Page 14 of Cloudy With a Chance of Bad Decisions

“What I like to read is none of your business.”

“Why?” Alex’s eyes crinkled in amusement as he crossed one of his ridiculously long legs over the other, his ankle bumping my thigh. It wasn’t his fault he was massive—but fuck. I blamed him anyway.

I hadn’t been lying when I told him he had big legs.

“I don’t appreciate you getting off on bothering me,” I muttered.

Alex’s thick, dark brows shot up, and his grin turned wicked again. The urge to stab was back. Unconsciously, I pulled my pen from my pocket, fiddling with the cap nervously as Alex continued to tease.

“You seem to think you already have me figured out, don’t you?” He asked, once again entertained rather than offended.

“You’re not that hard to figure out.” Another glance at our seat neighbor confirmed she was still asleep, and not listening to our verbal sparring. Good. Ink spread across the pad of my thumb as I rubbed it back and forth, self-soothing.

“Speaking of hard, you never did answer my earlier question.”

I frowned, confused. “What question?”

“About whether or not you name all your sex toys?” His voice was quiet, intimate. There was no way anyone else could hear, but my cheeks still flamed. “I’m guessing you do.”

“Jesus Christ.” He was such an asshole.

“That’s not a very sexy name.” Alex pouted.

“I’m about five seconds from stabbing you with my pen.”

“So you’ve threatened.” Alex’s whole body was quaking with mirth. “Believe me, I’m terrified.” He did notsoundterrified. He was as infuriatingly unbothered as always. Like he truly did not expect me to follow through on my threat.

Like I was a joke to him.

A giant fucking joke.

Someone to laugh at, to poke and prod and taunt.

Well.

Joke’s on him. He wasn’t leaving this flight unscathed. If he was going to push me past the breaking point, I was going to demonstrate why that was a bad idea. I couldn’t quell the bubble of both excitement and irritation mounting inside me.

For the first time since we’d met, I knew exactly how to shut him up.

And no, it wasn’t the perfect or “socially acceptable” thing to do. And it wasn’t ignoring him, or verbally confronting him, because both of those things had thus far only egged him on.

No.

I was going to shut him up by doing exactly what I’d promised I would.

This wasn’t the kind of thing I’d ever consider with anyone else.

But Alex brought out a side of me that I hadn’t known was there.

Raw and unfiltered and honest.

So, even though it was an unhinged choice to make, and totally out of character, I still did it. Still flipped the pen around, squeezed it tight in my fist, and slammed it down on his leg. The tip of the ballpoint planted right into the meaty part of his thigh with enough force to leave a spot of black in the charcoal gray.

Alex’s eyes nearly popped out of his head.

His jaw dropped open, pearly teeth flashing.

Surprising him—actuallysurprising him—was the single most satisfying experience I had ever had. Alex’s leg jumped beneath the point of my pen, and ink spread in a streak that I hoped would remind him every time he looked at it not to be a dick.

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