Mimics of Rune 02- Surrender (39 page)

She rose from the bed, tugged his jeans down his hips. “I need you, Cael.” Her body relaxed backward, legs off the edge.

Cael gripped himself, squeezing to relieve a bit of the pressure, though the action only made him want her more.

Her.

Lily.

His Lily.

The most beautiful woman in the world whether she thought so or not.

He’d remember.

He’d remember everything.

Her legs raised until her heels pressed against his back, and she tugged him forward.

A hiss left his lips as he speared her, the entirety of his length filling her slender body and sending waves of pleasure through him.

Lily rocked her hips while grasping at his wrists.

Cael leaned forward, taking her hands and extending them above her head. He kissed his way down her body as he took slow thrusts, sliding back and forth within her.

Lily’s eyes closed as her body shivered.

With her hands held high, he took his fill, giving his all, though never as much as he received.

A stuttered contraction of her abdominals had him pulling back. He grasped her hips, holding her against him. Pressure built to bursting within his groin as a soft screech seeped through her lips.

“Lily.” Cael thrust forward and back as she opened her eyes. “I love you.”

A full purple took hold of her irises until she lowered her lids again, her torso lifting toward him as her head fell back. Her body writhed.

Her fingers clutched at the blankets.

As Cael breached his own barrier, her body arched, and he followed in her trembling wake, a tangle of life and love in a moment of final ecstasy.

• • •

Lily relaxed against the blanket as Cael fell on top of her, though he kept his full weight off. His head nestled in the crook of her neck, his lips nuzzling the spot below her ear and sending ticklish vibes down her core. She ran a finger down his side, eliciting a chuckle from him when she reached halfway down.

Cael
.

The man she’d loved her entire life.

The man who’d have done anything for her.
And probably did in the last day or two.

Every once in a while, his hips pressed against hers—an extra thrust that caused her to draw in a breath or exhale on a gush.

That she’d waited so long to feel the pleasure he could give—the combination of lover and friend—unnerved her. She didn’t want to lose Cael when it had taken so long for them to really find each other.

“Lil?”

She recognized the tone. It said, ‘tell me what you’re thinking’. “Yeah?” She continued the trail of her fingertips, moving to his spine.

Cael shifted to the side, tucking her body against his. “I love you.”

She ran her finger along his jawline, to his lips where he kissed the tip. He knew her as well as she did him.

Her hand moved up his bicep, the muscles there just as large as at any time. She tittered, a soft sound of reconciliation. “Drunk on your eighteenth birthday and this is what you get.”

“What can I say? I was … stupid.” He laughed, a sound she hoped she’d never forget.

“You know how human parents tell their kids not to cross their eyes or they’ll stick?” She giggled against him. “A Mimic parent should actually mean it.”

He nudged them further up the bed, chuckling, too.

She held out her bejeweled hand. “This is perfect, Cael. Nothing could be better.”

Cael’s finger ran along her lips, spread them open, and sent glorious sensations of warmth through her body.

Pain can bring happiness when the goal is a good one.

“I don’t want to say goodbye to anyone else. If I’m going to forget them, I just want it to be over with.” Lily sighed. “Am I being selfish?”

Cael sat up and pulled Lily with him. “You’re the most selfless woman I know.” His thumb rubbed under her eye where she knew a tear had fallen again.” You deserve to be a little selfish.” He chortled, a full and wonderful sound. “But, Lil, if anyone ever calls you selfish and means it, I’ll have to kill them. Probably literally and not figuratively.”

She forced a smile onto her face. “I love you.” Her lips to his, she touched, tasted and savored for what could be the last time.

He didn’t fight her. “You’re ready, aren’t you?”

Four quick nods accompanied the shedding of another tear. “What do you want me to look—”

“This isn’t about me. This is for you. Just you.” His fingers ran along her hairline. “You … be … you.”

Lily slipped from the bed and headed to her bathroom.

She didn’t want him to be there when she took her final shape—the one that would make her human and force her to grow old. Or when she found out if Roy had won. Once inside, she closed the door and perused her eighteen-again body.

With her gaze fixed on herself, she prepared for the ultimate test.

Eyes are always the easiest shift.

She closed them, thought the color brown, and opened.

On a long, drawn out sigh, Lily smiled.

The brown reflected back at her.

Yes! Not pregnant!

With reflief washing through her, she let her natural lavender return and stepped to the door, preparing to tell Cael. As her fingers reached the handle, she spun back.

Pick a form first. A final one. Then give him the new me.

I can do this.

I
get
to do this.

A look she’d used once, to play a role over sixteen years before, came to mind.

Lily let her hair grow until it touched the center of her back in wispy, flat-ironed strands of softness. Instead of the blonde, she opted for gold—a color more like Angela and Leigh’s. She added a slight curl to the tips of her hair and stared back at herself to match her eyebrows and every other spot of hair on her body.

The thought of giving up her abilities made her pause again, until the idea she’d be free from Roy forever encouraged her forward.

Down three inches, she shrunk to her favorite five-seven—where she could wear heels and not be too tall.

She added a little weight to her bones, enough to lose any impression of past anorexia.

“Twenty-nine ought to do it. No, twenty-eight.”

With her hands on the sink, she filled out her chest to what she thought resembled a nice C-cup.

“Last time I can do that.”

Long muscles worked into her calves would let her run.

Longer fingers would let her play the piano.

A fullness to her lips would make her kissable—for Cael.

The hated freckle, she zapped away, but she added a dimple to her right cheek.

“And the final pièce de résistance.”

Lavender irises altered to blue.

To green.

To brown.

To green again.

“No reason not to be unique.”

Lily imagined the color of Cael’s favorite shirt—a blue green she’d always found stunning upon his body—no matter his form.

“Teal is too much.” She shifted to a green with slight dots of blue and a ring of deeper blue—almost violet. “Now that I like.”

With no other body parts to change, and with her eyes being the last option, Lily let free a deep sigh and walked back into the room, clutching her ringed finger and hoping her genetics didn’t fail her—at least for once in her life.

Cael held out his arms. “Now we know Roy’s plan failed.”

Into his embrace she went. “And that’s the first time I’ve ever been happy about being flawed.”

Cael tugged her tight against him. “Not flawed, Lily. Perfect.”

By morning, they would know whether her change had become permanent and whether she’d been able to blend her body, mind and soul with Cael.

Or if she’d forgotten him forever.

32

The chirp of birds through an open window woke Lily. She rolled over and stared at the man next to her.

His eyes, a gorgeous shade of blue-green, stared back at her. “Lily?” His tentative question came out on a whisper.

“Hi, Cael.”

His smile grew as large as her own.

33

“You’re still going to marry me, right?” Cael asked, a softness to his eyes that Lily remembered in its entirety.

“Yes. Without a doubt. Think we should let everyone know what’s going on?”

Cael shifted until his body ranged over hers. “Or we could do something else.”

She giggled and tugged him forward to her lips.

Her door flew open, hitting the wall behind it with a bang and rattle that had Cael jumping to the side.

“Lily!” Chase ran in. “You missed your birthday.” He jumped on the bed as Lily pulled up the blankets to cover her breasts, and Charley materialized in the middle of the doorway.

She burst into laughter. “Sorry, Lil. I told him you might be up, and he ran up here like a mad man before I could stop him.”

Chase scooted in between Lily and Cael and held out a box. “I made this for you. It’s a secret, but Grandma Evelyn and me thought you would like it.” He laid it in Lily’s outstretched hand.

She removed first the bow, followed by the paper until the four-by-four inch box opened.

Construction paper cutouts of white flower petals sat atop another cutout green lily pad with Chase’s name on one leaf, Cael’s on another and Lily, Leigh, Max and the rest of her family on each of the others.

Emotion welled up inside Lily. “This is beautiful, Chase. Just awesome.”

“Charley said it might help you remember if you didn’t.”

Lily glanced at a purse-lipped Charley and smiled.

She grinned back. “Cael came down and told us your plan while you slept.”

Lily turned to Cael and ran a hand along his cheek. “Thank you.”

“Like I said, Lil, I’d do anything for you.”

Chase’s head whipped back and forth between them. “Can we have breakfast now?”

Chuckles abounded through the room. “Yes, let’s.”

He scrambled off the bed as Charley walked in and wrapped her arms around Lily. “Welcome to the world of the human.”

A deep sigh escaped—one of happiness, not worry. “It’s good to be here.”

“Did you … try to change?”

Lily shook her head. “I’m a little afraid to.”

Charley took Lily by the hand and dragged her to the bathroom, wrapped in the top blanket from her bed. No sooner had she entered, Cael appeared, Chase sneaking between his legs.

“Easiest change ever … go for eye color,” Charley said.

Dread filled Lily. She stared at her own eyes, the pretty blue-green she’d picked the night before. As a Mimic, it would only take a thought, the desire and an inner push to the surface to make it happen. With brown as her contrasting color again, she closed her eyes and made her change.

“I can’t look.”

Charley’s chuckle and Cael’s arm around her didn’t comfort as it might otherwise have.

“Open them to me,” Cael said.

Lily opened one eye.

Cael said nothing.

She opened both.

Still, he remained silent.

Charley let go. Chase moved off to the side.

Cael came toward her. “You picked the blue-green because of me, didn’t you?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“Good, because it’s gorgeous on you.” His smile said everything she needed to know.

• • •

With Cael’s arm still around Lily’s shoulders, Charley backed up, but her hands covered her mouth. “You didn’t tell us this. Dammit, Cael. Why didn’t you—” She grabbed Lily’s left hand and held it out.

“Oh!” Lily giggled. “He asked me to marry him. And I said yes!”

“Yes!” Charley’s screech filled the bathroom as she and Lily jumped and hugged each other. “Oh, Lil. Cael.” She held out her arms and hugged both Cael and Lily. “What an amazing day. I’m just so—” Her sniff suggested her own tears formed. “Do you want to go tell everyone?”

“Yes. Everyone. I want to tell everyone.”

The walk down the stairs for the second time in two days came with an air of trepidation. As first Wyatt, followed by Evelyn, Angela and Tony all hugged her, she came to Leigh.

The girl, still so pale in the throes of her first transition, offered Lily a small hug until she pulled herself away and sat on a stool again. Chase and Max went off to play.

Lily pivoted to Cael. “Where are Maggie and James?”

Cael’s eyes darted toward Charley but returned to Lily. “We’re not sure … exactly.”

“What do you mean? What about Roy?”

Wyatt stepped closer. “They haven’t contacted us yet, but if what Cael explained is true, Roy should be eighteen and without a memory, so no matter what, there’s nothing to worry about. Two steps behind this time.”

“You’re free from him, Lily.” Charley moved in and wrapped Lily in another hug. “Free, my friend. Free.”

“Knowing James and Maggie?” Cael started. “They’ve probably decided to make a go of it again.”

Lily giggled even as she clung to Cael’s hand, but a measure of worry for her friends—friends who’d helped her in ways she could never repay—built back within her.

“I’m sure they’re fine,” Charley said. “We’re talking about James and Maggie, remember?”

“What about Luke?” Leigh directed her question toward her parents. “James was going to get him. He promised! We can’t leave now!” She tucked her small body against Tony’s, her hands tugging on his shirt. “Please can we stay? I need to know if Luke’s okay.”

“We’re not leaving, baby. We’re not,” Tony said.

Pain registered in Angela’s eyes, but within a second, Evelyn had her in her arms. Lily understood. It would take time for Leigh to accept what her mother hadn’t really done.

“Actually …” Tony said. “We were thinking of trying Rune out for a while. Seems the little explosion last week was meant for me. Luckily, I have a good relationship with the cops in our district, and they called me when one of my
own
clients talked it up a little too much.” He patted Leigh’s back. “I also think Leigh needs a little time with some people who can help her learn about herself.”

“Really, Daddy?” She tilted up to him with an expression Lily couldn’t see, but her tone of voice meant a large smile had to grace her face.

He leaned down toward her. “Now’s as good a time as any to go from one coast to the other.”