“And you’re positive L’eihrs can fix it, right?”
“Absolutely,” he promised. “It’ll be easier than manipulating the weather.”
“Are they going to start working on it soon?” With her free hand, she rubbed the cotton fabric of her pillowcase between her fingers. “Ten years might sound like a while, but why not nip it in the bud now?”
“They’ve already put together an action plan.” Which, Aelyx supposed, wasn’t a total lie. “There’s nothing to worry about, but we can’t tell anyone.” He delivered a pointed look. “You understand, right?”
“Totally.” And then she said something that twisted his heart. “You can trust me.”
If only the reverse were true.
“Wait.” There was one thing Cara didn’t understand—why did Aelyx’s guilt cause him to push her away? “In a nutshell, you blew me off because you felt horrible over a small contamination that L’eihrs can fix with a snap of their fingers?”
A flicker of surprise sparked behind his gaze. When he parted his lips to speak and nothing came out, she knew he was stalling for an excuse.
“Don’t,” she ordered. In the past few months, she’d suspected he was in trouble. What about all those trips into the woods? Maybe he’d gotten caught breaking a rule. Maybe his leaders were waiting back home with that horrible electric whip. “Tell me what’s going on. No more hiding. What did you do?”
He shook his head frantically and swore, “Nothing. I told you—
“Just stop.” She tried blocking his words with her palm. “I’m tired of your lies.”
“They’re not lies,” he argued. “Why can’t you believe me?”
“How do I know what to believe?” As long as he was keeping things from her, she had no way of trusting him or knowing how he really felt about her. If their brains were more compatible, she could delve inside his mind for the truth, but so far, all she’d managed to do was hear his painfully loud voice inside her head. That was no help to her now. “I’m not a L’eihr. I can’t just use telepathy and know what you’re thinking.”
Realization dawned in his eyes and he scooted forward, reaching for her.
She tensed. “What’re you doing?”
He took her face between his hands and refused to let go. Peering deeply at her, he whispered, “This is how I feel every time I’m with you.”
She wasn’t prepared for what came next. A split-second rush of chest-swelling desire inflated her lungs, lifting her rib cage until her body felt melded with his. Sensations of devotion and tenderness flashed through her in an instant, forcing her to exhale or burst. Every inch of her skin flashed hot and prickled into gooseflesh while her heart fluttered like hummingbird wings. Her limbs lightened, and she grasped two handfuls of his shirt to stay grounded. It was both terrifying and glorious in its intensity.
It was love.
The dull ache at her temples barely registered. All her doubts vanished. Oh my God, he loves me.
“You love me,” she repeated aloud. The breathy words tasted sweeter than icing on her tongue.
“Is it really that hard to believe?”
“Do it again!”
“No.” He smiled and kissed the tip of her nose. “It’s your turn.”
She let out a snort that would have embarrassed her had she not just catapulted over the moon with joy. “I love you, too, but that’s pretty anticlimactic compared to Silent Speech.”
His answering smile lit him up so beautifully it almost hurt to look at him. “Not to me.”
“Then I love you.” She twirled one finger around a loose tendril of his hair and unfastened his leather cord to comb her fingers through the soft strands. “Now show me more.”
“But you might get a headache.”
She reclined against a heap of pillows and turned her body to face him. “Do it again.”
He nodded, peering deeply into her eyes while his warm breath stirred against her lips. Soon she felt the same rush of emotion as before, the same warm tingles bubbling across her flesh.
“Mmm.” Closing her eyes, she held on to the sensation, treasuring it before it melted away. “That’s worth a thousand headaches.”
When she glanced at Aelyx again, he was watching her with a new hunger that loosed a swarm of fireflies inside her belly. She’d seen that look before, and she knew what it meant. Curling one hand around his neck, she pulled him down, expecting a slow kiss. Instead, his mouth came hard against her and melted her bones.
They picked up where they’d left off weeks ago as if no time had passed, and within minutes, both their shirts lay in a heap on the floor.
She wrapped one leg around his waist and let her hands explore the smooth planes of his back, and he responded in turn, moving his palm up the length of her ribs.
His breaths were deep and shuddering now. A few moments later, he tipped their heads together, squeezed his eyes shut, and chanted, “Silicone, phosphorous, sulfur, um . . . chlorine.” Then, wrinkling his forehead in concentration, “Um . . . argon . . . um . . .”
“Potassium?” she offered, raising an eyebrow.
“I’m sorry.” Eyes still closed, he shook his head. “We have to stop for a minute.”
“Why?”
“Because there aren’t enough elements.”
This was nothing like the times with Eric, who was always pressuring her for more. For the first time she did want more—but she wanted it with Aelyx and no one else. She’d never felt so desperate to be close to someone.
“I don’t want you to stop,” she said, then kissed his chest. “But we probably should. It’s too soon, don’t you think?”
He wrapped one arm around her shoulders and drew her nearer. “I don’t know. It’s kind of hard to think right now.”
She understood the feeling. “It’s just, I’ve never . . . uh . . .” Done this before, and I’m a little scared. Why was it so hard to say it out loud?
“Me neither.” He hesitated a moment before adding, “Do you think . . .” He met her gaze, a question in his eyes.
She shook her head. “Not yet.”
“Okay,” he replied simply. No pouting, no whining, no guilt trips.
God, she loved this boy. She hugged him tighter to show how much.
They lay in contented silence a while, Cara listening to the slow, steady beat of his heart and Aelyx raining occasional kisses atop her head. Eventually, the recent sleepless nights caught up with her and she drifted off, wrapped in his arms.
She dreamed of floating in black space, hand-in-hand with Aelyx as the pinpricks of distant stars winked all around them. She snapped her fingers and an angel nebula swirled into view, tentacles of twinkling light permeating the darkness like a glowing specter. At her command, a sleek ship appeared, a floating colossus to jettison her to a new home, but just as she reached for the hatch, a thumping echo pulled her back toward Earth. Aelyx disappeared, and then she was falling, falling, falling while the noise grew louder inside her head. Cold wind whipped her hair in her face and she spread her arms wide, watching the verdant grass rise up to meet her at a thousand feet per second.
Just before hitting the ground, she awoke with a start to the sound of her father pounding on the bedroom door and calling, “Cara?”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Cara!” Bill shouted, startling Aelyx out of a dead sleep. Bill jiggled the doorknob from the outside and knocked again. “Why’s the door locked?”
It took a moment for Aelyx to free his mind from the haze of deep slumber, but when he did, he bolted upright in bed, squinted against the afternoon sun, and whipped around to face a petrified Cara, half naked beside him and clutching one arm over her chest.