Free Come To Me by LaVerne Thompson

helped her settle back on the bed. Jasmine shut her
eyes.
    She
felt the brush of Baron’s hand down the side of her face and his kiss on her
forehead. “I know you,” she managed. Then she was pulled down into the healing
bliss of sleep.
    When
Jasmine woke up she sensed it wasn’t quite morning yet. Although the curtains
were drawn tightly over the windows, her body told her it was late night. She
glanced around the darkened room. Only a nightlight in the bathroom provided
the most scant illumination. Still, she saw the figure seated against the wall.
He sat in one chair and had pulled the other one up under his feet. The
position looked uncomfortable even to her. She couldn’t really make out
features or clothes but somehow she knew the man watching over her was Baron.
She took comfort in knowing he was there, that he’d stayed for her. Content,
she drifted back to unconsciousness again, but suddenly she was wide-awake and
sat up in bed. This was all wrong. Shouldn’t it have been Tony here? Tony, her
fiancé? Why was Baron here? Why did she think it was all right for him to be
here? What if it was as she suspected earlier. Had she been having an affair
behind Tony’s back? She inhaled sharply at the thought. She refused to believe
she was that kind of person. No way would she cheat on someone she’d made a
commitment to, someone she was supposed to love. At least she didn’t think she
was.
    She
glanced beyond the foot of the bed again. He had moved. She saw him sit up
straighter in the chair, then lower his legs to the floor. He stood and came
over to her, sitting on the side of the mattress. Like he had a right to. She
looked up at him and her lips trembled.
    “Who
are you to me?”
    At
first he didn’t say anything. She could barely make out his features in the dim
light. He held up her wrist and kissed her palm. She felt that kiss through
every nerve ending in her body. She curled her fingers into a fist, and he patted
his hand over it. Then he lowered his torso to hers, placing his hands on the
sides of her face and covering her lips with his mouth. The shock that rocketed
through her exploded in her brain. She must have made some sort of noise
because he rose. His mouth moved but she was in too much pain to understand
what he was saying.
    “I’m
sorry. So sorry,” she said.
    He
turned on the bedside lamp and found the pad. ‘Are you all right?’
    “Yes.
Just a little headache. I…I have to know something. Why did you kiss me? Were
we more than just friends?” Her heart hammered against her chest as she watched
him write on the page, waiting for his answer. Part of her already knew what it
would be.
    “Yes.”
    She
nodded then stared right at him. “Were or are?”
    “Are.”
    He
said the words for her to understand. She nodded again. She’d feared it was
true. It would explain much, such as why he was still there. As much as she
found Tony attractive and thoughtful, there was something about Baron that drew
her to him. What kind of person was she to be engaged to one man, a man who
saved her life, while having an affair with his best friend? That kiss…familiar
like something she’d done before and enjoyed. “God, I need to remember my life.
I need to remember the person I was, am, and who you are to me.” A tear leaked
from the corner of her eye, and her head began throbbing again. She rubbed her
temples.
    He
took her hands away from her head and kissed her again. This time she kissed
him back, leaning forward and draping her arms around his neck. She had her
answer. He pulled back and wiped the tears off her cheeks and wrote on the
notepad.
    He
wrote, ‘Be patient. It will come back to you.’
    “God
I hope so. I can’t stand this.”
    She
read. ‘ Go back to sleep. I’ll be here.’
    “Yes,
I know but what about Tony? I don’t want to hurt him. He saved my life. I
remember that much. Does he…does he know about us?”
    He
nodded.
    A
cry escaped her lips. “What? Oh god.” She