"What?!" Jona asked. "What are you-"
He pressed his lips against hers to shut her up and the more Jona protested the tighter he squeezed.
She forced herself to relax to make him stop and he did stop squeezing, but she was sure he kept kissing her for a moment longer until the nurse cleared her throat.
"Follow me," the nurse ordered looking at both of them in disgust.
He nodded for Jona to go before him and she had a feeling if he didn't get his way, she would feel his lips on hers again.
That feeling in her chest had surged down to her belly and then a little further just at the thought. She didn’t like this man at all right about now.
When they were alone and she kept her voice down low enough, she asked, "Why'd you do that? Why’d you kiss me? I would have come if you had asked."
"I didn't know that for sure," he said keeping his own tone low as he took off his clothes.
When he got down to his undershirt, she abruptly turned around realizing that she was just staring at him. She surmised that in whatever life he led, he certainly worked out because his largeness was all due to very well toned muscles.
The nurse came in and looked appreciately over him before giving Jona a disgusted look.
"Did you get hospital care before this?" the nurse asked.
"Only by my girlfriend," he said nodding to Jona, tying off the hospital garb he wore.
"Good job on the care," the nurse said impressed. "You've had medical training?"
Jona shook her head now being the one who didn’t want to speak still pissed about the kiss.
When the nurse left them alone, he said, "I'm sorry for kissing you. I shouldn't have, but don't be pissed at me."
"I'm not pissed," she lied.
"You've got to forgive me," he insisted.
"Do I?" she asked doubtfully.
He stood up and walked over to her, leaning over her until their faces were inches apart. "If you don't, I could kiss you again?"
Damn! Why was she almost inclined not to forgive him?
"Leave me alone," she sneered, calling his bluff.
A small Indian female entered and looked at his bare backside with humor. "Could you get up on the table, Mr. Doe?" the doctor ordered.
"Only if my girlfriend forgives me."
Jona rolled her eyes around at his ridiculous behavior in front of the doctor. "Fine," she said through gritted teeth. "I forgive you."
"And a kiss," he further pressed.
She gave him a warning look, but that humorous glare in his eyes told her that he was having too much fun being annoyed rather than receiving any kind of medical care.
Leaning forward slightly, she pressed her lips against his noting how soft and warm they were all over again. This time he raised his hand and cupped her face pressing his lips even firmer on hers.
As he moved away from the kiss, she still felt caught up in the simple kiss.
"You liked?" he questioned.
"Well, I can see there's nothing wrong with your lips," the doctor noticed.
"Get on the table, please," Jona begged.
This time he did and Jona pretended she had to go to the bathroom just so she could get away from him.
When she was in the bathroom by herself, she threw some water on her face and then took a deep breath in the mirror.
He was overwhelming when his full personality came out. She had a feeling that this man had some kind of power over women naturally and he was just biding his time with her.
Yet could he remember something? Or was he playing her?
No, she doubted he wanted to live on the streets on purpose.
Just don’t go in there. You could leave him.
Yet for some reason, she found herself returning to the bed they had put him in.
Her heart started to panic when she saw the bed empty until the nurse came up behind her.
“They sent him to x-rays. They need to assess if there’s any deeper damage to his brain. You can have a seat there until he gets back.” The nurse still looked at Jona disgustedly, but Jona didn’t take the glares to heart. She was used to being looked over wrongly.
She sat down relieved to get some more moments to herself.
* * *
By the time everything was over, he was drained from the constant questions they repeatedly asked him and the test they took him through. All day it felt he was drilled repeatedly and he had become frustrated by the evening when he had no answers to their questions. He was more worried though about Jona, who surprised him by sitting around with him dealing with his playful nature, even though he knew it bothered her and even insisting to the nurse they give them something to eat, when he had really forgotten about food.
"I want to leave," he said to Jona when the nurse left them alone by the afternoon. By now they had put him in his own room insisting on keeping him overnight for observation. He was glad Jona had stayed by his side, but she looked tired as well.
"We need them to find out who you are," she said.
"I don't." He reached over and pulled out the IV cord.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"Getting out of here. You heard the police lady; no one with my description has been reported missing." He held his arm down so he wouldn't bleed too much.
Jona huffed angrily, "I'm not helping you anymore."
"You just want your money. I know." He rolled his eyes in annoyance and trudged to the closet to pull out his clothes. When he threw off his gown, she immediately turned around and he chuckled liking how embarrassed she became when he was naked.
"You can't do this," Jona insisted.
"I’m too damn big to stop and it’s really all my choice. They didn’t say I was sick or needed special medical attention. Most likely they just wanted to know the extent of brain damage. It was a graze to the head, Hope." When he was dressed, he moved in front of her to make her look at him. For some reason he was starting to really enjoy the concern in her warm brown chocolate eyes and how those sensuous lips pouted upon every teasing word he gave her. "We'll figure it all out. If I'm someone important, by tomorrow, someone should be really worried and most likely report me. But like that cop said, with it being Christmas, if no one's reported me by now, someone who cares about me most likely won't be really concerned until tomorrow."
He could see she was thinking the same thing. "Let's go home," he insisted.
“That's not home, weirdo." Her arms were crossed over her chest to show her defiance.
"Anywhere, but here," he pleaded.
Nodding in agreement, she took his outstretched hand and let him guide her to the exit.
He put his hat on so he wasn’t that much of a distraction as they walked out.
Once they were out in the cold night air, he let her lead the way.
She took them to a drug store determining he might need some more pain medicine. He stepped away from her for a moment and when he found her again, she'd found some medicine and was going to the cashier to pay for it.
"Where did you go?" she asked.
"No where," he lied. "What's for dinner?"
"The sandwiches are still good,” she said.
He shook his head. "When was the last time you had Chinese?"
"Forever," she confessed.
"Good."
She didn't protest as he used their money to buy some food from a restaurant near the drug store. “Did you remember seeing this before we went in?” she asked. “How did you know this was here?”
“I saw it when we were going in the drugstore,” he admitted ignoring her suspicious look.
Even though it was Christmas, they made it back to the abandoned house by evening. Quietly, they entered and after she plugged up everything all over again to heat up the fort, they settled down on the covered pallets to eat.
This time she wasn't so voracious.
"You don't look like a homeless person," he noted. “You smell like one with that coat though.”
S
he was a little confused by his initial statement. "What's a homeless person look like?"
"Ugly. Worn, unkempt.”
Jona bit her lip so she would not blush.
He continued to explain. "I mean homeless people are missing teeth and what they do have are other colors than your pearly whites, and they smell and they look all gross. You don’t. I mean I haven't taken a gander at the hair because you keep that damn hat on, but you're nice looking and you have all your teeth and," he leaned in close to her. "You don't smell."
"An old lady who took me under her wing one summer when I was fourteen said cleanliness is next to godliness. Just cause I was on the street didn't mean I had to smell like I was on the street all the time. I used to clean up at a dentist office for a while until it closed and he always looked at my teeth for free, plus I learned how to take care of them. He used to always say, you only get one pair, so I take that to heart and take good care of them. I also visit the free clinic every year. It's too much you can catch on the street even if you aren’t sexually active. I make sure I try to get to the free dentist clinics now and do the health fairs on the street all the time any time I know about one. I'm careful about digging around in garbage because you can come across needles and stuff and I try not to make a habit out of it unless I'm really hungry or something and that hasn't been for a long time." She was proud about this factor. "For a while I was getting blood tests every six months, you know, to be sure about everything and I just try to do what I can to stay out of health trouble."
"You do a very good job,” he commended her.
She decided to change the subject to get off topics she didn't want to go into. "What if you find out you're poorer than dirt?"
"I'll deal with it, but I think when I get my memory back, the first thing I need to deal with is who was trying to kill me and why the hell did they leave me in the trash can."
"And then?"
"Doing whatever I have to do to pay you back, Hope," he said as the obvious answer.
She smiled. "You just give me some money, leave me alone and I'll be fine."
He wanted to protest, but didn't. "Speaking of giving you things, how about this?" Digging in his pocket, he pulled out a small perfume gift set and a necklace.
"Where'd you get that?" she asked suspiciously.
Chapter 8
"I bought it while I was out getting breakfast this morning," he answered.
Pushing it back at him, she shook her head. "I can't accept this."
He put his hand over hers. "You have to. I mean like that cop says tomorrow, my family will probably officially file a missing person report and I'll be caught up with a reunion, getting my memory back and who knows what type of person I was. I might become some type of stuck up fool who puts his nose down at what you've done for me and we may never ever speak again." He took the necklace out of the cheap packaging and held it up. "At least while I'm in this mindset, let me show my appreciation."
"Fine," she relented. "But don't expect me to wear that perfume." She took off her thick sweaters until she was down to her t-shirt and then turned around so he could put it on. The hat had come off when she took the sweater off but to his dismay she wore a black scarf tightly around her hair to still hide her hair.
When she turned to him, they were closer than before. She could feel his breath on her lip and for a moment she really wanted to lean forward and touch like they had done in the hospital.
Her stomach conveniently interrupted them by growling from the smell of the sweet food.
"We should open up the food," he said. "And celebrate Christmas."
“Wait, I have to get you something.” She went over to her box, while noting the worried expression on his face. Digging down in a box to pull out a container, inside of the container held some items he couldn’t see yet. Moving some stuff around, she found what she was looking for, grabbed it quickly and hid it behind her back until she could get back over to him. “Alright,” she said sitting across from him. “Close your eyes.”
He was even more worried when she said this, but he did so any way.
After placing the item in front of him, Jona ordered him to open his eyes.
He did slowly and then smiled. The worry left those gorgeous green eyes of his and focused all on her gift she had given him. “This is either the oddest gift anyone has given me or you’re just trying to tell me something.”
Jona covered her mouth to stifle the giggle. “A little bit of both, but really it’s not that bad when you do what you do.” It was hard to look indifferent when they were speaking about kissing.
He raised the item to look at it closely to inspect the package before opening. “A toothbrush.” He announced as if he had been presented with a solid gold necklace.
Starting to feel uncomfortable by the odd way he just looked at it after announcing what it was, Jona shifted her weight waiting with baited breath for him to say something else.
“What’s wrong?” she asked after a minute of silence.
His eyes never tore off the toothbrush as he answered. “For something so invaluable, I feel like you’ve given me the world, right now and I don’t understand why.”
To sooth him, she said, “It’s your memory. You probably get way more expensive gifts than this, so don’t worry about it.” She leaned over to a pouch she usually had stuffed in her coat. “I got some toothpaste.”
He put his hand to his eye as if he had something in it, smiled his gorgeous smile and looked back down at the toothbrush as if it were a chunk of gold at Fort Knox.
“I know it’s not anything valuable, but with us being out on the street like this and seeing your life, this is about the most precious thing a person can have on themselves to know they’re still human, Hope. Thank you so much.”
No one had ever reacted so fiercely to a gift she had given them and Jona felt honored she could give him something so nice, but she was getting very uncomfortable about the intimacy of the situation, so she decided to change the mood. “I’m so hungry. Can we eat?”
He looked at her and smiled again, “That’s the best idea right now.”
The plethora of food he laid out made her very happy. From the sweet/sour chicken and shrimp to the pepper steak freshly made, she felt like she could eat for days.
Each item he seemed to know where the dish had originated and was able to tell her the history of food and even other dishes he thought she would like.
By now they were laid out on the covers side by side with the food in front of them. He had taken off all his sweaters and was down to his t-shirt and only one layer of pants just like her. Though the temperature was getting colder outside because they were in a small space the heater supplied enough heat to keep them sufficiently warm.
She had prepared to stay in the entire holiday and had enough batteries to power everything, but she had really not expected to eat so heartedly.
"All that you know and you can't remember like a restaurant you've been too or a place you've gone to in the city?"
"You said it sounded like I'd never been to the city often."
"You just didn’t sound like a guy that made frequent trips here to the city when you were in that alley talking to that lady."
"Well maybe that's why things aren't clicking and the doctor said he believes I still have procedural memory, implicit and semantic memory, but present memory or episodic memory I don't."
"I think I understand. You can remember how to do stuff, but you don't know how you learned."
"Bingo. Like for some reason I know when you eat your body gives you a natural high."
"A natural high?" she asked.
"Yes. Your body gives you dopamine."
"Dope?"
"Dopamine. It's a natural reward system."
"Do you think you were a doctor?"
He thought about it for a moment, but then shook his head. "No, not a doctor, but I knew odd facts and...” He looked over at the batteries. "And I know how to do electricity be
cause I can see how you cut the cord wrong for the lamp."
She looked over at the lamp. "Long as you don't move it you won't notice the short."
"I know that. I think I also know how to build things or design things."
Jona’s eyebrows rose in surprise. "Really? So what other stuff do you think you know how to do?" she questioned.
"Only one other thing comes to mind that I’m very confident I know how to do real well." There was a wicked look in his eyes.
Innocently she asked, "What?"
He leaned to her and kissed her again. At the time, she was holding a fork with a piece of sweet and sour shrimp on it, but this kiss wasn't like the one in the hospital or the kiss to shut her up. This one was different. It was as if he had reached inside of her body and made his will her own and whatever he wanted she wanted at that exact moment and time. Terror and excitement filled her all at the same time and she had no will to move away.
He tilted his head slightly parting her lips and then she could taste the sweetness from the food on his tongue that wrapped around hers. He pulled her body against his and there was a motion that lulled her own actions in a subconscious movement to follow him. She didn't know when she closed her eyes, or when she had dropped the fork to wrap her arms around his neck, but it had to be minutes later when she felt him move her under him.
Jona felt light as air. From the tips of her toes to the ends of her hair, tingled all over and there was a mysterious expectation pulsing between her legs.
He moved away slightly and smiled tenderly down at her. "Your lips and body tell me so much, Hope."
She liked the soft way he spoke her name. "What do they say?"
He kissed her lips briefly. "You want more of this." He kissed her again. "And this."
He kissed her neck this time, while his hand moved up her shirt.
Jona gasped feeling that light as air feeling seem to lift her.
"I can feel your heartbeat on your tongue," he whispered after a long breathless kiss.
"You can?" she asked amazed.
From his hands to his lips, he was keeping her thoughts from thinking straight.
Hope Is Love Page 6