“You’ll definitely be home early tonight?” he asked, his deep, quiet voice and the heat in his eyes telling her loud and clear that he shared her amplified sensual awareness of him. Since they’d begun living together, Alice had reaped the benefits of not only fewer restrictions on how much time they could spend together, but Dylan’s considerable imagination and energy when it came to lovemaking. She was a very lucky woman.
“If I get through the analyses on the Sweet Adelaide campaign . . . and Gabriel says I can,” she added with a wry smile, referring to her boss in the marketing division. Alice liked her new job a lot. She was learning so much, sometimes it felt like her head was going to explode at the end of the day. It was a lot to take in, learning the ropes at a demanding new job while also trying to assimilate all that it meant to be Adelaide Durand. She was slowly, but steadily, going through all of Alan’s and Lynn’s remaining personal effects on the weekends, a process that could be intense and wonderful, yet emotional and exhausting, as well. She also was absorbing as many of Durand Enterprises’ financial reports and historical information as she possibly could.
Fortunately, Sidney Gates had referred her to a counselor in Morgantown. It’d helped Alice, to have somewhere to go every week where she could just spill everything to an objective listener. Slowly, she was starting to rework all the confusion and discrepancy of her dual existence into a single new identity that increasingly made sense to her.
That she was growing to love.
Dylan’s gaze narrowed. “You’d think the fact that the product Gabriel is having you work on was named for you by the founder of the company would have some weight on the whole matter.”
“Well it doesn’t,” she said crisply, squeezing his finger again and running her fist up and down it suggestively. She smiled when his eyes flashed. “And that’s the way I want it, remember?”
“You won’t let me forget.”
“What are you thinking about?” she murmured after a moment, recognizing his preoccupation.
“Your name,” he said bluntly. “Now that you’ve legally changed it, I don’t suppose you’d ever consider changing it again?”
Her heart gave a little leap.
“Absolutely not,” Alice replied. “I mean . . . I had to live without it for twenty years of my life. I’ll never surrender it willingly again.”
He nodded, keeping his face impassive. Still, she sensed her answer had subdued him. She laughed softly and stroked the back of his hand.
“I may, however, consider hyphenating . . . if the right offer came along.”
Frustratingly, he didn’t say anything else. “Dylan.”
“What?”
“Are you asking me if I’ll marry you?” she blurted out irrepressibly.
“I was testing the waters,” he said, arching his dark brows and giving her that smoky, knowing look that always reminded her of a pirate.
“But—”
“Don’t push it, little girl,” he murmured, his mouth tilting in amusement.
She shook her head in mock disgust. She knew him so well by now. He’d ask her to marry him all right, in his own special manner. Dylan never did anything halfway when it came to her. He was forever surprising her, whether it be with a gift presented at just the right moment or by thoughtfully including one of her friends, like Maggie, for a dinner.
He had become a lot less strained in his worry over her in the past weeks, but she had a feeling he’d always be cautious when it came to looking out for her. It was their history that had made him that way, and she understood. It was the same reason he never seemed to cease celebrating her presence, as well. She could hardly complain about his solemn, poignant gratitude about her very existence, even if it did surprise her anew every hour of every day.
Alice tore her gaze off him when the waiter returned. She took the folder, now finding it impossible to hide an ebullient grin. She was having more and more trouble disguising her joy behind a mask of tough indifference these days.
Could my life be any more amazing? Could I be any luckier?
“About those waters . . . ” she murmured in an offhand manner, pretending to be preoccupied about adding a tip to the bill. “Just my opinion, but I’d say they’re pretty damn inviting.”
She looked up at his warm, gruff chuckle. She saw it there in that moment, in Dylan’s gleaming eyes: a whole future of wild heat and sweet, quiet moments of sharing. Their unusually strong bond was only going to grow unbreakable. Alice still doubted, at times. She still silently second-guessed herself, and she sometimes wondered if her sarcastic tongue and ever-ready cynicism could ever be fully vanquished. But one thing had forever changed. She now knew that her doubt and mistrust could potentially be the slayer of her bond with Dylan, if she let it be. And there was no way in hell she was ever going to let that enemy win on that particular battlefield.
Her parents had gotten it right. Her life really had been miraculous, in the end. Alice trusted, and she loved with all her heart. For her, there was no greater miracle than that.
She squeezed Dylan’s hand. Turning to the bill, she signed her new name with a proud flourish.