“But it isn’t different,” Amanda said, shaking her head. “And I’m so sorry it happened to you.”
“I’ve always had a thing for teachers,” he said, reaching for her hand, capturing it in his and drawing it to his lips.
Amanda frowned and turned to him. “Please don’t tell me that your attraction to me has anything to do with what that
sick bitch did to you as a kid.”
“But I wasn’t a kid,” he said with a chuckle. “I landed on the other side of puberty like a champ.”
“Perhaps you were physically mature, but psychologically, you were a kid, Jacob.”
“Did you know me then?” he asked and dropped her hand.
“My students are all between the ages of fourteen and sixteen. Trust me, they’re kids. They don’t think they are, but their decision-making processes are far from mature. Would you still sleep with a teacher for a better grade?”
“Depends on how hot she is,” he said with a soft chuckle.
Amanda’s nostrils flared.
“That was a joke,” he said, patting her knee. “I don’t understand why you’re so pissed. It happened over a decade ago. No one got hurt. No one got caught. I was okay with it then and I’m still okay with it. Mrs. Cranston was definitely okay with it.”
“She gives teachers a bad name.” Amanda crossed her arms over her chest and tried to glare a hole into the dashboard.
“Oh,” Jacob said, the hand on her knee beginning to explore her bare skin in a most distracting fashion. “So this is really about you.”
“Of course it isn’t about me.”
Well, maybe it was about her. Nothing grated on her nerves more than a person of authority using their power to do wrong. Teachers, cops, CEOs—in her mind, they had the moral obligation to do the right thing. And requiring a student to exchange sexual favors for a better grade was outlandishly wrong. “Was she the only one?” Amanda asked, wishing she could see his eyes behind his sunglasses.
“You don’t want me to answer that,” he said.
Amanda slumped against the door and rubbed her face with her palm. “How many?”
“A few,” he said. “My education was a joke, okay? Can we just drop it?”
Amanda watched a muscle twitch in his jaw. She hadn’t meant to upset him. Maybe it was best to leave such things in the past.
“Is it any surprise that I turned out to be such an idiot?” he said under his breath.
Amanda’s heart shattered. “You aren’t an idiot, Jacob.”
He snorted. “I know what I am better than anyone. Better than my teachers, better than you, better than—than Tina.” He pounded a fist against the steering wheel and held it there, clenched so tight that his knuckles turned white.
As far as Amanda knew, Tina was the only one who actually called him stupid, and she did it because she knew how much it hurt him. Amanda had never gotten along with Tina, but at that moment she actually hated her own sister. Despised her.
“You’re not an idiot,” Amanda said.
He turned his face from her as far as he could while still keeping his eyes on the interstate stretching before them.
Amanda needed him to believe her, but how could she erase years’ worth of negativity?
She unfastened her seat belt, which drew his attention back to her.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
She shifted to kneel in her seat and leaned across the car until her lips were an inch from his ear. She held onto the back of his seat with one hand. The other hand slid across his chest to rest against his pounding heart.
“I know you’re not an idiot,” she whispered to him. “I know it, because I could never care so deeply about an idiot.”
His heart thudded harder and faster against her palm.
“And I do,” she whispered. “I care about you, Jacob. I don’t ever want to hear you refer to yourself as stupid again or believe what my bitch of a sister says about you. You’re brilliant and talented and warm and generous.” She brushed a kiss against his jaw, and his free hand moved to press her palm more firmly into his chest.
“Aunt Mander, put on your seat belt!” Julie yelled from the back seat. “That’s dangerous.”
“Listen to your niece,” Jacob said, his voice tight with emotion.
“Do you believe everything I said to you?”
He squeezed her hand, and his mouth twisted into a crooked smile. “I’m pretty thick headed. I think you’ll have to tell me more than once.”
“Aunt Mander, please!” The terror in Julie’s voice was not fabricated.
Amanda shifted to sit back in her seat and fastened her seat belt. “I’m safe now,” she said to Julie.
“If you need to hug my daddy, do it later,” she said. “If we got in a wreck, you would die.”
“You heard the child,” Jacob said with a soft chuckle and a toe-curling smile. “Hug me later.”
Amanda planned to do a lot more than hug him.
Chapter Nine
Somewhere along the path between the warthogs and the elephants, Jacob purposely stepped on the back of Amanda’s shoe. She stumbled forward, hands flying out to catch her balance. He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her up against him—belly to belly—relishing the feel of her soft body pressed to his.
“I’ve got you,” he said, his lips a scant inch from hers. He wanted to kiss her so badly he almost said to hell with hiding anything from Julie. “You’re awfully clumsy today,” he teased.
“That might have something to do with the fact that you keep tripping me.”
“Who me?” He offered his most angelic smile as he slid a hand down her ass and tugged her closer.
“What if you don’t catch me?”
“I’ll always catch you,” he promised. “I’d never let you fall.”
“I’ve already fallen.” Her happy smile seemed to brighten the green flecks in her remarkable hazel eyes as she gazed up at him.
Could life possibly get any better? The only thing he needed to feel complete was for her to actually say she loved him while he was tangled in her bare arms and legs, his cock buried deep in the slick, molten heat between her thighs. If Julie hadn’t interrupted, worried about Amanda without her seat belt, he was positive Amanda would have said those three little words he longed to hear.
Julie had wandered ahead several paces. “Lephalants!” She dashed farther ahead, and Jacob released his hold on Amanda to chase after her.
“Wait for us,” he called.
When he reached the observation area, Julie was already trying to climb up the short wall for a better look.
“She’s huge!” she said.
“Do you want up on my shoulders?” he asked, knowing that Julie had been dying to see elephants more than any other animal. He wanted to make sure she had the best vantage and plenty of time to enjoy them.
“Yes, please.” She lifted her arms and leaned toward him.
He swooped her up and deposited her on his shoulders, holding onto her ankles so she didn’t topple from her perch.
“Look, Daddy! She’s eating hay.”
“She certainly is.” His body jerked involuntarily when Amanda stepped up behind him and slid her hand up his back. He was uncomfortably aware of her and had been all day. While Julie provided commentary about everything the elephant was doing, Amanda slipped a hand under his shirt to touch his bare skin. He squirmed and dropped his gaze to give her a look of warning. He did not want to become visibly aroused, and being around Amanda made it difficult to keep his shorts from tenting. She offered him a devilish grin and leaned closer to playfully nip the back of his arm.
“Are you almost ready to go home?” he asked Julie hoarsely. Please, he added silently. As wonderful a time as he was having being out and about in public with his two favorite ladies, he was very much looking forward to putting Julie to bed for a full night sleep so he could take her aunt to his bed and get no sleep at all.