Five years ago Joah was culled -- kidnapped by the government to be trained as a soldier. In the process, they erased his memory, destroying his past, his dreams, everything but his name. Armed with that alone, Joah escapes from the facility in search of someone to help him recall the man he used to be.<br><br>That person is Tobin, Joah’s husband, who never gave up hope of finding him again. He refuses to believe that the strength of his love alone won’t be enough to bring back Joah’s memories of their shared lives, and he’s determined to bring back the man beneath the soldier, the man he knows has to love him.<br><br>But an alarm in the chip blocking Joah’s memories was triggered at his escape, and if it isn’t removed soon, it will shriek his life away. Removing it won’t bring back his past, and may destroy the present that Tobin has tried so hard to build between them. How can the love they once shared possibly survive?

Persistence of Memory

The world goes black and silent and cold before it’s snuffed out like a candle’s flame, and I can’t think anymore, I can’t see, I can’t hear a thing. It’s all gone. 


Soft, gentle kisses that flutter across my lips like butterflies. Refreshing kisses like a spring rain. Hungry kisses, eager lips covering mine in a velvet crush that’s maddening because I want more. I can’t get enough. I want to drown in these kisses. I could live on them alone. I would die without them. 


Kisses like promises, each one a hint of something more. Kisses like snowflakes, no two the same. Kisses whirling like a hurricane through the blankness of my mind. 


In the darkness I see two boys on bicycles, teenagers laughing as they race against the wind. One of the boys is myself, but I don’t know my name, not anymore. I had it once, I think, and somewhere along the way it fell aside and was lost. 


Chapter 9