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When Trevor began to take us up into the winding hills, some of them tall enough to nearly be mountains, the tension in me cranked up a few more degrees. I sat forward, back leaving the seat, to look around. There were no more streetlamps, and the road was lined by forest. It was a sea of trees and darkness.
Trevor noticed how intensely I was looking around and spoke up for the first time in nearly forty-five minutes. “Have you ever been to Lace Elm?”
“No, but I’ve heard of it. Little town on a lake, right?”
“Exactly,” he says, smiling at my recognition. “That’s where we’re headed, so relax. I’m not taking you out into the forest alone or anything.”
“I didn’t think that,” I responded with a nervous laugh. “But what is in Lace Elm?”
“Beautiful views.” Trevor started tapping his fingers on the leather steering wheel. “Pristine water, small-town charm, and a lot of privacy.”
“I guess I should have been more specific. What’s in Lace Elm forus?Tonight?”
“You’ll just have to wait and see,” Trevor teased, but I couldn’t help thinking the playful demeanor was just a veneer over something more serious simmering beneath the surface.
It had been a little over an hour when I finally spotted civilization in the distance; the lights of Lace Elm, I assumed, and right after that, the trees dispersed on the driver’s side of the car, and I got my first look at Lace Elm Lake.
It was hard to tell much about it in the darkness, but I got the impression that Trevor’s description was accurate. Pristine, glimmering water dissolved gently into the land on one side, and flanked by tall cliffs on the other.
We had barely passed through the boundary of Lace Elm before we were climbing yet another hill, this time keeping the lake close to us the entire time. The higher we went, the more sheer the cliffs were beside us, and it made me even more confused about our destination. I had expected maybe a late-night dinner cruise, or a romantic overnight in a secluded lakeside cabin, but my assumptions continue to be wrong.
Finally, I saw something at the top of the hill: an extensive area free of trees, and in the clearing, with one side of it nearly flush against the edge of the cliff overlooking the lake, was a contemporary home. It was two stories tall, made of dark brown and pale wood, broken up with a staggering number of floor-to-ceiling windows. A balcony wrapped around the half of the second floor facing the water, and there was a soft glow coming from those immense windows on the bottom floor.
It was quite a bit more than a cabin, but I should have expected that, coming from Trevor.
He pulled into the rounded driveway, shutting off the car, and without the headlights, I was sure about the bright glow coming from the house. It was from candles. I was confident, and my heart started to beat faster. Trevor really had something special planned, but at the time, I never would have guessed what.
“What do you think of the place?” Trevor asked softly.
“It’s amazing. That view. Wow. Are we staying here?”
I saw the corner of his mouth twitch upward, ever so slightly. “You could say that, yeah.”
He came around to open the door for me while I hurried to wipe my damp, finally free hand on the seat before he reached my side. Trevor waited for me patiently, and I let him lead me inside the candlelit home.
Never again would the house look like it did that night, full of buttery yellow light and almost nothing else. After the sweet shock of the ambiance wore off, I found myself frowning at the lack of furniture. How exactly were we supposed to stay in an empty house?
My boyfriend took me on a short tour, shushing me every time I asked about the bare rooms until we had made it out to the balcony. We had to pass through the master bedroom, where the only item in the entire house—a king size bed—resided, but even the balcony had nothing on it but flickering tea lights.
“Trevor, was there a mistake with the booking? I just don’t see–”
“Look out at the water, and tell me what this place makes you feel,” he interrupted.
“Trevor–”
He grabbed my shoulders, gently hushing me again, and turned me to look over the wrought-iron railing and out onto the lake. It was a bigger body of water than I expected, and in the quiet seclusion, we could hear the gentleslosh sloshof the waves butting up against the cliff again and again.
We were truly alone; there were no other homes and the city of Lace Elm wasn’t visible through the forest. Even knowing the house behind me was empty, I began to feel relaxed, serene even.
“Do you like it?” Trevor asked again, now that I’d seen the house in its entirety.
“I love it,” I told him, leaning my body back into his. His form was firm, and his expensive, citrusy cologne washed over me. “I think I can tolerate a night with just a bed, but I’m not sure if anyone will deliver us food out here, so that might be a problem for an overnight.”
“It’s more than just an overnight.” His voice was warm as it stirred my hair.
“Oh yeah? Well, we can talk about it in the morning.”
“It’s yours,” he said simply.
