“Matteo,” Kayden says, taking my hand. “The hacker who’s trying to find you by your first name. This is his house. We’re staying here until we’re ready to deal with Gallo.”

“Okay. I don’t think I want to know what that means either right about now.”

The doctor, Nathan, I guess his name is, says something to Kayden in Italian, and I’ve given up fighting over speaking English. At least for tonight. Kayden kisses my hand, a gentle, intimate gesture that does funny things to my stomach. “Give me a minute and we’ll get you someplace where you can lie down.”

He stands and faces Nathan, and I don’t even try to listen to their conversation. My pain eases, but I feel kind of floaty and weird now, and I don’t like it. In fact, it’s freaking me out to have this little control over everything, including my own body.

Kayden squats back down beside me. “Ready to go upstairs?”

“I feel weird.”

“It’s the drugs, sweetheart.” He slides his arms under me. “I’ve got you.”

He lifts me, and I don’t fight him. In fact, I’m getting kind of used to this man carrying me around everywhere. I sink against him, my head spinning with every footstep and sway of our bodies as he exits the garage and starts up a stairwell.

We enter the main house, and I manage a barely there look at the giant, modern-looking living room with light wood floors and stainless-steel railings before we’re walking up another staircase, this one a dizzying, winding nightmare for my head and stomach. Finally, at the top, there is a door. In a few long strides, Kayden carries me over the threshold, my gaze doing a sweeping inspection of a loft-like bedroom, with the same light hardwood floor as the lower level, several corner pillars running from the floor to the ceiling, brick walls, and a giant bed with a high-backed gray headboard. That bed is the blast of reality I don’t want but need, and the magnitude of what is happening hits me with a force ten times that of the storm I ran through to escape him. I’m in a bedroom, alone with Kayden with no hospital staff, or Gallo, to intervene, after having a flashback about being tied to a bed, followed by one of him kissing me.

“Let me down,” I demand. “Let me down, Kayden! Let me—”

He sits me on the end of the bed, planting his hands on either side of my hips. “What part of you have a concussion do you not understand?”

“I know I have a concussion. Believe me, I know. It just won’t go away.” A wave of dizziness washes over me. “Oh wow.” I press my palm to my forehead. “I’m not feeling so good.” I fall back against the mattress. “What’s happening?” I try to lift my hand from my face and can’t. “I can’t move my hand. Kayden, I can’t move my hand!”

“You’re okay,” Kayden promises, lying down next to me.

“I can’t—”

“I’ve got it,” he says, removing my hand and holding it between us. “Nathan gave you some powerful medicine to make sure you rest. You’re just reacting to it. How’s your pain?”

“No pain. I just feel weird. Really weird.” My lashes lower, and unbidden, I am instantly transported back to another bedroom. To that night. To his bed. Deep inside the memory, I’m living it, feeling it.

Naked. Cold. I keep watching the clock, willing him to return. Two hours have passed, and the man I thought was my protector now feels like my captor. He is my captor. The doors he’d shut open, and he stands there, still fully dressed, sauntering slowly toward me. I try to see his face. Why can’t I see his face? He stops at the end of the bed, and I am angry with him. I am hurt. He undresses, and when I would normally watch him, reveling in every delicious inch of his body, I turn my head, every second that passes more punishment. And when his hands come down on my ankles, and he demands, “Look at me,” I don’t. I won’t.

My eyes fly open, and Kayden is still lying next to me, and when I look at him, I see a protector. I see passion. But I am certain he looked at me just as Kayden does now. Before that night. “Please don’t be him,” I whisper, and the darkness follows.

seven

I open my eyes and immediately become aware of being curled on my side, snuggled under warm blankets, rain spattering on the rectangular line of windows before me, dim light breaking through the curtains. Memories rush over me and I start piecing together the events that brought me here. The hospital. The stairwell and Gallo showing up. Adriel. The bitter cold run in the rain through the church parking lot. The sizzling hot kiss with Kayden by that very same church. Then there was the doctor friend of Kayden’s who gave me drugs, followed by Kayden carrying me to a bedroom in his friend’s house. Finally, there was him laying me on a bed, this one, I assume, where I wasted no time passing out. Because why wouldn’t I want to pass out while in bed with a man with a hotness factor off the charts, especially after sharing a scorching hot kiss? Curious about where he is, I try to roll over, only to realize there is a heavy weight at my waist.

“You’re finally awake.”

At the sound of Kayden’s deep, sexy voice, I roll over to face him, my gaze colliding with his at the same moment I realize that not only am I naked but so is he. Oh God. Maybe I didn’t fall asleep. “Please tell me we didn’t have sex and I don’t remember.”

“If we had sex, sweetheart, I promise you, I’d make sure you remembered.” His hand settles on my hip, over the blanket, but I am oh so aware that I’m all skin beneath it. “And I have on pants.”

“Oh. I guess I was too busy noticing my nakedness and . . . your chest.” I press my hand to my face. “I need to stop talking.” He laughs¸ and I peek through my fingers. “Please tell me I undressed myself.”

“You couldn’t even lift your own hand after Nathan gave you the pain meds.”

My hand falls from my face and I gape. “You undressed me?”

“You were wet and cold, and I couldn’t wash and dry your clothes with you in them.”

“You undressed me.”

“Yes,” he confirms. “I undressed you, and yes, I’ve been aware of just how naked you are every second you’ve been that way, as I am right this very moment.” He spares me a reply. “How do you feel?”

I clutch the blanket to me. “Feel?”

“Your head, sweetheart. Are you in pain?”

“Oh. I . . .” My brow furrows, and I forget my state of undress. “Wow. No. I’m not. It’s amazing. It’s wonderful. What kind of drugs did your doctor friend give me?”

“Nathan is his name,” he replies. “And when we first arrived last night he gave you a painkiller and a sedative. About four hours ago, he checked on you and gave you an anti-inflammatory that was supposed to ensure you woke up feeling good. Obviously it worked.”

“Wait. He came back and gave me another injection and I didn’t know it?”

“You didn’t know because you were still heavily sedated, and that was the idea. To get the drugs in you before you woke up.”

“He gave me drugs when I was naked. How many people saw me like this?”

“Only me.”

There’s a hard, possessive quality to his voice, and I am suddenly, intensely aware of how close we are. How close our mouths are, and I’m now officially thinking about our kiss. I decide I need a change of topic. “How long was I asleep?”

“Twelve hours,” he says.

“And it’s still raining?”

“It’s not supposed to stop until tomorrow.”

I decide the rain is as never-ending as my memory loss. “And we’re at your hacker friend’s house?”

“Matteo’s house. That’s right.”

“He’s the one trying to find out who I am using my first name?”

“Yes, and he’s still working on it.” He pauses. “We need to talk, Ella.”