“It’s okay.” He slowly walked toward where she sat. He was tall, his legs long and athletic, so the walk was short-lived. “May I sit?”
“What? Yes. Yes, of course.”
Whatever she had been expecting Ryan to look like, this was not it. Dressed in a dark blue suit that looked tailor made, the material failed to hide how in shape he was. When Gaia had been told her husband was forty-seven, she had expected him to look older, but the fit, muscular man sitting across from her had the appearance of someone in his mid-thirties at best. Though tall and masculinely lithe, it was his face that was most striking. Under his full, neatly cropped head of dark brown hair were eyes so blue they were almost wolfish in appearance. His jaw was angular, his Adam’s apple prominent. His nose, somewhat hawkish and Roman, managed to suit his features perfectly. His lips were neither too full nor too thin, but just right for his facial structure.
Gaia blew out a breath. Dr. McMasters had been right about one thing at least. Ryan was definitely a good-looking man.
Handsomeness aside, it was his penetrating blue eyes that kept drawing her attention. They had a kindness to them, a gentleness even, yet, conversely, his gaze remained enigmatic. When he smiled at her, laugh lines appeared, making him even better looking than he already was. His smile also caused that flash of recognition to keep coming back, giving her hope that maybe in time she would regain some or all of her lost memories.
“It’s been so hard to stay away from you,” Ryan said, his tone quiet and husky. He reached out a hand to cover one of hers. “I’ve missed you so much, baby. I’m so glad you’re coming home.”
The sincerity in his voice made her heart break for him. “Ryan…”
“I know.” He sighed and withdrew his hand. “You don’t remember me.”
Gaia was quiet for a long moment. In the end she decided to give him the truth. “I don’t remember you as my husband, but seeing you has given me hope.”
“Hope?”
“That my memories will come back.” She offered him a tentative smile. “There is definitely something familiar about you.” His blue eyes widened. “Not familiar in the sense of remembering you or us,” she quickly qualified so as not to raise his expectations, “yet still familiar.”
His inscrutable gaze softened. “That’s a good start. It’s also the most hope I’ve been given since this nightmare began.”
“It’s the same for me,” Gaia admitted. “This feeling of familiarity toward you is the first spark of recognition I’ve felt towards anyone or anything that I’ve been told I knew during the years I lost.”
Her admission softened his tense expression. His hand covered hers again. “I know this is going to be a long and difficult process for you—for us—but our marriage is worth it. I can’t imagine a life without you in it.”
She inhaled a shaky breath. “I have one request to make of you.”
“Anything.”
“Be patient with me,” she murmured. “This must seem like the next day to you, but for me…”
Ryan gently squeezed her hand. “I know, baby. You don’t have to explain.” He inclined his head. “I promise to always be patient. Would you make me a promise as well?”
“What’s that?”
“Promise me you’ll look to our future rather than our past. I want you to remember too, but I’m afraid if you’re constantly concerned with regaining your memories that you’ll neglect our present.”
She supposed that made good sense, supposed too that he deserved that much. After all, he was more or less in the same boat as she was. Both of them were going home with a spouse who was, for all intent and purposes, a total stranger to them now. “I promise.”
His sharp, blue gaze possessed a look of relief in it. Apparently not the type of man given to emotional displays, Ryan schooled his features as quickly as he’d exposed them. “Thank you, Gaia. I—oh!” He released her hand and fished into his pocket. “How could I forget these?” he rhetorically asked as he pulled out two rings. “They belong to you.”
Gaia didn’t know how to feel, but a promise was a promise. Her heart sped up again as she slowly extended her left hand to Ryan. He slipped a large, expensive diamond onto her ring finger first then followed it with a simple gold band that matched the one he wore. She briefly imagined how excited she must have been on both her engagement and wedding days when given such exquisite symbols of their marital covenant. If she had hoped seeing the rings would immediately spark her memories, she kept the thought to herself. “They’re beautiful,” she said truthfully. “Thank you.”
His watchful gaze lingered at her ring finger and then again at her full lips before returning to her hazel eyes. “May they never come off,” Ryan murmured. “Never.”
She resisted the urge to nervously chew at her bottom lip. “We should probably get going,” she breathed out. “I imagine the staff needs to sanitize the room before giving it to the next patient.”
Gaia was nervous and she could surmise that Ryan knew it. He let it go and inclined his head. “I agree. It’s time for you to come home.”
Chapter Three
Gaia sat next to Ryan in the backseat of a black SUV. Two men in dark suits wearing ear pieces sat in the front seats. She scrunched up her nose, not knowing who they were or why they were even driving them. Obviously sensing her confusion, Ryan took her fidgety hand and held it. He pushed a button that made a partition she hadn’t known was there go up. “The driver is James. The passenger is Frank. Both men are a part of our security detail.”
She blinked. “We have a security detail?” She wasn’t even precisely certain what that meant. “Like… bodyguards?”
“Yes.”
