How could I have forgotten love? How could I have forgotten. Tess/ She

everything I could ever want in a woman, a stunning combination ofbeauty and brains. She's a survivor. I can appreciate her strength, ingenuity and sense of adventure. I remember the determination in hereyes when I dragged her to the storeroom behind the bar. "NOV' Alec satup in bed as his consciousness fought to break into his dreams. You'vegot it all wrong. You never left the cabin to go to a bar. It was astory, a fiction she created to pass the time of day. Can't you tell thedifference between reality and fantasy ?

He fen back onto the pillow, his hands still clutching the cold rails oneither side of the bed. Although he wanted to resist the urge to sleep,fatigue overwhelmed him.

His eyes closed.

Tess. I remembered the pale pink dress, her prom dress. She looked so young and innocent, completely out of her element in that group of

social barracudas. I watched her across the ballroom. Ballroom? I was in a cabin in the middle of the Rocky Mountains.

There were no dancers, no orchestra. A soft hand touched his forehead.

"His lemperature's spiking again.

Do you think we need to call." The voice faded from his consciousness.

I can feel the sensation radiating between my shoulder blades. It isn't

really a pain, more of a warm energy spilling down my back. Suddenly Ican't stand. I'm falling to my knees, trying to reach for the knife'shandle. Why can't I reach the damned thing?

"What's wrong, Mr. Brody?"

My vision is beginning to blur.

"H-help me ..." I croak, gasping for breath.

"The kn-knife ..."

"What did he say?"

"Something about a knife. Please, can you hear me, Mr. Brody?"

"Whoa--hold lim down! He's got my hair! Can you give me a hand, Jenny?

He's all twisted up" -- I ran my fingers through the single braid,

turning it into a shimmering waterfall. of hair covering her bareshoulders. "I should have done this to begin with ... " It was deep,satisfying, knock-your-socks-off sex . Alec sat straight up in bed andlislaed to the dying echo of his voice. His cold sweat didn't even havea chance to dry by the time a nurse burst through the door.

"Mr. Brody? What is it?"

He gripped the rails on either side of the bed.

"Nothing. It's nothing."

After the door swung shut behind the woman, his mind shifted to Ellen.

Everything had come back to. him in a flash, but some of the memories

didn't make sense. How could he have been with her at a dance when they

were stranded in an isolated mountain cabin?

And the bar. Alec remembered being with he rat the bar, a dirty, smellyhole-in-the-wall jo'mt. A place he wouldn't be caught dead patronizing.

What about when they made love? When they kissed, when he ran his handsthrough her hair, when she touched him . A Killer Smile A Killer SmileWas it real or merely wishful thinking? Confusion and fatigue reigned tomake a mess of the memories. He tried to sort out his jumbledrecollections, to separate fact from fiction, dreams from reality.

The hospital was real.

The nurse was real.

But what about Ellen? Reality or fantasy? He wasn't He closed his eyes,hoping. to find the answers in the same place where the questionsoriginated.

Please. let me dream . But dreams as well as sleep eluded him. He rolledover and punched the thin pillow. I'll wake up in the morning and I'llremember everything. It'll be as simple as that. His eyelids grew heavy,his mind swimming in murky mental waters.

I'll remember the real Ellen.

I'll remember. SI-md OF FLOWERS that burst into fire. Of papier-mehfireplaces that smoldered and turned into ash. Of smoke. Thick, heavyand" Smoke Ellen, roused from her nightmares, was unable to distinguishthe real from the mundane in that split second of coexistence betweenwakefulness and sleep. She drew in a deep breath of air, expecting itscold freshness to dispel her fiery dreams.

Real smoke clogged her throat.

The cabin's on fir el Struggling out of the clinging embrace of herblanket, she fell to her hands and knees, knowing where the fresh-estair would be.

"Hermitt!" She heard him howl in response.

"Here, boy!" Ellen saw a moving shadow obscured by the thickening smoke.

Smoke, but no fire.

Maybe the damper had merely fallen closed. She turned around, crawlingtoward the fireplace.

Hermitt howled again.

Ellen heard a small pop and swiveled around in time to see, through theharsh curtain of smoke, the fire filling the doorway. After a secondpop, flames jumped through the kitchen window.

She anticipated the third muted explosion, realizing it representedstrategy rather than dumb luck. Her exits were being methodicallyeliminated.

Another window erupted in flames.

She had one window left.

Pulling the quilt over her head, she made a desperate dive toward theglass, hitting it with her shoulder and back. She bounced off it, havingneither the weight nor the momentum to break it. Desperate, she reachedover and grabbed the fireplace poker, swinging it with one hand towardthe window.

The glass shattered.

She jumped.

A plume of fire shot into the air as the last firebomb of the seriesdetonated. Yet it made no sound other than the crackle of fire consumingwood.

"And papers.

And dreams.

Chapter Eleven.

Morning came with a vengeance--harsh sunlight, loud noises and apounding headache. Alee scanned the aseptic room and slowly realizedwhere he was. A soft knock heralded a visitor, and he managed to croak"Come in" with what sounded like reasonable clarity. A pot of tulipsentered the room first, then a face peeped out from behind it.

"Morning, boss." Caroline's dimples brightened the room more than thered blooms ever could. She placed the cheerful pot of flowers on thebedside table and reached for his hand.

"This is a heckuva way to end your vacation."

Alec tried to smile.

"Tell me about it. I feel like I've been on a three-day bender that

lasted three weeks."

"You had us worried." She beamed down at him.

"I'm glad you're safe and sound."

Alee sighed.

"Safe, maybe. Sound? I'm not so Sure." Caroline dragged a chair over to

the side of the bed and sat down, propping her arms on the rail.

"So tell me what happened."

He ran a cautious hand through his hair, dodging the new bandage.

"Have you ever had a dream that was so powerful you knew it had to be

real?"

A Killer Smile She nodded.

"Sure. Who hasn't?"

"I'm having a hard time distinguishing between what really happened upthere and what I dreamed. I remember falling, but not landing. The nextthing I knew, I was in a cabin. Someone had undressed me, cleaned me upand bandaged my head. It turned out to be a woman named Ellen. 'Caroline crossed her arms.

"Last night you muttered something about some misanthropic mountainwoman who kidnapped you."

"She did nothing of the sort." Alec drew a deep breath, trying to find acomfortable position in the hospital bed. "In fact, she saved my life. Iwas. in and out of it for a while, not quite sure who or where I was. Ieven thought I was a guy named Jack."

"Jack? How odd."

"When the weather finally cleared, Ellen went to get help. While she wasgone, my on memories started coming back, but unfortunately, I didn'tretain much of " Jack's'. memories, so I left before she could getback."

" You didn't wait for her to return with help?"

"No. And that's bothering me. She saved my life and took care of me foralmost a week, and I left without so much as a thank-you."

Caroline sat back in the chair, crossed her arms in maternal disapprovaland gazed into his eyes.

"There's more to this story than you're telling me right?"

Alee released the deep breath he suddenly realized he was holding.

"Is it that obvious?"

"It's painfully apparent this Ellen is more important to you than you'rewilling to admit."

"As Jack ... I mean, the feeling was so strong that. '.." He closed hiseyes, suddenly assaulted by the memory of a crackling fire and crimpedwaves of softly scented hair.

A Killer Smile Caroline drew a deep breath, and reduced what Aleeconsidered to be a complicated emotional situation, fraught withundefined variables and intangible elements, into a simple observation.

"You fell in love with her."

Try as he could, Alee couldn't speak louder than a whisper.