Millionaire Dad's SOS by Ally Blake

our new living situation. To each other,’ he went on, his voice raw, his eyes staring at some point on the bottom of the boat as it drifted steadily on. ‘The last thing we need at this point is for her existence to come to the attention of the press. You obviously do know what they can be like. She needs to find her feet without constantly looking over her shoulder. She’ll trip. She’ll fall. She’ll be hurt even more.’
    He lifted his dark eyes to hers. There was a newfound lightness within them that came with getting everything off his chest. But the second he remembered he’d been divulging his story to her, it was gone.
    ‘Meg,’ he said, his voice rough, beseeching.
    She breathed deep to calm her thundering heart and said, ‘I know I haven’t done much to make you believe this, but you really can trust me. I’m exceptionally good at keeping secrets. You have no idea how good, which only proves my point. I’ll not breathe a word.’
    ‘I truly hope so.’
    She smiled. He managed to do a shadow of the same. And in that moment of silent communion something rare and magical was forged between them.
    It felt a lot like trust.

CHAPTER SIX
    T HE boat bumped against solid ground.
    Meg flinched, her flat shoes slipping on the wet wood, but she caught herself in time. She’d been so engrossed in Zach, in his story, in the man, she hadn’t even noticed the head-high reeds encroaching.
    Zach tied them off. He threw the cooler onto the wooden deck, then leaned over and held out a hand.
    She took it, the loaded silence of the lingering moment of amity still making her feel all floaty and surreal.
    Once on the jetty she took off his hat, ran a quick hand through her messy curls and handed it to him along with his blanket. He wrapped his hands around both, but didn’t tug. Meg looked up into his dark eyes.
    Her heart felt heavy in her chest. Her body felt heavy on her legs. The only thing about her that felt light was her head. Which was probably why she said, ‘Now that I know everything there is to knowabout you, are you finally going to give in and stop stalking me?’
    His dark brows rose. His voice, on the other hand, deepened. ‘Is that what I’ve been doing?’
    She said, ‘Either that or fifty acres really isn’t quite as much room as it sounds.’
    From nowhere his head rocked back and he laughed. The sexy sound reverberated deep in her stomach, leaving it feeling hollow. As it faded to a smile in his eyes it left a new kind of warmth in its place she wasn’t sure what to do with.
    ‘I like you better this way,’ she admitted.
    ‘What way?’
    ‘Not bossing me around. You should try that more.’
    He gave the blanket and hat a tug. She shuffled forward a step before letting go and he threw them lazily onto the cooler.
    He looked back at her. The earlier glints in his dark eyes had been mere imitations of the glints glinting at her now. The kind of glints she now wished she’d not wished for. They were dazzling, they were blistering, they were completely incapacitating.
    His voice rumbled, low and deep. ‘By that logic if I continue that way you’ll only like me more.’
    ‘You can’t argue with logic,’ she said, trying to sound pithy; instead she sounded as if she was flirting. Which, of course, she was.
    How could she not? He was glinting and smiling, and somehow, whether by her brilliant psychologicaltactics or by his choice alone, she’d been allowed to see a little of the man behind the mask.
    What she saw there she liked.
    And by the look in his eyes what he saw in front of him right at this moment he liked right back.
    Meg licked her lips. His hot gaze trailed slowly down the curves of her face until it landed square upon her mouth. His eyes turned dark as night and he breathed out. Hard.
    Despite knowing that what was about to happen was reckless and pointless and born of nothing more concrete than the ephemeral connection of confidences shared, Meg just stood there, her entire body