Page 24 of Unapologetic Obsession

Bright sun.

Sparkling blue water.

There was nothing other than the endless ocean and the occasional seagull as far as the eye could see.

My goal was to regain my strength, then find out who I was. I was no longer starving or in desperate need of medical attention, but the chance of finding my way home had faded into the distance like the port.

On top of that, I had accidentally become a passenger on a luxury boat. I couldn’t afford their cheapest room. How would I pay for all this?

The shock of the endless blue wore off. “I can’t leave New York,” I whispered, glancing at him with desperate eyes. “I have to go back. Please!”

His expression clouded. A shadow fell over his face, his lips pressing into a thin line. His eyes appeared stormy gray instead of deep blue. “Why?”

Images of several worried faces flashed through my mind—an older man, a pretty woman in her thirties, and a dark-hairedgirl with a gloomy mien. She was my sister, I was sure of it. Last night, I dreamed I was finishing my last semester of college before being ripped out of my world. “I-I think my family lives in New York, and I might go to school there, too.”

“So?”

“So?” I echoed his cavalier word slowly. “My family might be looking for me.”

He glowered, irritated. “They weren’t the ones looking out for you when you were starving and knocking on death’s door. I was the one who took you in and saved you.”

I closed my eyes, I hadn’t meant to come off as ungrateful to the first person to show me kindness. “That’s not how I meant it. Thank you for saving my life. I don’t know what I would have done if we hadn’t met. It—it’s just, I-I…” I grappled with words. “I hadn’t expected to sail away.”

“Next time, clarify that before you sneak into someone else’s boat.”

Well, damn.

Karma was a bitch. I had snuck in to steal food, and now I was trapped. “H-how do I get back to New York?”

Broad shoulders lifted and dropped with an air of indifference, the relaxed posture of his large body giving off a sense of unconcern. “The only way is to jump into the freezing water and swim back.”

My eyes burned with unshed tears. “But what if my family is looking for me?”

My heart palpitated when he sat beside me on the bed, his body enveloping mine to pull me closer. I think he meant to comfort me.

I shouldn’t have trusted myself around a man this gorgeous. It made me stupid and careless. But he was just so damn tall. And beautiful. Even now, the amber and cashmere scent made me dizzy.

A more disturbing thought popped into my mind. What if I had a boyfriend or husband? What I did with the doctor, would that constitute a betrayal?

I unconsciously pushed away from him, but he moved with me instinctively. It felt choreographed—as if we had done this song and dance before, where I ran, and he chased after me. I trembled, pulling at the gown to hide more of my body. It only drew his attention to my bare knees. His gaze rested there as if he had the unapologetic right to see every inch of my body.

“It’s just frustrating that I can’t remember what happened, and I think the answers are back the way I came,” I admitted. “I want to know who I am.” I stared at my midriff, the hospital gown covering the scars. “And I want to know who put those marks on my body.”

His generally collected demeanor was suddenly replaced with a tight-set jaw. My meager explanations placated him enough to pick up the Jell-O, though. The spoon scooped up more Jell-O before it was pushed past my lips, making a soft, squishy noise.

“I put out feelers on the mainland before we left,” he told me. “If anyone files a missing person report for someone named Rose, the police will contact the captain. In the meantime, it’s best if you vanish from New York.”

I glanced at him, puzzled, but he was back to being inscrutable. “What do you mean?”

“If you woke up in a hospital gown, you were at a hospital when something—or someone—spooked you enough to run away. I’ll go out on a limb and say someone’s after you, and they might still be looking for you.”

I’d had a similar thought. I would’ve been dressed differently had I been discharged from the hospital. I didn’t even have shoes or a coat. I was in a rush as if running for my life.

That was when I told him, “I-I had been dreaming about a man chasing me. Except, I don’t think they’re dreams. They feel like memories. I think the man came for me at the hospital, and I ran from him.”

His face was emotionless as he asked, “What did he look like?”

Shoulders slouching, I tried to dig deep. “The dreams are fuzzy. No matter how hard I try, I can’t make out his face.”