The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy

Chapter 0384

And by the tension in his shoulders, I can tell that he's working very, very hard to embody that.

"Come here, Ariel," he murmurs, standing by the door and beckoning with one hand, the other resting on his hip.

I send one last desperate glance at Daphne before walking to stand in front of my father.

When I stand about a foot in front of him he takes a deep breath in through his nose and reaches out to brush my hair back over my shoulder. "Well, baby trouble," he murmurs. "You smell...different."

The amount of deliberate understatement in that last word makes me fight back a groan.

I bite my lip, tucking my hands behind my back. "Is it bad?" I whisper.

"No, baby," he sighs, shaking his head at me and giving me a small smile, stroking his broad hand over my hair." It's not bad, not at all. Just...not as easy for a dad. Which is something Rafe and Mark might understand one day, but fortunately for you, you never will."

that last foot between us and wrap my arms around my dad's waist, crushing myself against his chest. "I'm sorry," I whisper, meaning

"I'm just... adjusting. You're my little girl, and now someone else has a claim on you, and that's... an adjustment. Two someone else's, at

I murmur, shutting my eyes, wanting always - always to be his little

that," he whispers, and I grin,

though, into more serious lines as he glances over at Daphne, giving her

little and standing

one of the cuffs on his wrist. He looks at me seriously. "But the Atalaxians have called a surprise meeting and...I don't

neck and then down over my hair, just as Jesse did every morning and after every shower at the academy. Almost a

for?" I ask,

know precisely how he feels about that, "but it

I ask, completely willing to do as he says but

Luca in the room too they'll notice that you smell like

Rafe and Jesse didn't think of that this morning. Then I look up at my dad out of the comer of my eye.