“Neither do I,” Adam said. “I mean, I miss those kids at the halfway house and all, but I just can’t bring myself to want to go back there again.”

“Maybe you could start something similar to that here in Asheville,” Michael suggested.

“Yeah, I think I might. How about you?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. There’s no rush, I’ve got enough money from my Lineage inheritance to take care of all of us for quite a while, so I think I might just want to enjoy being a mountain man for a while,” Michael said with a wide smile.

“Lisette, what do you want to do?” Rob asked. “Now that you’re not Headmistress anymore.

I wanted to tell them what I really wanted to do; to hide this little cottage in a secret bubble where no one could find us and just spend every moment together drinking wine and laying in furs and talking about our dreams.

“I think maybe I’ll make another garden,” I said. “A really, really big one that covers the whole entire side of the mountain.”

“Wow, cool! That sounds like it would be beautiful,” Rob said.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “I think it would be.”

When everyone went to bed, Michael and I were always the only two that couldn’t sleep. This time, I had a surprise; something that I needed to do. I got Adam to help me earlier, so everything should be all ready.

“Are you awake?” I asked him.

“You know I am,” Michael said softly.

“Good.”

I gently pulled his hand up and coaxed him to come walk with me out into the living room, past the fire that was still crackling in the hearth, and out through the back door.

“Lisette, where are we going? It’s freezing out and we don’t have shoes or coats on.”

I didn’t answer him. I just pulled him along behind me as our bare feet touched the top of the snow. It was only a few steps until we reached my surprise.

There, next to a heaping pile of thick fur blankets, was a roaring bonfire that Adam had built for me when I had asked him earlier. He brought the furs out and laid them in this pile and started a bonfire that would last well into the night. He didn’t even ask why I needed it, he just did it for me without question.

That is another reason why I loved him too.

“What is this?” Michael asked in astonishment.

The moon was so bright tonight that I could see the reflection of the fire flashing in his eyes and the shadows that the moonlight was casting across his face.

“This is my surprise,” I said. “For you…for us.”

“Are these Viking furs?” he laughed with admiration. “This is amazing!”

I was so happy that he loved it.

He laughed with delight. “How did you get the bonfire?”

“Adam helped me.”

Michael snickered as he ran his hand through his disheveled hair. “Well I guess I owe him one, then don’t I?”

Then, he pulled my hand toward the heap of furs. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s get under here before we freeze.”

We got underneath the furs and they were so extraordinarily warm that between the furs and the bonfire, we took off all of our clothes in a matter of moments and tossed them into the snow at our side. Underneath the soft feel of the furs, our bodies felt even more sensual and enticing. The sound of the bonfire cracked and popped, and tiny crimson embers flew into the night sky above it. I laid in his arms beside him and we looked up at the brilliant stars in the sky.

Then, Michael turned his face to mine and kissed me and smiled with as much happiness as I think I’d ever seen his face hold…and it killed me.

“You really couldn’t wait until spring to make love under the stars again, could you?” He smiled with joy and I tried desperately to hold in the tear that was forming at the corner of my eye.

“Make love to me,” I said. “Like there is nothing else in the world other than this moment tonight with you and I and the stars and the furs.”

He looked into my eyes and brought his mouth to mine as he climbed over me and shifted the warm furs behind his back. He kept me covered by his body and his tongue pressed into my mouth. I urged my hips against him and wrapped my arms behind his shoulders as I pulled him down onto me. His swollen and heavy cock pushed into me and when I moaned with the pleasure of having him inside of me, I couldn’t keep the silent tears from streaming down my face. He moved within me and I felt as if my soul was dying from the burden I was carrying and the love that I had for him that I just wasn’t ready to let go of.

As my tears fell down my cheeks and against my lips, the taste of the wet salt touched him, and he paused to look at me.

“Lisette, what’s wrong?” he asked with worry saturating his voice.

“I love you,” was all that I could utter without breaking.

“I love you too,” he said. “Don’t cry, everything is okay now. We’re together, in every way possible, and we always will be. That is all that matters.”

I leaned up to kiss him and together our bodies moved as one giant undulating and organic act of intimacy beneath the furs.

That night, we slept outside in the snowy winter as if we were a part of nature itself. The furs kept us warm and our bodies intertwined beneath them. The fire lasted well into the morning. When I could hear the deep breathing of Michael’s sound and contented sleep, I slipped out from the furs and silently grabbed my clothes as I walked back into house. I only needed three things to bring with me: Michael’s T-shirt, the keys to the car, and my phone. Everything else would stay behind. I had three letters, one for each of them. And I had hidden them at the top of the whiskey cabinet too far back for any of them to see. So far back, in fact, that I had to climb onto the counter to reach my arms inside the cabinet and pull them out.

I hopped silently down from the counter with the letters in my hand and set them on the table, using a whiskey glass to hold the corners in place so that the letters wouldn’t fall off or be missed.

I had done hard and awful things in my life and I had experienced hard, and awful things done to me before too. But this was by far the very worst of all of it. There would be no turning back and I will have lost everything left in the world that I held dear. But I didn’t have any other choice. I couldn’t let them get hurt again. They would wake up and be confused, and then they would see the letters and be distraught. They would never forgive me, and I would never forgive myself either. But there would be one thing that they would know.

They would know that I loved them.

So, with a deep breath and a strong soul, I took one last look back at the little cottage that held the things I wanted most in the world.

Before I silently—and quickly—walked out the front door before I couldn’t bring myself to do it anymore.

I could barely see where I was driving because the snow and the tears clouded my vision. I drove fast enough that I could outrun my aching desire to turn back. Rob’s car was still a cop car and I hoped that meant that I wouldn’t get pulled over. As if I wasn’t being reckless enough, I pulled out my cell phone and pulled up the Goldshire homepage. There on the website was exactly what I had been looking for, the phone numbers for the Headmaster and his wife. Texting and driving had never really been my strong suit, but then again none of this was something I had done before or really thought that I would be able to successfully pull off.

It was all just one bad decision after another right now.

“Hello Aunt Naomi,

I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m texting you in the middle of the night. I’ll be brief.

I know why you shot Michael and why you’ll keep coming after them and me until you are able to force me to be Headmistress of Lineage.

You see, I dug around and found where you were when you went “away”. I also found some other things. I found the inheritance that was left to me, and no, I’m not talking about my father’s inheritance that David squandered away. I’m talking about the OTHER one. You know the one. That’s why you’re after me. Because unless I’m Headmistress, you don’t get any of it, do you Aunt Naomi?