Maid for the Billionaire(17)

Abby almost laughed, but gazing down at him, she realized he was serious. She put a reassuring hand on one of his well-muscled shoulders. ―Do I look like a woman who was blackmailed into being with you today?‖

His gray eyes darkened to near black as an inner storm raged. ―No, but you do look like the kind of woman who should run from a man like me.‖

There was such pain in his expression, she leaned down and pressed a kiss to his forehead rather than his lips. She whispered, ―I‘m not worried.‖

With both hands on her sides, he leaned her back so he could see her expression. ―You should be.‖ He shifted her hips forward so she could feel his excitement throb through their denim.

Unusually brazen, Abby rubbed herself against him, reveling in the way his thighs tightened and his hands moved to halt her hips, as if he feared his reaction if she continued. She said,

―Maybe you should be, too.‖

He put a hand behind her neck and pulled her in for a kiss. Abby tasted him hungrily.

Everyone deserved one night so good the memory of it would elicit a secret smile decades later.

She just hoped her surprise destination didn‘t break the mood.

―Why are you smiling?‖ he demanded between kisses.

Abby rested her head on his shoulder, trying to regain some self-control. ―I‘m wondering how you are going to like where we are going.‖

He slid a thumb beneath the lace edge of her bra. ―Oh, I like it.‖

―That‘s not what I meant,‖ Abby said and playfully pushed his hand away. ―Stop. I can‘t think when you do that.‖ The markers on the side of the road warned that they were not far from their destination. An hour ago, she‘d been confident in her choice. Now she could barely think from wanting him and the whole idea seemed silly.

Dominic‘s chest rumbled with a pleased chuckle, his hands beginning to wander again.

―And that‘s a problem?‖

―No. Yes.‖ Abby shook her head and caught his hands in hers. ―I didn‘t pick the kind of place you‘re imagining.‖

He pulled her close again, his breath hot on her neck as he said, ―I don‘t care where we spend today, but I‘ll choose tonight.‖

The dividing window lowered and the driver‘s amused voice halted further exploration.

"We're here, sir. Southwick's Zoo."

Dominic surveyed the parking lot, like a man discovering he'd stepped in animal waste. My God! There was even a school bus parked amid the ocean of mini vans. When he'd decided to go along with Abby's game, he'd envisioned a more intimate destination. What the hell were they doing at a zoo?

Abby took him by the hand as if she could read his thoughts. ―Would you just trust me?‖

she said.

He shook his head. Every man had his limits and he could think of a hundred places more appropriate for what he had in mind. ―I'm not in the mood for crowds and small children.‖ Her choice of entertainment highlighted the differences between them and he wondered again if they both wouldn't be better off if he ended the day now.

She tugged on his hand until he looked down at her. The stubborn expression was back on her face. ―I won and this is where I choose to go. So, suck it up,‖ she said in direct challenge.

He straightened, an involuntary response to her tone, eyebrows shooting up toward his hairline and almost laughed but caught himself at the last second. She didn't always appreciate his humor.

―Yes, ma'am,‖ he joked and tucked her against his side, under his arm. Whenever he thought he had her figured out, she surprised him. It was becoming impossible to imagine himself with the perfectly groomed, nauseatingly dull, arm candy he usually went for. If just a sliver of her audacious nature spilled into her lovemaking, he wasn't sure he'd be able to let her leave in the morning.

―Come on.‖ She pulled him into forward motion toward the entrance, not quite shaking him free of the images he'd just conjured of exactly how he was going to enjoy her that evening.

After graciously allowing him to pay for their admission, she escorted him with a purposeful stride past small furred creatures he didn't have time to catch the name of. They breezed by a tortoise, some large caged birds, and, thankfully, the petting zoo. Her pace began to slow as they passed the African Plains area.

They came to a stop before a double-gated enclosure labeled, ―Deer Forest.‖ She pulled out several coins and a small plastic bag from her purse and began filling the bag with corn kernels from a dispenser.

―For the right price, I bet they'd let us feed the lions,‖ he suggested, seeing nothing tempting about her choice.

―I'm sure they would,‖ she said, pushing the first of the two gates open and passing through the second without waiting to see if he followed her; which, of course, he did.

About ten feet inside the enclosure, she stopped walking and waited for him to join her. Her eyes held a bit of a dreamy expression as she pointed to the area around her. ―This is one of my favorite places to come when I need to think.‖

Thinking was the last thing he wanted to do, but something about her love of these woods drew him in. They walked in union deeper into the park at a slow, comfortable pace.

She sat down on a wooden bench, slightly off the main path. He sat beside her, completely at a loss for why she had brought him there. Their earlier passion was put on pause. She didn't say anything at first, so nor did he. For a man who continually, almost compulsively, charged ahead, he was amazed by the comfort he found in their shared silence and inactivity.