Page 10 of Fracture

It was a dream. It wasn’t real. She was okay. She was with Vinnie. She was safe.

Sleep claimed her once more, and Lorelei didn’t fight it. The soft beeping slowed with her breathing, and she held on to Vinnie and slept.

Vinnie was glad he wasn’t connected to one of the monitors. It would still be screeching, like it did when Lorelei had her nightmare.

Nightmare. Such a shitty word. She wasn’t having a bad dream. She was reliving the hell she went through.

It had been five nights since she was admitted to the hospital. Five nights of Vinnie sleeping when he could, mostly in tiny snippets. He barely left Lorelei’s side. She panicked when he wasn’t there, and every night, she woke up with a nightmare.

She never remembered them in the morning. He asked her the first morning, and she looked at him like he was insane. Since then, he did what he’d done that first night and climbed into bed with her and held her when the nightmare struck.

She never spoke during her nightmare. He wasn’t sure if that was because she was scared, hiding, or refused to answer any questions. Probably the last one knowing Lorelei.

Not that he gave himself that much credit. He still barely knew the woman. No matter how many nights he held her in his arms and breathed in her scent and calmed her with his body.

The doctor told him it was likely because he found her. Just like Vinnie assumed. The imprint of him on her memory was temporary. Once she got all her memories back, she would no longer need him in her life.

It was a painful blow, but one he understood. Lorelei didn’t need him. He was there to help with her recovery, not to be her partner, in work or life.

With her settled again, Vinnie finally relaxed. His heart rate slowly lowered, his body accepting that the threat was over. After five nights of very little sleep, he needed to get what he could. In the morning, Lorelei was leaving the hospital.

The bag of clothes sat on the foot of the bed, unfamiliar items pouring out of it. Lorelei wanted to reach for her favorite clothes, for something that made her feel strong and powerful and beautiful. Something that made her feel like the woman everyone around kept saying she was.

But she still didn’t remember her.

The doctors said she would. Eventually. But Lorelei wasn’t the most patient woman. She wanted to remember now.

“What do you want to wear?” Karli asked.

Her cousin. Lorelei knew Karli was her cousin because she’d been told every day, but she hadn’t conjured up any memories of the other woman. Something that was clear on her face whenever she walked into the dreaded hospital room with hope in her gaze.

Lorelei wouldn’t lie, but it was tempting just to avoid that look of disappointment that followed the hopeful one.

“I don’t know,” Lorelei answered. Nothing felt like her. The clothes were as familiar to her as everything else in her life. Karli said Lorelei had been mostly living in Niagara Falls for the last few months. Did that mean the clothes were left behind in her Boston apartment? Ones she never wore, so they were left behind?

They were fucking clothes. Why was it so damn hard to choose something to wear?

She lifted her gaze to Vinnie and nibbled on her lip. What would he want to see her in? He was the only one who didn’t make her feel like he was waiting for her to do something. He was just patient and approving.

He moved toward the bag and rifled through it. He pulled out a pair of panties that looked silky and sexy and sinful. His cheeks turned red before he shoved the panties back into the bag.

“Give me those,” Lorelei said, reaching her hand out to Vinnie. “I need something. I need all of it. I can’t be shy right now.”

Vinnie held her gaze, then lowered his and pulled the panties back out of the bag. He handed them over, not throwing them at her, but waiting for her to grab them before he let go.

Lorelei touched the soft fabric, running her hands around the edges and finding herself imagining modeling them for Vinnie.

Whoa. Where did that come from? She couldn’t even remember if she’d had sex, but she was overcome with the desire to pop her amnesia cherry with Vinnie.

She sucked in a breath, then balled up the panties and shoved the dirty thoughts away.

Vinnie handed over a pair of cotton shorts, ones that looked endlessly comfortable. He grabbed a teal tank top, then pawed through until he found a brown bra that matched Lorelei’s skin tone.

“I’ll wait outside,” Vinnie mumbled, making a beeline for the door before Lorelei could thank him for finding her clothes.

The soft click of the door told Lorelei he was in the hallway, and the air Karli sucked in told Lorelei she wasn’t the only one who found that interaction more than a little hot.

“Wow. I mean… damn.”