Page 94 of Amnesia

“I love you,” he said again, the words like music floating in the wind.

I opened my mouth to reply. Eddie put his fingers over my lips and shook his head. “You don’t have to say it.”

I scowled, trying to speak, but my words were muffled against his hand.

He smirked, his eyes sparkling. “Wait until we figure out who you are, Am. I’ll love you, Sadie or not. But you…”

I ripped my mouth free and glared at him. “You think it will matter to me!”

His eyes turned sad, flickering back out to the water. “I think it would be very hard to love the man who lost you out at sea.”

“You’re also the one who found me,” I whispered.

Blue fire ignited in his eyes, nostrils flaring, and then his mouth crashed over mine.

The center of my chest churned the same as the waves on the lake. My heart bobbed along with the swell of emotions, buoyant because she was here. She came back. And because I finally got to tell her the words I’d kept locked away.

I loved her. Since the first night I plucked her from the surf. True, maybe at first I loved her because of Sadie, because of all the moments we had as kids and all the moments I felt we never got to have.

But eventually, Sadie merged into Amnesia in my head and my heart. The love I knew grew and changed; it morphed from a boyish crush turned into agony to something stronger, deeper, and not so dire.

Amnesia didn’t represent something I’d lost anymore, but something I’d gained. Something I desperately wanted to keep.

I didn’t know if she could ever love me, if even she was capable after everything she’d been through, but her whispered words just now felt like a jolt of lightning right through eye of the storm inside me. Everything lit up, electrified. The determination to take it slow, to let her learn to live again and not put any undue pressure on her, disintegrated.

This wasn’t our first kiss, but it was the first of many more. The amount of desire I held for her seeped from my pores and caused my fingers to quake. My fingertips clutched at her waist, anchoring her right up against my torso. Her thin frame fit along mine so well it was as if she melted right into me.

The wind around us picked up, tossing around our hair, grabbing at our clothes. It only spurred me closer because I would never let it rip us apart. Amnesia slipped her arms around my waist, just above my hipbones. At the small of my back, her hands clasped together, her arms tightened, and I felt a sigh brush across my lips. I took advantage of the slight lift off of her lips to cup her face, splaying my fingers wide, cradling as much of her in my palms as I could.

Opening my eyes, I sought out hers. We were still so close our noses bumped, our breaths mingling. Instead of seeing both her eyes, it was like I looked in one, straight into her… past all the unknowns and right to the core where there was nothing but truth.

I meant what I said about it not mattering to me who she was. The girl I lost at sea or a woman with no past—I didn’t care. I didn’t think I even realized how true it was until I gazed into her face just then.

The wind picked up again, the sound of water slapping against the shore and splashing along the banks carrying through the air. Her eyes closed and her head tilted, offering me more. I surrendered to the invitation.

My tongue slipped between her lips, tangled around hers, and then languidly explored her mouth. Amnesia welcomed me inside, but that wasn’t all. Her own tongue sought me out, did some exploring of its own.

Deep in my throat, I moaned, wanting her to know how much I loved it, and then pressed harder, claiming her a little deeper. The pads of her fingers dug into the small of my back, and her body rose up on tiptoes as I assaulted her mouth more fully than ever before.

Thunder rolled overhead, slow and low at first, then drew closer, the sound sort of cracking overhead like a warning. Forcing my mouth away, we both gulped in deep breaths. My lips slipped along her jawline and down her neck.

Am tilted back, my palm supporting her head as she offered up her creamy, delicate skin. I licked over it, then nipped at her flesh before sucking her deeply into my mouth.

Another roar of thunder boomed through the sky. Amnesia jolted a little. Her body went stiff, her hands clutching at me a little more desperately.

Taking her hand, we ran through the yard all the way up to the house where the back door still banged against the side of the house. The air inside was a little warmer, the blustery wind kept out by the sturdy walls.

Almost the second after I latched the door behind us, the sky opened up and sheets of rain plummeted from above, pelted the grass, and stirred up the lake even more. The heavy way it pounded against the roof made my house feel even smaller, as if we were suddenly, amazingly in a world of our own, where nothing else existed and no one else mattered.

“You okay?” I rasped, shoving the hair off my face and going to her.

The lighting in here was dim, and it had grown much darker with the storm, so the light filtering through the window over the kitchen sink wasn’t much to go on. This close, though, I could see her eyes, the slightly rounded look, and the swell of her lip.

“Are you?” she whispered.

“Oh, baby. I was okay the minute you came back,” I murmured, taking in as much of her as I could.

Am stretched up, wrapped her arms around my neck, and pressed close. Her mouth was tentative at first, and it sent my stomach, heart, and lungs into a nosedive. Once, twice, and then a third time, she grazed the fullness of her lips over mine. I might have thought she was flirting if she were any other girl.

---