Uncovering You 10: The Finale Page 17

  “Yes,” he says. “But not right away. We’re on a very aggressive dosing protocol. In time, I want to try weaning you off it, if you are willing.”

  “What, like in full?” I ask.

  “No, never in full, unfortunately.” He shakes his head. “Just less frequently. The side effects would be less pronounced, for one. That is the main benefit. You would be able to spend time in the sun.”

  “That would be nice,” I admit.

  “But it does not come without its share of risks,” Dr. Telfair tells me. “That’s why I want to stabilize you first. We need to establish baselines, as you know.”

  “And how long will that take?”

  “Ideally? At least three months. Three months of an equilibrium at one dosing protocol. And then three months at the next. We can keep going like that, for however long it takes, until we find your optimal dose.”

  “What would that be?” I ask. “Because the way I see it, right now, if I don’t have the…” I swallow, “…the visions, then I am very happy.”

  “It’s always a balance, Lilly,” Dr. Telfair says. “Photosensitivity is not the only side effect. It’s the most immediate one, to be sure, but it’s not the most worrisome.”

  “There are more?” I ask. “Like what? Why didn’t you tell me before?”

  “Because I did not want you to worry. Stress is not conducive to a fast recovery.”

  “Well, tell me now!” I insist.

  “I intend to,” Dr. Telfair sits down across from me on the veranda. Clouds in the sky make it possible for me to be outside. And I like the fresh air.

  “The drugs you were given while captive are very destructive, very dangerous things. Their mechanism of action is amongst the most complex I’ve ever come across. They exert effects on all types of different cellular tissue. They are not simply hallucinogens.

  “In fact, in analyzing your brain waves, and your blood work…well, the thing I’m starting to worry about, Lilly, is a point in time when the injections will not be enough.”

  Alarm ripples through me. “What do you mean?”

  “The injections are not a panacea. Neither are they a cure. They simply mask the symptoms. For now—for the next couple of years—that will be enough. But looking at things from a long-term perspective?” The doctor sighs and rubs his eyes. “There will come a time when the injections will cease to work.”

  “When?” I whisper.

  “A conservative estimate? Ten, fifteen years. Still. I do not want awareness of that tainting your life. It is not an inevitability, Lilly. I am working to come up with a cure more permanent.”

  “Can you do that?” I ask.

  He nods solemnly. “I suspect that I can. It will not be immediate, though. But I recognize the metabolic pathway that a counter-drug would need to take to grant you that. There are some promising possibilities…”

  “So let’s do it!” I interrupt. “I can’t—I can’t live knowing that the visions might recur. I can’t live in constant fear that what I’m seeing is not real.“

  He reaches out and takes my hand. His grip is cold compared to Jeremy’s. I do not feel the wonderful tingle running up my arm.

  “You don’t need to fear that, Lilly,” he says. “Not for a long time. I simply wanted you to be aware of the possibility of that in the future. For now, though?” He meets my eyes. “For now, weaning you off the injections as much as we can is the best counter-measure. It will give us—you—more time.”

  “Okay,” I exhale. “Okay, I can do that.”

  “Nothing you’re going through is easy, Lilly,” Dr. Telfair says. “None of my other patients have been put through anything even close to what you’ve had to endure. You have impressed me with your courage. It’s more than just a front. I can understand, now, I think, the strength that my brother says he sees in you.” He touches my shoulder. “If anybody can get through this, if anybody can overcome this, it’s you.”

  “Thank you,” I reply.

  He nods, smiles, and leaves me once more.

  My recovery is slow. However, as the days turn to weeks, I can say with confidence that progress is being made.

  I no longer need to sleep fourteen hours. I don’t feel like a zombie when I awaken. Somewhere around the three week, my libido starts to come back.

  Jeremy’s never left. We take full advantage.

  We start fucking like animals…the moment we wake up, the time in between breakfast and Dr. Telfair’s checkup. In the afternoons, outside in the fading glow of the sun. In the orchards. On the grass. In the fields. At night, in the spectacular bathtubs contained in the many rooms of this house.

  I begin to really love the place. It’s calm. Peaceful. So tranquil. It feels almost like a dream. My worries about Jeremy growing restless without any outlets for his intellect—without Stonehart Industries—are unfounded. He takes great interest in everything his brother is doing with me. Soon, he is able to speak of things so proficiently that it’s almost like he’s the one who went to medical school.

  In fact, there are times when I have to leave him and his twin alone as they engage in heated discussions about my health. I’m living it. So I have no great desire to join them.

  I read then. I enjoy soothing music. I listen to krautrock and other eclectic sounds. Sometimes I just sit outside in the fresh air doing nothing at all, grateful to be alive.

  Jeremy comes to join me on one of those nights. The evening sky is a deep red. The air is the perfect warmth. A recent streak of humidity has been dispelled. The evening feels perfect.

  “Wine?” he offers.

  “I thought your brother said I couldn’t drink,” I reply.

  “Tonight is a special occasion.” Jeremy gives me one wide-rimmed glass. “It’s the one-month anniversary of my getting you back.”

  I crane my head to one side. “Has it really been so long? It feels…” I yawn and stretch, content and comfortable. “…it feels like I only just arrived.”

  “One month. The first of the rest of our lives.” Jeremy sits beside me and drapes a hand over my shoulder. I snuggle up close. “The hardest part is behind us.”

  “Did Dr. Telfair really approve this?” I ask, looking at my wine glass. “I promised him I wouldn’t deviate…”

  “He did,” Jeremy assures me. “It took some arm-twisting on my part. But I haven’t lost my talent for negotiations.” He winks. “I haven’t been gone from Stonehart Industries that long.”

  I take a delicate sip. The vintage feels wonderful against my lips. As did Jeremy’s body this morning, his skin hot and flush with arousal, his muscles straining as he pushed in and out of me…

  I get a sudden vision of myself on my knees before him, lips tight, hard cock…

  “Lilly?” Jeremy looks down at me. “What’s going on? You’ve got that look in your eyes…”

  I blush furiously and bite my lip. My body is strumming with need. He’s so tantalizingly close.

  I decide to play it coy.

  “What look?” I wonder.

  “The I-want-to-get-fucked look,” Jeremy says. His voice has grown low and raspy. He stares into my eyes with his deep, impenetrable gaze. “Am I wrong?”

  I smile at him through dark lashes. I put my wineglass down, on the ottoman on the opposite side of the couch, so that I have to reach across Jeremy’s lap to get there. I purr on the way back, running a sensual hand across his thigh, and stopping right over the crotch of his pants.

  “You’re not wrong,” I tell him, my own voice low and sultry. “I want you, Jeremy. Right now.” I grab his thickening penis. “I want you right now.”

  “Fuck me,” Jeremy growls. The next thing I know, I’m face up on the length of the seat, Jeremy pressed tight against me, his mouth sealing mine.

  I moan into the kiss and grab his hips. I pull them into me, feeling the need for him to fill me to my very core. I’m wet immediately, and heaps turned on. As he kisses me, harsh and uncompromising, all I can think of is his cock deep
inside me.

  I fumble to strip him of his shirt. He breaks away from our connection to lift his arms up and let me do it. I smile, drunk on love, high on pleasure, as I run my hands over every flawless inch of his skin. My fingers trace over the ridges of his arm. I love the sensation of feeling those tiny oblique muscles move as he breathes.

  He catches my hands with his own. They’re locked against my body—just like my eyes are locked with his.

  “Your cheeks are flushed,” he tells me. “God, you look so sexy when you’re like that.” He glances over his shoulder at my barely-touched wine glass. “Somehow, I don’t think it’s the wine.”

  “It’s all you,” I tell him. Then I snatch my hands out of his and grab him by his hair. “Now get down here and kiss me.”

  He complies. But not without a little bit of resistance. “You know…” he says between heated kisses, “I…” Kiss. “…hate it…” Kiss, kiss. “…when you…” Kiss, kiss, kiss. “…try to take control during sex.”

  “Oh?” I push his chest away and meet his stare head-on. “And what are you going to do about it, Mr. Stonehart?” I tease, my every word filled with soul-consuming lust. “Are you going to punish me? Make me feel your angry wrath?”

  “Lilly…” Jeremy growls. His eyes have become huge black saucers, shining with unsuppressed desire. “Don’t test me.”

  I take one of his nipples and pinch it, hard. His eyes widen, and then narrow. “Or what?” I ask him, innocently.

  “Or else I’m going to fuck you so far into oblivion that you won’t be able to walk for days.”

  My core clenches with the most desperate need. His dirty words do crazy things to me. “Good thing, then,” I all but hiss, “that I have no plans to walk anywhere any time soon.” I lift my other hand and trace the stubble on his cheek. “Mr. Stonehart.”

  I yelp as Jeremy grabs me by the waist and lifts me onto him. Now I’m straddling him. He’s seated with his head propped against the outside wall.

  “One chance, Lilly,” he tells me. “You only get one chance. Say you’re sorry, and tonight, I’ll let you lead.” His hands fall to my waist. His erection is hard and straining against his pants. I can feel it there, so very prominent, pressing up into me. I want nothing more than to rip his clothes off and let him lay waste to my body.

  I start to gyrate my hips. He groans. “And if I refuse?”

  “If you refuse…” Jeremy’s head falls back for a second in a deep sigh of particularly heady pleasure, “…if you refuse, I’m going to force you up against those French doors…make you stick your perky fucking ass out…and fuck you to make up for all the time we missed while we were apart.”

  I roll my hips back and forth, teasing him through the fabric. “Is that a threat?” I ask, staring deep into his eyes.

  “More like…a promise.” He groans again as I press particularly hard into him.

  “A promise you’d better make good on,” I tell him, sticking my lower lip between my teeth. “But right now…” I lean down to him, letting his mouth explore my hanging breasts, “I think I’m going to take you up on your offer.” I place both hands on his shoulders and hiss in his ear. “Tonight I’m going to fuck you.”

  He looks at me, not blinking once. “So get to it,” he commands.

  My hands rush to pull out his belt and push his trousers off. His cock springs free through the fly of his boxers. Already, it’s raging with blood. One look at it is enough to make me lose all proprieties. I pull my panties to the side, straddling him, and sink onto his hot, thick length.

  He and I both exhale in deep pleasure at the same time. I lower myself all the way, a little gasp escaping my lips as he fills me to the brim.

  Then, I start to ride.

  I ride him the way that I want. I control everything: the speed, the intimacy, the depth, and the duration of each sinful pulse. I thought I might go slow to luxuriate in the immense pleasure. But that is impossible. All control is stripped away as I let some sort of base animal instinct take over.

  It guides my movements, guides my speed. Jeremy holds onto me. My hands fall to his chest. I grip him tight.

  I start to moan, unabashed, unable to stop or hold back. The pleasure consumes me. It rolls through me like a fiery inferno. I’m lost in it. As Jeremy’s lustful groans fill the air and mix with my own sighs, I transcend the very moment. I drop my head back and moan as Jeremy’s hands explore my body and I keep riding him. He grabs my breasts, then my hips, pulls me to him even more, guiding me how he wants it even when I’m in control.

  And then the climax washes over me. No. It rages through me. It rips through me. It overpowers me with the full force of a tsunami and offers no remorse. It surges through every cell in my body, through every single nerve synapse.

  There is no build up. No slow burn. This is raw, powerful, and all-consuming. No part of the landscape is left untouched.

  And then I hear Jeremy give a guttural, powerful roar beneath me. His hot cum shoots into me. My core clenches around him. My whole body trembles…and then I collapse onto him.

  He catches me and holds me close. Our fevered bodies are drenched with sweat. My heart pounds so hard that I feel every beat through my entire body. For a long time, lying there against Jeremy’s chest, our upper bodies bare, I feel his heartbeat, too.

  Its rhythm matches mine.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  That is more or less the way we live for the remaining weeks of the summer.

  I feel like I’m in paradise. Time spent with Jeremy is like time spent in heaven. He’s loving and caring when he needs to be. He’s fiery and passionate the rest of the time.

  Not once do we have an argument. Given the prevalence of such occurrences in our past, that’s unbelievable.

  Then again, almost everything about our lives now is beyond belief. The simple fact that I’m still alive, seemingly safe, being looked after by my lover and his brother, given where I was just months ago, is astounding.

  The fact that I haven’t suffered a single relapse, and have been making tangible progress in my recovery almost every day? It’s ludicrous.

  There are no outside pressures or demands on our time. Jeremy has divorced himself completely from his company. There is no more uncertainty, no more worries, no questions looming in the background. Sometimes, when I think of that, all I can do is laugh. Laugh with joy; laugh with disbelief. Laugh with some intoxicating mixture of the two.

  If this is the way I’m going to spend the rest of my life, I couldn’t be happier.

  Of course, there are Dr. Telfair’s warnings to think about. But those things will concern me only so very far into the future. For now, I’m willing to turn a blind eye.

  Besides, Jeremy gives me more than my fill of things to be concerned about.

  We fuck like animals. I think we must be setting some sort of world record for the number of times we have sex. Jeremy’s appetite is voracious. It’s insatiable.

  Luckily for him, mine matches it.

  It could only be that way with him. I am sure that had we never met, there would never have been a man in my life who could evoke the same passions. Not even close. It’s the combination of everything about Jeremy: who he is. What he’s done. Who he continues to be. It’s the development of a relationship. The path we took to get here. The struggle and challenges we faced along the way. It’s the culmination of all those things plus the knowledge of how close we came to never having this that make our life together so special.

  Once-in-a-lifetime? Not even. What I have with Jeremy is once-in-a-thousand lifetimes. Once in a million. I’m so impressed, so absolutely certain, that we are the only ones on planet earth to share something like this. Just thinking about it makes me feel high, drunk, giddy, and absolutely love-struck all at the same time.

  About two months into my stay, I finally feel ready to visit the nearby village. Jeremy and I make a dream date of it. He looks dashing, in his fine white linen suit. While I still can’t spend mu
ch time under the midday sun, Jeremy’s skin has taken on a dark tan reminiscent of the weeks we spend on our Caribbean getaway.

  This is better. I did not think anything could top our time there. But this is so, so, so much better. This is, quite literally, heaven on earth.

  But if there’s one thing I should have learned in all the time I’ve spent around Jeremy since being taken out of Yale, it’s that good things are never meant to last.

  My first inkling that something is about to go wrong comes the night Jeremy and I return from our first foray into town.

  Dr. Telfair greets us when we get back. The sun is red on the horizon. It casts a particularly zealous glow on his face.

  He is vibrating with excitement. The moment he sees us top the hill, he leaps from the veranda and runs to meet us halfway up the slope.

  “A breakthrough!” he exclaims, as soon as he reaches us. “Lilly, Jeremy. This is miraculous!”

  “What?” I ask. I can’t help but be energized by his excitement. “What? What happened? What is it?”

  “While you were gone,” he says, “I ran more tests on your blood. And I found something so amazing, so spectacular. It’s been staring me in the face this whole time. I’ve just been too preoccupied with traditional ways of thinking that I’ve been blinded to it.”

  “Good news, at last?” I ask, only half in jest.

  “The best!” he exclaims. “The very best, Lilly. Jeremy, you’re going to be thrilled.”

  “So are you going to continue blabbering,” Jeremy asks with a bit of a brotherly tease, “or are you going to tell us this great news?”

  “No,” he shakes his head. “No. I’ll do you one better. I’ll show you!” He grabs my hand. “Come, quick, to my lab!”

  I yelp as he pulls me after him, and then laugh with Jeremy as soon as he catches up. I’ve never seen Dr. Telfair this excited, this passionate about something. It really must be great news.