Forever Scarred (Scarred Series Book 3)

by Jackie Williams

  Lucy frowned up at the perfectly groomed man at her side. It was a fact that Carter was very handsome, even she couldn’t deny that. His dark hair was perfectly cut, his cleaner than clean shave gave him the look of someone half his age and his plucked eyebrows gave him the air of a model but his whole demeanour was fake. His over moisturized skin even had a plastic look to it.

  She narrowed her eyes as she noticed his clenched hands and pumped up veins in his forearms and almost laughed as she thought about Joe’s massive muscles that needed no pumping at all.

  “You could show a little more compassion for those men. They didn’t ask for their bodies to be blown apart. I wonder how you would cope if you had to live with everyone judging you just because of the way you look.”

  Carter tilted his head back and laughed.

  “But that’s my whole point Lucy. Everyone is judged by the way they look. It’s impossible not to. Your face is the first thing everyone sees. You would think that he would have done a little more about getting himself back to something less ghastly. There are excellent plastic surgeons about nowadays you know.”

  Lucy glared up at the arrogant man at her side. She felt sick to be even associated with him.

  “Do you have any idea of the amount that Joe has already gone through, that all these men have gone through just to get to where they are now? Joe has had over forty operations on his face and hands already. Do you think he cares one jot about your bloody plastic surgeon!” Her tone was like acid and Carter looked down at her curiously.

  “Well, well, the man has a champion in you Miss Collins, I can see that. I wonder how you become so fully acquainted with those facts seeing as you have been here for less than twenty four hours.” His voice slithered over her and he moved closer to her side.

  Lucy lifted her chin.

  “It’s nothing to do with being his champion. And I discovered about his operations from Ellen. She was telling me a little about Joe last night when she showed me to my room. He’s still recovering from the last one and we’re lucky he can manage the job. It was just conversation that’s all.” She didn’t want Carter thinking she felt any more than friendship for Joe.

  Freeman grunted, seemingly satisfied with her answer. He pulled his phone from his pocket and checked for messages.

  “There are a couple of emails I need you to attend to in a while. I’m going to have a quick look around the place and then I’ll see you back in your room to discuss any other mailings and calls that need to be made. This isn’t a holiday you know Lucy. We can’t let the business suffer just because I’m not in the office for a few days. I’ll need to keep those left behind on their toes.”

  Lucy rolled her eyes but nodded all the same as she carried on up the steps back into the chateau. She met David just inside the door and flushed as she saw his furious expression. It was obvious that he had heard her and Carter talking. She tried to avoid his gaze as she walked across the hall towards the grand staircase.

  David didn’t turn towards her but stared as Carter Freeman puffed out his chest at the bottom of the steps and then strode off around the side of the chateau. He spoke just as Lucy reached the first step.

  “Why do you work for that man? He displays the worst kind of arrogance that I have ever seen.” David’s voice didn’t hold any bitterness and Lucy turned to him in surprise.

  She came back across the hall to him.

  “It’s just a job David. I can’t live without money and this position pays reasonably well. So long as I have the paycheck in the bank at the end of the month then I’ll put up with the arrogant bastard.”

  David suddenly looked down at her, his eyes assessing her words.

  “But there must be other jobs available. I can’t understand why anyone would want to work for that pig. All of the rest of your staff look miserable too. It’s as though he takes pleasure in keeping people downtrodden.”

  Lucy shook her head.

  “The rest of the staff are okay with it. We all know it’s just a power trip with him. He likes to know that we won’t leave due to the money and he thinks he can do anything while he keeps on paying.”

  David frowned suddenly.

  “Are you saying he has some kind of hold on you all? Someway he keeps you with his company beyond the money issue?”

  Lucy flushed bright red, shocked that her words had made that impression. She tried to steer him away from any more awkward questions.

  “I don’t know what you mean. I’m only working for him because I have a mortgage and need to keep up with the payments. Why the others stay there is up to them. I’m just going to change for dinner. Helping Joe with those logs has made me uncomfortably hot. I didn’t realize that I was going to be lugging twelve foot pine poles around the forest. I can’t imagine what we are going to use them for.”

  David gave a laugh.

  “It will be a lovely surprise for you in the morning. See you at dinner in a while.” He turned away from the doors and walked through to the kitchen to see how Patrick was getting on with the preparations.

  Joe marched through the forest desperate to get away from Lucy for a few moments. He had been surprised but pleased when she said that she would love to help set up a few things while the rest of the guests were unpacking and settling themselves into their rooms.

  Now he fisted his hands at his sides as he remembered her scent as she had walked by his side, her legs taking almost two steps to one of his. He had seen the perspiration on her forehead when she had pulled and lifted and struggled with the logs he had directed her to help him move. She hadn’t complained once as her nail broke or when her hair snagged on a wayward twig or even when she grazed her arm on the dry bark of the log. She had just rolled her eyes a couple of times, tucked her hair back into its loose bun and then sucked her arm, quickly getting rid of the smear of blood. Then she smiled at him so her dimples showed in her cheeks and he had thought his heart was going to leap out of his chest.

  That had all been bad enough, but when they had to move a giant log together she had bent forwards to pick up her end, the neckline of her t-shirt had fallen forwards and as he looked up to make sure she was ready to lift, he had been treated to a view of the most perfectly delectable cleavage that he had ever seen in his life. The soft, pale globes of her beautifully full breasts touched in the middle and all he could think about was burying his face between them and letting his tongue trail down the heated, sensitive skin.

  His heart had flipped over in his chest and if his skin could have flushed he knew he would have been tomato red. For about the only time in the last six years he was glad that his face didn’t show much expression because if it had, she would have seen everything he felt about her show at that moment.

  He had gulped nervously as the blood that should have been in his face suddenly turned south and ended up in his groin, telling him almost painfully that it was years since he’s had the kind of relief that he needed now. He wanted her. He wanted so badly that he’d had to bite the inside of his cheek to stop himself from saying or doing something he would probably regret later.

  He’d turned away as soon as the log had been in the right position and had kept his back to her for more than a few minutes while he thought of anything and everything that didn’t include a soft voluptuous body or deliciously scented skin. It seemed like forever before he could turn around again but Lucy hadn’t appeared to notice anything untoward and for that he was deeply grateful. He would have died of humiliation if she had seen the evidence of his arousal and then scorned him.

  He tamped down the feelings as he walked away from the chateau, like he had so many times before, but he stopped suddenly as he realized that he had actually never had feeling like this before.

  Of course he’s been aroused on previous occasions, but not like this. Not from the mere sight of a generous cleavage. Nor could he ever remember wanting to taste someone’s skin quite so badly before. It was like a white hot need in his whole chest. His body reacte
d again and he began to walk towards his cabin by the river, knowing no other way to get this feeling out of his system other than some quick self-relief. He wasn’t keen on doing that either, but this was a need that wasn’t going to go away anytime soon and he was scared that at his first sight of Lucy again, he would be standing to attention for all the world to see.

  Chapter Six

  “You cannot be serious!” Freeman stared hard at Joe as he demanded everyone hand over their mobile devices. “Nobody touches my phone except me.” He folded his arms across his chest and stood with his legs slightly apart and his chin held high.

  Joe glared back at him and explained quietly.

  “You will not need them on any of the exercises today. Apart from the fact that they could become lost or damaged, they will be more hindrance than a help because you will be tempted to use them instead of each other. The whole point of these exercises is to get your staff to work as a team. There’s no room for anyone with their own agenda in a company as important as yours.” He noticed a slightly mollified expression come over Freeman’s face as he knew it would with a little flattery.

  A young woman standing at Freeman’s side suddenly stepped forwards spoke up.

  “What if there’s an emergency? I mean, we didn’t even know we would be doing this kind of stuff and I’m not sure I’m really prepared to go running about in the forest. How will we get in contact with anyone to help us?” Her wining voice grated on Joe’s ears but he answered the question easily enough.

  “It’s a good point Miss…er Miss?” He waited as the woman glanced up at Freeman before she answered.

  “Jessica Dennison. I’m Mr. Freeman’s head of human resources.”

  Joe nodded in acknowledgement before answering the question.

  “Around the grounds you will see these green boxes. There is a telephone with direct links to either the chateau or to the emergency services. Each telephone has an identification number so that you can be located within minutes. There is one of these boxes at one hundred metre intervals around the chateau grounds so you will never be more than fifty metres form one and I have a mobile phone if there is a real emergency. We haven’t had to use them yet so let’s try and keep it that way during the next few days. David is just as experienced as I and will be helping us today. He will head up the other team if we decide to make a competition out of anything. Right, I want all those mobile devices and anything else of any value whatsoever put in the locker by the stables before we leave. Jewellery, watches anything that may break, get lost or be ruined, you won’t need them and we won’t pay for them if anything happens to them. Then I want you all to follow me, but please pay attention to the route. You will have to make your own way around the estate as one of the challenges and it helps if you can recognize the layout of the place.” He glanced around at the gathered crowd of twenty two men and women and tried hard not to catch Lucy’s eye as she smiled at him.

  The evening before had gone better than he had hoped. What with a freezing cold shower and a good long look through some very dull catalogues while he chose some furniture for his new house that was being built just along the river from his cabin, he’d managed to calm his need of her. He was still desperate to be with her, but the early morning start and the need for calm as he talked the teams through the activities kept him under control. He had gone to bed early and taken another cold shower in the morning after a night full of luscious breasts and rosy, dimpled smiles had him waking with a hard on as stiff as the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

  Joe cleared his throat and his mind and waited while several of the team members, including Carter Freeman and his head of human resources moved towards the steel box at the side of the building but he smiled as he noticed that both Freeman and Jessica Dennison kept their hands in their pockets as they moved nearer to the locker.

  He smiled grimly, knowing that he would probably get complaints from the two of them soon, but he had warned them so he wasn’t going to care too much.

  He waited until the groups had gathered again and then strode off into the forest with the people following him chatting to each other as they walked. He shook his head a little, knowing that none of them had observed where they were walking but were just blindly following the person in front of them. He glanced back at David who gave a quick nod and disappeared quietly into the undergrowth. Joe slowed down and let a couple of people pass him on the path. He doubted that they had even noticed that he stood to one side. As the group wandered along the darkening path he stepped back into the bushes and melded into the forest. He followed the group silently for more than fifteen minutes before someone actually pointed out that their guides had apparently disappeared.

  There was some general chattering and even some embarrassed laughter before Freeman stepped up and stood at the front to the group.

  “This is obviously a test that we have failed badly people. Does anyone know exactly when or where our two guides actually left us?” He looked around at the group but no one spoke up. “Okay, so I think this is one of those tests to see if we can find out way back to the chateau. Fortunately we noticed that they had left us fairly quickly. I think if those at the back would like to turn around and lead the way back, we can find our hosts probably gloating at us a short way back up the path.”

  There was some muffled laughter as everyone turned around and then there was a sudden silence at the back of the crowd.

  “What’s the hold up?” Freeman called over everyone’s head. He forced his way through the throng of staff and immediately saw their problem. There were at least three distinct paths merging into one and they could have come from any of them. He looked down at the forest floor to see if the ground gave him any clue with footprints and the like but the mass of brown leaves looked as disturbed on all of them. Jessica sidled up beside him and slipped her phone out of her pocket. Freeman gave her a quick glance and then looked down as he saw that she had her GPS on and working. He looked at the image and then turned to his staff, beckoning them to come forward.

  “This way everyone. Follow me. We’ll show this bunch that we can find our way in a forest without any help from them.” And he began walking purposefully along the path angling to the right. Jessica headed up the column of people with him and every so often she looked at her phone but it wasn’t long before there were some unhappy voices from the group behind them.

  “We didn’t walk for this far before. And we never walked up a hill this steep. We’re heading down into a valley. Are you sure we are on the right path?” There were one or two grumbles of agreement and Freeman came to a stop once again.

  He looked down at his flustered assistant who shook her phone and turned it the other way around as if that would make a difference to the map she was looking at. She reloaded the image and checked the GPS signal. Nothing made a blind bit of difference. The path looked like it was the correct one but it obviously wasn’t.

  “I thought I was sure. Look, this is me holding the phone and this is us on the path. The chateau should be right here.” She pointed at the phone and then looked up at the surrounding greenery. The chateau was clearly not where she expected it to be.

  Freeman snatched the phone from her and set it to a different application. He looked at the signal bar to check it would work and then punched in some numbers. Nothing happened.

  “Bastards have some kind of signal jammer set up. This thing is useless.” He shoved the telephone back at Jessica and rammed his hands in his pockets. The two disfigured men were making him look a fool on purpose. He knew they were probably watching from somewhere close by and he wondered if they were expecting him to make a fool of himself yet again, but he wasn’t about to make that mistake twice. He called out into the trees.

  “Okay fellas, you’ve had your joke and obviously we were completely suckered. We admit defeat so you can come out of hiding and show us how to do it properly.” There was some rustling in the bushes to his right and David suddenly appeared right beside them.<
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  “Just wanted to prove a point about the phones. You cannot rely on them in situations like this. One little problem and you gave up using your own initiative and tried to rely on something that is far more unreliable than your own brains.” He then proceeded to tell them all the signs they should have looked for. Half an hour later with plenty of demonstrating and allowing the people to discover signs for themselves, he thought that most of them would have been able to find their way back up the path given just a few careful observations. He went to the head of the group and started walking along an almost overgrown path and five minutes later they came out by the river where they met a smiling Lucy standing alongsideJoe.

  Freeman stopped dead as he saw his secretary standing very close to the big man.

  “How the fuck did you get here?” He demanded of Lucy as he strode up to her and stood far too close, totally ignoring the way Joe suddenly seemed to grow enormously in size. Lucy’s smile faded and she stepped back quickly from her angry boss.

  “I just followed Joe like he asked. I didn’t realize that no one else had seen him disappear into the forest until it was too late. If I had turned back to tell you I would have lost him and become disorientated myself.” Her voice was quiet, almost embarrassed as she explained what had happened.

  Jessica came to stand by Freeman.

  “You could have called to us or something. You made us look like complete idiots!” The woman was almost shrieking at Lucy.

  Joe stepped forwards and spoke calmly.

  “I’m afraid you managed that all by yourself Miss Dennison. I did tell you to take note of where you were going and to not trust any devices.”

  Joe had been sorry that he was going to have to make a fool out of Lucy as well as the rest of the group when he had slipped into the undergrowth. He had walked almost a hundred metres before he realized that there was at least one person following him. Someone really quiet, and for a moment he wondered if David was playing a joke on him. He had turned quickly into some dense bushes and had waited until the person was just past him before he stepped out behind them and placed his hand over the person’s mouth. He realized immediately it was a woman more due to her size than anything else, but he kept his hand there all the same. He only did it because he didn’t want her to scream and let the others know that they had been deserted but he hadn’t expected her swift reaction.