The Boss Project by Vi Keeland

“Yep. Yep…you got me. They might look like sheep, but those ladies are wolves.”

Evie snickered. “Fine. You know, for a man with such a dirty mouth, you really can be a prude sometimes.”

I drove the rest of the way to the Airbnbs barely saying a word. I traded billions in high-risk stocks every year, and never once had I felt like this. Evie had been on my ass about softening my tone a bit when I spoke to the new traders, because I apparently made them nervous. If this was the shit they went through, I really was a dick, and they should all quit.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you,” Evie said. “I got tickets to Sesame Street Live for Abbey and Eloise for their birthdays. The show isn’t for a few months, but Abbey is obsessed with everything Sesame already. I thought Eloise might like it too. I got three tickets for two different shows. I wasn’t sure if you’d want us to take Eloise, or if you just wanted to gift them all to her for her birthday, and Aaron could take her and a friend.”

A few weeks after the day Aaron and I had talked, I took him up on his offer to get to know his daughter. It was awkward at first. I just wanted to stare at her and look for the baby I’d once thought was mine. But it didn’t take long before that wore off. Since then, I’d visited often. Aaron and I had even formed some sort of friendship. I never thought I’d be grateful to have that guy in my life, but I was. Because I couldn’t unlove a child I’d fallen for months before she was even born. I’d introduced Evie to them, and the last few times we’d gotten together, she’d brought along her niece, Abbey. Eloise loved her and treated her like a doll.

“Do you want to go?” I asked her.

“Sort of. My mom never had the money to take us to shows when we were kids. I guess I’m kind of curious what it is.”

“Okay,” I said. “So we’ll take her.”

“Really?” Evie’s eyes widened. “I never thought you’d agree to go to Sesame Street Live.”

I shrugged. “I’m going to spend a few hours with my little friend and then go home and get a blowjob because I did something you wanted to do, right?”

She chuckled. “Probably.”

“Sounds like a pretty damn good day to me. Don’t care where we are if it makes both of you happy.”

Evie’s eyes went soft. “You say the sweetest things without even realizing it.”

“It was the part about the blowjob, wasn’t it?”

She smacked me.

Ten minutes later, whatever calm I’d channeled talking to Evie went out the window again as we turned off the main road and onto the one that led to the treehouses. I parked when we arrived, just as the sun was starting to set.

Evie looked around. “Look at that sky. We couldn’t have timed this better if we’d planned it.”

I almost laughed. Someone did plan it.

“It doesn’t look like the guests have arrived yet,” she said.

“So let’s go up and take a look.”

“What if they come?”

“We’ll tell them we’re the cleaning crew.”

She looked me up and down and smiled. “Even without the three-thousand-dollar suit, no one would ever believe you were the cleaning crew.”

“Why not?”

“Because you just look like the boss. I don’t want to get caught poking around after check-in time.”

I got out of the car and opened Evie’s door, extending a hand to help her out. “Come on, it’ll be fun. You like almost getting caught. Remember how hard you came when I ate you out on your desk last week without the door locked?” I rubbed the hair at the back of my head. “I’m missing a chunk of hair from how hard you pulled.”

She took my hand. “I’ll go, but I’m warning you… You’re going to be missing the rest of it if we climb up there and you try something like that again.”

At the ladder, I smiled when she looked around again to be sure the coast was clear.

“After you,” I said.

Evie was wearing a sundress, so the view from below went a long way toward making me forget what I was about to do.

“Stop looking at my ass,” she yelled without looking back.

I chuckled. “You appreciate your views, and I’ll appreciate mine.”

Inside, she took a few steps in and stopped short as I climbed in behind her. “Oh my God. There’s champagne chilling. The people must’ve already checked in. I bet they went for a walk. They’ll be back any second since it’s almost dark. We better go.”

Evie turned toward the door, but I grabbed her wrist. “Hang on one minute. I want to talk to you.”

“We can talk in the car.”

I did the only thing I could think of to make her relax. I cupped her cheeks and pulled her mouth to meet mine. She tried to pull away, but after ten seconds her shoulders loosened and she gave in. It was supposed to calm her down, but it started to have the opposite effect on me, so I forced myself to cut it off. Though I kept her cheeks in my hands and her face close.

“Just give me one minute, okay?” I whispered.

She blinked a few times, looking a little out of it, but nodded. I loved that even after all this time, I could still make that happen. Bringing her hand to my lips, I kissed the top before taking a deep breath and stepping back. Then, I dropped to one knee.