A Man on an Island Ch. 06

She nodded, "And that's long enough to miss you so much." Back in the kitchen, she heard a hiss and looked over.

"I've got water on for coffee. I was about to get some breakfast started for us."

She nodded thoughtfully, "You've got a busy day ahead of you. No place to go, and an old girlfriend to do - um, a lot."

He laughed, "Don't you want me to clear the driveway and take you places? You do still own horses."

She grinned at him, "Hell, no!"

He sighed happily, "Well as much as it hurts to say this, I'm gonna have to do some of it anyway. Sooner or later, Pete's gonna roar by with his plow again, and what's there from yesterday will just freeze solid if I don't move it, and then I'd need dynamite to get us out of here."

Her face looked shocked at the realization of his words, "Oh my god! Why, we'd be stuck here till spring!"

She kissed him hard, "I'm good with that." She nodded, "Yup."

He pushed her back gently, "You're a pretty tempting sight, but I've gotta do some of it. You sit tight, Sylvia, I'll get you a coffee, and then I'll make breakfast."

"No." She sounded petulant, "You get us a coffee, and after that, WE'LL make breakfast." She stroked his cheek, "Then you can do what you have to, but It's gonna be a big breakfast. You'll need your strength."

They hugged each other, but that set off a tickling match and Rufus barked as he watched them.

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There were three moments that day that let Cale know that his life was changing.

The first came as he'd finished up a little cleaning around the house, and had gone outside to split up a bit of wood while Sylvia looked after her horses. Rufus was poking around in the trees when Cale heard him begin to growl, low down in his throat. It caught his attention because other than when they roughhoused around a little, Rufus had never growled before -- and certainly not like this. He hardly ever barked, and was silent most of the time.

Cale walked out and stared at Rufus, who was looking at nothing other than the hill above Cale's home. There was nothing there but a hillside covered in snow, but the sound deepened and as Rufus lowered his ears while the fur on his back rose, it sounded as though it was in full stereo for a moment -- unearthly reverb and everything. Cale had never heard anything like it. A second later, Rufus was gone, bee lining it up the hill and baying once as he crested it and disappeared out of sight.

Cale was mystified until he thought about what lay over that hill; a thin line of woods, a pair of white fences just like any horse farm tended to have, half a mile of pretty much open land -- and Sylvia's farm.

He ran to his truck.

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"You're going to let me into my own house," Paul snarled into his newly estranged wife's face, "I live here, and what the fuck was that yelling for? Have you taken up howling at the moon? You always were a crazy bitch."

"This is not your house, Paul, and it never was, "she glared at him, "this belongs to my family."

"Well, I'm taking half of it, along with everything else that you own," he grinned for a second, "Now get out of my way."

"You're out on your ass," she said, "and this place is something that I don't own and never have."

"Fuck off," he snarled, "I saw your signature on the loan for the company to get it started."

"Thanks for reminding me," she glared back, "I'll have the papers drawn up so you can begin paying that loan back -- I'm calling that loan. You've never paid a cent. The signature that you saw was my grandmother's. She owns the farm, not me, and the horses belong to the farm as well. Her name and signature are close to mine, since she taught me to sign my name when I was little and I've never changed the way that I write it."

There was a deep bark and a loud grunt as Rufus cleared the fence sixty yards away and landed on the near side of it running. Sylvia could hear his breathing from where she stood.

"Cale's mutt has moved in," Paul sneered, "Are you fucking him now?"

"Get off this land," she said as she pushed him back, hard enough for her strength to surprise him as she lowered her hands and looked at Rufus as he came, divots of heavy wet snow flying up into the air behind him, "You ought to be going," she nodded to Paul, "Right about now, before you look really girly while you run."

"If he touches me, I'll be back with the cops and I'll have him put down," Paul said, looking more unsettled by the moment.

"First of all, you have to be alive to do that." Sylvia held up her palm and Rufus stopped a second later and only stood watching from a distance away. "Second, he won't even come near you, asshole," she pointed around the porch, "They will."

When he turned to look over his shoulder, the snarling chorus began. The dogs which surrounded him were larger than the one that Cale kept and they looked different as well. He saw a clear path to his car and he ran, the rising barks and growls spurring him. As he sat in the driver's seat trying to get his heart rate down, Cale pulled in.

"Call your dogs off, Cale," he yelled as the window slid down a little.

Cale looked at him, "What dogs? I only see one and he's right over there."

"Are you fucking blind?" Paul shouted over the snarls of the pack which regarded him from around his car. It was obvious to him that they only waited and looked for a way to get to him, "What do you call them?" He asked as he tried to wave his arm at them all, but the nearest one lunged then and he just got his arm back inside in time.

Cale looked every bit as perplexed as he felt, "Have you been drinking or something? There's only one dog and he's way over here. All I see is a guy yelling from his car. There's no dogs there, and no tracks, nothing. What the hell are you on, Paul?" He looked at Sylvia, who stepped out back out onto the porch and asked her if she was alright.

She nodded," I don't think he is, though," she said as she held up her cordless phone, "I'm calling 911 before he hurts himself or something."

Paul had to lean away as one of the black hounds tried to get his face into the opening of the window, "What do you mean, there's no dogs here? Can't you see them? Are you telling me that I'm imagining all the noise that they're making?"

Cale shook his head, "All I see is a very upset man who's yelling at me. I don't think you ought to be driving, Paul. Why don't you get out and hand me the keys? Sylvia's calling to get you help. The paramedics will be here in a few minutes. Just relax. Ok?"

"Fuck that," Paul yelled as he started the car and slid back down the hill to the main road, nearly driving into the ditch at the end of it. Cale watched as the car began to accelerate away.

Sylvia walked to where he and Rufus stood, "Just keep him here," she said, "I'm sure that we'll get a visit from the police out of this and I want them to see that there was no pack of dogs when they look at the snow."

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When the cruiser pulled away, Sylvia found Cale looking at her in an odd way.

She put her hands in her pockets and looked down, "You heard what I told the police. That was what happened before you got here. I had to defend the land and the farm, Cale. Rufus was a hit with the cops, just because he's so goofy and friendly. I just did what I had to, and of course, I didn't tell that part of it."

"What was Paul looking at that I didn't see?" Cale asked as he stepped closer.

She shrugged, "Just something that I suggested that he see. I've ruined everything, haven't I?"

"Now why would you say that?" Cale asked as he put his arms around her waist, "I can understand it -- at least, I think that I can." He looked down at Rufus who'd decided that he wanted in if there were any group hugs in this. Sylvia pulled one hand out of her pocket and pet him.

"He saw a bunch of Rufusses, - or Rufi, or whatever the plural form is, didn't he?"

She looked up at him and nodded, "Not Rufus, but ..."

"I can't really fault you for wanting protection and using what you could," Cale smiled, "It's a little different, that's all."

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She was on her back, lying on the fur and he was over her, staring at her smiling eyes in the dim light. Sylvia sighed as she looked up, so in love with him as she watched her hand glide over the tattoo on his arm. Every thrust made her want to tell him how she felt, but she knew that he was looking at her and feeling it as well.

She lifted her legs higher as he began to go a little faster and she reached farther back on him to pull him. Her eyelids slid shut for a few seconds and a long moan escaped her while her insides contracted in little waves. When she opened them, he was moving to lie on her and his strokes slowed to a crawl for a little while as he kissed her throat and moved to her ear.

He loved to hear the little things that she said to him when they were like this. Sometimes what came from her was a sentence, in one of two languages by his count and the one that he didn't understand could be spoken in either of at least two dialects. Sometimes it was just a word or two, and sometimes it was just her little sounds. None of it mattered to him. Just listening to her like this made him want to do this with her forever.

"Are you in a mood to plow me like horses do it?" she smiled, and he shook his head, "Not this time, I don't think," he groaned to her with a little smile. "I think I'd rather just do it this way -- that is, if you don't mind."

"How could I ever mind this," she smiled against his ear, "when you take me to such nice places each time? I was just thinking of you, Cale. I'm only a little sad for the millionth time that we couldn't stay together back then. We'd have made such wonderful kids, you know."

She asked him to move, and they began again with her on her back with cushions under her shoulders so that she could lean on one arm and be a little more elevated with one leg over his shoulder.

She picked up a rib cramp then and they stopped so that he could work it out for her.

"Now we're too old to start and I don't have any eggs anymore," she sighed, "It makes me so sad now, but I got really sick when I was pregnant with Siobhan. They never found out what was wrong with me, and we both almost died. By the time that it was done, I'd had a double hysterectomy and a long stay in the hospital to boot.

While that was going on, Paul told me that he was working on some really important deals, so that was why he didn't come to see us much. So I played the dutiful new mother and when I was ready to be released, it was my mother and grandmother who came to take me home. I didn't say a word to Paul. Since he wasn't that much interested anyway, I gave my daughter her name while he was gone."

He drove home furious at me for 'making him look like an idiot' as he said.

But I laughed in his face and said that he was an idiot, so that wasn't a new look for him anyway. I said that I'd just made him look like the bastard that he was and when he was about to fly into more of a rage at me, he found himself being stared down by my father, who'd never liked him and the axe handle in his hand said that silently. My father never spoke a word to him that day or ever since. Siobhan and I came home with my parents and when Paul tried to tell he he was sorry, I told him that I was staying here, but that he could come to live here with me if he meant what he was saying.

The first time that he broke his vow to me, I threw down the photos of him drilling some bimbo on the table in the boardroom. I had those photos three days afterward. I told him to get out, but he talked his way back that one time.

I know that you've had bad times," she said, "I guess this was my way of saying that I had bad times too, but I'll show you what my hope is."

She went forward onto her knees as he was then, but she lifted herself a little higher and she took his face in her hands and began to kiss him almost desperately so that he thought he'd gone to heaven, because she'd always had this way to kiss him that took his breath and caused his heart to pound for her. The way that she kissed was wet and everywhere and they groaned together as she reached for his shaft again.

"I have one place to offer you since I'm never going to let you go again," she groaned against his cheek. "Paul always wanted that from me, but I never let him near it. He hurt me enough out of the bed, I wasn't going to let him tear my ass to shreds. He could only do anything only one way in bed."

"I want that later," he said, "but only if you want that from me. I'm no fan of Paul, but unless you want to hear the gory details of every one of my failed relationships, then please stop talking about him for now at least, Sheelah. I can only handle small doses, but you know that I'll listen to anything that you have to say, right?"

"Why?" she asked as she looked at him, "I am sorry by the way. I shouldn't turn making love with you into a bitchfest, but why would you want to listen?"

"I love you," he said with a shrug, "and I don't want to be one of those guys who never listen."

"Do you like doing this with me, the way that we are right now?" she asked as she stroked him, "You haven't come in a long while. It's starting to worry me."

Cale chuckled, "I keep changing my mind about positions. You'd better not give me any more choices for now."

Cale fell in love with her again when she threw back her head and laughed, "I know!

Here," she said as she turned away and got to her knees and elbows, "You can spank my ass with your hips, and I won't mind a bit if you grab my ponytail and pull it a little. Bang me if you want to," she grinned as though she was a champion at this, "You can't break me like this and I'm feeling pretty barnyard at the moment."

Cale was still fighting off his chuckle a few minutes later as he felt his orgasm beginning to feel like it was boiling in his balls.

She loved the way that his scrotum slapped against her so softly, but she gave up her attempts at speech then as she found out that it had more of an effect on them both if she only grunted as loudly as she could. When they'd both come and he'd withdrawn, Sylvia gave in to her need to laugh. "That was fucking amazing," she chuckled, "but I almost wrecked it for us both."

"What do you mean?" Cale asked as he lifted her leg and placed it over his shoulder while he bent down a little more.

"I was pretty lost in that," she smiled, "but what I suddenly had a desire to do was to squeal like a pig or something, just to see what you'd do. I just didn't know how to make that sound or I would have."

He laughed for a moment and then he fell still and Sylvia let out a long sigh as his tongue slipped between her haunches. He felt her fingers in his hair as she reached back and groaned.

"Ohh fuck," she sighed thirty minutes later as she looked up at him over her own hip, "I didn't think of this as a position," she sighed. They said nothing for a time until after he began to rub her cleft in little circles. At first, the sensations seemed to work against each other, but Sylvia came again anyway and after that she just begged him to fuck her so that he'd come again.

They ended up with her on her face, and when he'd finished and moved back a little, she rolled a little and reached back for his arm, "I'm a little sore -- first time and all, but you can do that for me pretty much anytime, Cale. I really liked that and how it felt like you own me - right when I wanted to feel that way."

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Sitting in front of the fire again with the blankets around their shoulders, Cale asked about her daughter, since he'd never met her.

"She's a veterinarian," Sylvia said a little proudly, "the last couple of years, she's been interning in Yorkshire England. But her term is done now and she's coming home in a day or so. I have to pick her up at the airport on Christmas Eve morning."

"Holy crap," he said shaking his head, "Toronto Pearson during the holidays? Now there's a test. Want me to come with you?"

"No, but thanks for the offer," Sylvia smiled, "I haven't told her about us and that I'm done with Paul. I have to be careful about how I word that part."

"I understand," he said, "She'll be walking into something other than what she's expecting and right at Christmas, too."

Sylvia laughed that wonderful laugh of hers then as she shook her head, "You don't understand at all, honey. First off, she looks a little like me and not at all like her father. But she inherited his stubbornness, and they loathe each other. She made that decision herself -- after he never came to any of her things at school even once and she told him the day that she left for England that she's hated him for years.

She went to university on some of my money, a lot of Gramma's and her inheritance from Amy, plus what she made at all of the jobs that she worked part-time. She never got a cent from her father.

She's got dark brown hair and blue eyes instead of my green ones and she can look like a lost little waif when it suits her. I can't wait to tell her about us, but if I'm not careful, she'll think that I tossed Paul out as a Christmas present to her," she laughed.

"She will be happy to meet you," Sylvia said, "I'd have never told her about our ancient history, but my mother did. Siobhan was raised like I was, so the thought of a young lover had about the effect that you might guess on a girl. She tried to find one for her, but it only led her to a lot of hurt -- which was why I wasn't going to tell her about us.

You play your cards right here," she chuckled softly, "and you'll find that you have a step-daughter who's always wanted a real man for a father."

Cale felt that feeling again about his life and was about to reply that he wouldn't know how to be one, never really having had much of a chance for it. The phone rang then and it pushed the thought from his mind. It was closer to Sylvia, so she picked it up and began a strange sort of conversation.

"No," she said after listening a moment, "But Cale Taylor does live here. Would you like to speak with him?"

He had no idea, but he took the phone from her and he looked into Sylvia's eyes. He didn't know why, and she didn't either, but she looked a little thrilled at that moment.

"Hello?"

There was a bit of silence on the other end for a moment and Cale was about to try one more time before he'd hang up with a shrug, but then the other person spoke and with only one word, Cale felt the third way that his life was changing that day.

He heard a very quiet sob as though it had gotten through a crumbling wall to get to him as he strained to hear the first word.

"Dad?"