Page 18 of Sheltered

“Yep.”

At that, she hooked her harness to the cable system and started climbing the stairs. Though I’d been focused on other things throughout the morning—namely that I was getting to spend the day with her—I couldn’t seem to focus on much else besides her ass once Harlow began climbing the ladder. The view was impeccable.

She made it to the top, looked down at me, and bubbled, “Come on.”

God, she was so happy.

Refusing to do anything that would wipe that smile off her face, I didn’t delay. I climbed up the tree to the platform and met her there.

“I’m so excited to get on that zipline over there,” she said.

“You’ve got to cross this swinging log bridge before you can make that happen,” I pointed out.

“Oh, gosh, I hope I don’t slip on the logs,” she worried. “I’ll be so embarrassed.”

“I don’t think that’s going to happen, but if it does, I promise to do the same, so you don’t look clumsy all on your own,” I told her.

Surprise washed over her. “You’d do that for me?”

“Of course.”

Something warmed in her expression, her features softening as a small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “I’m sort of tempted to fall on purpose now, just to see if you’d stay true to your word.”

My eyes narrowed slightly. “You don’t need to risk injuring yourself just to see if I’d keep a promise to you, Harlow. There are a lot of other ways you can make that happen that would be a whole lot of fun.”

Harlow understood the intention in my words, and her lips parted slightly. It was all I could do not slip my arm around her waist and pull her close to kiss her. By some miracle, I managed to do that and urged, “Go ahead. Whatever you decide to do is fine by me.”

Relieved I’d given her an out, Harlow turned and cautiously started making her way across the bridge to the next tree platform. I followed behind her, and we didn’t waste any time moving around the platform to hook ourselves up for the zipline.

“Can you go first on this one?” she asked me.

“Are you sure?”

She nodded. “Yes. I’d rather wait and see you do it before I go.”

“Okay.”

I went ahead and rode the zipline to the opposite side. Once there, I unhooked my harness, attached it to the next cable, and watched as Harlow took that leap and followed me. Her face had been marred by the look I imagined most individuals had when they rode a roller coaster or some other amusement park ride with a massive drop. With her mouth open, her eyes were squeezed shut. It looked like she was screaming, but there wasn’t any sound coming out of her mouth.

Once she made it to the end and had come to a stop, she allowed one eye to open. “Is it done? Did I make it?”

A laugh escaped as I reached my hand out. “Yes, you did.

She grabbed my hand, placed her feet on the platform, and got herself hooked to the same cable as me. “That was so much fun.”

I was surprised. “Really? You looked like you were terrified.”

“I was, but now I’m ready to do it a hundred more times. Wow, Blaze, that was incredible,” she sighed, something that sounded a lot like relief present in her tone.

For the next twenty minutes or so, Harlow and I continued to make our way through the beginner course, and as soon as we finished, Harlow declared, “I want to go on one of the more challenging ones. Can we do it, please?”

With that level of excitement and the way she was looking at me, I didn’t think I’d ever have it in me to deny her a single thing. “That’s why we’re here.”

Her face lit up, her eyes sparkling. Damn, she was beautiful. I wanted to do so much more than just hold her hand occasionally, like I had been.

We made our way through the grounds and toward one of the more challenging courses. As soon as we were standing at the bottom of the tree to start the course, Harlow didn’t hesitate. She hooked up her harness and started climbing. I kept my focus on her ass, and it was a good thing I had, because she lost her footing and became unsteady.

Harlow let out a shriek.

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