"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.