Not waiting for him to respond, I took off running into the woods. The rain was starting up again and by the time that I was several yards into the trees it was pouring down on me, soaking through my clothes. I laughed into the sound of the rain and Grey’s footsteps following me. I wove through the trees, trying to make my path as meandering as I could so it would be hard for the much larger, much faster man to catch up to me. Just as I expected he would, he drew close to me quickly and I felt his hand brush against my ass as he tried to grab onto the back of my skirt. I let out a high-pitched scream and jumped away, running faster.
We were far enough into the trees that I could no longer see the path when I glanced back over my shoulder and Grey finally caught up with me. I felt his arms wrap around my waist and he picked me up. An instant later he was carrying me and my back slammed against a tree, but I didn’t care. There was no buildup, no teasing this time. Our hands tore at each other and in seconds my panties were on the ground and the coiled end of a twisted-texture condom had impaled me. The rain pelting down on us was cold but it was a relief through the feverish heat of our bodies. My bare breasts, exposed over the neckline of my shirt, bounced with each intense thrust and Grey growled so loudly I could imagine that Fawn would be able to hear him back at the cottage.
My legs were still shaking slightly from the intensity of the quickie against the tree when I climbed off of Grey’s motorcycle and started toward the cottage. He had promised me a final date that I wasn’t going to forget, and all I could think was that he was absolutely right. I couldn’t imagine that I would ever forget how it felt to have the powerful machine beneath me or to be passionately, aggressively yet reverently enjoyed by two men at the same time. Though it wasn’t something that I could ever see myself doing again, it had unlocked a part of me that would otherwise have remained untouched, and the memory of it would ensure that that part remained unlocked rather than hidden away. I could sample it whenever I wanted to, whether I was alone or invited another man into my bed.
I turned to watch Grey disappear down the path and was starting up the steps when I heard my name. I looked to the side and saw Noah standing at the side of the cottage. I felt a shock through my heart, the memory of our last conversation still raw. The rain streamed over him, making his eyes stand out, piercing through the gloom around me. He closed the space between us and grasped my wrist, pulling me toward the side of the cottage. He led me around toward the back of the cottage until I dug my heels in, forcing him to stop. He whirled around to face me and for an instant, nothing else in the world existed.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Lucille
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. So that was where Snow had been all this time. I closed the email and opened the next one, reading another of the messages between Snow and someone named Robin. It was embarrassing to admit that it had taken me this long to think of reading her email to try to track where she was and what she had been doing since going on her leave of absence. Her office was still sitting untouched since she left and company policy dictated that all information on the computer be accessible by the president, meaning that I was able to use a password breaker to access any account or site that she had visited. While she had been smart enough not to access any of her social media or financial accounts on her work computer, keeping those inaccessible to me, she had checked her private email, enabling me to read through her inbox.
Even though there was nothing that was going to keep me from reading anything that I wanted to on Snow’s computer, I recognized that this was a touch of an overstretch of my authority and that if I was seen I would likely have to contend with more fuss and hassle than I felt like facing. Particularly from Hunter. He had been tense and edgy since our unfortunate encounter after Snow left and I knew that he was just waiting for something that he could tell Walter about me that would be traceable, like reading through her personal emails when she had been out of the office for weeks. I had decided to avoid all of that by staying late after everyone else had already left the office so that I could explore Snow’s personal life at my leisure. And I had certainly been rewarded for my efforts.
“The Enchanted Woods,” I muttered to myself as I opened another email that contained the same three words I had seen in the last several messages. “What is that?”
Whether it was because she knew that her messages might be monitored or simply because she didn’t want to share any information over email, Snow had been stingy with details about this place, wherever it was, but there was enough to tell me that it was where she had been spending a considerable amount of her time since leaving the office. I had gone through several messages when I noticed that she mentioned she wasn’t staying there at all times, but instead was visiting for several days every couple of weeks, returning to her home in between. I already knew where she lived. Now I wanted to know what this place was that had grabbed her attention so much that she was spending so much of her time there. The messages mentioned that she was having an incredible time and that Robin wouldn’t believe the stories that she had to tell. Each message intrigued me further and I had the feeling in my gut that this was what I had been looking for. This was what was going to help me destroy her.
I closed Snow’s email and opened the browser. I typed “The Enchanted Woods” into the search engine and waited for the results to populate. The first several pages were primary home improvement and literary sites, but when I had nearly given up, I found a site that seemed promising. One of Snow’s messages to Robin had included a picture of a cottage and mentioned that it looked just like the brochure. An image very similar to that one appeared on the site that I found and I clicked on it. The description inside was nearly as vague as her infuriating emails, but from what I read, this place was some sort of exclusive retreat. I jotted down the address on a notepad and closed the site, going back after myself to clear the search history so that if someone else looked at her computer they wouldn’t be able to tell what I had been doing. I closed up the office and rushed home so that I could pack a bag. It was Friday evening which meant that I had two days to go find out what Snow was up to before anyone would need to know that I was gone, and, if her emails were any indication, she only spent Friday through Monday there every two weeks.
It was dark when I started driving and well after midnight by the time that I had reached the hotel where I had made a reservation for the night. It was only a few miles away from the Enchanted Woods, which meant that I would be able to get there early in the morning.
My mind was spinning by the time that I got into my room. What could Snow be doing? What about the Enchanted Woods lured her there for all of this time? Why did she keep going back after returning home each time that she went? I hoped that this was one of the weekends that she was going to be there. Even if I could find the retreat and figure out why she went there, her actually being there would give me more of an indication of why she had chosen it. Maybe I would even find something that could enable me to make her leave of absence permanent.