By the time Dillon and I finally got back to the mansion, my body was aching with anticipation. It had been weeks since we were last together, leaving me feeling hungry for his touch. Slowly, we made our way toward the mansion, pausing periodically to enjoy a sensual, lingering kiss. Somewhere near the gatehouse, Dillon stopped and turned around. Grabbing me by the hand, he pulled me behind the small structure and pressed me against the wooden wall.
"I've thought about doing this for so long," he whispered as he buried his face in my hair. I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him closer to me. Heat radiated between us as my fingers snaked to run though his dark blonde tresses.
"Why haven't you?" I teased breathily as he laid a trail of kisses along my collarbone and up my throat. His eyelashes tickled my soft skin.
Dillon smiled up at me. "Come on," he implored, grabbing my hand again and pulling me toward the mansion.
Inside the foyer, we managed to slip by a pair of quarreling Quartermaines unnoticed. In the hallway, Dillon kissed me again until I was breathless, his hand fumbling for the doorknob behind my back as we bumped into the heavy door.
Stuff happens. You adapt and you move on… I made my own choices.
Finally, his fingers managed to maneuver the door open and we stumbled into the room without breaking the kiss. Dillon effortlessly lifted me off the ground, shutting the door behind us with his ankle. I wrapped my legs around his waist, my lips devouring his mouth hungrily. He moaned against my teeth as he walked us backwards. Turning slightly so that his back was to the bed, he dropped lightly until he was flat on his back, me straddling him.
I smiled down at him devilishly and licked my upper lip. Winking cheekily, I leaned down at kissed his eyelids shut. Moving further down his body, I placed kisses down his nose before pausing briefly on his lips. As I worked my way south, I nimbly undid his buttons and left kisses behind in my wake. Working back up, our lips met again, eliciting a throaty groan from Dillon.
Dillon's hands rested on my hips as I sat back up, staring down at him. Staring into his eyes, I slowly lifted my shirt over my head and threw it on the ground beside us. Dillon looked up at me in amazement, his eyes reassuring me that he still sees me as beautiful and sexy. He pulled me down to him, kissing me over and over again until I had lost all sense of time.
I feel like I'm the same person. There just needed to be a change.
A half-hour later, Dillon collapsed next to me. His head resting on my stomach, I reveled in the warmth of his body against mine. My hand traveled down to grasp his. A silly grin was plastered on his face as his eyes met mine. "I love you," he said simply, bringing my hand to his lips to brush an easy kiss on my knuckles.
"I love you, too," I replied, wrapping my leg around his.
"And I love you," he whispered to my stomach, dropping a gentle caress on my abdomen.
I try to come up with something to say, but the words fail to come. Dillon and I are usually so full of words, having these important conversations like the adults we have long pretended to be. No thoughts consume my mind, only a comfortable fuzzy feeling. The feelings are only of warmth, of pure and undulated love. The feeling is something I've never quite felt before; I'm happy.
"I'm happy," I realize out loud.
Dillon's smile grows even wider. "How did we get here?"
"Your family made a faulty condom. Is it wrong that I am glad they did?"
"Probably, but I don't care," he laughed, moving up to lie next to me. Wrapping his arm around my back, my face finds its way to the familiar nook that made me fall in love with Dillon in the first place. The warmth of that fold of skin gave me the first sense of comfort I've had in quite some time.
Across the room, my cell phone blared from my handbag. Dillon tried to pull me back into the bed as I struggled to escape from the warm haven of our sheets. An unfamiliar number flashed on my sheets. "Hello?"
"Hey, Gumdrop," my father said on the other end of the line. Static crackled, breaking up our connection for a moment.
Dillon looked at me expectantly as I turned my back to him to give myself some privacy. "Hey, Dad. Where are you?"
"I'm in Paris," he called over the weak line. "Look, I don't have long. I just wanted to tell you that I am working on finding a new treatment for your mother. I need you to go by and check on her, see how she is doing."
"I was there a few days ago, but I will go by again tomorrow."
"Thanks, sweetheart, I really appreciate it," my father told me. "How are you?"
"I'm okay," I chirped happily. "Dad?"
"What is it, Lu?"
"I didn't do it, Daddy." I hadn't called Luke Spencer by that name since I was two-years-old.
"Oh, Lulu, I am so glad to hear that," he said, sounding relieved. "I'm going to be a good grandfather, or at least I am going to try. I promise you that. And I am going to do all that I can to bring your mother out of this so that she can be there, too."
"Thanks, Daddy."
"I have to go, Gumdrop. I'll call again when I can. I love you."
"Love you, too," I said as the other end of the line went dead. Flipping the phone shut, I held the tiny electronic device in my clenched fist, relieved to know that my father is okay and knows what lies ahead for our family. Smiling at Dillon, I turned around and leapt on the bed. "I have this feeling, Dillon. Everything is going to be okay."
Anyone is better than who I was before. I need my life to matter. I need for the choice that I made to count for something.