Page 37 of Crazy In Love (Love & War #2)

CHRIS

My cock thickens in my jeans, expertly hidden behind a zipper and boxers.

I knew she’d try to test me tonight . Wandering toward the ticket booth, I lift just one finger for the attendant, and when my phone vibrates in my back pocket, I reach around and swipe to answer, Tommy’s name flashing on the screen.

“Hey?”

“The fuck is going on between you and Fox?”

Shit. Damn. My stomach jumps, and my cock softens. “Hmm?”

“Christian, I’m not blind, and you’re my twin brother. I’ve known you your whole fucking life. So when I’m asking you about something like this, it’s because I’m getting some twin-telepathy bullshit. Or,” he growls, “ya know, I’m seeing you with my own fucking eyes.”

I place a twenty onto the counter in exchange for my ticket and turning away, I stalk toward the building front doors rather than head into the cinema. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“The hell you don’t! Alana’s basically comatose this week, so she’s not noticing shit. But you may as well have pissed on Fox at dinner, ‘cos I saw the way you watched her.”

“I didn’t watch her like anything!”

“You watched her like you were the big bad wolf, dickhead. And she was your Red.”

She wanted discretion, and I’m a shitty liar. That was our first mistake. I drag my free hand through my hair and bite down on my groan. “You’re seeing things. I was just eating my dinner and enjoying an evening where she was irritating me less . I thought you wanted us to get along, anyway?”

“I do want you to get along! I don’t want you to take her to bed and break her heart when it’s all done. Because then Alana will be forced to choose sides.”

“Wait…” My pulse skitters and my stomach drops, so I step outside the building and onto the sidewalk, where the cool breeze hits my skin. “She would choose? Who the hell do you think she’d choose? Because she was mine way before she was Fox’s.”

“That’s the whole fucking point! We don’t want her to have to choose.

If you and Fox are doing the dirty, then do it.

Have fun. Be safe. But if shit goes bad and hearts are broken, it won’t just be yours or Fox’s.

It’ll be Alana’s because she loves you both.

If she’s forced to split her time between the two of you or choose one over the other to invite to her important family events, then I’m gonna snap some fucking necks. ”

“You sound especially violent on the matter.” I draw my tongue across my lips and exhale. “Fox and I are… nothing. We’re just friends.”

“Friends?”

“Barely! We hardly tolerate each other. She annoys the ever-loving shit out of me, on purpose , by the way. And I annoy her, since stable, sensible, normal people with a healthy respect for keeping time and routine is something that bothers her.”

“Chris—”

“Nothing is going on between me and Fox. She’s in town for six weeks, helping Alana.

I fucking told you— both of you —that she didn’t even have to be here, since I could help with Franky and Caroline would help with the shop.

You didn’t listen, which is fine. That’s on you.

But don’t come at me with your bullshit just because she and I weren’t swiping at each other at dinner.

Not fighting doesn’t automatically translate to hooking up. ”

“Yeah?” he questions slowly, allowing the silence to settle between us. “Well, I don’t believe you.”

“Twenty-nine years, and now you call me a liar?” I shake my head and feel the insult lash at my heart, though, technically, I am a liar. “Hurtful.”

“What are you doing right now? I saw you driving out, but you said you were going home to watch TV. Not at the cinema by chance, are you?”

“I am, actually. But!” I add quickly. “I told you from the start I’d be keeping a close eye on them. Franky’s my family, Tommy, just like you are. She springs a movie on us at dinnertime? She even springs it on Alana? That’s not very nice of her.”

“So you’re there to supervise?” he drawls. “Really? ”

“Yes, really! Who’s to say she was actually bringing him to the theater? Maybe she was taking him for ice cream and a little chat about moving back to New York?”

He chokes out a laugh. “New York? She’s not going to abduct him, stupid!”

“No, but she might try a little manipulation.” Do I believe that? No. But did I, back before ? Yep. “Fox is here as Alana’s rep, and I’m here as yours. I see no reason for you to be pissy about that.”

He draws a long breath in through his nose, the whistle easily painting a picture in my mind. Then he exhales again and ends it with a grunt. “Are you sleeping with Fox? Are you considering sleeping with Fox?”

“No, I?—”

“Do you have a plan for the possible eventuality where one or both of you catch feelings but live half a country apart? Or one of you breaks the others’ heart but have to co-friend Alana and Franky for the next seventy years?”

“Tommy—”

“Tell me the truth, Christian. Tell me where you’re at, so I can slide in and cushion the blow for the people I love.

Because, believe it or not, Alana isn’t the only person I’m worried about.

Your heart might be the most fragile of them all, and I’ll go to war to defend you.

But if we reach a point where my enemy is Fox Tatum, who just so happens to be my future wife’s best friend, then I’m gonna end up on my fucking knees in no-man’s-land, begging for a truce and secretly hating Fox for the rest of my life, because she hurt my baby brother. ”

“I’m not into Fox,” I grit out. “I’m not interested in her scattered, flaky, fake-ass job having self, nor do I have any interest in pursuing a woman who lives as far away as she does.

On June fourteenth, I’m putting her back on a plane heading east. That’s when I’ll breathe easier again.

She’s a pain in my ass, Tommy. But she’s a short-term pain that’ll be gone soon.

So stop stressing out. Are you done now? ”

“Done prying into your personal life?” Finally, he releases a chuckle and moves from whatever chair he’s in when Hazel’s cute little squeaked exhale proves she’s awake. “Yeah, I’m done. I’m sorry for calling you a liar.”

“It’s alright. I’ve said some shit about you in the past.”

“To my face?”

“Behind your back, too.” I spin on my heels to head inside, only to be caught in Fox’s eyes, so fucking pretty, so big and vulnerable, and waiting for me, right in the cinema doorway .

“Asshole,” he snickers, oblivious to what’s right in front of me.

How fucking disrespectful am I to say what I’ve said and deny the very things he saw with his own eyes.

For acting hurt that he called me a liar.

When I am.

“Uh… Movie’s gonna start soon, so I’ll talk to you later. Tomorrow, probably.” I drag my free hand down to smooth my shirt. “Take care of my niece, and don’t forget to make Alana drink water. She’ll dehydrate if you don’t.”

“Thanks,” he drawls. “Do I need to remind you she’s mine and not yours?”

“Nope. I know where everyone sits on the pecking order. I’m hanging up now.” Instead of waiting for his goodbye, I kill the call and slip the phone into my pocket, and glancing left, then right, to make sure we’re alone, I gift Fox with a wide smile and meander closer. “Hey. Where’s Franky?”

“Inside already.” She chews on her lip and takes a step back. “I needed to pee, so he’s minding our seats and watching the trailers. I was heading back in when I saw you out here on the phone.”

“Oh, yeah…” I’d rather be inside, hidden in the dark, where it’s entirely okay to touch where no one can see. Where I could lean in and bury my nose against her neck and no one, not even Franky, would be any the wiser.

Knowing I can’t grab her hand out here, I dig mine into my pockets and start through the door. “Tommy needed to talk for a second.”

“He okay? Is Alana alright?”

“Everyone is fine.” I grab the heavy cinema door and pull it open to reveal a dark room, with a massive screen on one wall and a few dozen all-but-empty seats rolling toward the back wall.

Best of all, this cinema isn’t like those fancy kinds in the city, with cameras watching every angle and every seat filled.

In fact, besides Franky, there ain’t a soul here who could attest to the fact Fox and I wander in together.

“Wanna sit beside me, Fox Tatum?” I slide my fingertips over the small of her back. “Please?”

“Sure.” She brushes my hand away and heads up the stairs toward the boy, who hugs his bucket of popcorn against his chest.

But he doesn’t eat a single piece.

Not until the movie begins.

“Looks like we have the whole cinema to ourselves.” She moves into his row and folds her seat down, giving herself somewhere to sit. “This never happens in New York.”

“That’s ‘cos there are more people in New York.” His eyes remain plastered to the screen, an ad for some other Marvel universe movie flashing over the lenses of his glasses. “Statistically, it’s just not possible to be the only person going to the movies in New York.”

“Well, of course.” Fox settles in, folding one leg over the other and bringing her seductive eyes my way. She sets her hand on what would be my chair, pushing it down in offering. “Will you sit here, Christian?”

“Can I sit in the next row?” Franky swings his gaze around, excited and jittery. “Since there’s no one else here. It doesn’t really matter if I sit in the next row, right?”

“It doesn’t really matter.” Fox snatches a piece of his popcorn, infuriating the boy—rightfully—and grinning when he scowls.

Then she gestures forward. “You can sit in any of the seats you want. Your choice. Just make sure you tell me if you need to get up and go to the bathroom. Don’t sneak out in the dark. ”

“Can I take my popcorn?” Slowly, he leans forward on his chair. Not yet committed to his plan. “Do I have to leave it behind? Because I don’t want to take all your popcorn, but I want some, too.”