voice to my dreams and made them come true. My genmate, she said, her love washing over him.
With fingertips and lips he caressed every smooth, enticing inch of her body. He traced the whorls of her ear, followed the slope of her neck, nestled his lips in the indentation of her throat. He lingered at her breasts, cupping the small mounds and anointing each hardening tip with his mouth.
His breath against her ticklish tummy caused her to giggle and squirm, but when he slipped lower, she moaned with desire and arched her hips. “Yasss, oh yass!” Guttural words had never sounded more beautiful to his ears.
When they were both aching and needful, he slid into her, the physical merging with the mental, sound blending with sight, taste and smell entwining, thought and feeling fusing, two beings merging into a singular wave of devotion.
Ecstasy consumed them in a transcendent fire, burning away past hurts and disappointments, leaving the joyful present and the promising future.
Afterward, Cassie curled up next to him, her head pillowed against his heart. “Wow!” she panted.
Wow, indeed.
She lifted her head. Her lips twitched as she said, “Was it g-g-good for you, too? I always wanted to s-s-say that.” She giggled but then sobered. “Now, I can s-say any-anything I want.” She outlined his lips with a fingertip. “Our mental connection is the most intimate sensation I’ve ever ex-ex-perienced, and I love that I h-have that with you. But I intend to speak as much as I can. I need to voice my thoughts.”
“Absolutely.” He tucked her hair behind her ear. “You have a lifetime of talking to catch up on.”
“Yes!”
“And the more you speak, the easier it will become.”
“It’s getting easier al-already.”
“I noticed. I’m amazed at how quickly you’re picking it up since this morning.” Prior to being stricken mute, she must have been an exceptionally verbal child.
“I’ve always spoken in my dreams.”
“You have?”
“I’d have wonderful…dreams, in which I’d talk and t-t-talk. Then I’d w-wake up, find out none of it was real.” She bit her lip. “I’m n-n-not dreaming now, am I? I’m not going to wake up and discover none of this happened…will I?”
“It’s all real.” He brought her hand to his mouth and kissed her fingers. “I promise. It’s all real. Trust me.”
“If you say it, then it’s true.” She rose on an elbow and smoothed her palm over his chest. A slight crease formed between her brows. “I think sometimes…I talked in my sleep. Out loud, I mean. The sound of my voice woke me. Could that be?”
“That would help account for why you’re able to speak so well so quickly,” he agreed.
She nestled against him again, her sweet-scented soft form filling him with peace and contentment, but he needed to be sure she was happy. “Are you sure you’ll be okay living here? We can get our own place if you prefer.” Both Chameleon and Wingman had moved out when they found their genmates. He rather liked living with his surrogate family, but it would be her choice. Whatever would please her would make him happy.
“I want to stay here. With you,” she said.
“It’s settled, then.”
She peered up at him and grinned. “That was our first decision as a genmated couple!”
He kissed her to mark the milestone. “We weren’t able to bring many of your possessions over. Is there anything else you want from the house?” The hover scooter had limited storage capacity. They’d only been able to bring a suitcase of her clothing, the cookie jar, and Mentira’s computer. He hoped for her sake Shadow could extract the information Cassie needed to find her mother.
“What more do I need than you? You’re everything I ever dreamed of.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
The hover scooter touched down in a small park of an established neighborhood of brick homes and tall leafy trees, and Cassie’s stomach fluttered like crazy. She dismounted and caught herself before wiping her sweaty palms on her white slacks. She adjusted her sleeveless floral top and centered her pendant over the neckline. “Is my hair okay?”
“Perfect. You’re beautiful. It’s going to be okay.” Psy squeezed her hand, and quirked his lips. “Trust me. I know things.”
She gave a little laugh. She did trust him. Fixating on inconsequential matters like appearance helped to distract her from the terrifying, momentous event about to occur.
She would meet her mother.
Rachel lived in Spokane, Washington, a mere fifty miles from Argent! Cassie had been less than an hour’s drive from her real mother and hadn’t known it.
“Everything happened so