Nonverbal - Aria Grace Page 0,24

tongue.

I smiled against his mouth and kissed him deeper, making sure his mouth was thoroughly cleaned of anything he didn’t want in it. “It’s kinda strange at first, but you might grow to like it. I certainly do.”

Liam curled against my side and closed his eyes. I wanted to hold him all night, but since it was clear he wasn’t going to sleep in his room, I untangled myself from his grasp and got up for a towel. As sexy as his drying semen felt against my skin, I didn’t want Liam to wake up crusty or uncomfortable.

As soon as I was wrapped around Liam under the covers, I finally allowed myself to take stock of everything that had happened. There were almost too many revelations to track, but the most significant one, the one I hadn’t been sure would ever happen, was that Liam spoke.

He actually spoke to me.

It was the fantasy I didn’t dare give in to until I heard those singular words uttered from his lips. Nothing about his diagnosis made sense to me, but clearly the hope his parents had held on to for so long had merit. Liam was changing and developing more and more with every passing day.

Every hour even.

I just needed to figure out how to explain his changes to his family without going into detail about what we were doing at the time.

Sixteen

After a fitful night, I woke up early the next morning and couldn’t go back to sleep. Liam still lay beside me as if he had hardly moved at all throughout the night. I just basked in his warmth for close to an hour, not wanting to leave his side. Eventually, my bladder required me to uncoil myself from his body so I could attend to it. Carefully and without disrupting him, I got out of bed and went to take a piss. I knew I wouldn’t be able to relax without disturbing him, so I slipped on a pair of swim trunks and snuck out to the pool to do some laps.

The sun was already out but the cool water was somewhat jarring when I jumped into it. It was exactly what I needed to clear my head. The cool waves washed away my immediate stress and defocused me from my newest obsession while working my muscles to exhaustion. I managed to finish eighteen laps before I noticed Liam step into the shallow end.

“Liam.” I swam right to him then stood up in the waist-deep water. “Is everything okay?”

He merely smiled and walked into my arms, embracing me tightly against his chest.

I closed my arms around him and held on, rubbing up his warm back then running my fingers through his sleep-tousled hair. He looked so beautiful in the morning.

Leaning forward, I pressed my lips over his and gave him a gentle kiss as he squeezed me even tighter.

A low moan escaped his throat as he kissed me again, experimenting with some of the techniques we’d tried the night before.

“Holy shit. He’s in the water.”

Liam and I both turned toward Avery, just realizing she’d joined us outside.

Without changing his usually stoic expression, Liam said, “Language, Avery.”

Her jaw dropped and so did the apple she was eating. “You can talk,” she whispered as a tear rolled down her cheek. She looked at me as she took a few steps closer. “He talks?”

I leaned my head against Liam’s and smiled proudly, as if I could somehow take credit for his amazing accomplishment. “He just started last night. Only a word or two at a time, but it’s pretty awesome, huh?”

Fully dressed, Avery walked right into the pool and embraced us both, overcome by the same relief and joy I felt.

Her brother was finally coming around.

“So, that’s it?” Avery sipped a strawberry smoothie and shook her head. She had barely taken her eyes off Liam since he’d spoken in the pool. “He just blurted out words.”

I shrugged, feeling like that was enough detail to get the point across. “Basically.”

She stared at her brother with so many questions in her eyes. “Have you always been able to talk? What changed?”

He looked at her and his lips pulled up in a small smile, but he didn’t say anything else.

“I’m thinking we probably shouldn’t push him.” I reached across the table and placed my hand over his. “Like earlier, he’ll speak when he’s ready. And when your parents get home, we can talk to them about what to do next.”

“I just don’t understand. Why now?”