Page 5 of Diagnosis Attraction

“Even when I’m alone and desperate?” she asked in a low voice.

Her words and the pleading look in her eyes made his throat tighten. More than that, when he’d touched her, hesensed that she was a good person. She didn’t deserve what had happened to her, although he knew objectively that being good or bad didn’t have anything to do with what happened to people. Like the guy next to him getting shot. Jerry had been a good person, too. But you could lead an exemplarylife and end up being killed by a stray bullet that came through your living room wall.

He pushed the disturbing images out of his mind and managed to say, “It wasn’t just memories. At least for me. There was another aspect to it.”

He saw her flush. “Not just memories,” she agreed, then looked down at her hands. “Sexual arousal,” she whispered.

“But that was completely inappropriate. I’m your doctor. There can’t be anything personal between us.”

She took her lower lip between her teeth. “Even if your touching me makes me remember? I mean, isn’t that—medically beneficial?”

“I’m afraid I can’t stretch the definition that far.”

She played with the edge of the sheet again, pleating it between her thumb and finger. “That last scene—where the guy dragged me out of the car. I don’t think he was trying to help me. He looked relieved to have caught up with me—but not in a good way.”

“I think that’s right.”

“I think he was following me, and I was trying to get away. That’s why I crashed into a lamppost. I was desperate to escape from him and the other guy—the one who was driving.”

“Do you remember it that way?”

Anger flared in her eyes. “Not on my own. I think that’s what you picked up from me, right?”

He nodded.

“So, odd as it sounds, it must be true because you saw what I couldn’t.”

“Yeah.”

“Probably it would be a good idea to avoid running into him again. If I knew who he was and why he wanted to hurt me.”

“Yes.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You sound like a computerized therapy program, agreeing with everything I’m saying but not adding anything—besides what you pulled out of my head.”

He felt his chest constrict. “I’m sorry.”

“How am I going to stay out of that guy’s clutches when I don’t even know who I am or who he is?”

He wanted to help her, but his hands were tied because of the professional demeanor that he was forced to maintain. In the end, all he could say was, “I’m sorry. I don’t know.”

He stopped talking when he realized Elizabeth was staring at someone standing in the doorway behind him.

CHAPTER TWO

Matt turned to see that Polly Kramer, one of the nurses, had come into the room behind him.

“Dr. Delano.”

“Yes,” he answered, relieved that someone else had intervened to break up the intensity of the encounter between himself and Elizabeth, but also wondering how much of the conversation the nurse had heard.

She must have picked up on something, perhaps the tone of their voices, because she asked, “Is there some problem?”

He was wondering what to say when Elizabeth answered from the bed. “Basically, still my missing memory.” She cleared her throat. “But while Dr. Delano was examining me, a name popped into my head. I think it’s my real name.”

The woman’s face lit up. “Why, that’s marvelous. What is it?”

“Elizabeth.” She waited for a beat. “I only got the first name.”

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