Page 31 of Fighting Furry

I grabbed my phone from the dining room table where I'd left it. I hit the Internet and typed in my name. “Aw, shit.” They had pictures of me in the club, dancing, both of my arms bare of casts with a caption asking about my injury. They were suggesting I'd faked my injury? What the hell? Had they even watched the fight? I threw the phone down in disgust and frustration. Damn it, not only was my career over, now my reputation was shot.

Axel grabbed my phone and started scrolling through it, his brow creased. “Uh, sweetheart—”

“I'm not your fucking sweetheart.”

“Clearly, but this guy thinks you're his.”

He passed the phone over and I saw a picture of me in my underwear in a bathroom stall. “Mother fucker.”

“Not to judge, but how the fuck did he get that picture?”

Axel's jaw was tensed so tight I could barely understand him. Somehow it made me feel a tiny bit better that he was more pissed than I was. “I was trying to get in the mood. I may have closed my eyes.” I looked at the picture again, yep, my eyes were closed.

Strong arms wrapped around my waist. “Were you picturing me, sweetheart?”

“So not the time for this.” I elbowed him in the gut. He chuckled like I hadn't hurt him at all, but he let me go. I scrolled past the picture to skim the article. “Super human strength…Aggressive…Tried to…What? He's saying I tried to kill him? Does he know who I am? If I'd wanted him dead, he'd be dead.”

“Pretty sure he knew who you were, sweetheart. That's why he took the picture.”

“Argh. Stop calling me sweetheart.”

He grabbed the phone from my hand and scrolled. “They got pictures of me leaving with you.” There was a smug satisfaction in his voice.

“Of course, they did,” I said, my teeth clenched now. “That's how they knew to follow you.”

He nodded, still scrolling. “Damn, this is a great picture of the two of us. If I copy it, can I save it to your phone?”

I ripped the phone from his hands and threw it on the couch. “Will you focus?”

He wasn't looking at me. He walked to the window and looked down at the paps. “Maybe we should give them what they want. We can walk around the city together, looking all cute, and make it clear you belong to me.”

I stared at him in disbelief. What the hell was wrong with him? I chucked a throw pillow at him and hit him in the back of the head. He spun to face me, grinning like a kid at the carnival. “Good idea, right?”

I shook my head. “Clearly sex has affected your brain and you're of no use to me. Go sit in the corner while the adults plan a way out of this mess.”

He turned back to the window and waved to the paps, who were probably taking his picture. I marched over there, pulled the curtains closed and shoved him toward the corner. He must have expected it, because he'd planted his feet and didn't move at all.

His frown dropped when a buzzing sounded from his pants. He pulled it out, glanced at the screen, and groaned. “Darius,” he said, phone to his ear.

He rolled his eyes, grabbed my waist and pulled me tight against his side. “I have her right here with me and I can guarantee she's not going to do—”

He paused, listening. I struggled against his grip, but he held me tight. “Yeah, in hindsight going out to the club was a mistake, but the gossip rags just think she faked her injury. No one believes she actually healed.” He paused again and slid his hand under the waistband of my pants onto my bare ass. I kicked him hard in the shin and he let me go, wincing. “It's under control, Darius. We're going back to Mule Creek today. Julie's dealt with reporters before, she knows how to dodge them.” He paused, drumming his fingers against his thigh. “Talk to Julie? She's in the shower right now, but I can have her call you when she's out — No? Okay. I'll give you a ring when we're back in Mule Creek…Yeah, man…Bye.”

Axel hung up and shook his head. “That man is higher strung than a chihuahua on crack.” He dropped onto the couch and faced me. “Want to come over here and sit on my lap?”

He looked so good, his legs spread wide, the bulge in his pants at full attention, I was tempted, but sex was how we'd gotten into all this trouble in the first place. “Talking to Darius turned you on?”

He frowned, dropped his arms, and crossed them over his chest. “Bad mood, sweetheart?”

Gah, as soon as we got out of this mess, I was going to hog tie him, cover him in honey, and put him on top of an ant hill. “We need a plan. A way to get out of here without being spotted, because they will follow us all the way back to Mule Creek, and I've got no good ideas about how to lose them.”

He shrugged. “We'll just go out the back way. You finish packing, and I'll keep an eye on the gossip sites.”

I rolled my eyes. “They know all the back ways, genius. We need a real plan.”

“Don't you have a standard procedure for this sort of thing?”

“Uh-huh,” I said, slowly, like I was talking to a baby. “I call my agent and she sends a car to get me away. Except I'm usually just trying to get to a different place in the city, I'm not trying to escape my own home and run away to a hick town where I'll never be seen again.”

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