Amnesia - The Matlock Pack: Book One

Tuesday 15 December

~*Nat’s POV*~

It had been a long two and a half days since I had spent more than five minutes with Bells.

I hadn’t seen him on Sunday as something had come up with his family that he and Tatum had to deal with, so instead, I spent my day catching up on laundry and other household chores.

Yesterday felt like it had been a repeat of last Monday. Takeshi and Spence had handed over control of the Camp to Kennedy, as well as two of the Warrior Training specialists I’d not met before: Casey and Emery.

Other than the fact that they were both young men with beards, they couldn’t have been more different. Casey had messy, medium length wavy hair that had dark roots but had been bleached blonde in the past. He wore round wire-rimmed glasses, and I had not yet seen him without his fuzzy black beanie. For the past two days, he’d worn clothes that would best be described as ‘comfortable loungewear’ — an oversized t-shirt matched with slouchy jeans. He had shown up to Camp late every day so far, bleary-eyed and hungover, but had recovered well by the time lunch had rolled around. Kennedy later told me that Casey’s teaching speciality was in bushfire management, so it came as no surprise that Bells, Murph and Owen took turns grilling him about different things every chance they had. I got the impression that Casey had seen some horrific things in his short time as a firefighter, and alcohol and drugs were the only things that soothed him of a night.

Emery, on the other hand, was a clean-cut Pakistani Muslim who was always impeccably dressed. His dark hair was mostly covered by his topi cap, but it looked short and very well maintained, just like his beard. He had deep-set eyes that studied you, but his intense stare was offset by the easy half-smile constantly on his face. Arriving at Camp even earlier than Kennedy, he was a man who took everything seriously and expected the same from the Campers. His accent was thick, as he had immigrated only five years previously, but it looked like everyone in Matlock already adored him. He was the medical specialist for the Warrior Training course and worked rather closely with Auden when he wasn’t teaching. Having left a war-torn country for a more peaceful life in Australia, he had his own trauma to deal with, just like Casey. However, he dealt with his suffering completely differently, preferring to focus on healing himself through prayer, rather than on alcohol or drugs.

I couldn’t help but feel an immediate kinship with them both.

The rest of yesterday and most of today had been spent in group activities that had conspired to separate our little group, so when today’s late afternoon sparring session had come around, Bells and Murph jumped at the opportunity to spend the session with me and Cody.

As always, Murph was his typical quiet self, but a blind man could see that, just like Bells and I, he and Cody were closer than they had been the prior week. Cody had remained tight-lipped about how Murph had come to wake up in her bedroom, and even tighter-lipped about what had gone down between them both after they came back to the apartment after her party. Honestly, what went on between the two of them was none of my concern, but I couldn’t help but take immense pleasure out of annoying Cody by asking her lots of questions.

Bells and I watched Murph teach Cody a few moves before we made our way to our own mat.

“Did everything get sorted with your family?” I said, stretching my arms to prepare for the fight.

“Eventually, yeah.” Bells performed his own stretching, grinning widely when he noticed I was losing my focus in order to check him out. “Do you want me to take my shirt off, Nat?”

My eyes darted from his arms to his face to see him chuckling at me. “Sorry, Bells…” I swallowed a guilty gulp, my cheeks pinking.

He laughed louder. “Don’t be. I like it when you look at me. It makes me think you want me.”

“Even if it’s just for your body?” A smile spread over my face now that my embarrassment was fading.

“Even if it’s just for my body.” He grinned at me, raising his shirt playfully to show off his abs. “I mean, I worked hard on these. It’s only fair that you get to appreciate them as much as I do.”

I laughed and approached him. “Oh, I appreciate them, Bells. I really do. But there’s no need for you to be showing off the goods to everyone else now, is there?” I placed a hand on the hem of his shirt and tugged it down, letting my fingers slowly brush his torso as I did so.

Grinning, I watched him close his eyes and moan in pleasure. Once his shirt was back in place, I leaned forward. “You can take this off later,” I whispered as I brushed my lips past his ear. “When we’re alone.”

Groaning louder, he embraced me, letting one hand drift down to my butt, before gripping it and pulling me closer. I felt his growing arousal against my heating core, while his other hand drifted up to my neck, holding me in place so he could kiss me softly. The contrast of his firm control of my body against the tenderness of his lips made me shudder with pleasure.

I broke the kiss first, leaning my forehead against his. “We need to spar, otherwise we’ll get into trouble.”

“I don’t care,” Bells growled, but he reluctantly dropped his hands from my overheated form and took a step back.

He returned my grin and dropped into a defensive stance. “If this is what you want, come and get it.” He winked.

Oh, it was on.

I smirked before I dashed forward and feinted my attack with my right shoulder, before darting to the left as soon as I saw him fall for my misdirect. Clenching my fists, I landed a solid one-two at his now covered abs, his muscles absorbing the punches easily. I waited for his counterattack and led him around the mat in a dance, making him think he had the upper hand after my initial strikes.

I chanced a glance at his face to see that where his wide, playful grin once lay, a serious determination had taken over. His entire focus was on his manoeuvres, not letting me get more than a step out of where he thought he wanted me.

He didn’t realise that I still had the upper hand.

I had studied how he moved against Murph last week and knew that he tended to fall into attacking with repetitive strikes. Murph hadn’t yet cottoned onto what Bells was doing, so Bells had become overconfident in his abilities. I could tell that Bells was already falling into the same pattern with me.

The only thing I needed to do was disrupt his rhythm.

I danced around the mat, letting him believe he had the upper hand, waiting for the opportune moment to get through. Twice he opened his defensive stance, but I let them go because I could tell he was expecting me to fall for his bluff. It wasn’t until he opened a third time that I attacked, but not where he thought I was going to.

I went for his legs.

I dropped almost to my knees, then leapt at his legs, barrelling into him, and making him lose his balance. I wrapped my arms around his thighs, put my shoulder to his right leg, and pushed forward. As I had both of his legs pinned, there was no way that he could keep his balance and he tipped backwards, landing flat on his back with an oof.

I clambered over him, knowing that I only had moments before he got air back into his lungs and would recover. Resting my legs on either side of him, I put all my weight onto his stomach and leaned forward, bringing an arm up against his throat, but not pressing down too hard.

Bells’ eyes went wide with shock, his mouth open, still gasping for air. He aimed his eyes at me in disbelief for no more than two seconds before his jaw clenched in determination. He grabbed my thighs and shoved me down his body, making me feel his incredibly stiff cock nudge forcefully against my pelvis.

I gasped, completely losing focus, removing my arm from his throat, and placing both hands on the ground next to his body to lift myself off him.

He took the opportunity to take control of the situation, flipping me onto my back and landing on top of me in the exact reverse of the positions we had just been in, his arm against my throat, leaning down over me whilst resting most of his weight on my stomach.

“Give up yet?” Bells asked, grinning.

I glared at him, very unhappy with how he had tricked me. I struggled underneath him, still trying to gain some leverage against him, even though I knew I was fighting a losing battle.

“Come on, Nat. Tap out.” He leaned more of his weight against my throat, driving the point home that he had won. “Tap out and I’ll cook dinner for you tonight.”

I continued my angry glaring and squirming. I loathed having to admit defeat, especially like this. Especially when I could feel the delightful pulsing sensation at my throat where his bare arm pressed against me.

I struggled more, even as I could feel myself getting fainter, the edges of my eyesight fading.

The smug grin dropped from Bells’ face when he realised I wasn’t giving up my struggles, even though they were growing weaker. A look of concern drifted across his face as he slowly lifted his arm from my throat.

“Nat…?”

I heard him start to ask a question, but my eyesight and hearing faded just before I could hear the rest of it. Then I lost consciousness entirely.

“… come on, Nat, wake up…”

“… damn, I didn’t think she had that much fight in her…”

“… I really don’t give a flying fuck. Let her die...”

“… did you see the moves she pulled against Bells…?”

“… did you see them kissing before? Stupid bitch deserved it…”

“… Bells really did a number on her, didn’t he…?”

“… why don’t you kiss her, see if that wakes her up? I mean, it worked for Sleeping Beauty…”

“… you fought well, kid. Time to wake up now…”

I surged forward, my torso lifting off the mat, one long loud gasp forcing air into my lungs. As soon as they filled, I started to cough, and I brought a hand to my tender throat.

Bells fell back onto his knees beside me with relief. “Oh, thank Goddess…”

I looked around at the sea of faces around us. It seemed like the entire Camp was surrounding us, with Cody and Murph kneeling to one side of me, and Bells to the other. Bells was gripping the hand that wasn’t at my throat with both of his, clasping it to his chest.

He was shaking, and the look on his face shifted constantly between terror and relief.

“Wha…” I managed to croak before having to stop as another coughing fit overtook me. “What happened…?”

“You didn’t give up, Nat,” Bells’ voice shook with thick emotion. “Why didn’t you give up?” A single tear ran down his cheek. “I nearly killed you...”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake. If she wants to kill herself, let her fucking do it.” Kadin’s shrill voice rang out in the otherwise silent field.

“Oh, my Goddess, Kadin! Seriously?”

“How could you be so cruel?”

“Well, she’s a right cow, isn’t she?”

“She fights better than you, Kadin. Is that why you’re so jealous?”

“Kadin, enough. In my office. Now.”

My eyes focused on Kadin as she threw her hands up in the air and glared at me.

“Whatever! I’m just saying what everyone else is thinking!” Kadin turned from the group and was led away by Kennedy, no doubt to be reprimanded. I had to admit, that was one thing I preferred over the prior week — not having Spence around the campgrounds meant very little preferential treatment for Kadin.

“Nat? If you wouldn’t mind just lying back for me?” Emery’s voice called out from behind me. “I need to check your throat.”

I turned around to see him kneeling right where my head had been before I woke up. Still rubbing my throat, I nodded and laid back on the ground. Bells still had hold of my other hand, his hands rubbing mine incredibly anxiously. As I was lying back, I noticed Murph had hold of Cody’s hand, but no-one else seemed to notice it, as everyone was stepping back from us to go back to what they had been doing. Cody’s focus was entirely on me, but she was gripping Murph’s hand just as hard as Bells was gripping mine.

Emery placed his fingers on either side of my throat, massaging in small circles. “I’m looking for any damage to your throat. I think you’re okay because you could speak, but I need to make sure.”

I nodded once stiffly, before lying still to let him do what he needed to. I focused on the feel of Bells’ trembling hands holding mine and felt Cody pick up my other hand to cradle it.

“You gave us quite a scare, Nat,” Emery said calmly as he continued his ministrations. “What made you keep fighting?”

I opened my mouth, but closed it again when I realised I wasn’t sure if I should talk with Emery working on my neck.

“It’s okay. I need to feel your throat when you’re talking as well. You can speak.” Emery kept prodding my neck.

“Didn’t want Bells to cook for me.” I croaked, looking over at Bells without moving my head. “Didn’t want to chance food poisoning.” I smirked and winked at him.

Bells let out an exasperated sigh, but let his eyes close in relief. “You could have just told me that, Nat.” He brought my hand up to his lips to lay my palm against his cheek. “There are plenty of restaurants out there for me to take you to. I’ll never, ever cook for you if that’s what you want. As long as you’re safe.” I could feel his cheek growing wet as tears fell from his eyes. “Just never do that to me again, okay?”

I let the smirk fall from my face as I caressed his cheek with my thumb. He leaned into my palm, holding my hand to his cheek. “I won’t be as reckless as that again.” Bells opened his eyes and pleaded with me silently. “I promise.” He let his eyelids drop again in relief, then kissed my palm.

“You’ll be fine, Nat,” Emery said, letting go of my throat. “Take it easy tonight. Eat soft foods until the tenderness goes away. You should be back to normal by this time tomorrow.”

“Thanks Emery.” I took my hands back from Bells and Cody to lift myself up. “I guess we should get back to things then.”

“Not so fast, Nat.” Emery let me get up, but put his hand on my shoulder. “You’re done for the day. Kennedy told me he’s cancelled your session with him tonight. I suggest you go back to your apartment, have dinner, and get as much sleep as you can, so you can be ready for things tomorrow.”

I sighed and lowered my head. “Fair enough.”

“I’ll look after her, if that’s okay, Emery?” Cody asked, her voice shaking as much as Bells was.

“You’re staying together, yes?”

Cody and I both nodded.

“Okay. We’ll see you both tomorrow.” Emery turned to face Bells. “Bells? We need to discuss some safety measures to keep in mind when you’re sparring…”