Chapter 44 Cynthia #2
Glenn stooped next to a trunk beside the door and pulled out a navy-and-green-plaid blanket.
He moved in long strides towards the rowboat and hopped down into it, landing as gracefully as a ballet dancer.
He unfurled the blanket and draped it over one of the seats before extending a hand to help her down into the boat.
“There’s no better way to view the moon than from out on the water. It’ll give us a chance to talk away from all this noise,” he said.
He gestured towards the seat covered in the blanket and waited until she had settled herself there before turning and stashing the bottle of gin between them.
He took his place near the oarlocks and asked her if she could untie the boat.
After a moment’s fumbling, she managed to loosen the knot, and with a few strong strokes, he had thrust them out of the boathouse and onto the open lake.
The silvery beams from the moon continued to snake out across the water, and despite the rapidly cooling air, Cynthia leaned over the side of the boat and trailed her fingers in the silky water.
A cloud scudded across the sky and blotted out the light for just a moment, and a chill crept up her spine.
The noise of the party faded away with each stroke of the oars.
In less time than Cynthia could have imagined, she found they were bobbing like a small island out of earshot of all the others.
Glenn reached down and lifted the gin bottle. He retrieved the glasses and poured them each a measure of the clear liquid, carefully passing one to her.
She shook her head. “I think I’ve already had enough with the beer.”
“It’ll keep you warm. Just sip it slowly,” he said, lifting his own glass to his lips and downing it in one go. He filled it up once more and smiled at her.
“I’m not much of a drinker.”
“There’s that middle-class sensibility again,” he said.
She wasn’t quite sure she liked his tone, but she couldn’t deny that her mother’s friends were not known for over-imbibing.
Whenever she had seen them at one of her parents’ parties, they all limited themselves to no more than a couple of cocktails, and those were spaced out over several hours.
“Well, if you don’t want anything to drink, then I suppose it’s a good thing I brought that blanket along for the ride. ”
Glenn moved towards her, the boat rocking with each step he took.
She felt her heart begin to hammer in her chest as she could hear the sloshing against the sides of the boat.
Before it could capsize, he stopped and reached past her to lift the end of the blanket up and around her shoulders.
As he crossed the corners in front of her chest, he pulled her towards him and brought his face right up against her own.
Before she realized it was happening, his lips pressed against hers with an urgency she did not expect.
The gin and beer on his breath left her feeling faintly sickened.
But that was nothing compared to the roiling in her stomach as she felt as his hands move lower.
With practiced ease, he slid one palm over her left breast and the other wrapped around her waist, pulling her closer to him as he knelt in front of her.
Before she could comprehend exactly what was happening, he had slid her off the seat and onto the floor of the boat.
Between the way his mouth kept covering her own and the weight of his body pressing down on her from above, she could not breathe.
She tried to press him away with her hands, but he simply bore down upon her harder.
A rising panic filled her chest as one of his knees wriggled between her legs.
As he pinned her in place, he traced one of his hands along her leg and slid her dress up her thighs before fumbling with the waistband of her underwear.
All she could think was how far away from everyone else she was and that no one who cared about her knew where to find her. A sob worked its way up her throat, but the sound of it was cut off by Glenn’s mouth pressed against hers once more.
She began to thrash about as hard as she could and thrust her hands out, trying to get purchase on anything that could help to pull herself away.
Her hand made contact with something slick and slender.
With a flicker of hope, she wrapped her fingers around the neck of the gin bottle and quelled her own movement for just long enough to ascertain exactly where he was in relation to her own body.
He lifted his face away from hers, and the moonlight lit up his features as he stared down at her.
“Don’t pretend you didn’t know what you were getting into when you accepted the invitation. You know you want it. Girls like you always do.”
He smiled at her, and she took her chance.
She cracked the gin bottle down on the side of his head as hard as she could and felt him sag to the side.
Without hesitation, she squirmed out from beneath him.
She heard him groan as she dove over the side of the boat and began swimming for the shoreline as quickly as she possibly could.
Glenn shouted at her from the rowboat, but his words were indistinguishable as the splashing of the water and the pounding of her own blood filled her ears.
The only goal she had was to reach the shore before he could catch up with her.
She lifted her face just long enough to spot the closest spit of land.
Shrouded in darkness, the nearest curve of the shoreline was almost invisible except for a tree growing up from the edge of it, leaning at an angle over the lake itself.
She course-corrected as quickly as she could and dived beneath the surface of the water, swimming along underneath, hoping he would not be able to see her if she remained beneath the surface until she reached the shadows.
Out of breath and exhausted from her efforts, she glanced behind her and realized the boat continued to bob somewhere near where it had been when she leaped over the side.
Her heart still pounding, she reached the tree and hauled herself up onto the bank by grasping its gnarled roots.
As much as she wanted to collapse on the bank, she forced herself to her feet.
Her dress and shoes were completely sodden, and lake water ran from her hair in rivulets.
The cooling night air struck her wet skin, and she began to shiver.
She looked back along the shore to where the lights of the party lit the small beach and gave her a sense of where she was along the road.
She made her way into the yard of the nearest house and felt emboldened to pause long enough to wring some of the lake water from her skirt.
It splashed out over her feet, leaving them even chillier than before.
As she made her way along the rutted road that went past the house where the party was still in full swing, no one paid her any mind.
She kept to the shadows and did her best not to make a sound as she kept a wary watch on a few partygoers who had spilled out onto the front lawn.
She held her breath until she was several houses beyond and within sight of the path that led off through the woods.
She bent over and slipped off her shoes.
All she could think of was running for the safety of the staff house on the resort.
Somehow it felt so much farther than a mile and a half away.
She glanced over her shoulder to assure herself she was completely alone and then broke off into a run.