Back Home To You

Chapter 2

Where will you go? The question bounced around in Alexander's head.

He pulled his back straighter.

Alexander didn't know where he would go, but he supposed that was now the norm for him. These days, he didn't know much.

But he would survive.

He had thus far.

"You can stay," Emily said, and Alexander wondered if he'd imagined it. "You can stay," she repeated, as if she could read his mind. She laughed softly at his continued silence. "You don't have to look as if I've just saved your life."

His lips curled back. "Are you sure?"

She nodded.

"I don't even know your name."

"Emily Bennett."

"You're British." Alexander wasn't sure how he could recognize accents. Since waking up with no memories of where he was, everything had been confusing. He had been in a house, tended to by a woman who spoke a language he didn't understand.

All he knew was he belonged to the USA military, only because the villagers who had found him washed ashore had kept his dog tags.

The villagers of the small town in Tunisia gave him some clothes and whatever money they could scrap together, then off he went in search of an America consulate. It took him a week of walking and hitchhiking, but he eventually got to where he needed.

Then, he was whisked back to the States and went through a series of medical tests and interrogation before they finally released the information he had been asking for.

He was Alexander Lewis. He was a marine.

His files had stated that he was living here with his parents. So when the doctors cleared him to leave the hospital, he came back home.

Only it wasn't his home anymore.

"Do you have any clothes with you?" Emily's curious eyes roamed over him, probably noting how the T-shirt and cargo pants he wore didn't fit him. She had, after all, figured out he'd lost his memories without him saying.

Her gaze flitted to the winter jacket he'd hung up on the hook behind the door, then returned to study him.

Alexander did the same. He stared at the petite ginger-haired woman sitting across from him. She was so small she barely came up to his chest, yet she'd dealt with his intrusion so courageously.

Her hair was down, spilling over her shoulders in a tousled but sexy mess. She was in a black sleeveless tank top and dark gray sweatpants.

She looked comfortable in the house—her house.

Emily Bennett pulled the white throw on the back of the couch over her shoulders and wrapped them close when she noticed his stare.

Alexander turned away. He hadn't meant to make her uncomfortable, but he couldn't help getting drawn to Emily. There was something about her.

Her courage? He'd been taken aback when she managed to flip him over. His body had easily covered hers, so she needed some skills—which she'd executed so perfectly—to turn the situation around.

Alexander had to consciously fight his instincts to slam her back to the floor. She wasn't holding a weapon anymore, so he had no reason to hurt her—even when she tried to plummet his nose into his face.

Then her honey-gold eyes locked on to his, and he forgot where he was. Even when her eyes widened with surprise, even when shock flashed through her delicate features, he felt an assurance that everything would be okay.