When he got like that before, Emily never mentioned it. She knew it was best not to push his buttons about things he’d rather not talk about.
Now, she knew that she didn’t have a choice. She couldn’t fight alone. If they were going to be happy, he had to fight too.
So, taking a deep breath, she grabbed hold of the last emotional reserves she had. And turned to Kurt.
“Is that what you want, Kurt?” she asked. Kurt looked up at her, the pain in his eyes so palpable it almost made her gasp.
“Miss Pratchet, I told you. That’s all we need from- “
“I’m not talking to you,” Emily said turning to Malcolm. A bit of the anger she’d been holding in as best she could now fly out at him in her darkest glare yet. Even Malcolm Jennings’s eyes widened slightly in surprise. Emily didn’t care. She turned back to Kurt.
“Kurt, if you want me to disappear, if you want me to go to another school and never see you again, I will,” she said. “But, if I do, I want to know that it’s what you want. It’s not something he’s making you do.”
Kurt glanced quickly between Emily and Malcolm, a flush rising in his cheeks. It was as though someone had presented him with two doors, both unlabeled. One led to life and the other certain death. Now, he was trying to decide which one to take.
The longer his silence continued, the angrier she became with him. The truth was, she knew what he wanted. What he truly wanted. He wanted to be with her and he wanted to keep his job.
The question now was which one he wanted more.
“You’ve got to make a choice,” she pressed. “Do you want me to stay or do you want me to leave?”
The tension in the room had come to a boiling point. Even Malcolm had stopped shuffling his papers and seemed to be on the edge of his seat, waiting for Kurt’s answer as much as Emily was.
“Emily,” Kurt began. Her heart sunk when she heard the defeat echoing in his voice. “Emily…I…I can’t.”
Tears welled in her eyes and it took the last of Emily’s strength not to let them run down. Blinking them away, she nodded.
“Ok then,” she said. “I…I guess this is good bye. I’ll send Dr. Schneider in.”
Without turning back to look at either of them, she walked quickly out of the room. As she opened the door, she felt hot tears sting at her cheeks and she knew it was useless to wipe them away.
Chapter Eleven
“He wants to see you now,” Emily said to Dr. Schneider. Her voice was thick with the tears which still ran down her cheeks. If it hadn’t been for those, she might have smiled at the irony of inviting the University President into his own office.
As it was, all she could really, truly focus on was trying her level best to get out of the lobby doors and off campus where she could think about what she was going to do now.
“Emily? Are you all right?”
Dr. Schneider asked moving towards her concerned.
Tears still streaming down her face, she nodded and attempted a small smile.
“Yeah,” she said. “I mean, I’m not all right now. But…I will be.”
He looked as though he wanted to say something to that but, whatever it was, Emily knew she didn’t want to hear it. She gave him another smile and turned towards the door. Apparently, that was enough for Dr. Schneider. As soon as she turned from him, she heard his quick footsteps moving towards the office door. As soon as the door opened, she heard another set of footsteps, much stronger but just as quick rush out.
Emily didn’t dare turn around.
She had a feeling she knew who was rushing after her. She didn’t want to hear what he had to say either.
“Emily!”
Without stopping at the sound of Kurt’s voice, without turning around, she opened the lobby door and marched out into the hall.
She didn’t think he would follow. And, she told herself she didn’t want him to. He’d made his decision. He’d proven that his job and his father-in-law’s wrath was more important to him than she was.
That was why she was surprised to hear his same strong, fast gait following her out into the hall.
“Emily, wait! Please, wait!”
Despite herself, she stopped. She didn’t turn around. Lifting her hand, she wiped her eyes knowing that the small bit of makeup she’d worn for the day had most likely smeared around her eyes making her look like a raccoon.
Kurt moved in front of her and touched her chin, lifting her black circled eyes to look at him.
“Em- “
“Kurt, don’t,” she said as firmly as she could. “If your job matters more to you than me then…that’s it. There’s nothing more to say.”
She tried to move away from him and back down the hall. He caught her arm before she could.
“But, there is, Em!” he said. She turned around, her tear stained eyes as hard as she could make them. He pursed his lips together and that little wrinkle in his forehead, the one he always got when he was forming some kind of plan, appeared again.
“Come with me,” he said.
Before she could say a word, he moved his hand down to entwine with hers and tugged her back towards the office door.
He kept a firm hold on her hand even as he opened the door to the president’s office and faced Malcolm behind the president’s desk and the President seated in the small, uncomfortable chair in front.
Both men turned to look at them.
Malcolm's eyes darted from his son in law to Emily and finally to their hands, clearly linked together.
“Kurt, what is going-?”
“I resign,” Kurt said before Malcolm could finish. “I resign my position at the college. That way Emily can stay.”
“But…but…you can’t resign!” Dr. Schneider said looking almost panicked as his small eyes behind the square glasses looked quickly between Malcolm and Kurt. “The book! We’ve already got publicity set up for it!”
“It doesn’t matter to me,” Kurt said. “Of course, I’d love to stay on but, if that means that Emily has to leave, then I’ll go.”
Dr. Schneider’s face fell and he turned fully to Malcolm as though expecting the other man to say something, to talk some sense into Kurt. Malcolm's eyes narrowed when he looked at his Son in Law. As though he was trying some kind of mind trick, trying to get Kurt to align exactly to Malcolm's way of thinking.
“Kurt,” Malcolm said quietly. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
“I do,” Kurt said. “I’m going to resign and, once I do that, I’m going to ask Cheryl for a divorce. I’m sure she’ll agree.”
At the word divorce, Malcolm's face turned, almost imperceptibly red with fury. A second later, he took a long breath as though swallowing down his anger.
“You know this won’t go well for you,” he said. “My daughter’s name isn’t going to be dragged through the mud. If all of this gets out, you’ll be the one who gets blamed.”
Kurt’s hand squeezed tighter against Emily’s she felt his pulse begin to race and, for half a second, wondered if he might back down.
“I know,” he said. His voice was even and calm. As though he was not terrified of the man in front of him. Even though Emily knew that he was and she could not blame him. “You can say whatever you want about me. And, Cheryl can get everything she wants in the divorce. I won’t fight you on any of it. I just want to be with Emily.”
Emily’s heart soared at Kurt’s words. The tears streaming down her cheeks dried almost immediately and she felt a bright smile that she couldn’t stop if she wanted to spread across her lips.
“Really, isn’t there something we could work out?” Dr. Schneider asked desperately. “Malcolm, couldn’t we find some compromise, something that would allow Kurt to stay.”
Neither Malcolm nor Kurt acknowledged Dr. Schneider’s interruption. They were both staring at each other. Eyes hard, both of them waiting for the other to back down. Both of them knowing that the other wouldn’t.
“I’m afraid Kurt’s
made his choice, Dr. Schneider,” Malcolm said finally. His eyes still fixed on Kurt. “That’s all there is to say.”
“I’ll turn in my letter of resignation at the end of the week,” Kurt said.
And, without another word, keeping a firm grasp on Emily’s hand, he led her out of the room closing the door behind them.
Their hands remained pressed together as they walked through the hall. They didn’t stop and they didn’t say a word to one another until they stepped into the bright sunlight outside the main University office.
That was when Emily stopped.
“Did you mean what you said back there?” she asked. “About…about wanting to be with me?”
Kurt turned to her, a smile on his face to match hers.
Slowly, he let go of her hand and, opening his palm, moved her chin up and kissed her gently, softly on the lips.
This kiss was not the same as most of their others had been. It was not hurried or desperate or needful. It was slow, tender, loving.
After what might have been minutes or hours or days, he pulled back just slightly.
“Does that answer your question?” he asked.
“I think it does,” Emily said.
With that, she leaned forward and kissed him gently again. As her lips moved against his, she felt the breeze fly through her hair and the warmth of the sun on her face. All the while, she could not help but think how wonderful it was to kiss the man she loved in the light of day.
Chapter Twelve- Epilogue
“Found it!”
Emily’s eye was pressed firmly to the telescope on the balcony. A small set of twinkling stars directly in her line of sight.
“Good, you’re getting better,” Kurt said sounding impressed. “Took you all of thirty seconds to find Urea Minor that time.”
Emily gave a chuckle as she moved out of the way of the telescope, her protruding belly hitting against it as she did.
“It’s easy to find that one,” she said. “It’s my favorite.”
“Because of the north star, right?” he asked, though he didn’t need to.
“Right in one,” she said. “I’ve always loved the north star.”
“Then I’m glad I could show you how to find it.”
She smiled at him as she walked over to the chair he’d set out for her and plopped down into it.
“You do one next,” she said. “My feet are killing me.”
“Another symptom?” he asked looking at her over his shoulder as he walked back towards his telescope.
“Not really,” she said. “I’ve just been on my feet all day. We had a bunch of groups come in last minute at the art store.”
Since Kurt’s divorce had been finalized one month before, Emily had gone back to working part time at Art for Keeps.
Without Cheryl’s father’s income, Kurt was having a harder time than usual making the payments on the woodhouse that he still owned just outside of town. Cheryl had been kind enough to let him keep that house, as long as she got all the other property they’d bought together.
Kurt threw Emily a sympathetic smile at her over his shoulder before he put his eye back to his telescope.
“Just remember,” he said adjusting the scope. “One more year and you’ll be able to become a curator at the art museum downtown. Then you won’t have to walk around showing old ladies how to paint pottery.”
She gave him a smile that he couldn’t see. He was always quick to remind her of the job waiting for her at the art museum once she’d finished her graduate work.
“At least we still have your job to fall back on before then,” she called to him.
He gave her a vague noise of acquiescence in response as he pressed his eye to the scope and moved it about, searching for his latest constellation in the sky.
Emily still smiled when she thought about how the return of Kurt’s job at the university had come about. Only one week after Kurt resigned, Dr. Schneider personally called and begged him to return.
The University President, apparently strengthened by Kurt’s show of strength with Malcolm Jennings, had told Mr. Jennings, in no uncertain terms, that the University could not agree to lose Kurt Schmidt as a professor.
When Malcolm was shown the potential press and earnings from Kurt’s most recent book, he reluctantly agreed. And, the board approved Kurt’s rehire.
Now, Emily sat here on the porch of a house she’d come to think of as hers. Allowing the warm summer breeze to blow through her hair as she laid a hand absently the small bump in her stomach.
At four months, pregnant, the bump was beginning to become obvious to the rest of the world. Usually, she thought of this as a less pleasant development than the growth of her breasts which had already swelled to twice their normal size. But, tonight, everything about her pregnancy seemed like a miracle. Right down to her swollen feet.
And it all had to do with the man who was now heavily focused on the heavens above them.
“Em, here’s one,” he said beckoning her over. With more difficulty than she would have liked, she raised herself from the chair and moved over to the telescope.
“I’ve got it said,” Kurt said. “Just look straight through.”
He sounded excited. The way he always did when he found some obscure factoid or nugget of information he wanted to share with her. With a small smile, she moved over to the telescope to find it centered on one small star. Just bright enough to be seen by the naked eye but magnified a dozen times in the telescope.
“It’s part of the Lyra system, isn’t it?” Emily asked, slightly confused. She’d seen the Lyra constellation before. There was no reason for Kurt to be too excited about showing her that.
“It’s a star in the Lyra system. It’s called Vega, the weaver,” he said. “It was the name of a young woman who fell in love with a sheepherder who lived next door to her. The problem was, the families hated each other.”
“That sounds familiar,” Emily said dryly.
“It’s a common theme in popular love stories,” he said. “In this case, the families built a river between them to keep them apart. If you look carefully, you can see the two spirals in the milky way between Vega and that other bright star just beyond. That’s supposed to be the sheepherder.”
He moved behind her so that her body was pressed fully against her as he adjusted the scope. Suddenly, it became rather difficult to think about constellations.
“That’s kind of sad,” she said absently. “They’re separated for all eternity.”
“Not really,” he said. “Because, per the rest of the story, the birds take pity on them one night a year and build a bridge across the river so that the two lovers can be together.”
“Does that ever happen in the sky?” she asked.
His hands moved from the scope to rest on her shoulders.
“Sadly, no,” he said. “But, I like to think it happened in real life.”
His arms moved slowly from her shoulders to wrap around her waist. She turned to face him, a teasing smile on her face.
“So, there really is a romantic underneath the common-sense professor,” she said. “Who knew?”
“Well, I do like to let my romantic side out sometimes,” he said. “Especially tonight.”
“What’s so special about tonight?”
His smile turned slightly nervous as he moved his arms from around her waist. Her heart fell in disappointment for one moment before he dropped to his knee and pulled a velvet box out of his back pocket.
“Emily Pratchett,” he said. “Will you marry me?”
The box opened to reveal a small, simply diamond ring. It gleamed in the moonlight and Emily couldn’t help but think it was the most perfect thing she had ever seen in her life.
She grinned so widely that her cheeks hurt as she lunged forward, threw her arms around his neck and kissed him as hard as she could.
Wobbling slightly, he stood, box still in hand as he wrapped his arms around her.
When they fi
nally pulled apart, he was wearing that dazed and pleased smile he sometimes got when she stayed the night with him. Like he didn’t know if she was real or a dream.
“Is that a yes?” he asked.
“Of course, it is!” she said.
Taking the ring out of the box, he fitted it perfectly onto her left hand. She took half a moment to admire it before reaching forward and kissing him again.
This time, he gave himself to her fully, pouring everything he had into this kiss. And, as he pressed his body against hers, she felt a certain heat that told her they were not going to stay on the porch for long.
Sure enough, his hand reached behind her, caressing the small of her back and moving lower to wander over her ass, her thighs, until his hand moved between them, lifted the skirt of her dress and touched her just over her underwear.
A slight gasp came up from her as the warm, summer breeze turned into a slightly crisp chill as it sometimes did and hit against her legs. She pulled away just slightly from him, looking into his grey eyes still covered by his spectacles.
“Shouldn’t we take this into the bedroom?” she asked sweetly. Taking his hand and planning on leading him. He, however, stayed firmly in place.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I think I’d like to stay out here.”
“Out here?” she asked. His smile widened and he wrapped his arms around her once more pulling her into him. He kissed her fiercely, one hand on her back while the other continued its path between her legs.
Just as he reached over her underwear, he moved his lips to her ear.
“I want to make love to you under the stars,” he said. “I guess it’s the romantic in me.”
Just as she was about to answer with something either cheeky or flirty, his fingers dipped beneath her underwear and began to circle her clit.
“Oh!” she gasped. She felt him chuckle as he kissed down her neck and she could feel his member growing harder beneath his trousers.
His lips kissed further down until he reached the tops of her swollen breasts. Moving one hand from the small of her back as the other teased her folds, he pulled the sleeves of her dress down so that nothing but her bra showed.
Unwrapped by The Billionaire Page 98