Her silence beside him was as painful as any
thrashing could have been.
He wished she'd just say it and let it be
done. He was a horrible human being, he knew it.
An unspeakably
poor example of a son, a disappointment as a brother, and a money
driven monster in general
.
Abby was with him today only because he'd
threatened her sister's job. He was a multi-billionaire who wasn't
above blackmailing a school teacher
. Doesn’t that just say it
all?
Was that what held her tongue? Was she trying
to think of way to get out of the vehicle without incurring his
wrath? During the construction of his financial empire, he'd bent
his moral code more than he cared to admit, but today was a new
low, even for him.
If only she'd just say it.
“Where to, sir?” the driver asked.
Abby answered before Dominic had the chance.
“We'll need to go shopping,” she said. “There is a mall in North
Attleboro on Route 1.”
Dominic turned to Abby in surprise. If she
were any other woman he'd assume that her own self-gratification
had overshadowed her comprehension of the past hour. However, her
amber eyes were brimming with a compassion he neither deserved nor
welcomed.
“It's time for me to get back to New York,”
he said to the driver. “You take Ms. Dartley home. Stop at the mall
on the way if she wants. Have any charges billed to me and call a
second limo to take me to the airport.”
“Wait,” Abby said.
The driver hesitated which gave a direction
for some of Dominic's anger. “If you like your job, I'd make the
call.”
The driver began to call in the order for the
second limo.
“It's just a mall,” Abby interjected as if
issuing a dare.
Dominic sat back and squared his shoulders.
“I'm not in the mood for shopping.”
“Afraid?” she asked softly, so softly he
almost missed it. His head whipped around. His sweet little middle
school teacher had an impish glint in her eyes.
“Not interested,” he lied. He was becoming
more interested each time she surprised him.
She crossed her legs slowly, fully aware that
she had his attention once again and folded her hands over her
exposed knee. She let out an actress like dramatic sigh. “Then
you'll never know where I was going to take you after the
mall.”
There wasn't a man on the planet who could
have resisted her in that moment. She was pure temptation. He
leaned toward her and growled, “Why not take me there now?”
She shrugged lightly as if the opportunity
had passed. He reached across the foot that separated them to drag
her into his lap, but she scooted further away and said, “We're not
dressed for where I want to go.”
He shifted closer to her. “Are you sure
clothes will be necessary?”
“Positive,” she said. Her laughter just about
sent his blood pressure through the roof of the limo.
Forget the plane.
He instructed the
driver to cancel the other limo and head toward North Attleboro.
This was one merger he wasn't going to miss.
Abby refused to start doubting herself now.
If she hadn't wanted this throbbing, almost visible sexual tension
to return, she could have accepted his offer to end the day early.
He would have let her go and that probably would have been the last
she'd ever see of him.
The problem was, she didn't want the day to
end. Yesterday, he had been a two dimensional, gorgeous, amazingly
arrogant sexual fantasy.
Today he was also a man. A complicated man
who had escaped the misery of a controlling father only to hold
himself in an even more painful vice grip of guilt.
He wanted to run. She knew that feeling far
too well. She'd spent most of her adult life running from the
sadness of the loss of her parents. No, she hadn't gotten on a
plane and flown away, but she had distanced herself emotionally so
much from whom she had been that she barely knew herself
anymore.
She wasn't the strict, rule following, penny
pinching, starched shirt facade she'd hidden behind for years. No
wonder Lil had rebelled. Abby had tried to force her sister to hide
from life with her; afraid that if either of them stepped off the
straight and narrow, tragedy would strike again.
Dominic was fighting his own emotional
demons. On the surface he looked like a man who needed nothing and
no one, but he’d shown her the man behind that façade when he’d
clung to her hand.
Their connection was as exhilarating as it
was terrifying. Dominic had offered her the chance to end this
adventure, but something told Abby that they were meant to meet.
Being with him was teaching her about herself and she hoped that on
some small level she was able give him that same gift.
A plan for the day was forming in Abby's
mind; a purely impulsive plan that she would have dismissed last
week. Today, she gave in to the possibilities. Lil was right, it
was time to start living again.
When they pulled into the parking lot of the
mall, Abby gathered her purse to her side and announced, “This is a
race. The first one back in the limo dressed in jeans, a t-shirt
and sneakers wins.”
The seriousness of the day fell aside and
Dominic’s predatory smile returned. “And what exactly will I
win?”
Overconfident billionaire
, Abby
thought smugly. He might rule the business world, but when it came
to shopping, she doubted he'd ever purchased his own clothes. That
alone would slow him down.
“The winner gets the right to decide how we
spend the rest of the day,” she declared.
His eyes flared with interest. “I like the
sound of that. I know just where I'm going to take you.”
Not giving him time to plan his strategy,
Abby threw her door open, sprinted onto the sidewalk and announced
over her shoulder, “So do I!”
Upon his return, Dominic flung the rear door
of the limo open before his driver could scramble to get it for
him. He grunted in response to Abby’s triumphant smile. She had
already given the driver directions to their destination and was
loving every moment of her victory.
As luck would have it, she'd shopped in that
very mall a few days earlier and impulsively tried on an expensive
designer pair of jeans. They hugged her curves as if made for her.
Since they weren't practical, she hadn't purchased them, but today
she'd snatched them off the rack with confident abandon. She'd
added a maroon, v neck t-shirt that revealed just enough of her
cleavage to make most men take a second look and had dashed for her
favorite brand of sneakers; determined to not only win this race,
but look damn good doing it.
Dominic climbed in and slid onto the seat
next to her, appearing less than pleased with the outing. “Do you
know that no amount of money will raise the IQ of a teenage clerk?
What kind of department store hides everyone above the age of
twenty from the public?”
“Don't be a sore loser, Dominic. You never
had a chance.” Abby patted his jean-clad knee in mock sympathy and
snatched her hand back in response to the jolt of attraction she
felt from that brief touch. If she'd been hoping that he'd be less
appealing in casual clothing, she couldn't have been more wrong.
His dark blue cotton t-shirt revealed his natural athletic build
and flat stomach.
He grabbed her hand and placed it back on his
thigh, holding it neatly captive beneath his much larger one. “Why
do I get the feeling that you cheated?”
She let out a shaky breath. Remembering her
original altruistic reasons for the day’s outing was proving
difficult when all she could think about was her body's reaction to
their one point of contact. Her stomach quivered with an
anticipation she was beginning to associate with any proximity to
Dominic. “You're a businessman. Are you above using a natural
advantage to win?”
He slid her hand up his thigh an inch, his
breath quickening along with her own. “When it comes to winning,
there isn't much I wouldn't do.” He leaned toward her, close enough
for a kiss, but stopped before their lips met as if he were
debating something with himself.
She said, “You sound like you're warning
me.”
He released her hand and with very little
effort, turned to lift her so she was facing him, straddling him,
on the seat. “You made your choice an hour ago. I just don't want
you to imagine this is more than it is.” He held her still with one
hand on either hip. “Or that changing your mind is an option.”
She sat back, tossing her hair over her
shoulder. “So many threats. Haven't you ever heard of the honey and
vinegar adage?”
“That's never been my maxim. Not then, not
now. You're here only because I threatened your sister's
livelihood.” His right hand caressed upwards until his thumb rested
just below the swell of her breast.
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.”