To Serve and Protect (4 page)

The diner spun around him and Vincent felt like he would faint.

“Vincent, are you all right?” Jacob said in a worried voice.

Vincent closed his eyes and waited for the wave to disappear, but with it came fatigue. His body suddenly felt heavy.

Jacob ushered the waitress over. “Can he have a glass of water, please?”

The waitress stared at Vincent with wide, worried eyes, just like Jacob did. Did he look that bad?

As the waitress moved away, Vincent stopped her and asked, “I changed my mind. I’d like to have something more nourishing than ice cream. I’ll have a steak with a side order of potatoes and salad. And please make the steak extra rare.”

* * * *

Jacob was finally able to breathe a little easier when he saw the color return to Vincent’s cheeks. He was just about to call Doctor Evans the moment Vincent looked like he would pass out.

After Vincent finished drinking his water and placed it in front of him on their table, Jacob asked, “Are you okay?”

Vincent shook his head. “Yeah, I’m just very tired.”

“Would you like us to leave? I’ll change our order to takeout and drive you back to my house.”

“No, after I eat, I’ll be fine. And I want to go to my apartment first. I need answers. Not knowing who I am is driving me bonkers.”

“I can imagine. I’d want to know, too.”

Vincent leaned forward. “So then tell me. Tell me about me, about us. I think I just had a vision of us together, and I need to know if it really was a memory coming back to me or just my wild imagination taking its toll on me.”

“Your memory is coming back? That’s great!” Jacob smiled.

“I’m not sure. It felt real, like it did happen between us, but it was pretty wild and crazy.”

Jacob couldn’t help blushing as he stared into his eyes, remembering their passionate, sexual escapades. “Wild and crazy pretty much describes some of it.”

Vincent’s eyes widened. “Some of it? Holy cow, how wild and crazy did it get?”

Jacob laughed. “First tell me what you saw in your vision and then I’ll tell you if it actually happened. Then we’ll take it from there.”

Vincent gave him a sideways glance. “Taking it from there is what worries me. What dark secrets in my closet will you let loose?”

Jacob tapped his fork and his eyes became serious. “I can’t help you with the dark secrets in your closet, Vincent. You were pretty reserved on this. But as for what we shared, sure, I’ll tell you all about it. But first, what did you see?”

“I saw us in bed. We were both naked. But you were tied to the bedpost smiling at me. I had just fed you rocky road and we were kissing and…stuff. After that I nibbled your ear then began to lick your neck. From there this uncontrollable urge and hunger to bite into your neck came over me.”

Jacob almost choked on the water he had just gulped. Then he started to laugh uncontrollably, his laughter so loud that the waitress looked at him peculiarly when she placed their orders on the table.

Even after she left, he still didn’t stop. Vincent looked like he was starting to get a little pissed off. He said, “I’m happy my story amuses you.” He crossed his arms. “So I take it from your reaction none of it happened?”

Once his laughter calmed down, he stared at Vincent with sultry eyes. His own memories getting him hot and bothered. “Oh no, it happened. All of it, except for you biting my neck and sucking the blood out of me.”

The smirk on his face returned. “That part I think was your body trying to tell you that you need to eat.”

Vincent tapped his fingers on the table, staring at his movements. Jacob wondered what was going through his mind. When he began to laugh, he looked into Jacob’s eyes. He leaned forward and returned Jacob’s sultry stare back at him. “So we were into BDSM? Boy, I never would have guessed you were that type.”

“Disappointed?” Jacob asked, purposely flirting.

“No, not at all. I like it.” Vincent’s brow lifted in a daring gesture.

Panic caught Jacob off guard, then, and he pushed away from the table, breaking their intense eye contact. Picking up his fork, Jacob stabbed two fries and then dipped them in the small mound of ketchup he had spurted on the side of his plate. “Just to let you know, BDSM was your preference. And you often wanted us to switch places. Sometimes I was your slave and sometimes I was your master. You opened up that world to me. I never dabbled into bondage and submission before you.”

“Do you still dabble, or was it only with me? And what part do you prefer, the slave or the master?” Vincent asked in a low, curious voice.

Jacob didn’t need to look up to know the questions were dangerous ones to answer. Once again his guard was slipping and he felt Vincent was pulling the strings.

Taking a deep breath, he said, gazing into his eyes, “No, but what I do or what I prefer now isn’t any of your business, nor will it help you to remember who you are.”

Vincent’s smile quickly disappeared and he became quiet, taking a bite of his rare steak. As he chewed, red juices slipped onto his chin and instead of wiping it clean with a napkin, he licked and then sucked his tongue as if the taste of it made him yearn for more.

Who exactly are you, Vincent?
The thought kept Jacob preoccupied for the rest of their meal.

Chapter 5

Were the gods conspiring against him? Vincent thought as he followed Jacob out of the elevator. They had just left his apartment, and he was no closer now than when they started. He had hoped to find clues to his identity, to who exactly Vincent Brewster was, who his friends were, who his family was, anything that could help him piece together this puzzle called his life.

But what he and Jacob found when they got to his apartment was nothing. It lay completely empty. No furniture, no pictures, no letters, no clothes either. Nothing at all. When they spoke to neighbors and the building manager or concierge, who had given them a key to his apartment, they got the same response. No one had seen Vincent in months. And they didn’t know much about him as he always kept to himself. A simple hi or bye was all they ever got from their elusive neighbor or tenant the two years he lived there.

It seemed the only person who knew the most about Vincent was Jacob, and even he didn’t know much, apart from his BDSM obsession and how he was sexually in bed.

The more time passed, the more Vincent wished his memory would never come back. Who wanted to be the man being described to him? No one.

What he wanted was to start over. Yes, he had no memories, but something told him that was a good thing. Maybe he could recreate himself. Create a new Vincent Brewster who people respected and trusted. A man he himself could respect and love. A man who deserved a mate like Jacob Brown and who could win his heart over completely. He wanted to be Jacob’s eternal mate, the need burning deep in his heart and soul. Somehow he knew Jacob was made for him and him for Jacob.

As they turned the corner on the eighth floor of Jacob’s apartment building, hope began to simmer and then boil in his soul. Maybe the gods weren’t conspiring against him but instead saving him. Maybe fate had weaved all this so that Vincent could become the man Jacob deserved and needed in life.

By the time they got to Jacob’s door, Vincent’s plan had been set in his mind. He would not screw up this second time around.

* * * *

Vincent had been quiet ever since they left his vacant apartment. Jacob wondered what was going through his mind. He didn’t talk to him because he saw the man needed time to absorb the news, or rather absorb the lack of news, and process his thoughts and feelings. His furrowed brows had told Jacob Vincent hadn’t yet come to terms with what he learned today.

But when Jacob opened the door to his own apartment and they stepped through, Vincent finally broke the silence. “So this is where you live?”

Jacob did a once-over. The place wasn’t messy, but it wasn’t exactly spic-and-span clean either, and that was how he liked it. As long as he knew where everything was and no clutter stood in his way, he was happy. Placing his keys on the table beside the door, he got a glimpse of his own reflection in the hanging mirror. Holy cow, he looked like the walking dead! His hair was a mess and his face unshaven. His tweed jacket and wrinkled cotton T-shirt underneath it had seen better days. Sleeping on the chaise longue at the hospital overnight certainly didn’t improve his looks.

But a shower would fix all this up, and he wouldn’t look like he just crawled out of a grave he had been resting in for the past couple of years.

He looked at Vincent. “Why don’t you make yourself at home while I take a shower and change?”

He pointed to the end of the corridor. “The guest room is down there. There are some extra clothes of mine in there you can use. We’re about the same size. And the kitchen is to the right. If you want to rest or get yourself a bite to eat, feel free to do as you please. Mi casa is your casa for a little while, until my captain says otherwise.”

He headed for his room to get a change of clothes and then off to the bathroom for a long, hot shower to refresh and at the same time clear his thoughts. Being this close to Vincent distracted him. He needed to concentrate on this case and not focus on the past he had with Vincent or how gorgeous and sexy he looked now.

Many times, the urge to dip in and kiss him on the lips overtook him, but Jacob resisted. He worried the urges would intensify now that they would be spending so much time alone and temptation would rear his beautiful head.

The hot water pounded on his shoulders and chest as he slipped his upper body under the showerhead’s spray. He closed his eyes and moved completely into the jet stream. Mmm, it felt good. He stayed motionless for several minutes letting his muscles relax and unwind.

That was when a lurid memory came to him, one of him and Vincent naked in the shower making love. Vincent stood behind him, his cock deep inside Jacob. Vincent nibbled his ear and then whispered that Jacob was made for him. The perfect match.

Jacob’s cock became erect as memories of how good it felt having Vincent make love to him flooded his mind. Vincent’s sexy, muscular body and his tight ass always made Jacob melt. But it was his sea-green eyes that seduced him every time. Vincent just needed to look at him passionately with those enchanting eyes and Jacob became mush. Vincent had used those sultry, bewitching eyes to get Jacob to try bondage sex. It wasn’t anything Jacob ever wanted to do, but when Vincent asked him to try it once and if he didn’t like it they would never try it again, Jacob said all right.

And that had been the best sex they had ever had. Being tied to the bedpost and blindfolded, not knowing what Vincent would do next and then feeling his lips slide down his neck, chest, abdomen and slip around his hard shaft. Oh, man, he was getting really hard just imagining and remembering those times.

He decided he needed to relieve himself before Vincent would see him in this state. He didn’t want him seeing just how much he still affected Jacob emotionally and physically.

He’d be in here longer than he expected but figured Vincent would probably be resting since this day had been long and tolling.

Chapter 6

Vincent began to execute the first phase of his plan of seduction. The saying “The way to win a man’s heart is through his stomach” sounded like the best place to start. The second Jacob went into the bathroom, Vincent hurried to his fridge to see what he had in there. It definitely was a bachelor’s pad, because Jacob didn’t have much in the fridge, a half-empty carton of milk, eggs, butter, an overripe plum and orange, and ketchup, mustard, and relish.

Taking a peek in the cupboards, he found two cans of tomatoes, pasta, olive oil, and several dried herbs and spices. “Where there is a will, there’s a way,” he mumbled to himself as he set out to make dinner. It wouldn’t be something a three-Michelin-star restaurant would make, but he was pretty confident he could prepare a meal that would have Jacob’s mouth watering.

By the time Jacob came out of the bathroom, almost an hour had passed. Vincent had time to finish cooking the meal, set the table, and open the only bottle of red wine he could find. It wasn’t a fine wine, more like a cooking or table wine, but it would do.

Jacob walked in wearing another tight black T-shirt and faded jeans that were torn at the upper thigh and knees. He rubbed his wet blond curls with a towel as he said with surprised eyes, “I thought you would be resting.”

Vincent shook his head. “Nope, too much going through my mind. I’d go crazy just lying in bed feeling helpless. I decided instead to make myself useful and cook us something nice to eat.”

Jacob chuckled. “You mean I had food in the fridge?”

“In the cupboards, yeah.” He smiled. “From the sound and look of things you don’t cook. Right?”

“I can make a sandwich and cook eggs when I have to but pretty much eat out.”

“Well, I hope you’ll enjoy this.” Vincent gestured with his open hand for him to sit at the table and dig in.

Jacob wasted no time sitting down and taking the fork in hand. His wide, hungry eyes told Vincent the fettuccine with marinara sauce looked very good. Vincent picked his fork up next but waited until Jacob put a forkful of pasta in his mouth to do the same.