Free ArousingMemories by Samantha Cayto

him
for a while before getting up. She covered him with a long, thick towel before
leaving. Maybe when he woke, his memories would be back, but she was beginning
to doubt it. In the meantime, it pleased her to know she’d helped him regain
some measure of peace. It was something.
    * * * * *
    Noah reared up to a sitting position, his heart raced and
his ears rang with the sound of a woman’s screams. He whipped his head around
and saw only the empty pool. He was alone. There was no one making the awful
noise. It was only the echo of a nightmare, one that had already faded so he
couldn’t remember it. With a groan of frustration, he pressed his palms against
the side of his head. Had it been merely a bad dream, or were those memories
returning? God, he hoped it wasn’t the latter. His head pounded and his stomach
lurched at the idea. He deliberately turned his attention away from the thought
and instead called forth the more pleasant and sure memory of what he had done
in the water. The clock on the wall told him he had slept for three hours. He
felt like a baby needing to nap, but the reason why he was so tired didn’t make
him feel like a baby anymore. In fact, he felt damn fine and a little
self-satisfied. It happened to a man when he brought pleasure to a woman. He
might not remember his own name, but he remembered that!
    It was disappointing to find Haley gone, although he knew
she worked hard to thwart some terrorist attack. She never said as much, yet he
knew he was a frustrating part of the puzzle. He knew, too, she spent more time
with him than she should. There was a lot of responsibility on her shoulders.
He was chewing up her time without adding anything useful. Guilt pressed on
him. He also wondered why someone as dedicated as Haley would allow anyone to
distract her, even a friend, even a lover. Did she really harbor hope he would
remember? Shit, if only he could. The doctor said not to push it. His memories
would come back when they were ready. Well, he was ready now, damn it all, what
was the matter with his brain?
    Lost in thought, it took him a moment to realize he wasn’t
alone when he entered the men’s locker room and tossed his bathing suit in the
laundry basket. Severin Blake sat on a nearby padded bench, eyeing him. Noah
stopped at the sight of the other man. Sev hadn’t visited again after their
first encounter, leaving Noah to assume he had made the other man
uncomfortable. The guy didn’t look so at the moment. He looked like he had
something on his mind, and in an instant Noah knew what. Sev must be Haley’s
lover, too, or maybe an ex-lover. While Sev’s name had rarely come up in
conversation with Haley, the few times it had, there had been a certain look in
the woman’s eye. A sort of wistful one. There seemed to be some personal
connection between the two senior operatives. So the idea Sev might be jealous
of Noah’s relationship with Haley wasn’t so farfetched. Was the man there to
claim a stake by pounding Noah into the ground? Great, another bruise was just
what he needed. That wouldn’t help his memories, or maybe like in old comedies
a blow to the head would help jog the memories back. Not likely. He decided to
defuse the situation quickly by acting as if nothing was wrong.
    Striking a nonchalant pose, or as close to one as he could
get wearing only the towel he had wrapped around his waist after getting out of
the pool, he said, “Hey, Sev, what’s up?”
    The other man didn’t answer right away, he simply looked
Noah up and down before shrugging. “You’re looking better than you did a few
days ago,” he remarked.
    Not good enough to get into a fight , Noah thought,
saying instead, “I’m much better, thanks.”
    “Swimming is a good way to ease back into shape. Fucking’s a
good way, too, although a bit more strenuous,” Sev added with one of those
grins that could only be described as wolfish.
    Oh, damn, this wasn’t going so well. Noah decided to come
clean and