Free Desiring the Forbidden by Megan Michaels Page B

horrid?
    He walked with her into the living room, picking up his laptop off the coffee table. He pointed at the couch. “Sit.” He covered her with a blanket, placing the laptop in front of her. “You can play some of the games I have on that thing. However, you will not get onto Facebook. Can I trust you?”
    “Yes, Daddy. I won’t. I promise. I learned my lesson.”
    And she had. The last thing she wanted to do was get in trouble with him again.
    He watched her face closely for a moment, staring at her in silence. “Okay. I believe you. This is the menu for the games. I’ll give you the remote to watch whatever you want on TV.”
    She waited until he was out of the room, then shifted, putting her weight on her hip. He’d probably allow it, but she didn’t want to do it in front of him, just in case.
    What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.
    She’d been engrossed in a game of Holiday Drops and actually jumped when the phone rang.
    Do people actually have house phones anymore?
    She looked at the clock on the laptop. She’d been playing games for over a half hour. Cade’s heavy footfalls were heard rushing from the kitchen toward the telephone stand in the living room. He grabbed the phone from its cradle.
    “Hello.” Cade put the phone on his shoulder, wiping his hands until thoroughly dried. “Hey, Britt! How are you?
    Sunni’s heart leapt into her throat.
    Oh, Christ! Well, this could go really bad.
    “Yeah, it’s been snowing here. It’s winter, it always snows here. How’s sunny California?”
    He walked over to sit next to Sunni, squeezing her thigh, winking at her. He listened quietly for a minute, nodding. “Not much. Same old, same old. You’ll never guess who I ran into yesterday.”
    He laughed. “No, not her. Try again.” He traced lacy circles with his finger on Sunni’s leg. “I ran into Sunni. I know, right? It was great to see her. She’s doing very well. Now, you know I can’t state why or how I saw her, but I assure you, no, she wasn’t getting arrested.”
    Sunni scowled at him. It would be just like Brittney to assume she’d been arrested. Since they had gone their separate ways in high school, it seemed that Brittney looked down on her. Girls could be so mean.
    “That’d be awesome. I forgot that Easter was in a week. It’ll be great to see you. Give me your flight numbers when you have them, and I’ll pick you up from the airport.” He chuckled, the laugh lines showing around his eyes. “Okay, I won’t pick you up in the Statie. Talk to you later, pumpkin. Love you too.”
    He clicked the phone off. “Brittney will be here next week! Won’t that be awesome?”
    “Awesome? Are you fucking nuts? No, that’s not awesome!” Sunni tried to get up off the couch, only to find herself held down by the burly trooper.
    “Madison! You will not swear. I know it’s been a while, and you’re grown up now, but that word will never be allowed in this house.” He stared at her until she silently nodded, mumbling an apology. “And yes, I do think Britt coming home is a good thing. We’ll have a great time. You haven’t seen her in a while anyway.”
    “Cade, listen…” When he raised an eyebrow at her, she quickly corrected herself. “Daddy, there’s a reason we haven’t talked. She stopped talking to me years ago. I’m not even sure why. But she hasn’t wanted to be anywhere near me for a very long time. You heard what she said; she assumed I’d been arrested. I can go back to my apartment when she comes back. The guys should be in custody by then, right?” She closed the laptop, placing it on the coffee table.
    “I’m sorry about Brittney. I didn’t know. But it doesn’t matter. You two have been out of high school for almost three years now. She’s changed — and you’ve changed. She’s been in California for a while and has had to grow up. We’ll let the past be the past.”
    “It’s not going to work. I can tell you with certainty. Girls don’t