fabric, then more plastic.
When he pulled off the last layer, she almost fainted.
Three massive stacks of cash sat on the sheet.
“What is that?” she asked.
“Oh, I like to keep some cash handy,” he said lightly.
She leaned in and saw the bills were all hundreds. She couldn’t even get her mind around how much money there must have been altogether.
“You’re… rich?” she asked, testing out the idea.
He shrugged. “I’ve been lucky in business.”
Her mind went back to that glassy building and the two secretaries waiting outside his office.
Of course he was rich. How could she have forgotten that part? Look at this place. And he said it was his second home.
“I’m sorry,” she said faintly. “Things aren’t coming back evenly.”
“It’s fine, Jessica,” he said, sitting beside her and wrapping a big arm around her shoulders. “We’ll have all the time in the world, soon enough. You’ll remember things slowly, and I’ll be here for you.”
She buried her face in his chest and the reeling, dizzy feeling receded a little.
He smelled so good, and so familiar.
Flashes of the past sparked in her mind, all happy ones. His mouth pressed to hers, his hands on her waist.
A shiver of desire shot through her before she could contain it.
“Jessica, are you okay?” he asked, observing her with those beautiful dark eyes.
11
Cullen
Cullen searched Jessica’s beautiful face.
He hoped he hadn’t frightened her by bringing her here.
“Oh, my love, we shared so many happy memories here,” he told her softly. “It felt like a safe place to me. But I wasn’t thinking about how confusing it must feel to you, remembering things in bursts. We can go somewhere else, anywhere you want.”
But instead of answering she reached out and cupped his jaw in her hand, so gently, as if she were afraid she might hurt him.
A wave of desire nearly knocked him over.
Remember that she is vulnerable right now. She may not even fully know what we were to each other.
But he was already turning his face to her hand, pressing a burning kiss to her palm.
She made a small sound, and it was his undoing.
He bent and pressed his lips to hers, delirious with the softness of her sweet mouth.
She kissed him back as if her life depended on it.
Before he knew what he was doing, he had lifted her into his arms and was carrying her to the bedroom.
But when he got there, he realized that every single item in the cozy space was covered in sheets.
He cradled Jessica in his arms, helplessly trying to figure out how he was going to get the bed uncovered without putting her down.
She giggled and the sound distracted him from his conundrum.
He smiled down at her, loving the way her eyes sparkled and the little dimple that appeared on the left side of her mouth when she laughed.
“What’s so funny?” he teased. “Don’t you like my spooky decor?”
“I’ll help you get rid of it,” she said with a wink, wiggling to get down.
Reluctantly, he placed her on the floor. She went to work right away, whisking sheets off the furniture. He joined her, pulling a sheet from his reading chair in front of the fireplace. She removed sheets from the bedside tables. He went onto the balcony and pulled the coverings off the chairs and table.
At last, they met on opposites sides of the bed.
That last sheet was the only thing between them, the only barrier to finally making her his queen.
They both grabbed it at once and Jessica laughed again. Together, they pulled back the sheet and let it fall on the ground.
He meant to savor the moment, to walk over to her slowly, tangle a hand in her hair.
But she was already crawling across the bed to him, focused as a fox leaping on its prey.
The air seemed to go out of the room along with the furniture, the view, and everything except his beautiful queen and the way she gazed at him with such confidence and such naked need.
“Stop me if I go too fast,” he managed to say before he pulled her close and ravished her mouth with his once more.
12
Jessica
Jessica let herself go to sensation.
Cullen kissed her, thumbing open her jaw with one hand and sliding the other down her side, tracing her curves.
She wanted him so badly, would have wanted him even if they didn’t have a history.
But there was memory in his touch, an echo of pleasure that had her breathless already.
“Let’s get you undressed,” he suggested, his whisper rough in