Rowan: Woodsmen and City Girls

by Amber Burns

  Enya’s moans filled his mind and Thomas lost the track of his thoughts. Every time he thrust into her hot pussy, he tried to go deeper, to claim more of her. He wanted to prolong the pleasure of being squeezed inside her tight little hole.

  Though fully dressed and his body art covered from her eyes, Thomas felt completely naked and exposed every time he made love to Enya.

  Why did she want to stare into my eyes when I took her? Was it not enough that she had compluicated everything in my life already? Now she wants me to bear my soul to her?

  Despite his questions to himself, Thomas knew that he did want that. It was difficult to admit, yet he knew it was true. But was he ready?

  He kissed the side of her throat as he felt pleasure bloom inside her. She was so close. She was not a screamer, but her silent moans did wicked things to him. Her body responded to his every caress, every thrust, be that gentle or rough, she accepted all of him. When she found release, he kissed her mouth, drinking in her silent screams.

  ***

  It was around six in the morning when he untied her. Enya’s tired body collapsed on the table. He hoped that none of her customers were going to sit at that table today. All the fragrant dessert he needed was right here and was served to him. He was still greedy for more, but he knew she would not be up for round three. She did look sleepy.

  “You wanted to talk,” Enya murmured as she climbed off the table and pulled her ragged jeans on.

  Compared to the dress she wore last time, this pair of worn, faded jeans hid all the delicious curves of her body. He groaned, displeased when she put on her tank top and a jacket on top of it.

  She wanted to talk. There was so much he needed to tell her. He was ready to spill it out the moment he saw her sitting cross-legged on that table. Now, as the first lights of the morning filled the shop, he knew he needed his protective box back around him. He looked into her eyes, so honest, so stubborn. She wanted him to grant her with the same honesty, talk to her and let her get close.

  “Not much to tell,” he looked away.

  Whenever he was not sure about things or felt insecure, he always chose to be the arrogant billionaire. It was always easier to hate him than love him.

  “Why are you doing that?” Enya shook her head.

  She folded the scarf and shoved it into a drawer behind the cash counter. That scarf was the symbol of his feelings and her submission to him. Now, annoyed with him, she was hiding it away from him. Somehow, he thought he had connection with that scarf. It pained him, as it would’ve hurt if she was gone.

  “Doing what?” He knew what she was going to say. Still, he needed to hear those words again, coming out of her mouth they hurt him more than just the thoughts in his mind.

  “One moment you pull me close to you and next you slap me with your coldness and push away,” she threw her hands to her sides.

  “You are giving too much thought to all this,” he looked out of the window to hide his eyes from her. He knew she would read the bluff in his gaze if he let her see his soul. Around this woman, he felt like an open book and seemed she had figured out how to read every word of it and even between the lines.

  “Am I?” She insisted, stubborn as ever. That was what made Enya Williams so irresistibly adorable. “Or maybe it’s you who still wants to be the lonely hurting kid who was left behind? Maybe it’s you who is giving too much thought and hides behind his huge empire?”

  Thomas pulled a chair and sat down. He felt his knees were going to fail him. The ground shook beneath him. Suddenly, the solid foundation under his feet was slipping away. This was madness. She was neither his damned girlfriend nor his shrink. Why would she even think she had the right to poke into his soul and ask those questions? Nobody, nobody ever had the stamina to ask him such questions. He always had those walls around him high and erect, like a fortress protecting what was only his.

  One look at her was a blow powerful enough to crash all those defenses to the ground. All of his anger was gone when he looked into those stubborn dark eyes. All he could think about, was those freckles that made her shine with the innocence of a child. She was making him too soft-hearted. That could not be allowed. Not with the way he lived his life.

  Thomas felt like the words were going to burst out of him. All those stories of his past he had pushed back to the depth of his mind; another moment and those words were going to choke him. He wanted to tell her everything. His memories of his parents, how they preferred their stupid childish love for music and touring, and thought a child was just extra baggage for their youthful lives.

  If he started telling anything about his past to her, he was pretty sure nothing was going to stop him. He would tell it all, from the very first memory of his parents, to the day he stepped into Olivia’s house, and last but not least, the only way he found to deal with his anger and hate toward the world.

  Suddenly, he knew his secrets were too heavy a burden to share so easily. The secret of his double-life needed to be only his. That was the one thing he held against the whole world. Thomas was not ready to share it with her, not with anyone. Not yet. Telling any of it to Enya would’ve meant bringing this whole madness to a completely new level. This was not the day to define what they were. Not when there was so much at the stake. Not when she could end up hating him tomorrow and crashing the heart he had never trusted to anyone. He leaned back in his chair and smiled his arrogant billionaire grin.

  “And this is the part when we sit down and tell each other all the heart-wrecking stories of our past?” He cocked his brow and narrowed his eyes on her.

  He knew exactly how he was playing with her emotions. He was pushing her away, proving how right she and the whole world had been not to trust him, ever.

  “I... I am sorry,” her voice was little. She held his gaze for one moment, and then looked away. He could see her fight tears.

  “Let me remind you one thing, darling,” he forced himself to continue. He made that ‘darling’ sound more like a tease than the sensual word he always meant when he talked to her. If there was one thing Thomas L. Silversson was good at, that was his skill of making a complete jerk out of himself. “You met my grandmother by accident. ‘Meeting the family bullshit’ was never my intention. Offering a free read of the book of my life is not my intention either.”

  His words were cold. If they hurt her half as much as they did him, he knew she would never forgive him.

  “How about we continue this fruitful discussion in my office?” He rose from the chair and stepped closer to her. Her head turned to him, her expression puzzled. He was not making sense to her. Her mouth suddenly opened in an ‘O’. Finally, the realization hit him. He did not give her time to reflect on it. Not yet. “I will have my lawyers bring the new agreement for you. Again.”

  “There is no need for that,” Enya pursed her lips. Her body was trembling, but she did her best to keep her cool. Her voice was low, yet balanced and menacing. Like that of a little beast fighting for dear life. There were very few people who earned so much admiration and respect for their courage from him. This woman beat them all. “I’ve got it.”

  “Good,” he shrugged, “Then bring it with you. Signed. Oh, and don’t forget that pretty scarf of yours. I might want to try some new things with it.”

  Her freckles grew so much darker, he could almost taste her rage in his mouth. He had ruined their moment he knew it. Thomas L. Silversson never let himself regret anything he did. Even for those things that hurt him more than anyone else. If he was going to hell, better to that in style, like a true villain.

  He did not deserve her love anyway. Why cherish illusions that some day he could be worth her? Better give her the time and space to concentrate on her work and figure out how to proceed with it. He had not created a very good situation for her and ss much as he wanted to help, there was only so much he could do for her. He had offered to buy dozens of such shops for her or to pay twenty times more. But none of that was what Enya wanted. She was
not there to fish for the best deal.

  Enya paced around the counter. He was ready to hear her yell at him, call him names, pour out all her anger and hate at him. She did none of that. Retrieving the scarf from the drawer behind the counter, she simply handed it to him.

  “You will get the agreement soon. Signed. Now, you need to go Mr. Silversson.”

  Then, the woman who had stolen his heart turned away from him and disappeared through the kitchen door. Thomas waited and waited and waited. She was too stubborn. He loved that special Enya-blend of stubborn. Accepting his defeat, Thomas L. Silversson left the pastry shop. He had left his crushed feelings there but had received a small token, a piece of memory, a scarf that carried the fragrance of the woman he loved.

  16

  Enya returned home. The storm inside her had not calmed, the rage keeping her away from her apartment had not faded. There was a very simple motivation that brought her back here, she desperately needed to change her clothes. Every piece of clothing she had on reminded her of Thomas Silversson in one or another way. And as if all of that was not enough, now the scarf was also gone.

  It helped to concentrate her thoughts on a fact as simple as a missing scarf, to pretend that her biggest worry was figuring out how she was going to tell Emma that her favorite scarf was gone.

  How dare he take it with him?! When she shoved it into his face, she aimed to only demonstrate her anger. She did think he was going to leave it there on the table or throw it on the floor when he left.

  Now, Thomas Silversson was out of her life for good, as was the scarf that had shared some of the most amazing memories with them. There was no time for grieving the loss of the scarf or her job. Enya Williams knew one thing for sure, she needed to turn every last drop of her rage into motivation to fuel her mind, to keep her going. That was exactly what needed to be done. She would not break now, she would not allow herself to.

  Enya took a long shower, knowing that the water was going to clean away the last reminders of his touches on her skin. She wanted every kiss, every caress of his to be gone. Those were permanently branded in her memory, no need to want to savor the ghosts of his physical touches on her skin as well. The long shower was one of the most empowering things Enya knew. So many ideas were born there, so many things she needed to do. Today. Now.

  When she stepped out of the shower and the cool air enfolded her, for one moment Enya wanted to give up again. Her first thought was to lie down on bed and not move. She could waste a whole day or two away from her life. Not much was going to change anyway. The damage was done already and she simply needed to find ways to cope with it. That could be done any time.

  She almost submitted to the weakness of her body. As she fell on the bed, she felt something under her ass. The piece of paper she had thrown on top of her bed two days ago saved her from her own destructive self. The moment she took it in her hands, Enya knew exactly what she needed to do first.

  This was the most recent offer she had received from Silversson Industries. A deal that would get her fifteen times more money than her pastry shop was worth and the permission to open two shops of ‘Yum & Fun’ in the new shopping and entertainment center Silversson Industries built on their street. He had offered her everything one could dream about. Yet, this was not what she could accept as a gift from him.

  “You are not going to win this time, Thomas,” she whispered to him.

  There was no wind to carry her words out of her bedroom and deliver them to him. Those words, spoken in a low voice, were lost and doomed to fade away into the thin air. They filled her determination, though, and that was all she needed.

  Enya searched through her folders and found the very first version of the deal she had received. That was what most of the other shop owners had signed. Enya chuckled. There was no humor in her laughter, though. Most of those people had hurried to sign their crappy deals only because they were intimidated by the name of Silversson Industries. Some had thought that getting a double price for their possession was as generous as the corporate sharks could get. Others thought that they could use other means to push them out. Every single one of them had some dark fear nested in their hearts.

  Enya shook her head. It was ironic that she of all people stood so long against him and she ended up losing everything her heart, her trust and her shop. Signing the paper, she did not feel anything: no pain, no sharp sting of disappointment, no bitterness of the loss. Her senses were dulled the moment her heart had been ripped out of her chest with those cold words of his. Now, she did not need a dime more from Thomas Silversson. She had started this business once from the scratch, she could do it again.

  Putting on some clothes, Enya hurried back to the empty street with one last surviving shop on it. She called her friends while she was on her way. Emma and Jenn were going to come after work to give her a hand. Lilly promised to be there for her the next day if she needed but tonight she had some plans with her most recent boyfriend.

  As she opened the door, she turned the ‘Open’ sign to ‘Closed’. Today they were not serving any bit of sweet happiness to anyone. Not today, not any other day anytime soon. Enya gathered all the desserts, placed them on the table in a large plate. She could feed her friends when they came to help her. Tearing this shop down was going to be bittersweet.

  Jenn showed up first. She was glowing. At least, someone was happy. She looked blinded by her sweet happiness, though. Enya liked sweets only in her desserts - not in real life stories of her friends. She could be happy for her friends sometimes. Jennifer had always stood next to her, had her back, listened to every silly story of her. Now, she was ready to shut her out only because Jennifer was happy with Simon and instead of needing her shoulder to cry was asking her to help plan her beautiful life.

  “En, I know you are not in the mood for this,” Jennifer started after she folded her sleeves and dived into the glorious work of cleaning the shelves of spices and arranging them into boxes Enya had found inside one of the empty stores.

  “I’m always in the mood,” Enya lied and did her best to fake a smile. “Tell me.”

  “It’s actually a request, from me and Simon,” Jenn hesitated again. “Will you agree to make our wedding cake and all the other desserts for our big day?”

  Oh, so there is a big day coming? Enya shouldn’t have been surprised. That was usually what happened after a couple dated for years and finally got a huge piece of diamond on the woman’s finger. Like the one that was on Jenn’s finger now, when she was helping Enya to pack. She had taken off every other piece of jewelry, but left the ring on; as if Simon was going to mysteriously vanish if she ever took it off.

  “Of course, I will,” Enya wrapped her arms around Jennifer’s shoulders. She was the one who needed this hug more. She wanted her friend to reassure her that everything was going to be fine. Maybe her own big day was not as impossible and far away as it felt right now. “Have you decided on a date yet?”

  “Almost,” Jenn was glowing brighter than the huge piece of the shiny rock on her finger when it caught the light of the sun. “It’s not that soon, in March, but you know, I want it all to be perfect. So the sooner we start to plan things, the better. I want to enjoy every moment of these five months of planning.”

  “It’s enough time for making a cake of the size of this whole state if you want,” she winked. “Or, since I’m jobless now, I could make one sample cake every day for you and Simon to try it and pick the one you want.”

  “That sounds heavenly, though I might then need extra five months to get rid of all the calories I would’ve gained eating all those cakes.” Jenn turned her eyes to the big platter of sweets Enya had placed on the table. “I’m ready to start right away.”

  “Dig in,” Enya encouraged. “These are all for the hard working folks who’ve volunteered to help me tonight.”

  Jenn told everything she had in her mind for that perfect wedding day, which was still months away. Enya was not a big fan of glamorous events,
but it did sound perfect. Maybe that was what she lacked? A simple, human dream of a snow white wedding dress and a walk down an aisle decorated with water lilies?

  “How are you really doing, Enya,” Jenn suddenly stopped talking about her perfect life and looked at Enya. She hoped there was nothing on her face to give away that Jenn’s happy ever after did not interest her that much right now when her whole world had fallen apart around her. “I can see that you’re not fine, talk to me, please. I know what you are doing, shutting everyone out and closing up inside your head. That’s never helping, Enya. That has never helped you.”

  Enya shrugged. There was so much to say, so many things she did not tell her friends during these days. She was not sure she needed them to know every little detail of her short-lived Silversson romance, if she could call it a romance. Maybe he looked at it as a random hookup. He asked himself to continue it in his office with that damned scarf. How else was she to understand it?

  “I’ve signed the papers,” she simply answered. She could talk about how bad it felt to give away her business. Not so sure she would explain the emptiness that giving away her heart left.