Page 122 of Let the Game Begin

I watched him the entire time until he’d settled in at the table, because I couldn’t seem to tear my eyes away. Alexia sat next to him while Jennifer positioned herself between Luke and Xavier. Neil didn’t pay her the slightest bit of attention; he stretched his arm across the back of the chair belonging to the girl with blue unicorn hair, smiling at something she whispered in his ear. My chest tightened as I recalled how he’d touched her, in the pool house, smacking her ass before undoubtedly giving him a savage orgasm that I had absolutely refused to witness. Should I have been more worried about Alexia than Jennifer all this time? I didn’t know which of the two was actually his favorite.

It occurred to me that I was being stupid and screwing everything up, but I couldn’t fight the sick feeling that gnawed on the inside of my stomach. I only had one name for it: jealousy.

“Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul,” Kyle whispered in my ear, making me flinch. He had moved next to me, giving his seat toAlyssa who was now clinging to Logan’s arm, and I hadn’t noticed any of it because I was too absorbed in my own thoughts.

“How many times have you read it?” I grinned at him, trying to shift my attention to anything other than golden eyes and messy hair that I longed to run my fingers through.

“Quite a few. And I sense that you are maybe fascinated by passionate delusion, impossible love, insidious emotions, and the thorniest parts of the human psyche,” he teased, and I was impressed with his thoughtful analysis. Kyle was a clever and intuitive guy, characteristics I often saw—and adored—in other readers like me who appreciated the great classics.

“Me, on the other hand, I’m fascinated by intelligent girls.” Kyle smiled at me, and I blushed. Not because I liked him, but because I was always embarrassed by compliments. “There aren’t a lot of people who would rather read or expand their knowledge than go out and get wild,” he added in tones of genuine surprise. After one of the few evenings out on the town I had ever hand, I’d come home drunk and promptly lost my virginity to a boy who had infected my mind ever since. So that was the end of the “exploring partying” chapter of my life.

Just then, I turned my face in Neil’s direction and caught him looking at me.

Yeah, he’d seen me.

His eyes were on me even as his arm still rested on Alexia’s chair. In that brief moment when our eyes met, the walls of the bar, my friends, the customers around us, the background voices, sounds of glasses clinking, and the Krew themselves seemed to disappear. We were communicating with a silent language we might never fully understand.

“Do you want to go with me? I can take you home.” Kyle broke the visual connection, seizing my attention.

I thought about it for a second, but I couldn’t find any reason to turn down his invitation.

After all, Kyle was just a friend and nothing more.

I stood up and told Logan I was getting a ride with the literature-loving musician. He nodded, and Alyssa winked at me, but I shook my head and made a face to let her know we weren’t going to do anything weird.

I gathered up my bag and put on my dove-gray coat before following Kyle to the exit. I forced myself not to glance at Neil or his friends when we had to walk past their table. Still, I held my breath until we got out the door. Fortunately, none of them paid any attention to us.

I spent about two hours with Kyle as we drove around town, listening to one of his favorite albums in the car. I also got a call from Jared while I was with him, and I inquired, as always, about Jared’s mother and asked him to tell me when he had the time to talk for longer.

Regardless of how things went with Neil, Jared deserved to know my true stance on our relationship.

When Kyle brought me home—or rather, to Matt’s home—he complimented me on the impressive facade. I didn’t invite him in and got out of the car immediately after thanking him. I didn’t even allow him to walk me to the front steps.

I slowly approached the front door, and even from the paved driveway, I could see the light on the pool house, spilling out the windows. It had to be Neil. He was the only one who used the pool house, and exclusively to be with women.

It had been a while, actually, since I’d heard moans and groans coming from his bedroom, and I wondered why he’d made that change to his routine. I wondered even more if it had anything to do with my presence.

I shook my head and kept walking, shivering from the cold. I stopped short again, however, when I spotted Neil’s silhouette on a chaise longue. He rested his elbows on his knees, his head first lowered as he focused on the crystalline water of the pool, illuminated by colorful lights, before he raised it to look at me. In the semi-darkness, alone and partially obscured, he inspired a kind of fear that I had only experienced a few times in my life. An intense shudder run down my spine when his eyes, which I could barely see from such a distance, scrutinized me from top to bottom.

For a moment, I imagined that he’d been there the whole time, waiting for me to come back. But I quickly dismissed that ridiculous idea. Neil didn’t care about anyone except himself and his physical needs.

I hesitated for a few seconds, unsure of how to proceed.

Part of me wanted to just go into the house, eat dinner, and go to bed.But before I could really even consider what the best decision would be, my legs were taking me toward the pool, walking around it to reach him.

His lips wrapped around the cigarette, sucking in the smoke before falling open to release it out into the air.

“You’re going to have so many things to tell your boyfriend.” His baritone broke the silence as I stood there, still staring at him. “First you’ll have to tell him that you lost your virginity to me, and now you’re going to have to explain that you’re into some musician who just came to town.” There was no mockery in his voice, nor any irritation. He sounded serious and reflective. He smiled without looking at me, as though savoring the taste of the nicotine while he looked into the pool. The smell of chlorine came over us in waves because of the light, brisk breeze that made me occasionally shudder from cold.

“Not every human relationship has a sexual element. Kyle is my friend,” I answered him. “And he’s not my boyfriend,” I added, though I felt a stab of pain in my chest. I wasn’t at all sure that Jared would agree with that assessment, but how was I supposed to conclusively dash his hopes when he was already suffering so much?

“Not your boyfriend,” Neil repeated, sounding amused.

“Don’t be tedious. It’s my business.” I was irritated because I already knew that I’d done wrong by Jared.

“You should be honest, especially with yourself. I saw how you blushed when Lucky Kyle or whatever the hell his name is looked at you earlier. You’re no different from the rest of them after all,” he accused, bringing the cigarette back to his lips so he could inhale even more toxic chemicals.

I tilted my head to one side and looked at him before taking a few confrontational steps forward. “What do you mean by that?”