My head jerked to the side. Rory was staring at me with a lost expression on her face.
“I’m sorry. What did you say?”
She chuckled. “We’re standing in the middle of the park. I thought we were heading back to your place.”
Shit. Could I take her back to my place and keep my hands off her?
“Right. Sorry. I was lost in thought for a second.”
“I’d say so. Gesh, what were you thinking about?”
My dick jumped in my pants. “How much I want to kiss you.”
She grinned, and a beautiful rose color moved across her cheeks. Glancing over my shoulder, her face dropped and turned white as a ghost. “Oh my God. My father.”
“What?” I spun around and saw him running toward us. He hadn’t looked our way yet.
“Hide!” Rory said as she pushed me away. Quickly looking around, I dove into a group of bushes. When I landed, I made a grunting sound.
“Oh my gosh! Are you okay?” she called out. I pulled out a bag, opened it, and chuckled.
“Yeah, the nuts broke my fall.”
“Your nuts broke the fall?” she called out, then said, “Shh! Don’t talk! He’s coming. Oh my God…why am I here? What am I doing in the park?”
Pushing my arm through the bushes, I threw the bag of nuts at her and said, “Feeding the birds!”
I heard her rustling with the bag.
“Rory? Sweetheart, what are you doing here? Why aren’t you at the office?”
I slid farther down and prayed like hell he hadn’t seen or heard me.
“Daddy, I um…well I ah…wasn’t feeling good. So I worked from home. Then I
um…decided to get out and go for a walk. In the park. For fresh air, because that’s where you go when you need fresh air.”
The bag rustled again. “Feeding birds. I was feeding the birds.”
I closed my eyes. She was a terrible liar.
“Sweetheart, what’s wrong? Sore throat? Fever?”
“No, nothing like that. I think I was just really tired. I’ve been working a lot.”
“I know. Your mother tells me about all the hours you put in. Rory honey, you need a private life. What about a boy?”
Rory halfheartedly laughed. “A boy? Daddy, I’m almost twenty-seven years old. I’ve moved on from boys.”
Captain Adams chuckled. “Well, you’ll always be my little girl.”
My head dropped into my hands. He will kill me if he finds out what I did to his little girl today. Or what I plan on doing to her in my bed.
“Listen, how about you come over for dinner this week. I met a nice young man at the bank the other day.”
Rory groaned, and anger instantly flowed through my entire body. “Dad, no. I’m not interested in meeting the guy who works at your bank.”
“Why? You seeing someone?”