“Sounds like a pretty damn good day to me. Don’t care where we are if it makes both of you happy.”
Evie’s eyes went soft. “You say the sweetest things without even realizing it.”
“It was the part about the blowjob, wasn’t it?”
She smacked me.
Ten minutes later, whatever calm I’d channeled talking to Evie went out the window again as we turned off the main road and onto the one that led to the treehouses. I parked when we arrived, just as the sun was starting to set.
Evie looked around. “Look at that sky. We couldn’t have timed this better if we’d planned it.”
I almost laughed. Someone did plan it.
“It doesn’t look like the guests have arrived yet,” she said.
“So let’s go up and take a look.”
“What if they come?”
“We’ll tell them we’re the cleaning crew.”
She looked me up and down and smiled. “Even without the three-thousand-dollar suit, no one would ever believe you were the cleaning crew.”
“Why not?”
“Because you just look like the boss. I don’t want to get caught poking around after check-in time.”
I got out of the car and opened Evie’s door, extending a hand to help her out. “Come on, it’ll be fun. You like almost getting caught. Remember how hard you came when I ate you out on your desk last week without the door locked?” I rubbed the hair at the back of my head. “I’m missing a chunk of hair from how hard you pulled.”
She took my hand. “I’ll go, but I’m warning you… You’re going to be missing the rest of it if we climb up there and you try something like that again.”
At the ladder, I smiled when she looked around again to be sure the coast was clear.
“After you,” I said.
Evie was wearing a sundress, so the view from below went a long way toward making me forget what I was about to do.
“Stop looking at my ass,” she yelled without looking back.
I chuckled. “You appreciate your views, and I’ll appreciate mine.”
Inside, she took a few steps in and stopped short as I climbed in behind her. “Oh my God. There’s champagne chilling. The people must’ve already checked in. I bet they went for a walk. They’ll be back any second since it’s almost dark. We better go.”
Evie turned toward the door, but I grabbed her wrist. “Hang on one minute. I want to talk to you.”
“We can talk in the car.”
I did the only thing I could think of to make her relax. I cupped her cheeks and pulled her mouth to meet mine. She tried to pull away, but after ten seconds her shoulders loosened and she gave in. It was supposed to calm her down, but it started to have the opposite effect on me, so I forced myself to cut it off. Though I kept her cheeks in my hands and her face close.
“Just give me one minute, okay?” I whispered.
She blinked a few times, looking a little out of it, but nodded. I loved that even after all this time, I could still make that happen. Bringing her hand to my lips, I kissed the top before taking a deep breath and stepping back. Then, I dropped to one knee.
“Evie, I wanted to do this here because I know the significance of these treehouses. They’re a place you came to feel safe at times in your life when you wanted to escape the world. I might not have climbed into a treehouse, but I’ve definitely spent my share of years wanting to escape life—until you walked through my door.”
Evie covered her mouth, and tears welled in her eyes.
“Since the day I met you, my life has been changed. You’ve made me want to live again, to be a better person, and you’ve made me want so much more out of life than money and power.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out the ring box I’d been carrying around since we left New York this morning. “I worried you might think I was playing pocket pool with the way I’ve been reaching into my pocket so much to make sure I didn’t lose this.”