LITMIR.BIZ

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to do with it?”

      He shrugged. “I don’t know.”

      “But touching you brought back memories I couldn’t reach a few minutes ago,” she said again.

      He nodded.

      “Let’s take it from the opposite angle. Why you?” she murmured.

      “I have no idea.”

      Neither one of them seemed capable of looking away from the other. But he took another step from her, because he was so off-kilter that he wasn’t sure what to do. Maybe something crazy like reach for her again, because touching her had been like every aching fantasy he’d ever experienced.

      She moistened her lips. “What exactly happened?”

      “I don’t know. But I found out that your name is Elizabeth.”

      She gave a nervous laugh. “I have amnesia, but when you touched me, you brought some of my memories back.”

      “Yes.”

      “Did that ever happen to you before?” she asked.

      “No. To you?”

      “No.” She laughed again. “At least I don’t think so. The only personal things I remember are what you gave me.”

      There was no logic to what she’d just said. And she might have been lying. But he didn’t think so.

      He saw the challenge in her eyes and heard it in her voice. “We could try it again. Maybe you can bring back more of me.”

      “I can’t.”

      “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 touched her, he sensed 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 people endured.

      Like the guy next to him getting shot. Jerry had been a good person, too. But anyone could lead an exemplary life and end up being killed by a stray bullet that came through the living-room wall.

      Dr. Delano 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?”

      Frustration 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 him 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 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 a beat. “I only got the first name.”

      “But that’s a start.”

      “I was hoping that Dr. Delano could help me dredge up some other facts about myself.”

      Kramer looked at him. “Can you help her?”

      “I’m afraid not. The name came to her. It wasn’t anything I did,” he protested, not sure that he was actually telling the truth but totally unwilling to explain. He’d done something, but he’d only touched her, and he wasn’t going to do it again.

      The nurse nodded, then changed the subject. “Is Elizabeth ready to be discharged?”

      “If I knew where to send her,” Matt muttered. “Nobody’s come forward looking for her?”

      “I’m afraid not.”

      His gaze flicked to the woman on the bed, and they were probably both thinking, given her memory of the aftermath of the crash, that might be an advantage.

      “Do you have any suggestions?” Elizabeth asked.

      “I might,” Nurse Kramer murmured, shifting her weight from one foot to the other.

      Matthew waited for her to say what was on her mind.

      After a long pause, the nurse said, “I have a spare room that I haven’t used since my daughter got married and moved away. I was thinking that...Elizabeth might want to stay with me until she remembers who she is.”

      * * *

      IN HIS DULANEY VALLEY mansion, Derek Lang leaned back in the comfortable leather chair behind his desk. He was a tall man, and the expensive chair was specially designed with a comfortable headrest. His dark hair was tamed by a four-hundred-dollar haircut. His well-muscled frame was clothed in a thousand-dollar suit. And he was currently having a facial massage administered by Susanna, one of the gorgeous young women he kept around the house. He liked them to have useful skills, in addition to being good in bed. And Susanna was a perfect example.

      When she finished and stepped away, he picked up a hand mirror and inspected his face. At forty-five he still looked fit—because he took good care of himself with daily sessions in the gym on the weight machines and ellipticals. And he’d also had some nips and tucks

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