I didn’t want to wake up. This bed was deliciously comfortable. But my head was pounding and I was thirsty. I could get up, grab some aspirin, and crawl back into this perfect bed. I could stay here all day and relax. Wouldn’t that be a luxury? I could do something people thought movie stars did all the time.

I let one eye open and then another.

I shrieked when I saw the stern woman sitting next to me.

“Who are you?” I croaked. My voice was hoarse.

“Look who’s awake.” She patted my wrist. “I’m your nurse.” Her hair was pulled back and she had deep lines on her forehead.

“Nurse?”

The headache pounded at the base of my skull. I looked around. I didn’t recognize this room. I wasn’t in my Malibu beach house. I looked over her shoulder at the towering trees outside. Nothing looked familiar, yet I felt a strange connection to the room.

She rose, placing the back of her hand on my forehead. “Yes, Mr. Taylor hired me.”

“Mr. Taylor?” I eyed her. “You don’t mean Reid Taylor?”

I tried to sit up. Everything was wrong. As I pushed into the bed with my elbows a stinging pain shot through my arm. I looked down at the bandage wrapped against my left bicep.

“Yes. He has personally seen to everything. He’s been worried,” she whispered. “But I knew you’d be fine. Just a scratch on the arm and a bump on the head. Just a few stitches here and there.” She smiled. “But he wanted everything a certain way. His instructions.” She smiled. “Don’t know that I’ve met a man like him before.”

I think she was trying to comfort me, but I still hadn’t processed I was here, wherever here was, because of Reid.

“No fever,” she reported.

I smiled weakly. “That’s great.”

I had a thousand questions for the nurse. How had I ended up here? What did Reid have to do with it? Where did this raging headache come from? And could I please just get up and go pee?

But as she finished up her basic examination the air shifted.

I didn’t have to hear his voice to know he was in the room. My body knew. It always had an uncanny Reid radar installed under the skin.

“Why didn’t you page me?” he asked the nurse.

“She’s only been awake a few minutes, sir.”

They spoke as if I weren’t here between them.

He shoved his hands into his pockets. I didn’t want to see him. I didn’t want to look in his eyes. I didn’t want to hear his voice. I closed my eyes, praying the nurse would stay as a buffer between us.

“You may leave us,” he dismissed her casually. “I’d like to talk to Miss Lawrence.”

She reached for a canvas bag and walked out. As soon as the nurse was gone I knew I was trapped.

“How are you feeling?” Reid asked. He walked closer.

“Terrible,” I answered.

“Are you in pain? I have every medication you were prescribed. I can get you anything you want,” he offered. “Possible more.”

I shook my head. “No,” I lied. “That’s not necessary.”

“That’s a positive sign.”

“Sign for what?”

He rubbed the scruff along his jaw. It looked like he hadn’t shaved in days. I was afraid to study his face any closer. And I sure as hell wasn’t going to gaze into his eyes. Oh no. Not happening.

“That your recovery is going well,” he answered.

“Right my recovery.” I followed the mound of blankets where my toes wiggled at the foot of the bed. The nurse had layered several quilts on top of me.

I hated being in this position. He knew something I didn’t. He understood the circumstances and what had happened. He knew the nurse and knew this bedroom. My fingers curled around the soft comforter in frustration. I hated being at a disadvantage, and especially in front of Reid.

“Abi, don’t you remember what happened to you?”

I bit the inside of my cheek.

“Of course I do.”

“Abi.” His voice was stern and controlling.

How many times had I heard that tone? But it had been two years since I had been in a room with Reid. Two long years of doing everything in my power to erase his memory. Erase the hold he had on me.

“What?” I refused to look at him.

His finger landed on the underside of my chin as his tilted it upward.

“Do you know why I brought you to Big Bear? Do you remember anything about the attack yesterday?”

If I stared at his chest it would be better. I tried to tell myself not to think about how sculpted and chiseled it was. How muscle met muscle in hard angles under his crisp white shirt. I spotted the gun tucked at his waist. Holy shit. It was black and sleek.

“I’m tired.” I sighed. “And thirsty. And honestly, I’d like to get up and pee. So could you call the helpful nurse back in to give me some water?”

“Abi, look at me.”

I never wanted my eyes to drift to his. But there was something about Reid that I couldn’t deny. I blamed the long eyelashes. The smolder was undeniable. And how when he looked at me it was as if he could read my soul. He wasn’t supposed to be able to do that. Not now, not ever.

But I did as he told me. I wasn’t prepared for the sudden well of tears. His eyes said everything. He was worried and scared. He was protective and overbearing.

“What?” I whispered. Once I started, I couldn’t look away.

If we held this gaze was it possible to fill each other on two years without having to say a word?

“It’s ok if you can’t remember. It will come back to you. And you’re safe here. Nothing and no one will hurt you. I promise.”

My lip started to tremble. What was he doing to me? There were two vacant years between us. He didn’t deserve my tears. He left me. He walked out.

Maybe I didn’t know why I was here or what happened to me, but I wasn’t ready to forget the hollow he had created.

“I-I just want to get up and take a shower. Please.” I turned my head before he could see the first tear fall.

“I’ll get Belinda. Hold on.”

He strolled out of the room. The tears were heavy on my lashes. Reid Taylor was a liar. A horrible liar. Because as long as he was here my heart was going to break over and over. And that hurt like hell.