Billionaire's Contract Engagement(48)

Or would she be in class? It was only mid-April so the semester wouldn't  be over yet. She wondered, when and if she got her memory back, if they  would let her make up the time and work she'd missed or if she would  have to go back and take the classes over again. If she even wanted to  go back, that was. The law still held little interest, but that could  change. And what if it didn't? What then?         

     



 

Worrying about it was making her head hurt, so she pushed it out of her  mind. She got up, put her dirty dishes in the dishwasher alongside Ash's  coffee cup and cereal bowl, then went to take a long, hot shower. She  dried off with a soft, oversize, fluffy blue towel, then stood naked in  her closet trying to decide what to wear. Much like the bras she had  packed for her trip, everything she owned seemed to be a push-up or made  of itchy lace-or both. Didn't she own any no-nonsense, comfortable  bras?

It gave her the inexplicable feeling that she was rummaging through someone else's wardrobe.

She found a drawer full of sport bras that would do until she could get  to the store and put one on. Maybe she'd liked those other bras before,  and maybe she would again someday, but for now they just seemed  uncomfortable and impractical. The same went for all the thong, lace  underwear. Thank goodness she had a few silk and spandex panties, too.

She was so used to lying around in a hospital gown that the  designer-label clothes lining her closet seemed excessive when all she  planned to do was hang out at home, but after some searching she found a  pair of black cotton yoga pants and a Stanford University sweatshirt  that had been washed and worn to within an inch of its life.

Since she was already in the closet, she decided that would be the place  to start her search for memory-jogging paraphernalia. But around ten,  when Ash called to check on her, nothing she'd found held any  significance. Just the typical stuff you would find in any woman's  closet. She wondered if she was trying too hard. If she stopped thinking  about it, maybe it would just come to her. But the thought of sitting  around doing nothing seemed totally counterproductive.

Refusing to let herself get frustrated, she searched her desk next. She  found papers in her hand that she had no recollection of writing, and an  envelope of photos of herself and Ash, most in social settings. She'd  hoped maybe there would be letters or a diary but there were none.

In the file cabinet she found pages and pages of schoolwork and other  school-related papers, but nothing having to do with any specific  research she'd been working on. In the very back of the drawer she found  an unmarked file with several DVDs inside. Most were unmarked, but one  had a handwritten label marked Ash's Birthday. Video of a birthday party  maybe? Home videos could jog a memory, right?

Full of excitement and hope, she grabbed the file and dashed out to the  family room to the enormous flat-screen television. It took her a few  minutes just to figure out how to turn everything on, and which remote  went with which piece of equipment. When the disk was in and loaded she  sat on the couch and hit Play  …  and discovered in the first two seconds  that this was no ordinary birthday party. At least, not the kind they  would invite other people to. For starters, they were in bed  …  and in  their underwear. Those didn't stay on for long though.

This was obviously one of those videos that Ash had mentioned. Although,  at the time, she had half believed he was joking. She felt like a  voyeur, peeking through a window at another woman's private life. The  things she was doing to him, the words coming out of her mouth, made her  blush furiously, but she was too captivated to look away. Was this the  kind of thing Ash was going to expect when they made love? Because she  wasn't sure if she even knew how to be that woman anymore. She was so  blatantly sexy and confident.

Melody hated her for it, and desperately wanted to be her.

When the DVD ended she grabbed one of the unmarked DVDs and put it in  the player. It was similar to the first one, starting out with the two  of them in bed together. But this time after a bit of foreplay she  reached over somewhere out of the camera's view, and came back with four  crimson silk scarves that she used to tie a very willing Ash to the  head and footboard.

Watching this DVD she discovered just how flexible she actually was.  Physically and sexually. It was sexy and adventurous, and in a lot of  ways fun, but it occurred to her as it ended that she wasn't  particularly turned on. More curious than aroused. Not that she didn't  enjoy seeing Ash naked. His body was truly a work of art. Long and lean  and perfect in every way. It was the sex itself that was, she hated to  admit, a little  …  boring.

She grabbed a third disk and put it in, and as it began to play she  could tell right away that it was different. This one was set in Ash's  bathroom, and he was filming her through the clear glass shower door.  She was soaping herself up, seemingly lost in thought. He said her name,  and when she turned she looked genuinely surprised to see him standing  there holding the camera. After that he must have put the camera on a  tripod because he came from behind it, already beautifully naked, and  climbed in the stall with her, leaving the door open.         

     



 

The tone of this video was completely different from the others. They  soaped each other up, touching and stroking, as if they had all the time  in the world. And unlike the others there was a lot of kissing in this  one. Deep, slow, tender kisses that had Melody's attention transfixed to  screen, actually licking her lips, wishing she could taste Ash there.

Missing was the sense of urgency, as if it were a race to see who could  get who off first. Instead they took their time exploring and caressing,  their arousal gradually escalating, until they both seemed to lose  themselves. It was like watching a totally different couple, and this  was a woman she could definitely imagine being. A woman she wanted to  be.

The first two DVDs had been sexy, but they were just sex. There didn't  seem to be much emotion involved. In this one it was clear, by the way  they touched, the way they looked in each other's eyes, that they had a  deep emotional connection. She could see that they loved each other.

On the screen Ash lifted her off her feet and pressed her against the  shower wall. Their eyes locked and held, and the ecstasy on their faces,  the look of total rapture as he sank inside her made Melody shiver.

She wanted that. She wanted Ash to kiss her and touch her and make love  to her. She was breathing heavily, feeling so warm and tingly between  her thighs that she wished she could climb through the screen and take  the other Melody's place. They were making love in the purest sense, and  she couldn't help thinking that if he were here right now she would-

"This one is my favorite," someone said from behind her.

Melody shrieked in surprise and flew off the couch so fast that the  remote went flying and landed with a sharp crack on the hardwood floor  several feet away. She spun around and found Ash standing behind the  couch, a couple of plastic grocery bags hanging from his fingers and a  wry grin on his face.

"You scared me half to death!" she admonished, her anger a flimsy veil  to hide her embarrassment. But it was useless because her face was  already turning twenty different shades of pink. He'd caught her  watching porn. Porn that he was in. What could be more embarrassing?  "You shouldn't sneak up on people."

"I wasn't sneaking. In fact, I wasn't being particularly quiet at all. You just didn't hear me. I guess I see why."

On the television her evil counterpart was moaning and panting as Ash  rocked into her, water sluicing down their wet, soapy bodies. Melody  scrambled for the remote, but it took her a few seconds of jabbing  random buttons before the DVD stopped and the screen went black. When  she looked back at Ash he was still wearing that wry smile.

"What are you doing home? It's only-" she looked at the clock and could hardly believe it was after three "-three-fifteen."

Had she really been watching sex videos for almost two hours?

He held up the bags. "There's nothing here to eat but pizza so I stopped  at the store after a lunch meeting. So you wouldn't have to go out."

"Oh. Thank you."

She waited for a comment about her watching the video, waited for him to  tease her, but instead he walked past her and carried the bags to the  kitchen. It was the first time she had seen him in a suit since the day  he showed up at the hospital to claim her, and, oh, man, did he look  delicious. There was something undeniably sexy about an executive who  shopped for groceries. Of course, as turned on as she was right now, he  would look sexy in plaid polyester floods and a polka-dot argyle  sweater.

"I found the DVDs in my file cabinet," she said, following him, even  though he hadn't asked for an explanation, or even looked as though he  expected or required one.