Forgotten Read online

  “Yes, you do.” She lifted her chin determinedly. “And what you can tell me is why it was so important to you to…to make me come.” There were two spots of color high on her cheekbones but she refused to drop her gaze, even though she was clearly embarrassed.

  Rone sighed and sank back onto the bed…and kept sinking—he’d forgotten that none of the furniture in this fucked up place would support him unless he was touching Kate. And from the look on her face, she wasn’t going to want him touching her for a long, long time to come.

  Swearing, he extracted himself from the soft, pillowy bed which was sucking him down and went to stand in the kitchen area where he could at least lean against the counter. Kate followed him—clearly she wasn’t going anywhere until she got some kind of explanation. Which was going to be a problem since he couldn’t explain his hunger without frightening her or making her feel coerced.

  “I can’t talk about it,” he said shortly. “I’m sorry, Kate but you wouldn’t understand.”

  “Wouldn’t understand?” She raised an eyebrow at him incredulously. “What wouldn’t I understand?”

  “Any of this.” Rone made a gesture with one hand, indicating himself and the whole situation.

  “Why not?” Kate demanded. “I must have understood it—understood you—before my memory got wiped. I mean, we were married for three years. So why can’t you just tell me?”

  “Because I don’t want to scare you, all right?” His voice came out in a muted roar and Kate flinched back, a look of uncertainty on her face.

  “You’re doing a pretty good job of that without explaining anything,” she remarked in a trembling voice.

  “I’m sorry. Baby, I’m so sorry.” Rone sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Please believe me, if I could explain things to you, I would. But I can’t—I just can’t. Okay?”

  Kate just looked at him for a moment. Then she went over to the living area and turned on the viewscreen. She sat down in front of the couch and started to watch whatever was on—some kind of mindless drivel as far as Rone could see.

  “Kate…baby…” He came to sit beside her but she scooted away from him.

  “We’re in danger here, you know,” she said in a low voice, her eyes never leaving the screen.

  “Yeah, no shit,” Rone growled, putting his head in his hands. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

  “Here’s something you don’t know—I keep hearing a voice in my head. Whenever we’re being…being intimate.”

  “What?” Rone looked over at her. Her cheeks were flaming and she still wasn’t looking at him.

  “A voice. It’s not mine—not my internal monologue, I mean. It keeps telling me to…to do things with you. Keeps urging me to go further and further.”

  “What kinds of things?” Rone asked, fascinated despite himself.

  “What kinds of things do you think?” Kate snapped. “Sexual things. I heard it when we were in the shower together and again just now in bed.”

  He frowned. “Is that the only reason you touched me…and let me touch you?”

  “No.” Kate shifted uncomfortably. “I didn’t like hearing it. Both times I tried to resist it. It feels strange…invasive. And it wants me to do things I…I’m not ready to do.” She looked up at him at last. “Rone, I feel like we’re being manipulated here, by an outside entity.”

  “Who? The Madam of Shadows?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. But whoever it is, I don’t like it. I want to get away from this place—I feel like we’ve gotten as much out of it as we can. You know?”

  “I’m beginning to think you’re right,” Rone said grimly. “It’s not safe here anymore. I know Commander Sylvan sent us here but I don’t think he knew anything about this part of the resort. There’s something wrong here…something dark.”

  “Exactly. But how can we get out?” She crossed her arms over her chest and shivered. “Because we really need to, Rone—need to get out of here.”

  “I know, baby.” Without thinking about it, he put an arm around her shoulders and hugged her close for comfort, just as he’d done so many times in their years together.

  At first, Kate stiffened against him. Then, slowly, she began to relax and let herself melt against him.

  “Hey,” she murmured after a moment. “The couch is actually supporting us.”

  It was. They were leaning against the front of it and it was holding their weight—probably because they were touching. It gave Rone an idea.

  “Why don’t we finish sleeping here?” he suggested. “It doesn’t require as much physical contact.”

  “It’s so small though,” Kate objected. “We’d never be able to stretch out—well, you wouldn’t anyway.”

  “That’s the idea,” Rone pointed out. “We can’t get into too much trouble if we’re all cramped up.” He hoped not, anyway.

  “Well…” Kate looked at him doubtfully. “I guess it’s worth a try.”

  Rone got the spread from the bed and draped it over the small couch. Then, with a little maneuvering, he managed to get on the couch with one foot on the floor and Kate between his legs, leaning against his chest. It wasn’t very comfortable and he hung off on both ends but after propping a pillow under his neck, he was able to find a position he thought he could sleep in.

  Kate seemed a little more doubtful, though.

  “Remind me again how this is any better than the bed?” she asked, leaning against his chest while trying to avoid his crotch. He was still only wearing a towel since there was no other clothing to be found anywhere in the apartment. At least his shaft had gone down but Rone had to admit he could feel it twitching, threatening to get hard again now that he had Kate in such close proximity.

  “It’ll be okay,” he tried to reassure her. “I won’t hurt you, baby. You’re safe here with me.” He hoped.

  “All right.” She looked down at the growing bulge under his towel. “Um, is that going to be a problem?”

  “Not a bit,” Rone promised her, even though he could feel the Beast stirring uneasily inside him. “It’s just a natural reaction to having you so close, that’s all.”

  “So…just having me near you, having me touch you, even in a non-sexual way, makes you, uh, hard?” She looked at him, her cheeks pink with a blush.

  He shrugged. “Sorry, can’t help it.”

  “But, is that the way it always is? The way it always was, between us, I mean?”

  “Probably at least ninety percent of the time.” He shrugged. “What can I say? You turn me on.”

  “So, let me get this straight—you walked around with blue balls for ninety percent of your life since you met me?” she demanded.

  “Well, not exactly…” Rone shifted uncomfortably.

  “Why? Were we constantly making love?” Kate wanted to know. “I mean like, five or six or seven times a day or something?”

  “We usually made love at least once a day,” Rone said reluctantly. He was uncomfortable discussing this with her, knowing how she would feel about hearing the truth.

  “Okay, but what about the rest of the time?” she asked. “I mean, I’ve seen how you…how you don’t, uh, go down even after you come. I mean your…your shaft doesn’t.” She motioned again at the white towel covering his crotch. “I can’t believe that once a day was doing it for you. Unless you were constantly sneaking off to the bathroom to, uh, take care of yourself?”

  “No…” Rone sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He would have to tell her—at least a little. “The rest of the time you let me taste you. Remember I told you we had a kind of schedule we followed?”

  She raised her eyebrows. “Yes, but that would be you taking care of me.”

  “No—that was me taking care of both of us.” Or all three of us if you count my Beast. But he wasn’t about to bring the unquiet third party into the conversation. It would cause more questions than he could answer.

  Kate frowned. “I don’t understand. How could you, uh,