I’m face to face with her dad, the male version of his daughter.

Same eyes. Same nose.

Same white-blonde hair, only he’s got grey around the temples and the skin around his eyes and forehead show the lines of years well spent.

His ice-green eyes rake over me as though seeing my muscles in person has put the worst kind of visual in his head.

Me with his daughter.

Every daddy’s nightmare.

I’m not a doctor or a lawyer, and I sure as shit ain’t no politician.

He locks on Hannah, face turning bright red, jaw rigid. “Get your things.”

“Daddy! What are you doing here?”

He stares at her like she’s nuts. “You haven’t seen the news?”

She shakes her head, glancing quickly to me. “No, I threw my phone away, and we…haven’t been watching T.V.”

His jaw ticks. “Great,” he dryly mutters.

“Sir, my name is–”

“I know who you are, Tobias. You think I didn’t Google you when I saw?”

Hannah explodes, shouting, “What’s the big deal about my taking that card from that ring girl and cheering Tobias on?” She waves a hand behind her to my hotel room. “And I’m almost thirty! I can sleep with whomever I wish, just like you did when you were my age! Remember my mother?”

Sucking his cheek, he stares at her with a pained expression. She just punched him below the belt. It’s fascinating to watch this father-daughter fight. It’s just like how she described them — you can see the love.

What she can’t see is that he’s not controlling her.

He’s protecting her.

Because I’m a man, I can tell.

It’s what we do and there’s no mistaking it.

“Hannah,” he groans, shaking his head to rip her words from it. Unlocking his phone with quick thumb jabs he holds it up. “Look.”

She leans in, and her face transforms to horror.

“Oh my God!” she grabs the phone and swipes the image gone from sight. Her eyelashes rise to look at me. “It’s us in the ocean, Tobias. When I was…touching you and you were…”

When she had her hand on my cock through my soaking wet boxers, she means. When my hands held her breasts and caressed her nipples.

On video.

Remembering those kids, I growl, “I should have broken their phones the first time!”

“It’s all over the news,” Justin barks, eyeing me like I’m an idiot. “Do you realize how much she’s had to deal with already? You think she needs this shit?”

“Hey,” I counter, throwing up one of my hands. “We didn’t see them! If I’d have known that would never have posted!”

“They were filming you! They recognized you, because you’re local! But this went viral because of her, when the Internet caught onto who she was!” He points at his daughter who looks tormented.

“I’m sorry, Hannah,” I grunt, having no idea how this will ricochet through her life.

“Get your things. You two seen together, it’ll be a clusterfuck they’ll feed off of for weeks! They’ll be all over you with cameras. We’ve gotta end this now. I’ll get you out of here. I’ve got a helicopter waiting for us.”

A fucking chopper? My eyes dart to Hannah, but she’s not surprised. How many times has she flown in one?

She runs a trembling hand over her wet head. “Can I dry my hair at least?! Can I at least have a second to process this? You know what, fuck this,” she mumbles on her way into the bathroom. She shuts the door, not waiting for an answer.

He doesn’t argue or chastise her cussing – didn’t faze him at all that she swore like that. I’m more impressed by this guy by every passing second. Too bad he hates my guts.

And here we are just standing in this small hallway like a couple of idiots with nothing to do but wait for her to get ready. I take the reins and head in, asking over my shoulder, “You want something from the minibar?”

“No.” But he follows me, eyeing the bed and shoving his hands in his slacks pockets.

Exhaling, I open it anyway and toss a beer at him. He catches it and pauses before popping the screw cap off and tossing it in the trash from where he stands. I grab one for myself and we gulp a healthy amount down at the same time, his eyes on her turquoise dress that’s lying over a chair.

Can’t even imagine what it must have been like for him. To have a daughter would be fucking torture for me. I bet he’s wanted to kill every guy who ever looked at her, just to protect her from the pain some guys can cause. It’s the devil’s dance.

But that’s not what I did with Hannah and I want him to know it.

“I care about her.”

Shark-like eyes lock onto me, but he says nothing and takes another hefty sip. The only sound is the hair dryer blowing, muffled through walls.

Leaning against the dresser I repeat it. “I care about her.”

“So?”

“So I’m going to leave her alone.”

His beer bottle freezes in front of his lips as he frowns in surprise. Nodding with a glimmer of respect behind his eyes, he takes a sip and we wait.

Finally the bathroom door opens. Hannah’s eyes are on me as she comes into the room, hair soft and cascading around her shoulders. She looks like she’s trying to prepare herself for heartache.

“I love the dress, Tobias.”

It feels like a cold hand is twisting my heart. “You make it look good, babe.”

Her resigned gaze drifts to the beer he’s holding before she glances to mine. “You friends?”

“Nope,” he mutters before finishing it off.

“Tobias,” she whispers, crossing to me, her eyes begging me to understand. “Thank you.”

I cup her chin, forgetting all about her dad watching me. “I wanted to spend as much time with you as I could.”

She nods then leans into me for a hug.

I embrace her and kiss her hair before letting her go.

For good.

Scooping up the dress from last night, she glances around. “Oh, right. Sofia had our money in her purse. This is all I brought.” With her shoulders heavy she walks away as her dad drops his empty bottle in the trash. It makes a whoosh sound in the silence, and bangs against the side of the container.

No movement or sound goes unnoticed, everything heightened as my chest thuds.

Her dad nods to me. “Good fight, by the way. Congratulations.”

Stifling the urge to punch him out and run away with her, I rasp, “Thanks.”

Hannah’s face squishes up, but she stifles the flash of pain I just saw and returns to stone cold detached in an instant. Her hand flutters up to wave. Not looking back, she disappears.

Justin Cocker locks eyes with me as he shuts the door.

They’re gone.

She’s gone.

I’m alone again.

I set down my beer, heart slamming in my chest as emptiness closes in around me.