Alicia's Misfortune (32 page)

After a few long, deep breaths, Emily turned around to go
back inside.
 
When she did, Dylan was
standing at the door to meet her.
 
“I
thought you might have disappeared.”
 
He
took her by the arm as soon as she got to the top of the steps.
 
Emily gave him a wry smile and then walked
into the kitchen, back to her oats and brown sugar.

“How did your talk go?”
 
Emily tucked one of her long strands of hair behind her ear and then
pulled out some measuring cups from the cabinet.
 
She thought back to when she was a little
girl and her mother used to make her oatmeal raisin cookies as an afternoon
treat.
 
It was peculiar how some memories
had such a powerful sticking power.
   

“The talk went fine.
 
I didn’t see that one coming, though.”
 
Dylan shook his head and then chuckled.
 
“Leave it to Ginger to show up at the least opportune moment.”
  
He looked at Emily and could tell that she
was bothered.
 
He wanted to tell her that
Ginger’s visit was inconsequential, that she had no hold on him any longer, but
he knew Emily wouldn’t believe him.
 
He
realized that only time would prove where his commitments stood, and how he
truly felt about Emily.

“I’m popping these cookies in the oven.
 
Can you pull them out in ten minutes?”
 
Emily untied the apron she was wearing and
then tried to make a graceful exit from the kitchen.
 
Dylan grabbed her gently by the arm.

“Hey.
 
I can tell that
you’re upset.
 
Emily, you have to believe
me when I tell you that Ginger is not going to disrupt what we have going on
here.
 
Please.”
 
He stammered and then ran his hands through
his thick, dark hair.
 
“I know that
there’s nothing I can say to convince you, but I will tell you that my word is
golden.
 
I love you.”
 
Dylan let go of her arm and she took off down
the hall, not sure of where she was going, or what she was going to do next.

She stormed up the steps and then opened the door to her
room.
 
What was she doing?
 
Why was she acting like a child?
 
She tried to remind herself that only a month
ago, she was worried about ending up homeless on the street.
 
She needed to get her thought sin perspective
and be thankful that she now had a job- and not just any job, but a
relationship that brought her purpose and fulfillment.
 

She stepped off the bed and reached for her suitcase.
 
Then she chuckled.
 
She knew that as soon as she pulled Leila’s
letter out of her suitcase she’d be interrupted, either by Eisely, Anna, Dylan,
or the dogs.
 
It made her smile, but it
also made her frustrated.
 
She really
wanted to get her message out to Leila.
 
She needed to know if she was okay, and how her job at the bakery was
going.

She reached inside the pocket and pulled out the letter,
then unfolded it and set it down on the bed.
 
She lifted up her pen and started to write a letter, just as Dylan
called to her from down the hallway.
 
“Emily.
 
I need to see you.”
 
He came to the door and she attempted to
stuff the letter back into her suitcase.
 
“What are you doing?”
 
He gave her
a quizzical expression.

“I’m trying to write my cousin a letter, but so far, I’ve
been interrupted consistently every time I lift up a pen.”
 
Emily gave Dylan a playful look, but there
was an underlying honesty to her frustration.
 
Dylan frowned.
 

“I’m sorry.
 
Want me
to leave you alone?”
 
He started to walk
out of the room but Emily grabbed him by the shirt-tail.

“No.
 
I don’t want you
to leave me alone.
 
I want you to tell me
that you’ll always be here for me, and that we’ll be able to get through this
confusing and tumultuous time in your life.
 
We have so much more to talk about, Dylan.
 
I mean, I still don’t even know what that
meeting with Felix Rose resulted in.
 
Are
you going to lose this place?
 
Are the
girls going to have their livelihood threatened?
 
We need to talk about this.”
 
Emily felt a tear come to her eye.

“I know we have a lot to talk about.
 
It will happen.
 
And to answer your question about the house…
I really don’t know what will happen.
 
I
have a few leads for banking positions outside of Laredo, but it’s all
speculation right now.”
 
Dylan didn’t
want Emily to know that he was scared of losing everything.
 
He really didn’t know what was going to
happen, and there was nothing he could do to make the uncertainty go away.
 
So, he decided he’d just have to embrace it.

“You know, I’m not sure what you think about this, and I
know I’ve only been here for a short time, but my cousin, Leila, is a great
person.
 
She bakes, she cooks, she sews
and she gardens.”
 
Emily wasn’t sure
where she was going with her information, but she was counting on Dylan to fill
in the blanks.
 
“Maybe she could help out
somehow.
 
Maybe if she came out here, we
could all pool our resources and make something great happen.”
 
Emily shrugged.
 
It was the optimist in her coming out again.

Dylan liked the sounds of it, even though he had no idea
what Leila was like.
 
“Let’s invite her
to come visit.
 
Why not?”
 
He smiled and then took Emily by the arm.
 
“In the mean time, let me make love to
you.
 
Right here.Right now.”
 
He grinned and started to lift Emily’s
sweater over her head. She couldn’t resist him, as usual, so she helped him get
it off, and then she unzipped her pants and let them drop to the floor.
 

Dylan unzipped his jeans and shook then to his ankles.
 
Then he lifted off his own shirt and clasped
his arms around Emily’s waist.
 
He drew
her close to his body and breathed in all of her womanly scents and
energies.
 
She unfastened her bra and let
it fall to the floor, and then she pressed her breasts against his strong,
muscular chest and shuddered as her nipples grew hard against his body.
 

Dylan ran his hands over her shoulders, down her arms, and
around her waist.
 
He kissed her neck and
her breasts, then eased his mouth down her body until it landed on her sweet,
feminine bounty.
 
He kissed her womanly
mound with his lips and then knelt down on the floor, eager to take in more of
her delicate charms. Emily moaned with ecstasy.

He guided her gently to the floor, and they embraced on the
rug that lied at the foot of her bed. With his strong and measured hands, he
felt the gentle slope of her hips, the tight formation of her thighs.
 
Then he allowed his fingers to travel along
her hairy treasure, until they found their way inside.
 
Once there, he played with her until she
cried out with intense pleasure.
 
Then he
climbed on top of her, as he’d done before, but this time with more conviction
and dominance.

“I’m never going to leave you, Emily.
 
And I’m sorry about my embellished
advertisement.
 
I really was a successful
business man years ago.
 
I used to work
as a financial advisor for fifty percent of the ranchers in Lubbock.
 
But that’s another story, sweetheart.
 
I’ll tell you everything as long as you don’t
leave me.”
 
He buried his face in her
breasts and then licked her nipples with his tongue.
 

Emily closed her eyes, absorbing all of his manly desires
and trying hard not to let her worries about the future taint the present
moment.
 
She wrapped her hands around
Dylan’s waist and pulled him close, but this time she gave him an extra,
affirmative squeeze.
 
For the first time
in her life, she felt content, despite all of the uncertainties surrounding
Dylan’s life.
 
She knew that deep down he
was a good man, and so she was willing to stand by and weather the storm.

Dylan looked in Emily’s eyes.
 
In them he could see both a young child and a
mature woman.
 
He was intrigued with her
essence, and he desired her with a passion that was unmatched with any woman
that had come before her.
 
He spread her
legs wide and then caressed the sweet spot that graced his palm. She moaned, and
then arched her back in ripe anticipation.

Dylan inserted his manhood deep inside Emily’s thirsty
tunnel.
 
She craved his thick, hard
manhood and she knew that he could bring her to dimensions beyond her wildest
dreams.
 
He penetrated her with a strong and
guided deliberation.
 
She cried out with
sweet, short noises and Dylan continued like this until the moon came out and
cast its light across the bedroom floor.
 

He could see her body now, bathed in the moonlight, and it
sent a pulsation of intense desire through his core.
 
Dylan pleasured her until the sun rose, at
which point he climaxed, in one long, heavy motion, and then collapsed with
exhaustion on top of her silky body.
 
Emily ran her hands down his back and sighed. It felt like this was what
she had been waiting for all of her life.

When the rooster crowed outside, Dylan slid out of Emily’s
room and silently checked in on the girls as they slept.
 
Emily wrapped herself in a robe and then
followed behind him, stopping to smile as she watched the two sisters sleeping
peacefully in their beds.
 
She wrapped
her arms around Dylan’s waist and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
 
“I’m so happy you left England, Emily.
 
You were meant to be with me.”
 
He smiled and squeezed her hand.
 

“But Dylan.
 
Remember-
this is just a marriage of convenience.”
 
Emily raised her eyebrows, reminding him that only a month earlier, he
had expressed no intentions of ever letting love into the equation.
 
He nodded his head and chuckled.
 

“I know, I know.
 
Those really were my words.
 
But
Emily…”
 
He pressed against her and then
kissed her again on the lips.
 
“How could
I ever have predicted that you would have been so perfect for me?
 
What were the odds of me actually falling in
love with a perfect stranger?”
 
He shook
his head in disbelief.

Emily’s mind wandered for a moment.
 
She thought back to the Lancashire Textile
Company, to Finn Dillmore, and to the disastrous fire that changed her
life.
 
She thought about the odd snowfall
that graced England in the middle of November, and the perfect afternoon spent
at Griffin café drinking peppermint mochas and eating warm cinnamon rolls. She
realized that nobody, not Leila, not Martha, not even herself, could have
predicted what lied in store for the rest of her life.
 

She took one more look at Eisley and Anna, and then clutched
Dylan’s hand in hers.
 
He gave it a
squeeze and then held it up to his face.
 
He knew that he had finally found the peace that he wanted in his
life.
 
Even if his life was in shambles,
at least he had one precious gem that couldn’t be snatched from under him.
 
The two walked hand-in-hand down the hallway
and stopped at the foot of the stairs.
 

As the sun rose over Lubbock, Dylan and Emily shared a good
morning kiss, one filled with hope and wonder.
 
They
 
kissed as the rooster
crowed, as the dogs barked, and even as Eisley and Anan made their way into the
hall.
 
Anna covered her moth wither hand
when she saw them.

“Look, Eisley!
 
Uncle
Dylan and Miss Emily are kissing!
 
They’re in love!”
 
She grabbed her
sister by the arm and they both stood in awe as Dylan and Emily expressed their
love for the entire world to see.

“Yes, girls.
 
We are
definitely in love.”
 
Dylan gave Emily’s
hand another squeeze, and then the four of them glided down the steps and into
the kitchen for breakfast.
 
Just as she
was about to let the dogs outside, Emily thought she heard Leila’s voice.
 
She paused, wondering what her cousin was
doing at that moment.
 
Then she made a
pot of coffee and smiled, hopeful that she’d see her soon.