His voice faltered and he reached down to gently stroke her forehead. “You told me I’d damn sure better clear my calendar because I would be there to walk you down the aisle and give you away.”

“Really?”

He nodded. “Really.”

“Where is he?” She’d hoped Rob would be there when she woke up.

“He’ll be back soon. The alarm company’s at the house.”

“Oh.”

“And, news flash, Rob and I voted. You’re not going tomorrow. Maybe next week. You need to heal up more.”

She felt disappointed, but the amount of pain she was in then robbed her of the strength, or reason, to argue. “Okay.”

They both looked up at the sound of keys in the door. Doogie lifted his head before running over to wait. Laura’s heart sped up, fluttering in a pleasant way at the sight of Rob. Wearing a T-shirt that hugged his torso and showed off his physique, and a pair of cargo shorts, he carried a duffel bag.

He smiled when he saw her. “Hey, sweetie.” He left the duffel by the door and walked over to the couch, where he knelt down next to her. “How are you feeling?”

She reached out for his hand and pulled it to her chest. “I’m okay.”

Bill snorted. “She’s lying. I told her she’s not going to the shop today or to Sarasota tomorrow. And she won’t take another pain pill.”

Rob’s gaze never left hers, even while Bill was talking. “Please take one. It’ll make you feel better.”

“It makes my head fuzzy.”

He looked so sad. She tugged on his hand so he leaned in closer. She wished she could make the sadness in his eyes go away.

She brushed a kiss across his lips. It felt good, right.

He rewarded her with a smile. “I’m going to go put my stuff away. What do you want for dinner?”

She shrugged.

“Spaghetti and meatballs it is,” he said.

She watched as he stood, retrieved his bag, and headed down the hall. Her libido wasn’t exactly revving on all cylinders, but something tugged at her heart.

“Don’t worry,” Bill softly said. “You still look at him the way you used to.”

She looked up into his smiling face. “I do?”

He nodded. “You do.”

She rested her head in his lap again and closed her eyes. It would have to be enough.

For now.

* * *

Laura brooked no resistance when Rob arched an eyebrow at her and held out the pill and a glass of water. Bill was in the kitchen helping with dinner, and she was watching the evening news on the couch with Doogie curled up on the floor next to her.

With a sigh she sat up, took the pill and water from him, and swallowed it down. “Happy?”

He pursed his lips. “I’m not happy this happened to you, no. But I’ll do everything I can to take care of you, yes. I can’t stand seeing you in pain.”

“Unless you cause it?” Her jaw snapped shut and she frowned.

His face went blank as he took the glass from her.

“I…I’m sorry,” she said, feeling mortified. “I don’t know where that came from. It just popped out of my mouth.”

“No, it’s okay,” he gently said.

She felt horrible. “Rob, I—”

“Laur, it’s okay,” he firmly said.

There was that tone again. The one Sully had used.

The one that told her Rob wasn’t lying. He wasn’t upset. If anything…

From the crinkles at the outer corner of his eyes, it almost looked like he was trying not to laugh.

But that couldn’t be right.

Could it?

He didn’t have to be at work until six in the morning. After dinner, she left the men to talk and went to curl up in bed. Rob joined her a short while later, leaving a pair of boxers on. She’d opted for a T-shirt and panties.

While rooting through the closet earlier, she’d found several corsets and slinky looking dresses, among other things, tucked in the far back corner.

“Can I ask you something?” she said, struggling to keep her head above consciousness over the effects of the pain pill.

He carefully rested a hand on her hip, trying to avoid her ribs. “Sure, sweetie. You can ask me anything.”

“What are all those corsets and stuff for? In the closet?”

He didn’t answer at first. “We…ah, we like to…play dress-up.”

The little laugh didn’t hurt her ribs. “You mean in bed?”

“Sure.”

She tried to interpret that answer, but felt too tired to think about it. It made sense and felt right despite another of those missing-context moments, so she let it drop. “Okay.” She’d almost fallen asleep when she had another thought. “You can scoot closer,” she mumbled.

When she felt the comforting, firm warmth of his body molded against hers, she crashed into sleep.

* * *

Rob lay there long after she fell asleep and listened to the sound of her breathing.

Next to hearing her in the throes of an orgasm, it was the best sound in the world when just a week ago they weren’t even sure if she’d wake up.

Or what shape she’d be in if she did.

He hoped she didn’t question him too much on his answer about the clothes, but he’d made a promise to himself not to lie to her in the process of trying to get her memory back. He couldn’t tell her about the BDSM yet. Not when she was still trying to sort out her life.

He still wasn’t sure how to broach the subject of Tilly’s and Clarisse’s poly triad relationships. Canceling tomorrow’s get-together was a small blessing that bought him a little time to determine how to handle it.

I need to talk to Tony. Between work and getting Laura home and dealing with having alarm systems installed and everything else, he hadn’t had a chance to sit down and call him.

Not exactly a call he wanted coworkers, Bill, Laura, or anyone at Laura’s shop to overhear.

He also added another item to his mental checklist. Get Laura to change her home phone number. Thomas had asked him to wait a little while before doing that, to see if they could trap the caller.

I didn’t check her email today. He’d forgotten to ask Bill to do it for her. Before, Laura would have practically had her iPhone attached to her wrist, responding to and deleting email throughout the day, texting with Shayla and others, and only using her laptop, iPad, or the home computer for writing or browsing.

Before.

He tried to erase those thoughts from his mind.

She will get her memories back. I know it.

He refused to believe anything else.

Hopefully, by the time Bill returned to Montana, Rob would have Laura talked into moving into the house. Just a couple of streets over from Carol, and less than a mile from Steve, they could help keep an eye on her for him.

Before, their routine on weeknights when he was home and not exhausted, they would play a little. Something to carry them both through until the next time. Sometimes a little over-the-knee spanking, sometimes more.

And then they’d fall asleep entwined in each other’s arms, both of them naked except for Laura wearing her play collar, and her leather wrist and ankle cuffs.

He was afraid to move for fear of waking her or hurting her. He wanted to drape his arm around her waist and hold her close, wanted to bury his teeth in the curve of her neck where it met her shoulder. Something that usually had her begging for a good hard fucking.

He was afraid to even kiss her now. For fear of hurting her, or worse, scaring her.

In his mind he could feel the curve and weight of her breast in his hand as he dug his fingers in, making her gasp and squirm and beg for more.

He thought about the time in this very bed, just a couple of weeks before the attack, when he’d awoken in the middle of the night and rolled her onto her stomach. How he pinned her down by her neck, while he stroked her between her legs.

Even half asleep, she moaned and arched her back, spreading wide for him as he slowly finger-fucked her.

“Hands behind your back.”

How she complied, without hesitation. He transferred his grip from her neck to her wrists and held on tightly, using her as leverage while he fucked her.

Reaching around her, he pinched her clit as he ordered her to come.

Her moans, muffled by her pillow as her body obeyed him, her pussy squeezed his cock even as she tried rocking her hips against him to intensify the feeling.

She made a soft sound in her sleep, bringing his thoughts back to the present.

Now…

He didn’t know if he’d ever have his sweet baby girl back, or if he’d end up forging a new life with this new woman who, in so many ways, was nothing like the woman he fell in love with.

This new woman he still loved and would die to protect.

* * *

After finally giving in to his exhaustion, Rob dreamed. Recalling one of their early nights together after they’d formalized their relationship, they were at his condo, before he’d sold it. He tied Laura facedown on his bed, arms spread, on her knees, ass exposed.

Still a little tentative, he’d spanked her bare-handed, enjoying the way she wiggled her ass for him, the way her pussy got wet, her clit swelling as her desire soared.

Then he donned a glove and picked up a bottle of lube. “Time for me to take possession of somewhere else.”

Laura let out a little mewling sound of anticipation as he squirted lube down the seam of her ass and slowly began working it into her rim with one finger. He hadn’t fucked her ass yet, but it was something they’d already talked about.

Something she’d asked him to do.

She softly moaned into the mattress as he gently breached her tight ring of muscle with one finger. Taking his time he carefully thrust, a little deeper each time, adding lube until after a few minutes he was able to easily slide one finger in and out of her.