Treat Me (One Night with Sole Regret 8)

“Can I use the swing in reverse cowgirl?”

“You can use it any way you want.”

He soon found out how imaginative his new lover could be. Smart girls rocked his world. And this one in particular had stolen his heart.

Chapter Four

…plastic, it’s fantastic!

Amanda caught the tail end of that very specific ringtone when she was woken by her blaring cellphone. She accidentally smacked herself in the face when she tried to open her eyes. Her lids refused to budge. Why the hell was Tina calling at this ungodly hour? And why did it feel like a log was resting on her belly?

The log shifted and slid up her torso to grasp her breast. She smiled when she realized the log belonged to Jacob. Her phone stopped ringing, and she relaxed back into her pillow. She had no desire to speak to her sister this morning. Not when she had a hot and hunky man at her disposal. Amanda rolled onto her side and trailed a hand over Ja

cob’s hard-muscled back. He buried his face in her neck and inhaled. Amanda shivered and dragged her fingertips along his hip, the curve of his ass.

Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” blared from her phone again.

Amanda groaned. Ugh! Too early for that annoying, perky shit.

“Are you going to ignore that?” Jacob said, his warm breath teasing the skin along her throat.

“That was my plan,” she said.

Jacob tugged her closer, seeming to agree that ignoring Tina was a great idea. “What time is it?”

“I dunno,” Amanda said, caught by an unexpected yawn. “Five a.m.? Six?”

Jacob lifted his head to peer at the clock next to his bed and stiffened. “It’s almost nine.”

“Nine? Nine! Oh shit, I was supposed to pick up Julie at eight!”

Amanda scrambled from the bed and reached for her phone. It fell silent in her hand. “Tina’s going to be so pissed.”

“We can pick up Julie together,” Jacob said.

Amanda slowly turned in his direction, her eyes burning from being stretched wide. “Are you fucking insane?”

“Why? It’s my weekend to have her. Tina can’t keep her from me.”

“If Tina sees us together, she’ll flip. Have you ever seen her lose her shit? Scary. Very scary.”

Jacob shook his head. Of course he’d seen Tina lose her shit. He’d been married to her once. “You can tell her you picked me up on the way to get Julie.”

“Then she’ll know we talk to each other.”

Jacob grinned crookedly. “We do a lot more than talk to each other.”

“Jacob, Tina cannot find out about us.”

Jacob’s jaw hardened. Avoiding her gaze, he rolled out of bed and reached for the switch that raised the swing into the hidden panel above the bed. God, she loved that swing.

“After last night, I thought maybe you were willing to declare me as yours.”

“I wish I could,” she said. “You know she’ll use our involvement against you. You know she will.”

“Well, maybe I’m sick of letting her dictate my life. We aren’t married anymore. She has no claim over me.”

“She has a claim over your daughter. Do you want to risk losing visitation rights?”

“The courts can’t take Julie away from me just because I’m in love with someone my ex-wife wouldn’t approve of.”

Amanda’s phone rang in her hand, and she dropped it. Jacob didn’t mean he was in love with her. He’d just been stating a broad example, hadn’t he?

Oh God, hadn’t he?

Amanda scooped her phone off the floor and answered it, because dealing with her sister was far easier than dealing with the idea that Jacob Silverton had done the stupidest thing imaginable and fallen in love with her. Shit!

“Hello?” Amanda said, hoping her voice sounded normal.

“Where are you? I thought you were going to pick up Julie and take her to Jacob’s for me.”

The sound quality was grainy, and Amanda could hear Julie singing “Itsy Bitsy Spider” in the background. Tina must be calling from her vehicle.

“Sorry,” Amanda said. “I was out late with Leah last night and I overslept. I’ll get dressed and be right over.”

“Don’t bother. I’m already on my way to her dad’s. If I miss my spa appointment because of this—”

“You’re on your way?” Amanda blurted, searching wildly for her discarded clothes.

“I probably should have called Jacob to let him know, but I’d love to catch him with some bimbo in his bed, and then Julie will see what kind of asshole she has for a father.”

Well, the poor child must definitely see what kind of bitch she had for a mother. Amanda couldn’t believe Tina would say something like that within hearing range of her four-year-old daughter. On second thought, Tina making such an inappropriate statement didn’t surprise Amanda in the least.

“You can’t do that kind of stuff to her, Tina. She’s just a little girl.”

“I’m a big girl, Aunt Mander!” Julie called, presumably from the back seat of the car.

“Yes you are, sweetheart,” Amanda said, crushing the phone between her ear and shoulder as she hopped into her panties. “Are you going to see your daddy today?”

“Yes! And we’re going to the zoo. I want to see a lephalant.”

Amanda grinned at how adorable her niece was. “You mean an elephant?”

“That’s what I said—a lephalant. He has ears as tall as me.”

Amanda found her shorts and wriggled into them. “Wow, those are big ears! He must be able to hear really well.”

“I will sing a song for him with my daddy.”

Amanda grinned and glanced at Jacob, who’d already found all of his clothes and was watching her with a scowl on his handsome face. “They’re on their way,” Amanda mouthed to him. “Where’s my bra?”

While Julie told Amanda everything she knew about lephalants, Jacob retrieved her remaining clothes and shoved them at her chest. He left the room without saying a word.

What the hell was his problem?

“I hope you have fun at the zoo,” Amanda said. “I’m going to let you go now.”

“Bye, Aunt Mander!”

“Have a nice day at the spa, Tina.” She hung up before her sister could get in the dig she knew was coming.

Finally dressed, Amanda headed for the front door. She hesitated with her hand on the door handle when she remembered her alarm-greeted welcome from the night before. “Jacob,” she called. “Can you let me out? I don’t want to set off the alarm again.”

After what seemed like an eon, Jacob came out of the kitchen and disarmed the alarm system. When he started to walk away without so much as glancing at her, she grabbed his arm.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“I say I love you and you don’t even acknowledge it?”

So that hadn’t been a slip, he’d actually meant it? Shit!

“I haven’t even had time to process it yet, Jacob. I’m sort of in a hurry to get out of here before Tina catches us together.”

“Whatever. Just go,” he said, turning his back to her and raising a hand in farewell.

“I’ll be back in less than an hour.” She needed to grab a quick shower and fresh clothes. “Or have you changed your mind about wanting me to come with you and Julie to the zoo?”

“See you in an hour,” he said before disappearing into the kitchen.

She would have stood there for a while and tried to puzzle him out, but she knew Tina would arrive any minute and she had to leave immediately.

As Amanda sat at a stop sign waiting for traffic to clear so she could turn onto a cross street, she glanced in her rearview mirror and sighted Tina’s enormous cream-colored SUV turning onto Jacob’s road behind her. Amanda scrunched down in her seat automatically, even though if Tina was paying attention, she would recognize Amanda’s car. She drove a common beige Toyota Camry, not a rare, attention-grabbing vehicle, but she didn’t want to get caught. Panicked, Amanda jetted into the flow of traffic, surely cutting off some unsuspecting driver and prayed that Tina hadn’t noticed her.

Chapter Five

He couldn’t believe Amanda had walked out on him. Well, that wasn’t exactly what she’d done, but it sure felt like it.

Jacob was jolted from his turbulent thoughts by the ring of his doorbell. Thinking about seeing Julie brought a smile to his face. His sweet angel was probably the only thing on the planet that could have dredged up any feeling of joy in him.

What the hell was Amanda’s problem? He knew he shouldn’t have blurted his feelings to her so soon into their relationship, but how could she blow him off so easily? He thought they had something special and had a difficult time believing she didn’t at least like