The Pachaug Forest has a fifty-eight-mile motorcycle trail that is open all year round. It goes through public roads and private wooded areas. This time of year, the leaves were just changing color and the air got crisper as they gained elevation. Dax drove slowly around the twisty roads and Angel soaked up the gorgeous scenery. It felt good to just be out there with no stress and no worries. In the morning, she’d have to meet with the task force and let them know what she found out about the plan for the club to meet up with “Dan” or whoever was moving the coins on Friday. As the day approached, things would only get more hectic.

The drive up to the trail had taken over almost two hours and Angel knew she’d be sore once she got off the bike, especially since a lot of the trail was bumpy and unpaved…but it was going to be more than worth it. After they had driven about halfway along the trail Dax pulled the bike over in a little turnout that was marked with a picnic area sign. He turned off the bike and said, “I thought you could use a break.”

Angel slipped off the bike and used Dax’s shoulder to steady herself. He smiled softly at her, and she marveled once again at how a simple look from him could set her whole world on fire. She took off her helmet and said, “Yeah, I think my legs could stand to be stretched a little bit.”

Dax nodded and stood up. “Mine too. You want to take a walk before we eat?”

“Sure, I’d love to.” Beyond the picnic table there was a hiking trail that led up into the woods. Dax unbuckled the little cotton blanket roll he carried on the side of the bike and tucked the blanket underneath one of his arms before making sure that the saddlebags were locked and everything else was secured. Then he took her hand and they began heading up the trail. It was wide and there were garbage cans along the way and wood chips had been laid over the loamy earth. Angel couldn’t help but find that slightly disappointing. When she was a little girl her dad used to take them up to a cabin the family owned in Maine and they’d spend two weeks traipsing through the forest. The paths there were narrow, winding, and full of twisted old tree branches. They seemed untouched by man, and that appealed to her. She did enjoy the smells of the earth around her. She loved the way the new smells of the blooming foliage mixed with the old ones, of the felled trees as they began to decay and return to the earth that they came from.

They followed the trail quietly, and as they gained elevation each step became spongier; the mud and dirt underneath their feet seemed to hug their boots with each step before gently releasing them to move forward once again. Angel noticed that the trail they were on began to narrow after a while and the air seemed to get cooler, thanks to the thickness of the trees and foliage around them. She clutched onto Dax a little tighter as the sun had to work harder to push light through the umbrella of leaves and branches overhead. Angel looked up at the reds, yellows, and oranges splashed over their heads. It was like someone had painted the ceiling above them with vibrant color and then illuminated it with gold light from behind. It was gorgeous, and she could lose herself in it for a while and let the stress of everything happening in her life simply roll off her and take its place against the loamy earth beneath her feet.

The only sounds at first were the occasional rustle of leaves as small woodland animals scurried through and the chatter of birds in the trees overhead. But, as they got higher, Angel could hear the tinkle of water as it passed over rocks or gnarled branches, and it offered a soothing kind of background music to the beauty around them. Dax suddenly veered off the trail and led her deeper into the thicket of trees. As a cop, she knew that she should be slightly worried about being up here all alone with him. He could do anything to her, and without her weapon, she’d be powerless to stop him. If he wanted to kill her it would probably take months or even years for anyone to even find her body, if at all. But even with all of that running through her imagination, she didn’t have so much as a trickle of fear in her body. She knew that her colleagues and her family even would call it naivety, but she thought of it as gut instinct. Dax led her through the dark, cool forest like he knew where he was going. When the trees opened into a lush, green clearing she knew that he’d been here before. It was brighter here even though the sun was already starting to get low in the sky. She heard something to her right and turned her head just in time to see the flash of a whitetail deer as it bounded across the clearing and disappeared into the trees on the other side.

Gasping in delight she said, “Oh my goodness, Dax, it’s beautiful here.”

He smiled and let go of her hand. Taking the blanket out from underneath his arm, he unrolled it and spread it out at their feet. “It’s my favorite place.” He took her hands and guided her to sit on the blanket with him. He sat with his legs spread out in front of him and he placed her easily between them and put his hands around her waist. She leaned her head back into him and he said, “I used to come here when I was a kid and things got too crazy out on the ranch. For a while when everything went down with Grant and the club turned on Dad, this was my refuge from it all. I’ve never brought anyone here with me before.”

Angel snuggled down deeper into his arms and asked, “So why me?”

Dax didn’t speak for several long seconds. When he did, she could tell that he was thinking about how he wanted to say things as he said them. When he spoke, he had that hesitancy people get in their voices when they’re trying to think of how they want to word something. “I’m not sure how to explain what I’m feeling about you, Angel. Since I was old enough to know about sex I was surrounded by men and women both who taught me that women were here for me to use. You know? They were here for my pleasure and convenience, but when shit got real, my boys…my brothers in arms…those were the people I wanted in my corner. But something about you is different, and I’m not even sure what it is. I got the feeling from the beginning that you weren’t looking for me to take care of you or support you. And then when you put me in my place the other day at your apartment, it even surprised me how much that turned me on.”

Angel was smiling and she felt warm all over. Once again, this was the man that her family and Micah would never see. This was the man she was falling in love with and the one that was hidden away from the rest of the world. She’d always heard that it didn’t matter what other people thought, it was only about what was in your heart. Dax was a perfect example of why that was true. She wondered for the first time if…when all of this was over…if maybe there was some kind of hope for them after all. She felt his hands begin to slowly make their way up her sides until they settled along the outside swell of her breasts. She sighed and closed her eyes, erasing all thoughts from her mind except those of how good his hands felt on her body.

She felt him slide his hands down again and settle at the hem of her shirt. This time when he moved his hands up her sides, he took the shirt up with them. She felt the cool breeze against her hot skin as he inched it up and when the shirt reached her underarms she lifted her arms up and helped him push it the rest of the way off. Her nipples were instantly hard as the breeze passed over the thin lace of her bra and she shuddered into him. He let his hands run across the fabric of her bra and her nipples seemed to be straining toward his palms, threatening to rip right through the lace.

She moaned just as she felt the brush of his lips against the side of her face and then suddenly and without warning he lay back and pulled her down with him, taking hold of her waist and flipping her over so that she was facing him. She opened her eyes and he looking at her with his eyes filled with lust…and something more. Something deeper. Something that she knew was going to change her life.