I’m glad Dad insisted I stay with it. I know I can make money with my writing, and that’s a dream I’m dearly grateful for. The shop is security. I don’t resent taking it over like some might. Why should I open my own business when I’m doing what I’m happy doing? Some people would say I’m not living up to my fullest potential. Screw that. I’m happy, I pay my bills, and I enjoy going to work every day. How many people are that lucky? Not very damn many.


Even back then she had determination and spirit, direction, foresight, self-confidence. That was the person she wanted to know—to be—again. She didn’t feel anything like her now.

Rob finished cooking and brought out delicious pork chops and risotto.

“Are you some sort of gourmet chef or something, Sir?”

He laughed. “No, but sometimes we’ve got a lot of time on our hands at the station. Firemen are notoriously good cooks.”

“The guys must love you.”

“Yeah, John Baker’s been standing in for me, and everyone said they need stock in Mylanta.”

A knock on the door startled Laura. Doogie barked, sounding the alarm.

“Too late, dingbat,” Rob chastised the dog. “The Visigoths have already arrived.” He peeked through the side window and opened the door. It was a deputy. “Want some chow?”

“No, thanks. Just wanted to let you know we’re down there.”

They spent the evening in companionable silence, watching TV. For once, Laura didn’t want to talk. She just wanted to absorb all she’d read and focus on the newly-recovered memories. She started yawning around eleven.

“Time to turn in.” She looked at Rob, wanting him to suggest something, anything.

He brushed the hair away from her forehead and stroked her cheek. She started to speak and he gently touched his finger to her lips, silencing her. He took the remote control and turned the TV off, changing the stereo to a soft rock station.

He stood and made a “wait” motion to her and disappeared into the bedroom. A moment later he returned and stood in front of her, holding her play collar. He buckled it around her neck before offering his hand.

She let him take her into his arms. They swayed in time with the music and he made no move to kiss her, content to stare into her eyes.

Dropping her head to his chest she closed her eyes, feeling safe and warm and cherished. It finally hit her she didn’t have to have all of her memories back to enjoy life with him.

He kissed the top of her head, burying his face in her hair as they danced. The song changed and he stepped back, taking her hand and leading her down the hall. In the bedroom, several candles bathed the room with their dancing glow. She smiled and folded back into his arms as they danced at the foot of the bed for several tantalizingly long minutes.

The passion rose in her and she kissed him harder, running her hands down his back until she could pull his shirt free and trail her fingers along his smooth skin. She pulled him against her and could feel from his stiff cock how ready he was, but when she tried to unfasten his shorts he wouldn’t be rushed and stepped away.

He had her lie on the bed and gave her a back rub, fully clothed. After working up to her shoulders he slowly teased her shirt up, kissing her bared skin as he exposed it.

Laura shivered, wondering if it had always been this good, or just especially so this time. There was no fear or trepidation in her now as a warm flood of familiar sensations washed over her. This was different than their sadistic playtime. This was vanilla lovin’, and it was every bit as good as the kinky stuff.

She rolled over, pulling her shirt the rest of the way off. He sat up and removed his and lay down next to her, his skin hot to the touch. She traced gentle circles on his chest and then reached up and grabbed him by the neck, pulling him down on top of her. His cock was pressed hard against her and his breath quickened. She wrapped her legs around him, wanting him inside her.

Rob eased her shorts off and kissed her just below the navel. She trembled with anticipation and softly begged him not to stop as he slowly worked his way south, until he was licking and sucking on her clit. He pushed her legs apart and settled in, slowly thrusting into her pussy with two fingers as he worked her swollen nub with his tongue. It didn’t take him long to get her over the edge and make her cry out with pleasure as her orgasm vibrated through her.

He sat up and peeled his shorts off. She reached for him and he paused, getting a condom from the nightstand.

She helped him roll it onto his stiff cock. Then he slowly entered her, enjoying every second. They moved together in a slow, passionate rhythm, until she was soon crying out again from yet another orgasm.

This felt like sweet perfection. He quickened his pace while she matched him thrust for thrust, until she felt his cock harden inside her, swelling, throbbing as he filled the condom. Only then did they collapse together, spent, happy, exhausted.

He went to clean up. When he returned to bed he took her into his arms. “Do you have any idea how much I love you, baby girl?”

She yelped and jumped closer to him. Doogie, his tail wagging with happy doggy joy, had goosed her with his wet nose.

He also had something in his mouth.

“Damn,” Rob yelled. “Leave it! Drop it!” Rob jumped over her and chased the Lab out of the bedroom. She was about to follow when she heard Rob catch him.

“Give it. Give it!” He must have, and a moment later she heard the guest toilet flush, Rob washing his hands before returning to the bedroom.

“Let’s try this again.” He slipped under the covers with her.

Her curiosity would not be denied. “What did he have, Sir?”

Even in the dimming candlelight she saw his face redden.

“Come on, Sir. Tell me.”

He finally told her and she roared with laughter while Doogie crept back into the bedroom.

“He fished it out of the damn garbage. I told you we never used those things, except for anal and on toys,” he muttered.

She snuggled into his arms, still chortling every few minutes, quietly talking and asking him questions about things she was starting to remember. Pretty soon her breathing slowed and deepened, and when he looked she was asleep, wearing a contented smile.

He carefully extricated himself and put out the candles. Before extinguishing the last one he glared at Doogie. “You’re just mad because I’m the one who suggested it was time you got snipped, aren’t you?”

Doogie’s tail thumped once.

* * *

Tuesday morning, Rob awoke before Laura. She didn’t stir from her peaceful sleep when he got out of bed. Kissing her on the forehead, he grabbed a pair of shorts and leashed Doogie for his morning walk. He didn’t have to work this morning, but would go in that night.

At least there’d be deputies at the house to keep an eye on Laura for him.

He met one of the deputies on his way down the stairs. “Hi, Rob, I was just coming up to tell you we were leaving. We’ll be back around dark.”

“Any problems last night?”

“No. I haven’t heard back yet if they got anyone at your house or the condo, though.”

“Okay, thanks.”

He let Doogie explore the yard for a few minutes. It was around seven-thirty he thought, but he hadn’t checked the clock. Boats cruised past in the ICW, and he smelled the tangy Gulf air. It wasn’t just muggy. You could wring the mist out with your bare hands. Once the sea breezes picked up later in the day and the sun rose, the key would dry out.

Doogie reluctantly followed Rob up the stairs. Laura still slept. He made coffee and turned on the TV, sitting on the couch to watch. She stumbled out of the bedroom a few minutes later wearing his T-shirt, her collar, and nothing else. With the deputies standing guard, he’d relaxed the naked rule a little.

“Do you want coffee?” he asked.

She shook her head and crawled into his lap, her head on his shoulder. “I just want to go back to sleep, Sir. I had the most wonderful dreams.”

He smiled and kissed the top of her head. “I think my dream’s finally coming true.”

“There are still big holes in my memory. I think a lot of it is starting to come back, though. I can remember a lot from when I was a kid, Mom and Dad and Bill, stuff like that. I remember things from a few years ago. Like our first date.”

Rob groaned. “You would have to remember that fiasco, wouldn’t you?”

What started out a journey to a formal Chamber of Commerce dinner banquet ended with Rob in the back of an ambulance, performing CPR on an accident victim—who later died. Two cars collided head-on in front of them on their way to the banquet, and Rob immediately jumped out to help. Laura followed the ambulance to the hospital, driving Rob’s Explorer. By the time Rob finished filling out paperwork and they gave their statements to the trooper, it was too late to make the banquet. They drove through Checkers and parked at the fishing pier by the Tom Adams bridge.

“Despite everything that happened that night,” she said, “if nothing else, it showed me what a dedicated, compassionate person you are. You didn’t have to do what you did. You could have stood back as soon as the crew arrived on scene and we wouldn’t have missed the dinner. But you cared, and you stayed, and you tried your best to save that man.” She kissed him. “I think I fell in love with you that night, Sir.”

He hugged her. “You amaze me.”

“Why?”

“Most people find it hard to live with people who work the kind of hours and shifts I do.”