, they made matters terribly worst.”
She had a hard time being consoled by him. She shrugged him off.
“That’s exactly my point, Keane. I should not have been driving. I knew that
when I left. I knew about the storm. There were warnings everywhere. But what did I do; I got in my car, got behind the wheel and drove here! I caused that stupid accident, Keane! It’s my fault! I’m lucky that no one got hurt or was killed. And you certainly wouldn’t be here waiting on me like some sort of invalid if it didn’t happen.”
She looked at him with distressed eyes. She was doing everything she could
not to burst into tears and sob uncontrollably in his strong arms. In fact, she would have liked nothing better than to fall apart and have him comfort her.
“Is that what you think?” Keane searched her face. He slipped his hand under
her chin and brought her face up to his. “You are far from being any of those things, Becca. I wouldn’t want you to be any other place than here with me.”
“Oh, Keane! Do you really mean that?”
“I do. And don’t you doubt it for one second!”
“But you have spent hours on end waiting on me. You haven’t left the ranch
since I have been here. I’m sure you have a life you want to get back to. People
you want to be with.”
He smiled at her. “And I will, when the time is right, and you are better.”
There was a determination in Keane’s voice that she hadn’t noticed before. He
cared deeply about her, she thought. She tried to blink the tears away.
“Are you sure?”
Her hair had fallen onto her face, and Keane reached up to smooth the long strands back away from her eyes. His hand lingered on her hair. It was still
damp from the shower, and he ran his hand down the length of it.
“There is no one I would rather be with right now, than you.”
She had been brushing her hair just before he walked in.
Keane took the brush and ran it slowly through her hair several times. “You have beautiful hair,” he told her, taking a handful of her thick curls into his hand. “I like your curls. They are so soft and lovely.” He brought a handful up to his face and pressed his cheek against it, and closed his eyes.
“It’s probably the expensive brand of organic shampoo and conditioner I found in the shower.”
“It has nothing to do with that!” He stroked her hair lovingly.
“Then I guess I’m just lucky.”
“Or good genes.”
Becca looked at him and smiled. He had no idea how much money she spent
on her hair her natural curls were hard to maintain, not to talk about the constant frizz! She inherited her Mom’s thick red hair.
“Why are you doing this, Keane?” She turned around to look him. “You
hardly know me. I’m just someone you happen to come across at the side of the
road who needed your help.”
Keane caressed her cheek. His eyes searched hers tenderly. “I don’t have to
know you, Becca, to do what’s right. Besides, I feel as though you have been in my life forever.”
“Really!”
“Yes, really! We have a connection, Becca. And having you here is good for me. You came at a time when I needed the distraction.” His finger brushed across her lips, tracing the outline, as he spoke. “Has anyone ever told you, you have sensuous lips? Not even Angelina Jolie’s can compare.”
“Is that supposed to be funny?”
“No, it’s a compliment, and one that’s very deserving.” He smiled down at her. “Your lips, like the rest of you, are superbly sensational. You are a ravishing young woman, Becca. I am sure you have heard it many, many times before.”
“I wouldn’t know.” She told him in a quivering evasive voice.
“You are irresistible!”
“I…” She couldn’t find the words. She wetted her lips and tilted her head
back slightly to meet his eyes.
Keane leaned in and kissed her gently, his eager lips prodding hers apart, his
tongue going into her mouth to taste her sweetness.
The kiss was sudden, but she wasn’t surprised by it. She had been wondering
when he would finally gather up the nerve to take her in his arms and kiss her!
She wrapped her arms around his neck and returned his kiss with as much hunger. She clung to him, holding on tightly, fearing that she would fall to the ground if she didn’t hold on tight.
She opened her eyes minutes after, breathless, and gave Keane a dazed-like look.
“That was lovely.” He smiled at her.
; She couldn’t find her voice to speak. She tried a couple times, but nothing came out. She eventually managed to say something a full sixty seconds after. And she decided to steer clear of what he had told her before the kiss. She went down an entirely different path, instead.
“Is that what I am to you—some kind of diversion from your seemingly perfect, exciting life?” Her voice was a bare whisper, and shaky.
Keane gazed into her eyes and chuckled. “Goodness, Becca, no! You are so
much more than that to me. And my life is far from being perfect, exciting at times, yes, but certainly not flawless. You will find that out when you get to know me better. You completely misunderstood what I was trying to say to you, darling.” He toyed with her hair again.
“Then what were you trying to say, Keane?”
“I must confess that I’m someone who has always had people there doing
things for me. You name it, I get it done, no questions asked.”
“You mean you have always had people at your beck and call?”
“That’s a rather blunt way of putting it, but yes. It comes with the territory. Call me spoilt or selfish, or whatever you may, but I have never stopped to think of how fortunate I am to have the things that most people take for granted handed to me all my life until now.”
“Yeah, money certainly does that to you.” Becca’s tone was more caustic than she intended.
She had known people with money, and from what she could remember of them, they had not always been exactly nice or happy.
“Another stereotype about the rich! You certainly seem to have more than a few of them. But take my word for it, when I tell you that not all rich people are shallow and heartless.” Keane chuckled. “I will not deny that it helps to have money at your disposal, and lots of it too, because it does. It makes life less complicated, at times, but it certainly does not make you happy. In fact, some of
the wealthiest people I know are very empty and unhappy.”
“You are a man of privilege, Keane.” She pointed out to him. “What I don’t get is; why you are willing to do something like this for me. You have probably spent thousands of dollars on my care already; money which I won’t ever be able to repay you. I’m sure my insurance doesn’t cover flying in specialists for home
visits.”
There was a twinkle in Keane’s eyes. “I would have been more than happy to
send you the bill, but this one is a write off. It has been paid in full.”
Becca flashed him a confused look.
“By whom?”
“Someone who thinks you deserved nothing but the best, and who wishes to remain anonymous.”
“You are willing to do that for me?” she asked him in an incredulous voice. “I have done nothing to deserve this.”
“Oh, but you have. Since I met you, I am beginning to learn things about myself. I’m becoming a less selfish man because of you. You have changed me in ways I didn’t know were possible.”
Keane gazed off in the distance.
“So, in other words, I’m your charity case, an experiment of your new found
altruism, is that it.” She scoffed at him. “Well, let me tell you som…”
Keane’s mouth came in quickly to claim hers, and he kissed her, his eager lips
probing and tasting her.
It was a sudden and unexpected kiss, and it sent her head in a whirlwind. She must admit; Keane was a good kisser, one of the best she had ever had.
She might have lost her memory, but she knew a good kisser when she met
one. No other man’s kisses had ever made her feel this way!
“What was that for?” She gazed up into Keane’s eyes and smiled when he
finally came up for air.
“To keep you from talking.” He traced her lips with the tip of his finger, and
smiled at her. “You are not a charity case, and certainly not one of mine. And I assure you that if you were, you wouldn’t be here. You would be in a hospital somewhere.”
“Then why am I here, Keane?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” He cupped her chin and searched her face.
“No.” she decided to play coy. She wanted to hear it from him—in his very own words.
“I want you here with me, Becca because I care very deeply for you. I wouldn’t want you any place else.”
She tilted her head back and searched his eyes. She knew he meant every word.
“I’m glad that you were the one who pulled me from the car, Keane. I
wouldn’t have wanted it to be anyone else. I don’t even want to think what it would have been like for me if the wrong person had come across me unconscious in my car at the side of a deserted road.”
Her body shuddered slightly, and Keane drew her to him and caressed her hair.
“Shh, don’t say another word about it.” He pressed his finger lightly on her lips
to silence her. “It’s over now. Thank God I was the one who found you.” He pecked her lightly on the cheek. “You are an irresistible young woman, Becca. I knew it the second I laid my eyes on you. I’ll confess that I’ve wanted to kiss you since then.” Keane caressed the side of her face.
“And now?” She looked into his eyes. “Do you still want to kiss me?”
Keane smiled down at her. “Do you really have to ask?”
His lips brushed gently against her soft ones again. He cradled her lower back with his hand and drew her closer and closer to him, so close, that she could feel the strong beating of his heart against her cashmere sweater.
She felt his heat too.
Keane kissed her slowly and passionately, the very act leaving her completely breathless and giddy. Her arms were still wrapped around his neck when his lips finally left hers. She moved her head slightly and gazed into his eyes.
His eyes looked as if they had taken on a whole new life of their own. There
was a huge twinkle, mixed with darting raw passion in them. He appeared to be a
different man. He was more vibrant than the one she had met only days before. He appeared happy too. His dimples deepened as he smiled at her.
“Who are you, Keane Whitmore?” she asked him in a bare whisper. “And why
are you doing this for me?”
She repeated the same question she had asked him before, simply because
she couldn’t wrap her head around what was happening between them.
She may be suffering from an unfortunate case of amnesia, but she wasn’t naïve nor foolish. She knew men like Keane Whitmore; as handsome and successful as he was, didn’t just rescue a woman from the side of the road, brought her to his place, took care of her for days on end, without wanting something in return.
It was hard for her to believe that anyone could be that good and selfless. Not in the world they were living in now. What could Keane possibly want from her? She had nothing to give him, well, except for her heart. And from the way things were heating up between them, he already had that.
She knew she was taking a huge gamble on a man she knew absolutely nothing about, well except for what little she had found out about him in the last few days. But he was what her heart desired, and she certainly wasn’t
going to deny herself the pleasure of not loving him.
And if there was one thing this accident had taught her; it was that life was too
short and unpredictable for her to leave anything up to fate. From now on she was going to live her life in the now.
Keane found her lips again. “I’m a man who is falling hard for you, Becky,” he whispered softly, his lips resting temptingly on her quivering ones.
(So, she was Becky now! Wow!) He stroked her face and her hair. “I can’t get
over how beautiful you are. “I’m completely hooked.” His voice was low and
emotional.
“How much?” she asked him in a playful low voice.
“This much.” His lips claimed hers again in a very fiery kiss. He c
overed the side of her neck and lips with light feathery kisses after. “I want you to stay here with me. I don’t want you to go any where. Am I selfish for wanting that?”
She wasn’t expecting him to say any of those things to her.
“God, Keane, no!”
“The decision is entirely up to you, though. I don’t want you to feel pressured.”
“I wasn’t planning on going anywhere, well, at least not yet. I was hoping that
you would ask me to stay,” she told him boldly.
“Good!” Keane’s face lit up. “I would love to have you here with me, but first there are a few things I will like to get out of the way.”
“Oh…” She turned her head up to look at him.
“I know we have been through this before, but I’m going to bring it up again. I
want the Sheriff to run your prints.”
She gave him a startled look. “Why? Do you think I’m some sort of criminal on the run?”
She sounded hurt.
“No. That’s not why I’m asking,” Keane told her quickly. “I know that you are not a fugitive running from the law, and even if you are, I want you to know that I have no intention of turning you in, at least not until I’ve had my way with you.” He nuzzled the side of her neck. “I certainly don’t mind. I can be your hostage any time!” He flashed her a wide grin.
She wasn’t amused. “This is not funny!” She pushed him away.
“Sorry. I’m not known for my sense of humor, and this just proves it. I was only asking to give you some answers, that’s all. I don’t want you to spend whatever time you are here with me agonizing about anything.”
“Apology accepted! But I don’t think they will find anything.” She squinted. “I have never been arrested. My prints wouldn’t be in the system.”
“You don’t have to have a record. It could be for a job, airport security, your license or some other government related procedure you might have done in the past.”
She slipped from his arms and went and stood by the window. She folded
her hands across her chest and stared down at her bare feet.
Her toes were painted a bright red. She obviously had a pedicure done in the last little while. She glanced up at Keane again. She wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea, simply because she didn’t know if she could handle any more emotional trauma at the moment.
What the Heart Desires Page 7