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Mr. Halifax tried to stop her from storming the field, but she ducked under his feathered arm.

I laughed and opened up the gate instead of trying to hurdle.

The refs all started blowing their whistles like crazy. But Scarlett ignored them.

She reached Axel and threw her arms around him.

And he was definitely fine. Because he lifted her into his arms and placed a searing kiss against her lips.

The refs kept blowing their whistles.

And since Axel was definitely fine, when Mr. Halifax stepped in front of me to stop me from storming the field, I focused all my attention on him instead.

I stepped left, forcing him to step left.

And then I tried to quickly pivot right.

But he caught me around the waist to stop me. Only because I let him. Because I wanted him to touch me.

“Get back to your seat before you’re kicked out of the stadium,” Mr. Halifax said, his voice muffled from the mascot head.

He didn’t want me to have to leave the game. He liked his eyes on me and mine on him.

I didn’t move. I wasn’t sure I could have if I wanted to. He was holding me firm to his body.

And I could feel the heat of his body even through the mascot costume.

Everything below my waistline clenched. Being touched by his feathery hands was just as hot as I’d imagined. And I didn’t want to break the spell. I’d imagined him touching me like this so many times.

“I’ll make sure Mr. Stevens is okay,” he added, keeping his feathered arm around me. “Back to your seat. Now.”

I really loved the commanding way he spoke to me. And the next time his feathered arm was around me, hopefully I’d be naked at the party we were throwing on December 23rd. I tried not to shake my head at the thought of our Tuesday party.

“Yes, Mr. Halifax,” I said.

He released me from his grip.

And I instantly felt cold.

We both just stared at each other for a moment.

But then he cleared his throat and looked back at the field.

I followed his gaze. Yeah, Axel was totally fine. I forced my hands into my pockets so I wouldn’t do anything stupid like slap Mr. Halifax’s feathery little butt. Sometimes it was really hard to keep my hands to myself.

I slowly made my way to the other side of the gate and waited for Scarlett.

A few refs yelled at her, but Uncle Matt snapped at them. It was a good thing the coach was our uncle, or this might have ended terribly.

Scarlett gave Axel one last kiss and then jogged off the field.

“He’s okay,” she said when she reached me.

“Yeah, I could tell by the way he kissed you.”

She laughed, her cheeks flushed.

We made our way back up to our seats and this time focused on the game. Axel did seem fine. But he sat out for the rest of the first half, probably as a precaution. Luckily Jacob was a hell of a running back and was able to keep the game tied even though our backup quarterback sucked.