Page 25 of Unwrapping His Naughty Secret

And then silence falls over the house like a cozy down blanket.

According to my phone, it’s only been about fifteen minutes since Hannah went to bed, which isn’t nearly enough time, but my body is aching to go to Hunter now.

I play a puzzle game on my phone. Lose badly.

Listen to the quiet nothing of the house.

Try to play again. Give up.

Finally, when it’s been twenty-three minutes and also a lifetime, I ease the door open, step into the dark hallway, and run smack into Hunter at the top of the stairs. He’s taken off his buttoned-down shirt, and is now just wearing a t-shirt over jeans. He’s also carrying a giant sack.

He gives me a wide grin. “Hi,” he whispers.

“What are you doing?” I whisper back.

“Playing Santa.”

That’s freaking adorable. And it feels maybe a decade late. “I hate to break it to you, but Hannah knows that the North Pole isn’t a real place.”

“I mostly do it for Wyatt.”

I giggle. That’s fair.

He jerks his head. “Can you find my room?”

Heat races through me and I nod.

“Go on then.” His gaze slides over my body, and he smiles in a deeply satisfied way that turns that rioting heat into something even more intense. “I’ll be right there.”

I walk past the bathroom at the end of thehallway and turn into the wing Hannah pointed to earlier.

Hunter’s private space.

A light was left on inside, a warm glow that pulls me deeper into the room. There’s a bed at the far end, but before that is a sitting area with an oversized reading chair, a large full-length mirror next to a door that looks like it goes to a walk-in closet, and on the other wall, a lot of framed art. In the centre of the sprawling display is a large illustration that catches my eye, of the same cartoon character in the framed print downstairs, but this sketch is rougher. And he’s sitting next to a little girl.

“Hannibal the Unterrible’s ignoble beginning,” Hunter says quietly from behind me. “Hannah always wanted a brother. But he morphed into a grumpy little tyrant. Which maybe would have happened with an actual sibling, too.”

I turn around. “Hannibal the Unterrible,” I repeat, looking at my first kiss in a whole new light. “I couldn’t remember his name. Hewas a big deal.”

Hunter shrugs a little, but he looks proud.

“So when you said you’re an illustrator…”

“You might be familiar with some of my work.”

“They made this into amovie.”

“They sure did.”

“That’s…” Well, that explains why Hannah drives a nice car. “Very cool.”

He puts his hand on the door. “Can I close this?”

A tremor of anticipation ripples through me and I nod. “How did the Santa Claus mission go?”

“They all pretended to be asleep downstairs.”

I smile. “That’s cute.”

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