Page 129 of Let the Game Begin

“Show me what he taught you,” he muttered against my lips, renewing his attack. He began groping my breast with one hand while the other felt up my thigh. I felt trapped, helpless, and bewildered.

“Jared,” I panted in terror, trying to get him off me but to no avail. “Jared!” I said again, my back slamming into the window behind me. His mouth moved down my throat, and his hands tried to wriggle under my sweater. That’s when I started kicking.

“Stop it! Stop it right now!” I shrieked, but Jared, with a strength that surprised me, grabbed me by the hair and bent my head back until he was looking me right in the eyes. He had swollen lips and wild hair, a face that I now struggled to recognize, and eyes filled with hatred. And those eyes were boring into me as though he wanted to kill me.

“Did you really believe I didn’t know?” he whispered hatefully, right next to my mouth. “I got a message from someone who thought it was in my best interest to know what my girlfriend was getting up to here in my absence.” He smiled and tightened his fist around my hair.

I went white, my stomach closing as though trapped in a vise, because this wasn’t at all how I expected this to go.

“I wasn’t… We weren’t—” I barely got to speak before he cut me off again.

“I received some photos. Photos of you in his car, of you and him in the pool house at your father’s place. How many times did you screw him? You weren’t ready for me, but suddenly it was okay with him. Was itjusthim, or did you give it up for his little brother, too? Huh?”

He knew everything.

Jared kneweverything, and I was so shocked that my heart felt like it was pounding out of my chest. My throat went dry. I couldn’t decide what was worse: the fact that someone had secretly taken photos of us and sent them to Jared, or that he had found out the truth in such a horrible way.

“Jared, I…” I burst into tears, but no look of pity or understanding crossed his face. His face, which now had none of the sweetness that I’d known him for in the past.

“Shut up! You’ve been acting like a whore.” He nuzzled my cheek with the tip of his nose and breathed in my smell, pressing his temple to mine. “I never would have expected this from you… Never,” he murmured in a jagged voice, a sign that he was about to break. I held myself as still as I could, quivering in his arms.

“This is the way it always goes, isn’t it? Men who respect women and treat them like princesses aren’t enough for you, are they? They’re just total idiots as far as you’re concerned. Isn’t that right?” He sighed heavily, and I could feel his heart beating at a gallop. His grip on my hair just got tighter and tighter. “You want these messed-up assholes who’ll just fuck you like an animal and don’t have the first clue how to treat you,” he added, his voice pure malice, and his breath still hot on my skin. “But if I can’t have you, he doesn’t get to either,” he threatened under his breath, running his hand from my breasts to my thighs.

“Please, let me explain… I’m sorry, I know I made a mistake and—” I grimaced as his fingers clamped down violently on my thigh until I let out a groan of pain.

“You’re going to tell me where he is right now, and we are going to go see him.” He jerked my neck back again and glared into my eyes, baring his teeth. “You are going to cooperate with me, Selene, or I swear on my life, I’m going to hurt you. Badly.” His breath hit my lips, and I closed my eyes, feeling tears leak down the sides of my cheeks.

“Aw, don’t cry, baby.” He caught one tear with his thumb and gave me a mocking smile. “You enjoyed messing around behind my back, didn’t you?”

I kept my eyes tightly shut, feeling humiliated, hurt, and imperiled. Jared wasn’t acting like himself, and he seemed capable of anything.

“Answer me!” He grabbed my jaw, and my eyes went wide with fear.

“Yes!” I screamed. “Yes, I enjoyed it, and I would do it again!”

My confession was met by a deadly, treacherous expression on his face. Automatically, he raised his arm and stuck me with a loud slap that left me disoriented. I touched the affected cheek and felt my flesh throbbing under my fingertips while Jared just glared in my direction as though he were about to leap on me like some deranged beast.

Immediately, I opened the car’s door and jumped out, trying to run away, but he was faster than me. He grabbed me by the arm and slammed me down against the hood, pinning both my wrists behind my back. I could feel the cold paint under my cheek and my hips struck the bumper.

“Let me go! Let me go now!” I screamed, looking around for anyone who might help, but there wasn’t a soul in sight. I started crying again as he forced me back into the car.

I tumbled into the passenger seat, and after slamming my door, Jared got hastily back behind the wheel, where he immediately started the engine.

“I already know where he is; you don’t even need to say a word.”

He really did know everything.

He knew where to find Neil, and there was nothing I could do to stop Jared from going to him.

I glanced down at the cell phone sticking out of my coat pocket and inched it out, trying to make sure the lunatic next to me didn’t notice.

“Selene!” He snapped, his eyes still fixed on the road. “Neil goes to Blanco on Friday nights, doesn’t he?” he demanded furiously, even though he didn’t require any confirmation from me. He just wanted me to collaborate with him because he had me trapped.

“I don’t know,” I mumbled, trying to control the fear that was blooming throughout my body. My legs were trembling along with my hands.

“But you’re his whore; you know that much at least,” he sneered as he shifted gears. As he spoke, I swiped another tear from the cheek he’d hitand winced again at the pain. I shuddered to think of the state I must be in because of him, but I was determined to warn Neil. So I slid my phone out of my pocket and hid it alongside me, between my leg and door. I quickly tapped out a text to Logan and sent it, staring straight ahead so as not to arouse suspicion.

“You never loved me. I should have known,” Jared said. I immediately put the phone back in my pocket. Love was no longer a feeling I associated with him at all.