Page 336 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 1
I smiled. Neither one of us had ever backed down from a dare. "Well, I guess a few more bruises won't hurt me." I took off my shoes and peered out the window. "Did you really just jump?" I tossed my shoes out the window and watched them hit the lawn below. "It seems kind of high."
"Geez, no." He grabbed my arm and started laughing. "Were you seriously going to jump out the window?"
"You said you did it all the time. And you dared me."
"There's a trellis." He stuck his head out the window and pointed to the right. He started laughing again.
"Don't make fun of me for trusting you." I poked him in the middle of the chest.
"I'm lucky you said something before you jumped."
"Mhm." I rolled my eyes at him as I stood up on the ledge. "Who were you running off to see in the middle of the night growing up?"
He held my waist as I grabbed the edge of the trellis. It took every ounce of restraint not to look down. I slowly stepped onto it and was relieved to see it was as sturdy as he remembered it being.
"Not someone. Something," he said. "That's what I want to show you. Don't look at me, watch your footing."
I had slipped slightly when I started my descent, but I quickly regained my footing.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. I'm a jungle gym master, James."
"I don't doubt that at all."
I laughed. I wasn't even sure what he meant by that. A few moments later I heard the creak of the trellis. I didn't look up to see him coming down after me. The last thing I needed was to be distracted by him.
I tried to focus on my hands, but every now and then I looked down at my feet, reminding myself how high I was. When I was finally close enough to the bottom, I jumped. The grass was sleek and I slid as soon as my feet touched the ground, landing hard on my ass. "Shit."
James laughed as he jumped down gracefully beside me. He put his hand out for me, but instead of taking it, I grabbed my shoes, got up by myself, and started running.
"You don't know where we're going!" He called after me.
It was only a matter of seconds before I felt his arms around my waist, lifting me in the air. He twirled me around and then pulled me against his chest.
"You have a huge grass stain on that perfect little ass of yours," he whispered in my ear.
I laughed and put my hand on his chest so I could lean back and see his face. "Why is it that I can't picture you here at all? I mean, I can out here. But this is the first time you've seemed like yourself all night."
"None of this is me. I don't belong here anymore. I'm not sure I ever did."
"Did you spend a lot of time outside when you were younger?"
"I keep trying to show you." He let go of my waist, bent his knees slightly, and tapped his back. "Hop on."
I laughed and jumped onto his back. I never minded running around barefoot, but it was sweet that he didn't want me to have to.
He alternated kissing the crook of my elbow and pointing out things in his mother's garden as we walked farther away from the house. Soon all the lights from the house were barely visible and only the moonlight and stars were guiding us.
"Where are we going?" I whispered.
"You don't have to whisper, we're all alone. There it is," he said, pointing in front of us.
I squinted my eyes. It was hard seeing in the dark. "I don't..." I stopped when I saw it. "Is that a tree house?"
He kissed the crook of my elbow again. "Of all the things here, this was the only thing that was truly mine. Jen and Rob never even came up unless I invited them to." He stopped at the base of the tree trunk and let me slide off his back. "I was barely ever in my room in the house. I used to come here all the time. You have no idea how many times I nagged my parents to let me get a zip line from my window to the tree house."
I laughed. "So why was this your special place?"
