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“What’s a sprawl anyway?” Julie asked.
“Huh?” Amanda lifted an eyebrow at her niece.
“Mommy said she was late for her sprawl appointment.”
“Spa.”
“Spraw,” Julie mimicked, her dainty face screwed up with concentration.
“Spa.”
“That’s what I said.”
“A spa is a place grownups go to get pampered.”
Julie’s eyes widened and she gasped. “Mommy wears a diaper there?”
Amanda didn’t follow her train of thought. “A diaper?”
“My friend Rachel’s baby sister wears Pampers all the time. She’s not a big girl like me and Rachel yet. She still poops in her pants.” Julie whispered the last part as if it were an embarrassing secret.
Amanda chuckled at the thought of Tina getting Pampered at her sprawl appointment. “No, sweetie. Mommy goes to the spa to get a massage and a mud bath and, well, I don’t know what all goes on there. I’ve never been to one.” Her sister regularly went to the spa with her friends and left Amanda with babysitting duty. Not that she minded. She’d rather spend time having tea parties with stuffed bears than sit in a tub of mud and gossip about other women.
“Sounds like a silly place. I’d rather go to the zoo.”
“Me too. Are we going to the big zoo in San Antonio or the little one in Austin? Did your dad tell you which one?”
“The one that has lephalants.”
“It’s a long drive to the zoo that has elephants.”
“That’s okay,” she said. “Daddy’s car goes really fast. We’ll get there in no time.”
His two-seater Tesla was known for its quiet speed, but it didn’t have room for three people.
“We’ll have to take my car,” Amanda said. She already had a booster seat in the back since she often had Julie in tow, especially in the summer when she had so much time off.
“Is it time to leave now?” Julie asked, drawing Amanda’s attention to the gorgeous hunk of a man who’d entered the room while Amanda had been stuffing her face with pancakes.
“Is everyone done eating?” Jacob asked.
As soon as she’d noticed him, Amanda had paused with her fork halfway to her mouth as she ogled the man. He’d removed his fairy wings in favor of a black tank and black-and-white-plaid board shorts. She could see the hint of the lion tattoo on his chest above the low neckline of his shirt, and the gold cross necklace he always wore swayed slightly with his motion as he approached the breakfast bar. Wide shoulders, firm chest, ripped arms, narrow hips, and long legs—from his damp black hair to his tan, sandaled feet, the man was gorgeous.
Julie poked Amanda to gain her attention and stared at her hopefully. Amanda stuffed a final bite into her mouth and shoved her plate away. “I’m about to bust!”
“We’ll clean up later,” Jacob said as he tossed plates into the sink. “We’re off to a late start.”
“We could just go to the Austin Zoo,” Amanda suggested. “It’s much closer.”
“Is that the one with the lephalants?” Julie asked. The child was completely fixated on the creatures.
“No elephants. There are some bear cubs. And a bunch of monkeys. And a train ride.” Amanda often volunteered at the little rescue zoo, so she was a tad partial. It wasn’t the biggest zoo and the exhibits were small, but she was proud of the fact that they took in animals other zoos didn’t want.
Julie studied Amanda for a moment. It was obvious that she wanted to please her aunt, but she also wanted to see her favorite animal. She turned to Jacob and leveled him with her most adorable pleading expression. “Can we go to two zoos today, Daddy?”
“I don’t know if we’ll have time, princess.”
“Please!” She knotted her hands together and gave him the puppy dog eyes.
The poor man didn’t stand a chance.
“Um . . .” He turned to Amanda for assistance.
“How about we go to the Austin Zoo first, since it’s really close, and if you still want to go to San Antonio afterwards to see the elephants, we’ll go there second?” Amanda hoped Julie would be too tuckered out to want to go on two zoo adventures in a single day.
“Okay! I will get to see all the animals today. Catch me, Daddy!” she said, spreading her arms and taking a leap from the bar stool. Amanda’s heart skipped a beat, but Jacob caught her and cradled her against his chest as they made their way outside.
Amanda started her car and cranked up the AC while Jacob helped Julie out of her fairy wings and then fastened her into the back seat.
“Can you give me a hand packing up the trunk?” he asked Amanda. “I’m not sure if I’ve remembered everything.”
“Sure.” She slid from the driver’s seat and shut the door before circling to the back of the car. She gasped in surprise when he pulled her up against him, both hands on her ass. He tilted his head to whisper in her ear.
“I’m assuming you’re keeping your distance because you don’t want Julie to see us together.”
“Yeah,” she said.
“So since she can’t see us now, you won’t brush me off when I do this.”
Amanda shivered in delight as he sucked thought-shattering kisses along her neck. Goose bumps rose to the surface of her skin, and she tilted her head to give him access to her tingling flesh. His hand slid up her hip and waist, his knuckles skimmed the side of her breast, and then his hand pressed into her back to draw her closer.
His lips traced a gentle trail along her jaw before capturing her mouth in a deep kiss. She moaned into his mouth and, unable to keep her hands to herself any longer, she grabbed his ass in both hands.
He drew away slightly, and her eyelids fluttered open.
“So you do still want me,” he said in that low, smooth voice of his. Parts of her craving his mouth on them began to throb distractingly.
“Of course I still want you.” She breathed in his clean scent, marveling at how it made her heart race and her belly clench.
“Daddy, are we going now?” Julie’s muffled voice drifted out from inside the car.
“Be patient, princess,” he called to her before lowering his head and capturing Amanda’s tender lips in another kiss.
By the time they finished packing the trunk, Jacob had somehow managed to ignite every inch of Amanda’s skin with little touches and stolen kisses. She was on fire—burning for him—and that inferno had absolutely nothing to do with the sizzling Texas heat.
“What taked you so long?” Julie asked when the adults finally entered the cool interior of the car.
“Couldn’t find the sunscreen,” Jacob lied as he fastened his seat belt on the passenger side of the car.
“We need to hurry up if we’re going to two zoos today,” Julie said, holding up two fingers and waving them at her distracted caregivers.
Resigned to a long day, Amanda shifted the car into drive. She was overly conscious of the man beside her as they headed to the hills just outside the suburbs. Though he wasn’t touching her, she could feel his gaze, and if his thoughts were even half as sensual her own, she had a reason to squirm in her seat beneath his avid attention.
