Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

Jack woke up when something brushed against his face. Opening his eyes, he was confused for a moment, but then he inhaled and his memory returned. Not that he had many memories in his head at the moment, but the woman sleeping in his arms wasn't something he could forget anytime soon.

He was on his side and Maisy's back was to his front. He had his arm around her waist and his nose buried in her hair. She smelled like…apples. The sweet red ones. And she felt absolutely perfect against him. Jack hated that he didn't have any memories of their life together. How they'd met, how he'd convinced her to give him a chance—because he was absolutely sure she could do so much better than him.

What she sounded like when he made her come.

The thought of sex with Maisy had his cock lengthening, but he didn't make a move to act on his arousal. He was content to hold her while she slept. She was still fully dressed, while he wore only a T-shirt and boxers. He inhaled again, the scent of apples burying itself into his psyche.

Time ticked by, and Jack had no idea how long he lay with Maisy sleeping in his arms, but eventually she began to stir. He could just see the sun rising outside the window, indicating that he'd slept away the evening and through the night. When Maisy had joined him, he had no idea, but he loved the thought of her coming to him while he slept.

It was obvious when she realized where she was, because she tensed in his arms. Not liking that, Jack scooted back and rolled her toward him until she was on her back. Then he came up on an elbow and hovered over her. His gaze ran over her face, trying to memorize her features. Her cute, pointed nose, the scattered freckles. The dark circles under her eyes, which bothered him.

"Morning," he said after a long moment.

"Hi."

"Sleep well?"

She stared up at him for a beat, before nodding. "You?"

"Like a log. Must've been because I was holding my wife all night," he joked.

But she didn't crack a smile. Instead, she looked even more worried.

"I'm okay," he told her, thinking she was concerned about his accident.

"Have you remembered anything?" Maisy asked.

"Nothing," Jack said with a shrug. "But my head hurts a little less this morning, and I woke up with the smell of apples in my nose…I can think of a lot worse ways to wake up," he said, trying to make her smile.

"It's my shampoo," she whispered .

"I like it."

She stared up at him, her body tense, her fingers digging into his upper arm as if she was scared. Wait, was she afraid of him? The thought made Jack frown. "Are you all right?"

"I'm not the one who hurt my head and has amnesia," she replied.

Jack frowned a little deeper at that. It didn't escape him that she hadn't actually answered his question. He tried again. "Does this make you uncomfortable?" he asked. "Sleeping with me?"

"We're married, it's what married people do," she said.

There. Again, she'd deflected his question. Jack scowled.

Something caught his attention on her upper arm, where her shirt had ridden up. He pushed her sleeve up a little more with his finger and exposed a pretty nasty bruise. "What's this? What happened?"

"Nothing, I'm fine," she said breezily. "I bruise easily. I need to get up."

But instead of scooting back and letting her swing her legs over the edge of the mattress, Jack moved closer, straddling her thighs and caging her under him. "What happened? I didn't do that, did I?"

"No! Of course not." She tensed even further, if that was possible.

"I won't hurt you, Stellina ."

"I know."

Jack relaxed when he heard the sincerity in her response.

"Are you scared of me?" he couldn't help but ask. She hadn't relaxed under him, was stiff as a board. And he hated it.

"No."

"Are you sure?" he asked with a tilt of his head.

"What does Stellina mean?"

"Little star. It's Italian."

"Why'd you call me that?" Maisy asked.

"I don't know. I'm guessing I haven't used that term before?" When she shook her head, he said, "It just seems to fit. In my head, everything's dark. Shadowy. My memories are there, but they're shrouded in blackness for some reason. But you, you're like a shooting star, a light in that darkness. I might not remember what kind of man I am, or my past, but I must've done something right to have you as my wife."

To Jack's alarm, tears filled Maisy's eyes.

"What? What's wrong?" he asked, feeling panic rise up within him for the second time in as many days.

"Nothing. It's just…that was really sweet."

Jack studied her. He didn't like that such a simple compliment could have her reacting so emotionally. It was apparent he hadn't given her nearly enough of them during their marriage if she reacted like this. He made a mental vow to do better.

"What's on our agenda for the day?" he asked.

She blinked up at him. "Um…I don't know."

"What do we usually do?"

Maisy bit her lip and her gaze slid away from his.

Jack's eyes narrowed. Yet more evasiveness.

She looked back at him. "I guess we should get up, change, go down for breakfast. We can see how you're feeling after that. "

"I feel fine."

"Jack, you hit your head. Hard. You lost your memory. I'm thinking we shouldn't push things."

"I'm okay. Have been through a lot worse than a knock on the head."

They both froze.

"You have?" Maisy whispered.

No matter how hard he racked his brain, Jack couldn't remember any other injuries he'd suffered. "I guess? I don't remember."

"It's okay," Maisy soothed, rubbing her hand up and down his biceps. "Don't force yourself to remember. It can't be good for your head."

Jack rubbed his forehead and sighed. "Yeah. Anyway, a shower sounds amazing. As much as I love lying here in bed with you, we probably should get up. Do we shower together?"

She blinked up at him. "Um…no."

"Shame," he teased. Then something occurred to him. "I'm assuming my clothes are here?" He looked around the room. "This room looks decidedly…feminine."

"Uh…yeah. You weren't actually living here…um…you had an apartment in Spokane."

"Spokane? That's hours away!" Jack exclaimed.

"Yes. Jason told you yesterday that we were having issues. We'd been working through them, but you, um, had a lease that you couldn't break. So until we renewed our vows, we thought it best to continue living apart. We were, um, dating."

"Why were we having issues?" Jack demanded.

"Um…we just were," she said, avoiding another question .

"Did I cheat on you? Was I abusive?"

"What? No!" Maisy said without hesitation.

Jack relaxed, relieved beyond measure that he hadn't done either of those things to his wife. He didn't feel like the kind of man who would break his marriage vows, but since he didn't have any memories to back up those feelings, he didn't know for sure. "Then why? Why would I live so far away from you?"

"Maybe I cheated on you , and you got pissed," Maisy said.

"You didn't."

"Jack, you don't know that."

"Are we really arguing about this?" he asked with a small smile.

Maisy sighed. "Fine. I didn't cheat. It wasn't any one thing. But…you were gone a lot. With your job."

"My job?"

"You were a, ah…a bounty hunter. You were always hunting down bad guys. Gone all the time. I didn't handle it well."

Jack blinked in surprise. "A bounty hunter?"

"Yeah. You liked working for yourself. Don't have a lot of friends. Spent a lot of time watching people…um…surveillance."

Nothing she was telling him struck a chord in Jack. Why in the world would he spend so much time away from home, especially with a woman like Maisy waiting for him in their bed?

"So, I, um, moved back into our family home with Jason, and you went to Spokane. But…I hate to tell you this after everything else…but your apartment complex had a fire. It burned down. So all your stuff…it's gone. "

Jack stared down at her. " Seriously ? All I have is this T-shirt and one pair of underwear?"

She giggled nervously. "No, of course not. And Jason is getting you more stuff today."

Jack carefully mulled over everything he'd just learned. Everything sounded so bizarre. But he couldn't put his finger on why; plenty of married couples separated these days. Regardless, he felt off-kilter and confused.

Maybe because it almost sounded like Maisy was making things up as she went along. He was fairly certain she was lying through her teeth, but since he didn't remember anything about her, he couldn't say for sure. Nor did he have any idea why she might lie to him. "So, I have no clothes, no belongings, nothing."

"You have me," Maisy said quietly but firmly. "And I'm going to do everything I can to make sure we're okay from here on out."

Her words sounded sincere and almost desperate.

"I have a feeling I don't deserve you," Jack said.

To his surprise, she looked sad at his words. "You don't," she replied. And she didn't give him a chance to reply. "Now, are we gonna get up or what? Paige is gonna be upset if we don't get downstairs in time for breakfast."

"In time?" Jack asked.

Maisy shrugged. "My brother likes to eat at certain times."

Jack wanted to know more about Jason. Hell, he wanted to know everything about his wife and her family. He hadn't moved from his position over her, nor did he feel any great need to shift away. Despite his misgivings, he liked being this close to her. Liked the way her fingers unconsciously rubbed his arm. "Tell me more about yourself, Stellina ."

"Um, what do you want to know?"

"Everything."

She giggled nervously once more. "I'm not that interesting."

"I highly doubt that. Tell me about your family."

Her smile faded. "My parents died when I was a teenager. Carjacking. They were both shot and killed. Jason moved back home to look after me. You might remember him saying yesterday that I don't do well with stress. I was kind of out of it for a while, couldn't function well without medicine to keep me from freaking out all the time. I dropped out of school, got my GED…and here I am."

"I'm so sorry about your parents, Maisy. How did we meet?"

It was a simple question, but she looked like a deer in headlights. "Um…online."

"Online? Don't tell me I was on a dating site," Jack said with a laugh.

But she didn't crack a smile. "No, um, a friend of my brother's set us up. We talked for a while online, then we met, and that was that."

As far as explanations went, it was extremely lacking, but because she looked so tense and stressed, Jack let it drop. He supposed it wasn't important. They'd met, fallen in love, then got married. "What's the plan for this weekend?" he asked.

She relaxed under him, proving that it was a good idea to stop asking about their courtship .

"I don't know the details. Jason said he'd take care of it."

"Right. Well, I can't say I'm thrilled that I got hurt, or that my apartment complex burned down, but I can say that I'm thankful for a second chance with you. I promise I'll do whatever I can to make our marriage work. But I need you to talk to me. If I do something you don't like, tell me so we can work it out. I don't want to get to the point of another separation. Okay?"

Instead of answering, she pinched his upper arm.

"Ow," Jack complained, even though it hadn't hurt. "What was that for?"

"Just making sure you're real and not a dream," she told him. "Men don't say things like that. They don't like to talk."

"I do. I mean, I think I do," Jack told her. "If it means you don't want to move out of my house, my bed, my life, I definitely do."

Maisy brought a hand up and cradled his cheek. "I'm going to make this right."

It sounded like a vow. A vow he didn't fully understand. He leaned down and kissed her. It wasn't a passionate kiss, but he lingered for a long moment. The electricity he'd felt when he'd first touched her yesterday was back in full force. Shooting down his spine and going straight to his cock. It was surprising, really. The kiss was chaste, merely a meeting of their lips. And yet it felt life-changing.

When he lifted his head, she licked her lips as if mesmerized. Then she took a deep breath and said, "Come on, we really do need to get up."

Jack let her slip out from under him and he followed. He swayed a little when he stood, but Maisy was there, putting an arm around his waist. "You good?"

"A little light-headed, but I'm all right."

"Come on, I'll walk you to the bathroom. I think there's an extra toothbrush in there. If not, you can use mine."

"You'll let me use your toothbrush?" he asked.

"Well, no. I'll let you have it. Sharing toothbrushes is gross," she said with a small smile, looking up at him as they walked.

Jack laughed out loud. "So sharing toothbrushes is gross but you want me to use yours?" he asked, still grinning.

She blushed a little. "Right. Sorry, didn't think that through."

She wasn't really giving him a ton of support. At a good five inches shorter than his five-eleven, she didn't have the proper angle or strength to keep him from falling. But Jack liked the feel of her against him all the same.

"I mean, is sharing a toothbrush any different from sharing…other bodily fluids?" he asked, still smiling.

To his surprise, she blushed a fiery red.

"Yes. Now, don't go falling and hitting your head again," she warned as they entered the small bathroom.

"Maybe you should stay and shower with me," Jack teased.

The blush on her cheeks didn't abate. "Whatever. I'll shower in the bathroom down the hall. I'll see if I can borrow a pair of sweats from Jason for you to wear until he gets you other clothes today. Is that okay?"

"That's perfect, Stellina ."

She stared at him for a long moment before taking a deep breath and heading back into the bedroom.

"Maisy?" Jack called, reluctant to see her go for some reason.

She stopped and turned back toward him. "Yeah?"

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For being so good to me. For marrying me. For being willing to marry me again after I neglected you. For being you."

Tears filled her eyes once more. Then she turned and left the room without a word.

Instinctively feeling as if something was very off, Jack frowned and closed the bathroom door. He stared at himself in the mirror above the sink. It was an odd feeling to see a stranger looking back. He didn't recognize himself. His glasses were still out on the table next to the bed, but he could see his reflection well enough. He had a small scar under his chin, and his beard was a little too long to be comfortable. His skin was tan, as if he spent a lot of time outdoors in the sun, which made sense if he was a bounty hunter who liked to hike.

If he was a bounty hunter? Did he doubt his wife's story about what he did for a living? He had no reason not to trust her, but deep down, he couldn't see himself spending his life chasing down bad guys. He wasn't sure why, but that didn't feel like something he would enjoy. Not to mention, he didn't think he was the kind of man who would neglect his wife.

His head throbbed as if a memory was desperately trying to surface, but no matter how much he tried, he couldn't bring it to the surface .

Frustrated, confused, and in pain, Jack abruptly turned away from the mirror and reached for the knob in the shower. He felt grubby, still had blood in his hair, and he needed to get clean. Maybe the day would bring more clarity to his situation. If nothing else, he'd get a chance to get to know his wife better.

Jack didn't understand the tension between Maisy and her brother, but he remembered the way Jason had spoken to her before he'd known Jack was awake, and he didn't like it one bit. His wife needed a champion, and he may not have been there for her before, but he was now. If he discovered that Jason didn't respect Maisy, as soon as their renewal ceremony was over, Jack would look for a new place for them to live. He might not know who he was, or anything about his past, but he wouldn't stand back and let someone he cared about be abused in any way, shape, or form.

And Maisy Smith was definitely someone he cared about. For better or worse, in sickness and health, he'd vowed to stand by her side, and he'd do just that. He'd protect her from himself, her brother, and anyone else who dared try to hurt her in any way.

Where his fierce protectiveness was coming from, Jack didn't know. But he assumed it was a product of being her husband. Memories of loving her in his unconsciousness. I'll do right by you, Stellina , this I vow.

Satisfied by his internal promise, Jack stripped off his clothes and stepped into the shower. Today was literally the first day of the rest of his life, and he was ready to get on with it…with his wife by his side.