Forget Me Not (Escape Contemporary Romance)

by Nina Blake

  ‘The problem wasn’t that I didn’t care. The problem was I cared too much. And I didn’t want to admit it to you, myself or anyone.’

  Claire clenched her fists to stop them from shaking. ‘You had no right to get rid of it. It was mine. You gave it to me.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘You can’t just buy me a new teddy bear and think this will change everything and make it all better. We separated because you didn’t love me anymore. That hasn’t changed.’

  ‘Is that what you think?’ Stefan said.

  ‘What else was I supposed to think when you couldn’t stand the sight of me? You couldn’t bear to look at me anymore.’

  Stefan held her gaze, his pale eyes filled with compassion. ‘I’m looking at you now. I always loved you, even when I moved out. I didn’t know how to deal with my pain and I took it out on you, blamed you. That was wrong of me, I know, but I never stopped loving you. And I never said I didn’t love you.’

  Just this once, Claire had to be strong. No matter how much she wanted his words to be true, she couldn’t open her heart and let him back into her life again.

  Good God, she just couldn’t do it again.

  She uncurled her fingers and stared down at her hands. It was more than she could bear to look at him. ‘That’s not good enough. You left me. You didn’t want me. We were separated for six months. You had plenty of time to think it through but you didn’t decide you wanted me after all. You didn’t come back then and you can’t come back now.’

  ‘That’s what I’m trying to tell you. The day I was mugged, the day I lost my memory…I was coming back to you.’

  Claire stared at him. ‘That was when I bought the second teddy bear,’ Stefan said.

  ‘What are you talking about? The second teddy bear is sitting on the table.’

  He shook his head. ‘The day I was hit on the head and mugged, I went to the gift shop and bought another Frederick’s teddy bear. For you. Because I wanted to come back to you. I wanted to give us a second chance.’

  Stefan reached into the backpack sitting under the coffee table. She hadn’t even noticed it until then.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Claire asked.

  Stefan handed her a small piece of paper. ‘There’s the receipt. Look at the date. The day I went missing, I went back to the gift shop and bought a teddy. There were a few scraps of paper in my bag, but they didn’t mean anything to me until now.’

  She spread her hands. ‘So what happened to the bear?’

  ‘It must have been stolen along with my wallet, but that doesn’t really matter. What matters is that I was on my way back to you. Can’t you see?’

  No, she couldn’t see, couldn’t accept that after everything she’d been through, wouldn’t allow that this might be true.

  Stefan enveloped her hand in both of his. ‘I love you. I always have. I realised that on my own but then the amnesia got in my way. I would have come back if that hadn’t have happened, if I hadn’t lost my memory.’

  What could she believe? Claire wanted to believe he loved her, that he always had. ‘You were coming back to me?’ Claire asked softly.

  ‘I’d realised the mistake I’d made, how selfish I’d been. I was going to buy the teddy and surprise you.’ He looked down at their hands, entwined together. ‘You’ve got to believe me.’

  Stefan couldn’t possibly be making this up. It was too crazy.

  ‘What made you want me again?’ Claire asked. ‘What made you change your mind?’

  ‘It wasn’t my mind that changed. Or my heart. I always loved you but I buried those feelings deep inside. I worked harder, spent more time at the office, and pushed myself deeper into my work so I wouldn’t have to think about my feelings. But when I moved into my own apartment, I had more time to think things through. I needed the space, the time on my own to work things out.’

  Claire glared at him. ‘That’s a bit of a cliché.’

  He nodded. ‘But, Claire, your past and your problems with your father had given you strength. It brought you, your mother and Sophie closer together. You knew how to talk about your feelings, how to be a family, how to work for what you wanted in life. All those years, I’d loved you despite your background. I had it so wrong. Suddenly, I loved you because of it, because it was part of you.’

  ‘I thought you never understood.’

  ‘Until recently, I hadn’t. But just as your background had made you who you are, so had mine. I was fine as long as the going was good but as soon as things got rough between us, I didn’t know what to do or how to handle it. I stuffed up, big-time. It took me a while to come to that realisation. The decision to come back to you didn’t happen overnight or in a single moment, but slowly and over a matter of time.’

  Claire looked at him. ‘You didn’t even call me.’

  He shrugged. ‘No, I didn’t. Right or wrong, I was going to spring it on you all at once. I’d booked two weeks off work and told my colleagues I was going to New Zealand and didn’t want to be contacted while I was away, but I hadn’t booked a trip. I was planning on spending two weeks holed up in our apartment. With you. Without the demands of work, I was going to be a proper husband for a change and take care of you, cook for you, pamper you, give you what you deserved.’

  ‘That was the holiday you’d planned?’

  ‘Not very romantic, I know, but one of the things you’d said when we’d argued kept coming back to me: that you only ever had me when we went on overseas trips, and the rest of the time all you got was the tired lawyer, the office worker who came home after a long, demanding day at work. I wasn’t listening when you’d said those things. I only started to listen after we separated.’

  ‘I didn’t think anything I said had made any difference.’

  ‘It didn’t at the time. After awhile, though, it began to all sink in. I don’t want the same things I wanted before. Me and you, we’re a family and nothing is more important than that. Maybe one day our family will get bigger, maybe we’ll have children. I hope so.’

  Claire hoped so, too, but though she opened her mouth to speak, the words just wouldn’t come out.

  ‘The MRC Insurance case is coming to a close,’ Stefan said. ‘I was planning on leaving the firm after that.’

  Claire couldn’t believe her ears. ‘Leaving the firm?’

  ‘I’d like to take some time off. As you’ve told me over the last week, I don’t have to work. I want to, though. In fact, I’m planning on opening my own firm so I can give something back to the community. There are deserving clients out there who can’t afford to pay and I can help those people. This new firm can take on commercial clients as well as pro-bono cases. It doesn’t have to be all about money.’

  ‘This is all so quick.’

  ‘For you, I’m sure it is, but I’ve had months to think about it. I’m ambitious. I can’t change that, but I can control it and direct it. I can have a career without being a workaholic. I can focus on what’s truly important in life. You and me, our marriage, and loving each other. That’s what’s important.’

  Claire looked away from him, tried to take it all in. Was he really back? Did she dare to believe it?

  Suddenly, out of nowhere the tears began to flow. Claire felt her eyes well up, felt hot rivulets sliding their way down her cheeks. She cried until the wetness there turned from warm to cool.

  Stefan slid closer and brushed his hands across her cheeks. ‘I hope they’re tears of joy.’

  Claire turned to face him. ‘I don’t know what to think or say.’

  ‘Say you love me.’

  Her lips trembled. ‘I love you.’

  And, finally, it was the truth.

  ‘Say you’ll be my wife. Say you’ll spend the rest of your life with me.’

  ‘I’ll be your wife.’

  Grinning, Stefan said, ‘Now I’ll say I love you and kiss the bride.’

  He leaned closer, and Claire tilted her head towards him, pressing a finger to his lips.

&n
bsp; ‘Say it,’ she said.

  His brow furrowed. ‘What?’

  ‘Say it.’

  ‘I love you.’ Her finger dropped from his lips, and as she slid her hand along his jaw, he murmured, ‘And now I’m going to kiss the bride.’

  Wrapping his arms around her, Stefan covered her mouth with his. Their bodies joined together as he held her tightly with one arm, laying her down along the sofa. This was everything Claire had ever wanted, everything she’d lost, and more.

  It wasn’t just a kiss. It was love—not the kind that fades as the passion dies out, but the kind that lasts forever, and forever was going to be a damn long time. Forever was never going to go away.

  God, it was so good to have him back. All of him. For good.

  Stefan pulled away and grinned. ‘It’s good to be home.’

  He’d read her mind.

  About the Author

  Nina Blake didn’t learn English until she went to school but that didn’t stand in the way of her love of reading. Unlike other authors, when Nina was growing up her house was never full of books, and as a teenager her mother told her she read too much. As if such a thing were possible.

  After university, Nina worked in public relations managing publications. She still loves publications—both hard and soft copy—and was delighted to have her first novel published through Escape.

  She lives in Perth, Australia, with her husband and son.

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  ISBN: 9780857990488

  Title: FORGET ME NOT

  Copyright © 2013 by Nina Blake

  All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises (Australia) Limited, Locked Bag 7002, Chatswood D.C. NSW, Australia, 2067.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

  ® and ™ are trademarks of Harlequin Enterprises Limited and are used under license to the Publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in Australia, New Zealand, the United States Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries.

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