Page 18
A week later Kylie sat on her living room couch and whispered to Porter, standing behind her, “They can start working.”
Immediately Kylie heard Dr. Maddy and Stefan, speaking telepathically to her. This was the third day in a row, as they worked away at the blocks that had been installed in her head, blocks proving to be difficult to remove. But they had made great progress yesterday, and Kylie knew that today would be the end of it. Almost immediately with that thought, the ice encasing her memories seemingly shattered all around her, and suddenly she was free. She burst out laughing in joy at the sensation.
Dr. Maddy’s voice in Kylie’s head was warm and gentle. Now that’s what we like to see. You’re free, my dear .
Kylie opened her eyes and stared at Porter, who stood in front of her now, a big grin on his face, as she murmured, “It’s finally over.”
“I can tell,” he said, with a nod of approval. “Besides, your mom is here. She’s been watching everything.”
Kylie smiled up at him. “I really want to get to know her.”
“And you can,” he pointed out, “but she needs to leave soon.”
Kylie’s heart fell, as she nodded. “But can I have her with me just for a little while?”
“Just for a little while,” he replied. “You’ll have a few days, and then we’ll send her where she needs to go. She has other family members to look after.”
“My brothers?”
“Your brothers,” he agreed, with a bright smile, “but it’s okay. She stayed to confirm you were okay, and it’s been hard on her all these years.”
Kylie couldn’t even think about what her mother had been through, watching all this happen over all these years. Kylie wasn’t seeing dead people yet, as she had as a child, but she hoped that ability would return soon. “I’m glad that I’ve had this moment with her at least,” she whispered, “so thank you for that.”
Porter nodded. “It’s a healing time for both of you.”
She stood up, and he opened his arms, and she walked straight into them. She’d spent a lot of time in his arms, but at his insistence had waited to take the next step until all these blocks were gone. Making sure that she was who she wanted to be and understood who she really was on the inside, before making big decisions and taking the course of her life in a direction that she might regret later. She looked up at Porter, smiled, and said, “No regrets.”
He chuckled. “I’m glad to hear that.” He picked her up in his arms, with her laughing and squealing, then carried her into the bedroom, where he dropped her on the bed.
She looked up at him in surprise and then whispered, “Is anybody here?”
He shook his head. “No, everybody’s gone. I am so glad everyone appreciates privacy enough to give it to me as well.”
“I’m glad to hear that too,” she murmured, as she stood up and quickly stripped down to the skin.
He smiled at her and whistled. “You’ve gained some weight. Looking good.”
She chuckled. “Not exactly the response I was expecting.”
He rolled his eyes. “I just want you healthy, and that’s all I care about.” With that, he stripped down and joined her on the bed, then rolled over and pulled her into his arms. “How do you feel?”
“Lightheaded, almost euphoric, and yet, in a funny way,… like myself. Like myself in a way that I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced.”
“That would be your soul feeling more like it should now,” Porter explained, nuzzling her neck, “and it’s important to remember that our souls survive. Our bodies just come and go.”
She chuckled. “I’m all for being in this body right now,” she murmured, “particularly since I know the captain is expecting us back at the office tomorrow.”
“Yes, we do have jobs,” Porter agreed, working his lips alongside her neck and up to her ear, his warm breath making her toes curl. “Somehow we forgot about that in all of this mess, but thankfully he gave us some unofficial leave time.” Porter laughed. “But we must find a way back to the office sooner or later.”
“We will,” she murmured, “but tomorrow. Everything is tomorrow.” And, with that, she slid her heel up the back of his thigh, her hands sliding down his back to explore his hard muscles and his rounded butt cheeks. She smiled. “We waited a while for this.”
“Too damn long,” he muttered, yet chuckling, “but it was more important that it was your decision and not based on other people playing around in your head.”
“Nobody will play around in my head anymore. I had a lot of trouble even letting Dr. Maddy and Stefan in there to get the blocks down.”
Porter nodded. “Which is why it was so hard to get the blocks out. You were fighting it, but now you have freedom.… You did great.”
She smiled and kissed him. “Good. Now how about we stop wasting time?” She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him down and kissed him thoroughly.
He gave a murmured groan and settled deeper into her arms, his lips meeting hers, his tongue playing in a lighthearted way that she had yet to even explore with him. And before she realized it, her body was hot and sweaty, as she arched under his ministrations, while he soothed and stroked her to a higher and higher level.
She shuddered in his arms, so close to the edge, when she murmured, “Why are you teasing me?”
He chuckled. “Because you’re so beautiful in your passion. Nothing is more beautiful than seeing a woman enjoying herself and her body at this very moment,” he said, “and you are truly beautiful.”
She rolled over ever-so-slightly and pulled him closer. “Prove it.”
And, with that, he lowered his head once again, his tongue driving deeper into hers in a pulsing movement imitating what was to come, as he settled deeper into her thighs. Then he drove home. She shifted, adjusting to the weight and the size of him. He soon lifted his hips and drove again and again and again and again. When she finally came apart in his arms, he waited, brought her back up to the edge again and flung her over once more, this time joining her.
She lay completely relaxed beneath him, as she recovered slowly. He held her close and then slowly slid to the side, pulling her with him.
“It’s a good thing we aren’t working today,” she murmured. “We’ll need the rest of today to get this out of our system.”
“I’m hoping we don’t ever get this out of our system,” he murmured, as he lay back, groaning.
“I wasn’t thinking completely out of our system, but you’re right,” she agreed. “I just want to spend enough time with you that I don’t feel so rushed all the time. However, I suspect, for the next few times,” she murmured, “it’ll have that same urgency. It feels as if you’ve always been there at the edge of my world, just not quite in my world.”
“To a certain extent I have been,” he replied. “I’m the reason you got this job, yet I saw you a long time ago. However, you never really saw me.”
She smiled. “The good news is, you were smart enough to look out for me and to keep me close.”
“The bad news is,” he clarified, “you almost got hurt in the process.”
She shook her head and tapped him on the nose. “You don’t get to claim any guilt over this mess,” she murmured. “Besides,… we survived.”
He nodded. “Any thought about what you want to do with your gift?”
“God, no. I haven’t even really got a clue of exactly what this gift entails. I’m not sure how effective it is, and I don’t want it to be something that turns sour over time.”
“You should talk to Stefan about that.”
She laughed. “And I will, one day, but right now? It’s all too new. It’s all too weird. I’ll just keep drawing crime scenes, as I did before.”
“ Hmm , but now I bet it may come with a twist.”
“Absolutely there will be a new twist,” she declared, with an eye roll. “The twist being that I’ll probably see the energy and recognize what I’m seeing rather than hiding from it,” she murmured.
“And that’s a good thing too,” he noted, “because, with this gift, you always want to be honest.”
“Got it,” she murmured, as she shifted onto her elbows, leaned over, and gave him a big grin. “Ready to go again?”
His eyes widened, then he pulled her down and whispered, “With you, sweetheart? Always.”