Page 55 of When love and Hate Collide

“I can’t wait to lounge on the beach with a cocktail in both hands,” Jessica sighs longingly. “Let this be a warning to you all, I plan to spend ninety percent of this holiday drunk.”

Oz laughs and nods in agreement, “I’m seconding that,” Jessica grins and they fist bump.

I groan when my temples throb and rest my head on Oz’s shoulder as we shuffle along the queue. With a smile he wraps his arm around my shoulder and draws me against him. “Is your head still hurting, kid?” I nod mutely and he massages the back of my neck soothingly.

“Ash, can I please marry your brother?” I say with a pout and wrap my arms around his waist and Ash looks over at us hugging and rolls her eyes.

“No, as much as I love you, my brothers are off limits to my friends... especially you. You’re like a sister to me so it would feel like incest. And no, I don’t care how much you two adore each other, it’s sickening to think about my friends shacking up with my brothers.” She carps distastefully and I ignore the sting in my chest when my eyes veer over to Dean who is watching me.

“Don’t worry kid, we’ll elope and not tell anyone,” Oz suggests flippantly and Ashlyn turns her head to give him a deadpan look.

Forty-five minutes later we are checked in and gone through security. As I predicted our flight is delayed by thirty minutes.

I’m currently in the perfume section browsing through and smelling different perfumes when I hear a very girlish laugh behind me. I look back and surprise, surprise I see Dean flirting with a gorgeous brunette that’s hanging around the men's aftershave section. I let my eyes wander down the length of her and even I’m impressed by her beauty. Long wavy almost black hair, warm honey-coloured eyes and a lean petite frame. You can absolutely tell she works out. There’s a deep sultry look in her eyes while she converses with him.

I can bet my life he’s boasting to her about being a fighter pilot. That seems to be his stratagem with women, and they all pathetically eat it up every word and fawn all over him.

My curiosity gets the better of me and before I can stop myself, I’m slyly moving over from the women's to the men's section and strain my ears to hear what they are talking about.

“That’s great, I'll be seeing you on the plane then, Angel.” Dean burrs, grinning like a fucking patsy while they exchange numbers.Angel? Fucking Angel? That’s what he called me!

I gasp and the two-hundred-pound bottle of aftershave I’m holding almost slips from my grasp when she pushes up on her tiptoes and presses her lips to his. Dean stills, his eyes remain open and even from where I’m standing, I see his jaw clenching. I hold my breath waiting to see if he will pull away or kiss her back. Of course, Dean being the swine that he is, doesn’t put up much of a fight and instead places his hands on her small waist and draws her against him kissing her back.

My stomach rolls unpleasantly at the sight. It’s not even been four hours since he was kissing me like that and now he’s kissing some girl he’s known five minutes. I shake my head in aversion, inwardly chiding myself for being so goddamn stupid and weak-willed enough to let the scum ever touch me and risk jeopardising my friendship with Ash.

“Hey,” Ashlyn suddenly appears making me jump. I look at her and force a smile on my face. “It’s almost time to board. Where’s De—” The words die on her lips, and she scowls when she sees her brother snogging the brunette. “Ugh, look at him, not an ounce of indignity while he snogs some random bird in the middle of the airport. Oi, dickhead, we have a plane to catch.” Dean draws back, ending the kiss when he hears Ashlyn’s scathing remark. “Listen doll, I’m doing you a favour, you’ll be forgotten in less time than it would take his disgusting drool to dry on your lips.” Dean glares at her hard and she smirks back at him, hooks her arm with mine and pulls me out of the duty free with her.

You know what, I will not let him affect me. I don’t know what he’s playing at, but I refuse to be a part of his twisted ploy any longer.

Much to my and everyone else’s displeasure we all have to endure Dean andRachelfawning over each other like two sickening lusty teenagers and I’ll be lying if I said the whole exchange didn’t make me want to projectile vomit all over them.

“May I see your boarding passes, please?” The air hostess asks with a sugary smile as we board the plane.

Oz, Jess, Ash and I show our passes first and move along the aisle toward our seats.

“Miss Jenkins, Mr Reyes you’re both in aisle forty, A and B. And Miss… Thompson you are in aisle nineteen C.”

Wait,what?

You have got to be fucking kidding me. I am not next to him for a ten-hour flight.

Dean and I both scowl at our boarding passes when the air hostess hands them back to us.

“Oh sweetie, I’m all the way at the front,” Rachel whines with a put-out pout, and Dean nods.

“I’ll catch up with you once we’re airborne.” Dean tells her while I’m struggling to reach the overhead bins to put in my carry-on bag. “Take your time, not like there’s a queue behind us or anything.” Dean utters jadedly from behind me and smirks when I turn my head to glare at him.

“Would move a lot faster if you helped.”

Dean chuckles, “No, I like to watch you suffer.” I roll my eyes, muttering every profanity under my breath while he smugly crosses his arms over his chest.

“Dean, stop being a dickhead.” Oz scolds his younger brother and being the gentleman that he is, gets up from his seat, takes my bag and places it in the compartment and winks when I smile at him gratefully. This flight would be much more pleasant if I were sitting with Oscar instead of Satan’s spawn.

“You were saying about not being a princess?” I hear Dean mutter icily in my ear and choose to ignore him after I ‘accidently’ ram my elbow into his ribs. I smile when I hear him grunt and curse under his breath while I take the window seat.

Dean places his bag in the overhead bin and takes the seat next to me. We push each other’s elbows off the arm rest between us. I shove his arm off and he exhales slowly and pins me with a dark look that scalds my insides.

“Dean, I'm heading to my seat. I hope I’ll see you after we take off.” Rachel states with a suggestive smile as she walks by. She’s the last passenger to take her seat, but Dean catches her arm and tugs her down into his lap wedging me between them and the window, not to mention Rachel’s hair is all in my face.

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