Page 14 of Property of Fox

“Yeah? And yet you keep me around,” I shoot back. “Guess that means you secretly love how much of a pain in the ass I am, Az.”

“I love you like a hemorrhoid,” he fires back at me with a middle finger.

“I’ve got an idea,” Hallie pipes up, and there’s that glimmer in her eye again. “How about we play a game? Every time someone bumps into Fox here, he has to take a shot.”

“Sounds like your way of getting him hammered,” Az grunts.

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Hallie comments.

“Baby, the last thing I want to do it babysit a drunk as fuck Fox. Trust me, you don’t want that evil either. Not when we’re thirty thousand feet in the air without an escape route.”

“He’s not wrong, Hallie. The last time I tied one on I woke up naked, duct taped to a light pole in the Wal-Mart parking lot at four in the morning.”

“How the hell did you get there?”

“Good question. Ask your fiancé.”

Az chuckles. “He committed a party foul, and had to pay the price.”

A ding comes through the cabin as the flight attendants start their normal safety routine. The one closest to us keeps her eyes glued to me the entire time. I notice her gaze lingering. She’s gorgeous. Her fitted uniform displays her ample curves like a fucking tasting menu. I’m glad I didn’t grab a to-go dessert in the terminal after lunch because it looks like my dessert is about to be hand delivered.

Hallie nudges my shoulder, breaking me out of my thoughts. “Stop staring.”

“I’m watching the safety demonstration,” I reply too quickly, a grin slipping across my face. “It’s titillating.”

Azrael snorts, shaking his head. “Don’t even think about accosting the flight attendant.”

“Would I do that?”

“Yes,” Az and Hallie answer simultaneously.

The flight attendants wrap up their demo, and we start taxiing down the runway. My stomach does that delightful danceof anticipation and dread. Fuck I hate flying nearly as much as I hate the reason I am flying in the first place.

“Why don’t we let him stew over in his seat and eye fuck the flight attendant while the two of us grab a little shut eye?” Az mentions to Hallie.

“Dude, I’m right fucking here,” I retort. “Do not make me sit this close to the two of you fucking cuddling.”

Hallie's laughter bubbles up, and she leans back in her seat, a playful glint in her eye. “Just imagine us all cozy while you suffer solo. It’s practically a public service!”

“Right, because I do so love being left out while my two best friends pile on the mushy romance in the seats next to me. Third wheels aren’t my thing unless it’s a threesome and I’m involved.”

“Not happening, asshole” Az warns me.

“But I brought a new stash of strawberry edible panties just for Hallie. She loved them the last time we came to Texas.”

“You didn’t?” Hallie gasps next to me.

“Guess we’ll find out when we land,” I wink back at her. “Speaking of that, isn’t the whole point of this charade to make Eden and I’s fake relationship look real? I doubt rolling up in an Uber is going to be the shock and awe arrival that she had envisioned.”

“It’s under control,” Hallie says, winking before she stretches out like a cat in the sun.

“What do you know?”

“You’ll see when we get there,” she says, yawning wide. Az stretches out his right arm, and she snuggles into his chest.

“Hey, you didn’t answer me. What is the plan?”

Hallie ignores my question, and seconds later, a soft snore comes from her direction. I shake my head in disbelief as I watch Azrael run a hand through Hallie’s hair, his expression softening in a way that only the love-struck can achieve. It makes me feellike I’m trapped in a Hallmark movie, the kind where the side character ends up alone and unfulfilled at the end.

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