Chapter 12:  A Dreamer's Heart

The Backwoods, The Quinn Residence, Temperance, South Dakota....

Alone in the house as night began to overtake the last lights of the afternoon sun, Layla Quinn found herself in her bedroom with many a textbook and notebook spread along her bed as she lied back against the pillows with her pencil having dropped from her grasp and onto the nearby floor following her dozing off after finally completing the last of her homework. She'd finally finished her English essay when sleep caught up to her and remained so for several hours as the day gave way to night and there was still no sign of Jarrett coming home despite the house being cleaned from top to bottom.

Layla found herself awakening following being startled via her own dream as once more she found herself back at the diner with the older man clad in a biker cut, she seemed to have memorized all of his patches and then some as he pressed her up against the nearby wall their tongue's warring as if both of them were attempting to claim dominance over the other.

She liked the way he smelled, like hot leather, after shave, and thick cologne and something else...something akin to fresh dirt and sweat. It was already odd to be kissing a strange older man and even more odd to like his scent almost to the point of madness. The dream seemed to take on a whole new aspect as she recalled the weight of his impressive muscular body against her own as her hands rested against the slick heated leather of his vest. She could feel him growling against the soft flesh of her neck and the gentle nibbling that made her nearly lose all control over herself when he pulled away.

The same hypnotic grey eyes took in the sight of her lovely young form as his impressive chest rose and fell in the wake of their act and subsequent unwanted separation. Layla had not been much into older men, let alone men that seemed to be more trouble than they were worth but she couldn't help but feel something akin to outright attraction to this strange man who had saved her from the junkie.

Biting at her bottom lip, she took a moment to note the details about he man before her longing despite herself for the moment they'd share another kiss or anything else when the time came. She could feel the onset of the unbearable heat that seemed to radiate off the two of them and it had little to do with the setting sun. He was a strong one, much stronger than any man she'd ever known in Temperance and his hands were rough like they'd been put to work a time or two for something other than raising a beer bottle to one's lips and scratching like many of the men in Temperance were accustomed to doing.

She especially loved his slight farmer's tan and the way he seemed to look at her with such an intensity that she had never felt before. Not even the high school boys, so full of hormones and excess sperm looked at her in the saw hungry manner the stranger had.

Brick.

She knew his name was Brick.

He had insisted she refer to him as such when they spoke and all she could see and feel was his hard body being pressed against her own as he held her against the nearby wall of the diner. Everything in her screamed for him not to stop, but they were in no condition to continue nor did they know each other very well.

As handsome as Brick the biker man had been, he was still very much a stranger to Layla and possibly just passing through town like many visitors that never stuck around when the sun came up.

Layla sat up in bed, startled by the intensity of her dream and the memory of her very first kiss. It wasn't in the last as romantic as the movies made it out to be, although she supposed she could have done worse. It could have been horrible and with one of the idiotic boys from school. She shuddered to think of whom would have been had she even gotten that far with one of them as they all seemed gross and immature. Kerry had a girlfriend and was looking forward to his college life.

Although she often dreamed it would have been him, well her and half the girls in town, it wasn't meant to be as Brick the random biker had already claimed that honor following his apparently heroic antics in ridding her of the wayward junkie that attacked her with a knife.

Layla sighed, before putting away her books and readying herself for bed. She fell asleep before and opted to take a shower before Jarrett came crashing through the front door, possibly drunk off his non working ass and started barking more orders due to his inability to fend for himself while under the influence or any other time.

Once she finished up in the shower, she filed back into bed after slipping on a pair of grey shorts and a long plain white t-shirt. She didn't mind the wetness against her sheets as she'd been much too exhausted to protest with herself as she began snoring the moment her head hit the nearby pillow. This time she had properly dozed off and just as before the handsome rider known as Brick had come back to her dreams.

She didn't understand it, but Brick seemed to represent everything her father had hated about the world and there was a kind of freedom in being in his presence that she knew all too well would upset her father in more ways than one. While he had been a mystery in real life, dream Brick was charming and understanding of her innermost desires and one of them included having a one way ticket to leaving Temperance, South Dakota behind in the dust the first chance she got.

Dream Brick smiled and offered her a ride on his motorcycle and she gladly accepted which upset her father tremendously as he rushed after her with Brutus trailing behind barking up a storm and growling after Brick whom seemed unphased as he revved the engine of his bike and they took off down the highway.

At least in her dreams, Layla Quinn was free. Free to enjoy her life and lead it the way she saw fit without any interference from her overbearing father whom had not done much with his own life to be in a position to dictate what she could do with her's.