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Ellie bites her bottom lip, her cheeks pink. “Yeah, I do. Even with the bears.”
“I knew it!” I kiss her forehead. “An adventurer in the making.”
“It was four miles,” she says. “Round trip. I’m hardly scaling Mount Everest.”
“You know what they say. ‘A journey of a thousand steps begins with hiking four miles and mounting me on a rocky outcropping.’”
She grins. “I believeyoumountedme.”
“To-may-to, to-mah-to.”
“You’re impossible. Seriously, I—Jack!” Ellie gasps as I wrap her up in a tight squeeze, my fingers seeking those ticklish spots along her rib cage.
“Stop!” she squeals, tears of laughter spilling down her cheeks. “Oh my God, Stop! It burns us!”
“Not until you admit that was the most fun you’ve had since we got high and planned our apocalypse escape. Admit it, Seyfried.”
“Okay, okay! You win!” She squirms free and leans back against the tree to catch her breath, still giggling as she tugs a lock of hair from her mouth.
Maybe it’s the fresh mountain air, the workout from our hike, or that sexy glow on her skin, but I can’t stop staring at her. Can’t stop grinning like a kid on Christmas, knowing that I have the power to make this woman laugh like that. Thatshehas the power to make this former diehard workaholic bail on his clients so we can play hooky together.
Actually, she has a lot more power than that.
Ellie’s the one wearing a mask for this assignment, but I’ve been doing the same damn thing for more than a decade, hiding behind my confident, master-of-all-I-survey persona.
Ryan is the only person I stayed close to after my parents died—the only one who truly knows anything about my past. Not the headlines version, but the hard, ugly stuff beneath. The crappy year bouncing around foster care. The uphill battle to get my ass into college after my grades dropped in the wake of the accident.
I spent a long time building walls around my heart after that, convinced it was the only way to keep it from imploding again.
But Ellie…
For the first time since the accident, those walls are starting to crumble. She makes me want to open myself up to possibilities. To trust in something good again. To believe, like that happy kid from long ago, that loving someone doesn’t automatically come with a one-way ticket to heartbreak.
Yes, we’ve got great chemistry, the sex is off the charts, and she’s so much fun to be with—always has been. But I’d be lying if I said that this is just a good time.
Looking at that smile on her face as we make our way down the last rocky stretch of trail, seeing that sense of adventure peeking out from beneath her practical shell…
Damn. I don’t want this thing between us to have an expiration date.
I want to find out where it might lead.
Not just for today, or a few more weeks while she finishes her research, or until Ryan gets back. But…for keeps.
For keeps.The thought settles comfortably inside me as if it has been there all along, warm and happy and right. Totally fucking right.
Heading across the deserted parking lot to the car, I see the mountains rising up ahead of us again, and I’m hit with a spark of inspiration so intense it can’t be ignored.
It’s a great idea. The best idea.
She has to say yes…
“Ellie. Have you ever been skiing?
“Once. Ryan took me with a few friends when I was in high school. I got overconfident on the bunny hill and graduated to a blue run way before I was ready. I face-planted into the snow a dozen times before I finally made it down.”
“That’s it?”
She lifts a shoulder. “I’ve never been brave enough to try again.”
