Good money says the assholes in charge of airline travel are a bunch of sadists. It’s like they’ve figured out the precise level of misery at which people will actually stop traveling and then ride that line for all it’s worth.
Okay, trust fund baby.
I’m world-famous, born to billionaire fathers who would reprimand me for such a spoiled sentiment. Of course, if they find out I took this flight without additional security, or at least one of my cousins, they’ll rip me a new one.
I swear, I can’t with them.
Honestly, the more I think about my childhood, the more everything is starting to make sense.
We were raised in the Texas Hill Country, and our fathers made sure we had a healthy fear and understanding of both weapons and self-defense strategies. While Holmes can disassemble a rifle in the time it takes me to sight a target, I can pick a lock in under ten seconds, and nobody is better than I am at convincing the Wildlings to get into mischief.
My fathers have never been as proud of that last one as they could be.
My text notification goes off again, but this time, it’s from one of my buddies from school.
Tay: Dude! It’s the last weekend before graduation! You should come party with my friends and me!
Me: You know I’m not allowed on the UT campus
That may or may not have to do with my mischief-making abilities.
Tay: That’s bullshit, and you know it. Besides, we’re staying out of the ridiculous heat and getting plastered at my condo.
Tay: Can you believe it hit 101 today? Go home Austin, you're drunk.
Hrn. Taylor’s condoisoff campus, just, so I should be in the clear.
I grin, then start typing.
Me: I’ll be there.
“So,” Taylor says as she lets me in, “since the temps have dropped, we’re actually thinking of hitting up the fountain tonight.”
I scan the crowd in her condo, recognizing some of her classmates, along with the guy I blew a month ago.
“The fountain?” I grimace, shaking my head. “I’m telling you, campus police have my face on a dartboard. They’ve never forgiven the Bevo incident.”
“Oh, come on, they’re not gonna be hard asses the last weekend of the school year.” She smirks. “Besides, didn’t your uncle sculpt those bronze statues on the mall behind the fountain? Surely that should count for something.”
“Less than you think,” I retort.
I went to the dedication ceremony for those very statues, and the look on the university president’s face was…oof.
He didn’t have me dragged from the dais, but it was a near thing.
Tay sends me a disbelieving look.
“It’s not just that,” I insist, gesturing to the blowjob guy. “I got up close and personal with Pierce at your Kappa Kappa Whatever party, and he’s been a stage-four clinger ever since.”
She glances over her shoulder, grimacing. “He brought the booze, so…priorities.”
I laugh. “Eh. Who hasn’t had an awkward post-nut moment?”
“This is why I love you.”
Rolling my eyes, I gesture to my very expensive, beautifully tailored shorts and matching button-up. “You know Lucien sewed these himself.”
“Yeah, and you wipe your ass with hundred dollar bills, so I’m not that concerned about it,” she says, laughing at me. “Besides, I’m pretty sure we’re getting down to our skivvies.”
