Page 140 of By His Vow
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?”
35
TATUM
I’m dying.
I. Am. Fucking. Dying.
My chest is heaving, and my heart is pounding harder than I’m sure it ever has in my life.
I go to the gym. I thought I was pretty fit.