Page 4 of Rescued By the Guard

She bunches the blankets tighter to her chest as if they can shield her from everything. I don’t want to make any of this harder for her, so I remain in place and try to keep my voice calm and even. I’d hate to startle her more if I have too much inflection in my voice.

The memory lapse may be present, but it doesn’t mean she won’t be suffering from muscle memory along with fear of not knowing anything.

“Do I know you?”

Shit. I should’ve explained more instead of gazing at her, taking in how beautiful she is, and how sweet her voice is. I'm out of my element in standard etiquette.

“No, we’ve never met before. I’m here on vacation, and I was getting settled to camp out here in the living while the storm brewed outside when I noticed you on the beach.”

She cocks her head.

“You were stumbling, and drenched. I ran out to you and noticed you’d been injured, but before you could say anything, you passed out and I put us in my truck to get you to the hospital, but well, you know the rest.”

She pulls her bottom lip into her mouth and her perfect white teeth poke out a little as she plays with the lip. Her hand rubs against her chest. She lowers the blanket and frowns at the large T-shirt and rolled up sweatpants on her.

“You were soaked, and I didn’t want you to get sick on top of everything else. So, I toweled you off and put on some of my clothes. Don’t worry, I saw nothing. I looked at your face the whole time.”

It didn’t even kill me like it would’ve had in any other situation. The woman was unconscious and went through quite the ordeal, so there was no urge to look. But after I got her settled and safe, the desire built up because I’ve been able to study her face and even with the bruising, she’s perfect.

The anger boils inside of me as I imagine getting my hands on the man who dared hurt her and make him fight somebody his own size.

“Um, thank you.”

Awe, no need to thank me, beautiful.

The words are on the tip of my tongue, but I don’t want to muddy the situation, so I nod and say, “You’re welcome.”

4

BELLA

Bella

I barely contain my panic.Everything is strange to me, even my thoughts are foggy, and I can’t pinpoint one clue as to who I am, what happened, where I am. Nothing.

Add to the fact, this stranger undressed me and put me in his clothes. It makes it worse. He states he hasn’t met me before, so double stressor, that makes two people now who don’t know who I am. Me being the first. However, the earnest gaze in his eyes and his considerate distance from me has me believing him when he says he never looked and he won’t hurt me.

This blind faith in feeling like this man is a good man is strong, but I want to believe I’m not being a dope and need my head examined.

Which I do, but I can’t get that to happen because of a stupid storm that has me trapped.

What was I doing out in a storm? How did I get hurt?

A million questions hammer away in my mind, and it only makes my head hurt more, which is a nice distraction from allthe aches and pains my body is enduring. It’s stiff, and I’d kill for a long hot soak in a lavender bathtub.

I freeze as a flash of me soaking in a tub with lots of bubbles plays out in my mind, only to come crashing down when I startle from an imaginary pounding on the door. I scan the room, but there’s no sound. Well, nothing besides the whistling of the wind outside and the fire crackling.

“Are you okay?” Dale asks. He observes everything I’m doing, and I don’t know how to perceive it.

On one hand, he’s feeling responsible for me since he found me, and I get it, but the other makes me wonder if he’s telling me the full truth.

It makes me uncomfortable not knowing if I have trust issues or not. No matter how much I try to remember, there’s nothing. I want to trust him because I’m not getting any warning signals, but I can’t trust myself at the moment, so forget about trusting another person.

“Yeah, I thought I heard something.”

“I just checked everything out before you woke up. Do you want me to go around and check again?” Dale stands, concern written all over his face, and he starts to walk away.

“No, please don’t.” The idea of sitting in the dark alone, well with only the fireplace, has me on edge and I don’t want to be by myself. “I don’t want to be alone right now.”

---