Page 16 of Unwrapping His Naughty Secret

“Do you go to Ridge, too?” Emily asks.

I can feel Hunter staring at me, and my stomach drops. “Yes,” I manage to whisper.

“I just graduated,” she says. She brushes a dark curl off her cheek, and I notice she’s wearing two matching rings in a stack on her left hand. “It’s great, isn’t it?”

I nod. That’s all I can manage.

“Drink, Cara?” Hunter finishes pouring whatever he’s just made, and hands it to Heath. But his attention is locked on my face, his expression hard and piercing. “I’m making hot chocolate martinis. Or maybe you’re not old enough for that, yet?”

“Dad!” Hannah jumps up. “I’m going to make real hot chocolate for us kids.”

Kill me now.

She drags me into the kitchen.

“Sorry about my dad,” she whispers as she slams cabinets.

I need her to stop mentioningthe fact that Hunter is her father every two seconds. It’s making me die a little inside every time.I called your dad Daddy, and he pushed his cock against my body because he wanted to fuck me! Merry Christmas!

From across the room, he shoots a glower this way. As if it’s my fault he has a daughter my age! What a jerk.

“My uncle says he’s getting over a girl.” Hannah shakes her head. “I didn’t even know he was dating someone. But something must have happened in the last week, because now he’s moody as fuck and he’s got woman troubles.” She does air quotes around the last two words.

My insides flip over. “Oh?”

“I swear, he’s never like this.” She slams a pot down on the stove.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see him pour another drink, then square his shoulders and head our way.

“Incoming,” I whisper.

She giggles, which makes me smile despite myself.

As he strides across the great room andbounds up the three steps to the kitchen level, I can’t help myself from looking. Staring, really. He’s…massive. Tall, with big arms and even bigger legs, and a thick torso that I can still feel against my fingertips from when I curled my fists into his shirt.

“Hannah, stop being so theatrical,” he says as he joins us, carefully not making eye contact with me. “Your guest is going to get the wrong impression.”

“Oh no, Cara,” she says in a pseudo-whisper. “You might figure out that I’mdramatic.”

I press my lips together.

“Sheknows, Dad. She’s put up with me all term. Got me a B+, too.” She taps her temple. “Smart.”

Now his attention snaps to me, and it’s like all the air in the entire house is sucked out in a powerful vacuum.

Hannah stirs the milk she’s heated on the stove. “This needs a splash of something.Just a splash,Father. Like a cooking ingredient. Don’t say no, I won’t even listen to you.”

She darts past him, taking a runningleap into the living room, heading for the liquor cart.

“How many broken bones did she have as a kid?” I ask.

“Three, all well-earned,” he mutters. “Cara, we need to talk.”

“Nothing to talk about.” I feel like I might spontaneously combust. He made it clear he didn’t want to date someone as young astwenty-five, so to find out that I’m not even twenty must be killing him. “Mistakes were made. Consequences are being felt. We’ll survive.”

Startled surprise slashes across his face, softening his hard mouth at the corners. “Will we?”

I take a deep breath and nod. “Yes.” I’m going to will myself to not give in to the embarrassment of this moment. “But if this is too weird, I can go.”

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