Giving in to Him~

Chapter 14

After being on the road for an hour, listening to music and laughing and talking about anything but what happened the night before, Jennifer noticed a sign stating "National Zoo Ahead"

"Rick, would you laugh if I asked you to take me to the zoo?" 

"Yea but on the inside so I don't offend you," he smiled and looked at me and then back at the road.

"Well then please take me to the zoo, I haven't gone in years and I absolutely love animals, please!"

"I like the sound of you begging, I should try to get you to do it tonight."

Jennifer's eyes widened a bit and her face flushed.

"Sorry," he said, "I know you're trying to aviod thinking and talking about last night but I had to say what I was thinking."

"Uh-Uhm, I'm not aviod- I mean-" she was flustered and he just smiled, he was enjoying this. She narrows her eyes at him. "Zoo. Yes or no."

He thought for a second, "Okay." 

Jennifer smiled, "Thanks,"

Rick pulled into the zoo's parking lot. It was relatively empty so finding a parking spot wasn't hard. He pulled into the first one he saw and just as she was about to open the door to get out Rick took her arm, her eyes snapped to his.

"Before we go in, I need to make sure you're okay. Jennifer it's better to talk about how you feel rather than just holding it in."

"I'm fine Rick."

"I don't think you are,"

"I am... really." She said, barely convincing hersef.

"Prove it."

She thought for a second, and then all at once stopped thinking and leaned in and kissed him. He kissed her back right away and she put her hand on his jaw as she pulled away, she let her fingers glide along his jaw as she stayed there, their faces inches apart as she looked down at his lips.

"Was that proof enough?" She looked him in the eyes.

Even though he could see in her eyes that she still wasn't fully okay with what happened, he knew he had to let it go for now, until it would happen again, tonight. So he nodded.

"Yes," he gave her a brief kiss on the lips before exiting the car.

They went to the zoo, Rick paid for tickets and they walked around, trying to further prove to him that she was okay, she put her hand in his and let him hold her hand as they walked. Rick smiled as they walked hand in hand.

When they got to the buffalo exhibit, Jennifer let go of his hand and went to stand in front of the railing separating the people from the exhibit. Silently, Rick came up behind her and put his hands on the railing on either side of her body so that his arms were caging her body. He leaned in close and put his lips to her neck. Immedieatly he could feel her stiffen, before she relaxed and leaned back into him.

He kissed her neck slowly, once, twice and then put his lips to her ear.

"Is this okay?" he said.

"And if it weren't?" she teased.

"I'd still do it," she could hear the smile in his voice.

"Well then, I guess me answer is irrelevant."

He chuckled.

"Like your last name." she continued.

This time it was Rick who stiffened.

"Don't think that I don't think about it every second we're together, the fact that I know nothing about you."

He leaned back and let go of the railing, looking down, he turned around, put his hands in his jean pockets and took a few steps away from her. She turned around and leaned back against the railing. 

"I let you in, mentally and physically, I've told you everything, I let you do what you did last night, and I'm still here. So why can't you just tell me something."

He looked at her for a few seconds, and then started walking. 

"We should get back on the road."

"But Rick-" she jogged to keep up with his long strides.

"We'll discuss this later, this isn't the time or place for this conversation, come on."

He took her hand in his and they walked to the car. They got back on the road and after three hours of driving and listening to the radio, only speaking every half hour, they finally got to a mall.

"Okay," Rick began as he parked the car. "Go in there, get yourself some more clothes, a bathing suit for swimming tonight- as promised. And then we'll meet back up for lunch. I'm going to do some of my own shopping okay?"

"Okay," she said as he handed her money, "Are you sure you don't want me to come with you, I could help you shop-"

"No. It's okay, go have a good time, we'll meet in the food court in an hour and a half," his phone suddenly rang.

He looked at it and quuickly put it away. 

"Aren't you going to answer that?"

"It's nothing, don't worry, go inside I'll go in shortly."

"Uhm, okay." 

She exited that car and walked into the mall, but didn't go farther than the entrance. Something was up, she could feel it. She stayed at the doors for 7 minutes, watching him. She was far enough so that he couldn't see her, oh but she saw clearly. She watched as he talked on the phone or 5 more minutes and then hung up. She watched as five minutes later, a man walked up to the car, knocked once and stepped back as Rick got out of the car. It was the same man that she saw the first time she tried to run from Rick. She watched as Rick was handed a yellow envelope, and pulled out a wad of cash from his pocket.

She wondered what was in the envelope, and why it was worth so much cash. What the hell was Rick involved in, or working for. Rick placed the envelope in the car, locked it, and then walked towards the mall to a different entrance than she went to.

As soon as he disappeard into the building, she opened the doors and walked outside and into the parking lot. She was going to find out what was in that envelope. And then she was gonna force Rick to tell her the truth about who he was. She needed to know what she was dealing with.