by E A Price
Magda squeezed his hand, and his dad gave him a thumbs-up, this was followed by six matching smiles from his new hippo brothers and sisters.
He could feel the hot glare of Jackson on his neck, but he didn’t care. Jackson was sporting a black eye. Hey, he shouldn’t have laughed at the daisies.
All his friends from the gym and the bail bond agency had turned up. Thor was watching the proceedings, pensively – he hadn’t laughed once. Mia was cuddled against Logan. Carly watched with rapt attention. Stone pretended he hadn’t noticed Detective Wyatt Leeman – he suspected that Wyatt may like Francine just a little too much. Zara was singing along with all the songs – he knew the witch was a secret princess fan. Biff was trying to get Zara’s attention, but she was having none of it. Noah at least was pretending not to sing along with the songs – even though they all knew he was. Even his boss, Marcus had turned up with his mate, Ling. She spent the first half ducking out to call the babysitter – it was the first time they’d left the twins. Now, both she and Marcus were sleeping, their mouths were open in silent snores.
His rhino chuffed as Francine came back on the stage. He could block out the male actor. As far as he was concerned, only… He stilled as his rhino reared at what was happening on stage.
What the fuck?
Stone growled and jumped out of his seat. Oh, no! Hell no!
*
“I’m not angry,” said Francine as she curled into her mate’s lap.
Stone kissed her chin. “Yeah?”
“Mark – he was the actor you hit by the way – may never forgive you, and I doubt the director will ever want to see you again, but I’m not angry.” She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, and her flamingo cooed in happiness. “To be clear, though, I was just acting, okay?”
“I know, I just…”
“I wouldn’t have kissed him if it wasn’t in the script.”
“Damn fucking stupid script, if you ask me,” he muttered, not entirely under his breath.
Francine giggled as she stroked his back. “Aww, honey. You know I have a no-nudity policy…”
“Darn right, you do!”
She clucked, soothingly. “How about I add a no-kissing policy?”
“You don’t mind?”
“Of course not.” He had stopped accepting female clients at the gym for her. She really didn’t mind doing this for him. She never found stage kisses pleasant, and the actor opposite her in her current role seemed to eat tuna sandwiches for every meal. Making her mate feel good really wasn’t a chore.
Stone rubbed her thigh and gave her a lusty grin. “You know, it’s been a while since…”
Francine recognized the spark in his eyes. She kicked off her heels and wriggled out of his lap. “Ten-minute head start?”
He snorted. “Feathers, you’ve got thirty seconds – so you better get moving.”
She let out a squawk and fled.
He counted to thirty as quickly as possible and ran after his flamingo fugitive.
The end
Hello!
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Elizabeth Ann Price
