back,” she said, and then he saw her cringe, almost like she was afraid that he would be mad at her. Why the hell would she be afraid of that?
“What do you mean ‘most’ of it? And when did you get it back?”
“Well, it kind of all came back with that last orgasm you gave me and….”
“You’re welcome,” he said, grinning from ear to ear.
She smiled and continued, “And by most of it I mean I remember my life, my work, where I live. But I don’t remember that night, yet.”
“Why did you wait until now to tell me?” he said.
She leaned her ear back on his chest to listen to the strong thump, thump of his heart rather than looking him in the eye, “I don’t want to tell you that,” she mumbled.
******************************************His fingers cradled her chin and brought her face up to his – but like a stubborn child, she had her eyes squeezed shut – and she was blushing from head to toe – and her heart, Dear God, her heart was racing.
“Tess, open your eyes. Look at me, Tess,” he said in his best ‘I’m a sexy vampire and you have to do what I want’ voice.
“Colton, I’m afraid to tell you,” she whispered and, fuck, her heart was pounding so hard she was afraid she was going to bounce off the bed.
He looked at her like a stern father, “Tess – why would you be afraid to tell me that you got your memory back?”
“B,b,because I don’t want you to send me home, okay? I’m not ready to. I don’t want to go. But that sounds so pathetic and needy and fucking clingy and I can’t believe I just said it.”
He laughed and wrapped his arms tightly around her, “Tess, you are not going anywhere,” he said.
She breathed a sigh of relief. He wanted her here. He wanted her to stay….until he said:
“It’s not safe for you to go home until we find out who did this to you.”
She couldn’t hide her disappointment. She turned her ear back to his chest to try to hide it and whispered, “Oh.”
She felt him shift on the bed. He flipped her over so that she was underneath him. He smoothed the hair down on her head as he said, “Tess. You’re staying here until we find whoever did this to you and then, after that, well I’m definitely open to suggestions. But let’s wait to figure that out later, okay? I don’t want anything to distract me from my duty to protect you and bring your attacker to justice.”
He leaned down to kiss her again but had to stop when there was a knock on the door. He grinned down at Tess and said, “Hansen’s been pacing outside that door for over an hour. I should probably let him in. Plus, you’re hungry, you need to eat.”
“I’m hungry? I didn’t even know that yet, not really. How did you?”
“I can hear that your stomach is, ummm, empty. Why don’t we head downstairs? We can get you something to eat and then I can talk to Hansen about this wolf and try to find out how it got in. Okay?”
Tess nodded her head. Colton jumped up, went to the closet and grabbed a bathrobe for Tess. He tossed it to her on the bed then he grabbed a pair of sweatpants and slid them on. He walked to the edge of the bed and offered her his hand to help her stand. She took one look at his chest and said, “You really should put on a shirt, you know.”
“Me? Why? I don’t get cold.”
“I know you don’t get cold. But look at you. How the hell am I supposed to keep my hands off of you when you look like that?”
Colton looked surprised for a moment. Could he really not know how fucking hot he was, she thought. Then he surprised her by saying, “Oh. Don’t.”
What the hell was that supposed to mean? “Don’t? Don’t what?” she whispered. Her heart started pounding – she was afraid he was saying ‘Don’t touch me.’
The twinkle in his eye and the sly, sexy smile told her she was wrong before he even opened his mouth, “Don’t keep your hands off of me,” he said as he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead.
“Thank you,” she whispered as she hugged him tight.
“For what? For letting you touch me? Believe me, the pleasure’s all mine. I should be thanking you.”
“No, not