Amnesia:A Navy Seal Erotic Romance(4)

Surging to her feet, Bethany cleared the corner of the board in one smooth gesture and touched his trembling shoulders with a solid, reassuring hand; gifting him with a quick squeeze as she whispered, "But you lived, Jaxson. And as Tommy is indeed a valued and trusted friend, he would want you to lead a happy and worthwhile life. It's not over, he still may recover."                       
       
           



       

Jaxson nodded.

"I know Doc," he acknowledged. "How do I do that, though? How do I make my way back, nothing makes sense, it's like I don't even know who I am."

Bethany leaned over closer to him, staring with warm tenderness into his eyes as she told him, "Before you can even begin to move on Jaxson, you have to remember, everything. You've been through worse, given what you do, but this sealed the deal and you've gone into emotional hiding. I would suggest that we try a round of hypnosis."





CHAPTER SIX

He knew better than to agree to this nonsense; really he did. He'd always known that hypnosis was nothing more than a bunch of mumbo jumbo practiced by charlatans and second rate magicians.

Somehow though, he found that he just couldn't say no to the woman before him.

Although initially transfixed by the ethereal black haired beauty of the voluptuous Bethany Pierce, he did not at first differentiate her from the gaggle of pretty bar hoppers who all competed to take him home, if they should get so lucky.

Yet none of these women spoke with the wit and intellect displayed by this amazing lady; someone who he had come to respect and admire, even if he never admitted as much.

Now that he really got to know her for the kind, genuine person she is, witnessing the deep warmth and concern in her eyes, he knew that he could deny her nothing; even her request to dive into the bottomless hell that was his inner psyche.

Closing his eyes and listening intent as her smooth sonorous voice soothed and lulled him into an impenetrable haze, he succumbed finally to the power of suggestion as his public surroundings dissolved around him.

Suddenly he envisioned himself trapped in a sphere of pure unyielding azure; swimming with effort against the tide as he went in search of a certain destination.

"Someone needs my help down here," he thought, diving deeper into the waves as he sought the whereabouts of a man who-or so he thought-was in dire need of aid. "Where is he?"

Then in a flash of movement he saw the victim's body, sighing with relief as he put forth his best effort to save the man's life.

He felt his entire body shudder as a multitude of disagreeable sights and sensations suddenly invaded his psyche. He felt the eerie soft limpness of the body in his arms, and saw a blinding flash of light. Then all he felt was pain; terrible, unbelievable pain.

"No!" he bellowed out, wrenching himself from the realm of unpleasant memories as he felt his hands clawing a surface of soft pleather.

Moments later he found himself coiled into a fetal position on the surface of Dr. Pierce's couch; trembling and gasping as his ears still rang with the sound of a mighty blast.

His quiet gasps and quakes stilled the instant she touched him; his body relaxing and his spirit calming as she laid a healing hand on his massive deltoid.

"It's all right, Jaxson," she whispered, voice soft and nurturing. "It's over."

Jaxson shook his head.

"No, it's not over, yet" he countered, but offering a look of sheer warmth, "but thanks to you I have the feeling that it soon will be. I get it. That memory came out of nowhere, but I feel a huge relief inside, for just letting it out"

These words echoed in Jaxson's mind later that evening, as he once again found himself ensconced in the soft cotton sheets of his basic camp bed.

Only this time, he mused, he was alone; and for once he had no desire to share his bed with some random stranger he picked up at a bar.

Instead he shared his space with the notion of the one very special woman he couldn't get off of his mind.

"Dr. Pierce-Dr. B., as she now allows me to call her, is the only person who sees me for who I am, deep down," he thought, shifting restless in his sheets. "She even sees beyond my cocky arrogance and sarcasm, the man I am beneath it-or at least the man that I was on my way to becoming, when I was serving my country and making my family proud as an officer of the Navy Seals. If only she could have met me then … . when I was so strong and confident."

If only, he lamented, they had met on a blind date with her in a softly lit restaurant, instead of in a therapist's office; then he might actually have a fair shot at the woman he had no chance of winning.

"This woman is stunningly beautiful, warm, kind, humble, and sexier then hell, not to mention smart and funny" he observed with a smile. "She's also a down to earth, non-judgmental and deep. Oh sure she's tough on me, but she has to be to penetrate the reams of bad attitude constructed and I've been shoving at her since the moment we met. A woman who lacked her intuition and wisdom would have sent me packing long ago, and transferred me to some old male therapist."                       
       
           



       

He paused here, casting a wayward gaze out a nearby crystal paned window to observe the star strewn, moon kissed beauty of an ethereal Florida night.

"But she is different. She holds a higher standard of me, higher than my own, that she expects me to live up to. As if she really knows my potential, it seems," Jaxson thought, casting a random wish to the moon above him as he added, "I might as well admit it. I'm falling for her-oh God." He paused here, adding with a deep sigh, "I might as well forget it and stop thinking about it. She'd never be the type to get involved with one of her patients, like me-she'd go for a charismatic, wealthy Real Estate Developer or Lawyer."

Ah, but he figured he could still dream about the black silky-haired wonder who filled his heart and mind; and now he nestled deep beneath the covers and shut his eyes tight, so he could do just that.





CHAPTER SEVEN

OK then, one thing was for certain; a specific therapist really, truly needed to get out of the house.

Nestling deep in the soft satin sheets of her lavender canopied bed, Bethany Pierce struggled to cap off a full day's work with a night of restful, fortifying sleep. Yet every time Bethany dared to close her eyes, she found her psyche penetrated and invaded by the vision of wide azure eyes and silky dark brown hair; along with a soft, sensual smile that seemed intended for her.

In the past few weeks a certain Navy Seal had visited and haunted her dreams; revealing his hard muscled body to her as he cradled her in two strong arms and tempted her to engage in acts of pleasure that made her entire body throb with desire.

"I can't believe that I'm having these thoughts about one of my clients," she pondered now, sitting up in bed to bury her addled head in her hands and shake it from side to side. "I should lose my therapist's license just for considering these notions. I also can't believe that Jaxson Palmer, of all people, is the subject of these fantasies."

Of course, being a heterosexual female as well as a flesh and blood human being, she'd noted the physical attractiveness of this fit, muscular, outrageously handsome Navy Seal the moment he'd first stepped into her office. Yet at that point, her strong code of professional ethics had worked in tandem with his awful, overbearing attitude to subdue any semblance of attraction that might have been lurking anywhere in her heart or body.

"Ah, but Jax has changed," she mused now, smiling at the thought of the transformed man who'd been visiting her office these past few weeks. "This week I actually found cause to ask him, ‘Who are you and what have you done with Captain Cocky? No matter; wherever he is, he can stay right there!'"

The new and improved Jax, while still occasionally sarcastic and impatient, listened careful to her questions and instructions and worked with her to uncover more of his memory and resolve a good deal of his inner turmoil.

And in the process, he'd revealed to her a whole other side to him; a softer, caring, protective, more biddable side that infinitely appealed to her own feminine, more intimate side.

"Too much so," she released on a groan, jumping up suddenly from her bed and heading for her corner clothes closet. "Getting involved with a patient would mean disaster for my career as well as his. How can his commanding officers trust the word of a woman who is personally involved with him? I just can't do this!"

What she did need to do, she figured, was hit the town for a rare night out; to just cut loose and enjoy a night of fun and lightheartedness.

Club Flamingo was not the kind of place that a trained psychotherapist generally found herself. Yet Bethany didn't feel like herself tonight; quite the contrary, she felt restless, even a little mischievous and a little dancing would be just the thing she needed, she convinced herself.

So after applying a rarely worn shade of darker colored lipstick, covered with a nude gloss, and slipping into a favorite black dress, she headed out to the chic low lit night club that shown from the outside in a sleek surface of pure pink sandstone, and within from walls of shiny pink brocade and low hanging crystal chandeliers.