By His Vow: Chapter 34

It’s fourteen minutes later when the door to the bedroom finally opens and Tatum steps out with a smirk playing on her lips.

Little brat was in there waiting, just to piss me off.

My eyes hold hers for a beat, silently letting her know that I’m aware of her devious plan, before they drop to her bare legs.

Fuck. Those shorts are sinful. The thick fluffy socks should probably be off-putting, but if anything, on her, they only add to the whole look.

“What the hell are those?” she balks, her eyes widening on the pair of shoes in my hand.

“Hiking boots. What do they look like?”

Her eyes narrow in irritation.

“I’m not going hiking, Kingston. You can forget it.”

“Why’s that? Are you too much of a princess to get a little sweaty in nature?”

Her nostrils flare as she glares at me.

“I thought we were meant to be relaxing. Hiking is not relaxing,” she states fiercely.

“Getting out into the wilderness is very relaxing. Cutting off the rest of the world. Breathing in fresh air⁠—”

“My god, you’re a tree-hugger hiding in a fancy suit, aren’t you?” She laughs.

“There is nothing wrong with enjoying the outdoors. There’s more to life than what I can see from my office and penthouse.”

“Said like the spoiled billionaire you are.” She taunts.

“There is more to me than that,” I argue, irritated by her assessment of me. Sure, my life mostly revolves around work. But there are other things in my life I enjoy. Prior to finding myself in this situation with her, I was quite fond of spending as much time as possible entertaining women. That seems to have gone out the window; I may as well find pleasure elsewhere.

Fucking hell, what is this woman doing to me?

I actively chose to go hiking instead of throwing her over my shoulder and taking her back to bed.

It’s what she wants. Her body is screaming for it.

So is mine, and it’s getting harder and harder—pun intended—to do the right thing.

She’s been forced into this. I’m more than aware of that. I’m pretty sure that in a few years, hell, even in a few months, that she’s going to regret it, and I don’t fucking want that.

I don’t want her to look back at our time together and feel regret and loathing. I want it to be different.

I want us, this arrangement, to be different.

Is holding off taking what I want going to help? In the grand scheme of things, probably not.

She might have agreed in Jonathan’s office last week. She might have signed on the dotted line and handed herself over to me. But I’d be fooling myself to think she’d had even a second to consider what she was doing.

She was pressured into it. Blackmailed because of her love for that little cottage.

There was a part of me that didn’t think she cared enough to go through with it. It’s just a house. Bricks and mortar. It’s replaceable. Replicable.

I truly thought she’d tell us to shove it and walk out of that office with her head held high. We all know the money wouldn’t be enough to sway her. She’s better than that. Unlike most of the women I spend time with, she doesn’t care about wealth or her place on the social ladder. She doesn’t want all the money in the world or the lifestyle that goes with it. She wants to work at a job she deserves because of her determination and talent, not because of her surname. I do not doubt that if she were allowed, she’d be working for any other company than Warner Group right now. But there are some arguments that are just too big to win, and working for a competitor would have been that.

Time has passed now. She’s had time to think, to consider her options.

She could still say no. I couldn’t blame her if she does.

But until I hear her answer from her own lips, nothing more is going to be happening between us.

I want to know she’s fully in this with me before I give any more of myself to her.

Although I fear she’s already taken more than I was willing to give.

“If you say so,” she mutters.

“What about you, baby? Want to show me that you’re not a prissy princess who’s scared of getting a little dirty?”

“You’re an asshole, you do know that, right?” she snaps as she marches toward me and snatches the boots from my hand.

“I might have been told a time or two.” She scowls at me as she drops her ass to the couch and pulls the boots on.

“Let me,” I say when she begins battling with the laces.

I drop to one knee in front of her and reach for them.

The air between us turns thick, but I refuse to look up until I have her securely into her boots.

“There,” I say after tightening a double knot like a good Boy Scout before I finally lift my eyes to hers.

The second our gazes connect, she gasps.

My heart pounds against my ribs.

Since the first moment Jonathon brought this situation to my attention along with the stipulations he required, thinking about asking her to be mine hasn’t been very far from my mind.

It might be fake, but it should still be special.

We’re both going to have to remember it for the rest of our lives, so it needs to be something worthy of the memory.

Jonathan wants our union to be public. That’s why Tatum expected me to do it last night. I understand her reasoning, I really do. But despite having to follow the rules laid out for us, for once, I don’t want to make a spectacle of the whole thing.

People are watching, watching closely, and I want it to look as authentic as possible.

Sure, we’ve known each other our whole lives, but it’s fast. Really fast.

In two weeks, we’ve gone from never really being seen together to forcing our relationship into the limelight.

The skeptics are going to be all over it. And we can’t have that.

Any whiff that this is fake, and it’ll be all over.

“Ready?” I ask, barely able to force the word out before I push to my feet.

“I can’t wait,” Tatum deadpans as I turn my back on her.

“Cell phones stay here. It’s just you, me, and the great outdoors today.”

“You really do know all the things to say to a girl, huh?”

“Many would think this is romantic,” I mutter, more annoyed than I should be that she’s not seeing it that way.

“I’m sure many would say anything is romantic just to get the chance to touch your dick.”

I watch her walk toward the door and pull it open.

“Obviously, I’ve got a very nice dick,” I say with a cocky grin playing on my lips.

She scoffs. “Your ego can only get you so far, King.”

“I know. You’ll find out soon.”

She shrieks as I slap her ass the second I’ve caught up to her.

“Jerk,” she mutters as I catch her hand and drag her down the path toward the lake.

The beauty of the place is impossible to ignore, and we both fall silent as we take it in.

The soft lapping of the water fills the air along with birdsong and the trees rustling in the wind.

It’s so peaceful.

Perfect for this weekend.

“Come on, I’ve got so much more to show you.”

We walk along the path that wraps around the lake. It takes a few minutes, but the roof of another cabin eventually comes into view.

“How many are there?” Tatum asks.

“Ten. All hidden in the trees for total seclusion.”

“It’s incredible. I didn’t know you had a place here,” she muses.

“Been keeping tabs on my business deals, baby?” I ask, my chest tightening at the thought of her paying any kind of attention to the things I do.

“Uh…no, not really. Miles often talks about them, though.” And then the warmth is gone.

“Right,” I mutter as I tug her to the left when the path forks. “Well, this is something of a passion project. I’ve had my eye on it for a long time, but it doesn’t fit into Dad’s ideals for acquisitions,” I explain like she cares about any of this.

“Why not?” she asks, surprising me.

“There’s a five-star retreat close, along with another resort of ours. He thinks the market is too saturated.”

“But you disagree,” she guesses correctly.

“That, and I don’t like people telling me no.”

“Oh, really? I’m shocked.”

“Funny. So anyway, I need to come up with something epic to prove him wrong.”

The side of my face tingles with her attention, and when I look over, I find her studying me with narrowed eyes.

“You want to prove to him that you’re capable of taking over, and this is your way to do it.”

“He already knows I’m capable, Tatum. He’s trained me himself.”

“Okay, he might know, but you want him to truly see it, believe it.”

I shrug one shoulder.

Praise from our father has never been batted around all that freely over the years. So I guess, yeah, I do want to hear him say that I was right and that I’ve done a good job here.

It’s not going to be for a while, though. While the cabin we’re in might be finished to a level that’s almost worthy of a Callahan resort, the rest of the place leaves a lot to be desired.

The estate itself is huge. The potential here is even bigger.

I can see it. It’s just going to take a fucking massive investment and some serious vision. Thankfully, I have both of those, so I’m confident that I can make it work.

Fuck the haters.

We continue walking in silence after I don’t respond to her last statement. I don’t think she needs one. She knows.

Minutes tick on as we head toward the main building. The second the roof appears in a break in the trees, excitement stirs within me. And then the building reveals itself.

“Oh wow, that’s…huge.”

“That’s what she said,” I deadpan.

“I see what you mean, though. It needs a lot of work.”

My grip on her hand tightens as we move closer.

Pulling a key from my pocket, I open one of the side doors, and after placing a hard hat on her head, I tug her deeper into the building.

She listens as I point out different elements of my vision for the luxury health and wellbeing retreat I’m envisioning here.

She listens and even offers up some of her own suggestions here and there. Hearing her talk about my baby lights something up inside me. She gets it in a way most others don’t. Even Miles wasn’t as excited as she is right now when he visited with me a couple of months ago. Sure, it was much more of a shell than it is now, but as I watch Tatum spin around in a circle, taking in the room that will one day be a restaurant, goosebumps erupt across my skin. She can see what I can. I know it.

We don’t leave a room undiscovered, and by the time we walk out, Tatum’s eyes are alight with ideas, her excitement palpable.

“What now?” she asks with a smile playing on her lips.

Reaching my arm out, I point to a peak in the distance.

“We’re going to see what the view of this place is like from up there.”

“Fuck off. That’s like…a mountain.”

“Sure. It’s totally the Mount Everest of Wisconsin,” I tease. “Do you think you’re man enough to get up there?”

“Man enough? Kingston, I’m a fucking woman. I can do anything a man can do and then some.”

Slipping her hand from mine, she takes off down the path with determination coming off her in waves.

I totally agree with her. This beautiful, deviant, hot-headed woman is capable of anything but… “You’re going the wrong way,” I call with a laugh. “You’re heading to the parking lot.”

“I knew that,” she announces confidently. “I was just checking to see if you did.’

I’m laughing hard as she stomps in front of me and heads in the opposite direction.

“Are you coming, or am I climbing this mountain alone?”