Chapter 9
Then, finally, he moved.
Hunter Holt looked up from his chair like he hadn’t just been soaking in every word this entire time.
His voice was low. Lethal.
“Bailey White, right?”
She flinched like he’d slapped her with just his tone.
“You do realize I’m in this room, right?” he said, cool as hell. “So why, exactly, can’t Savannah like me?”
The whole room fell dead silent.
Bailey’s mouth opened. No words came out.
Landon stepped between them so fast it made my head spin. “Uncle Hunter, Bailey was just making a fair assumption. You and Savannah… you’ve never even spoken.”
Logan chimed in, scowling. “Yeah. She barely knows you.”
Hunter chuckled—low, amused, dangerous.
“So instead of believing she might actually like me, you’d rather slap her with some incest-fantasy bullshit and call it a day?”
“You two are cruel.”
Every muscle in the room froze.
The three of them—Bailey, Logan, Landon—looked like they’d been caught naked in church.
But Hunter didn’t stop there.
He stretched like a bored lion, stood, and strolled toward me with zero fucks to give.
When he passed me, he leaned in just enough to make my heart stutter.
“Now you see,” he murmured, “some people aren’t who you thought they were.”
“Open your eyes, Savvy. Stop letting people play you.”
I nodded before I even realized I was doing it.
And then, to top it all off, he dropped a hand onto my head and ruffled my hair—like I was his favorite fucking girl in the world.
“He PET her. I’m dying. He petted her like she was HIS.”
“That was not a casual hair ruffle. That was sex in gesture form.”
“Someone get me a fan. I’m overheating.”
“Y’all better chill—she’s barely legal.”
“AND Hunter’s barely holding it together. He’s one button away from snapping her bra open.”
My throat went dry. My face was burning.
“I… thank you, Hunter,” I whispered.
He tilted his head, dark eyes heavy on mine.
“Hunter?” he repeated, amused.
Then he smiled. The kind that made your spine melt and your knees lock.
“Sure. We can go with that.”
I didn’t know what the hell that meant.
But right then, I couldn’t think past how damn hot my skin felt.
