Page 135 of Let the Game Begin

“Neil, don’t push me,” he threatened in a low tone. I grinned because no one could stop a person like me or instill any sort of fear in a soul that had already been through hell.

“Little bro—don’t pushme.” He knew perfectly well, after all, what would happen if he did that. And appropriately, my cutting look seemed to be enough to make him step back behind the line. Where he belonged.

“How many times has this happened? I mean, what I’m saying is…is this thing still going on between the two of you?” He gestured between us with his index finger, and Selene blushed violently, looking adorable the way she always did when she wore her perpetually prim expression. Even when she came, even in the midst of her orgasm, she maintained that aura of innocence.

“Yes,” I confirmed, drawing my brother’s hazel eyes back to me. Judging by the look on his face, he was preparing to cut my balls off any second.

“And were you drunk all the other times, too?” he asked mockingly, shaking his head as he resigned himself to the reality of what we had done.

“No. But while we’re here, would you also like to know how long it took me to get hard?” I answered with false gravity, and his head shot up. He looked at me like I was an alien, but if Selene wasn’t used to my vulgarity by now, that was her problem.

“This is going to end badly, and you have to know that. You have never had a stable relationship because you are an unstable person,” he accused me, right there in front of the Tigress. If he’d brought up my mental issues, I would have immediately tossed him out.

“I don’t even have to ask if you have feelings for her or if you’re actually together, because I already know what you’re going to say. I know you, Neil. I know you better than anyone.” The fact that he was talking like Selene wasn’t even in the room with us was upsetting me. I hated how he just said and implied things that I would never have explained to her.

“And don’t give me that look, Neil!” he continued in the face of myforbidding expression. “It’s only fair that she hears this and understands the kind of trouble she’s gotten herself into.” He turned to Selene now. She raised up her chin, her hands tightening on her thighs. Fuck, I didn’t want him to scare her. Couldn’t he see she was already terrified?

“Stop it,” I ordered him, trying to hold on to some fucking self-control, even as I felt it slipping away from me like water.

“He’s going to use you, Selene. He’ll use you until he’s had enough of you, and when that happens, you won’t want to let him go because while he was using you, you will have fallen in love with him the way everyone else does.”

Selene’s mouth fell open, but she seemed unable to respond. I lunged at Logan and gave him a shove.

I loved my siblings. In fact, the feelings I had for them were the only form of love that I actually believed in, but that wouldn’t stop me from tearing a strip off them when they deserved it.

“What the fuck are you saying to her?” I yelled, close to Logan’s face. He was just as tall as me, but his face, like his frame, was less imposing and slimmer. He didn’t fear me, though, because he knew that I would never lay a hand on him, that I would never really hurt him. He knew I would lay down my life for him or Chloe, and it was this knowledge that allowed him to challenge me.

He gave me a disappointed look and shook his head.

“Only the truth. And you should be telling her, too. You could have had any girl you wanted; why pick Selene? She needed to stay out of your collection, because we both know how this is going to end.”

And…howwasmy twisted fairy tale with Babygirl supposed to end?

Certainly not happily ever after, and Logan could see it already. Even if I didn’t appreciate him saying all of this in front of Selene, my brother was telling her the truth. A truth that I had only given her in a partially obscured way, because I was selfish. Because I knew I needed to warn her, but I didn’t want to destroy any possibility of getting to use her again.

And again and again.

I wanted her because, when I was with her, the memories were less resurgent. Which wasn’t what happened with the blonds.

“Logan,” she said, getting up to approach my brother. “Neil’s told memany times that we aren’t in a relationship and that I shouldn’t project any imaginary delusions on him. Don’t worry about me; he was straightforward.”

Incredible: Babygirl was defending me, but she didn’t realize that I had never been as completely honest as she’d thought.

Yes, I had made it clear that I was fucked up in every way and that my brain worked only intermittently. But I hadn’t been explicit, and that was out of pure self-absorption. I was even happy when she finally ended things with her shithead ex, even if I did hate the way he’d done it.

“And now, if you’ll both excuse me, my head feels like it’s exploding and I need to rest,” Selene murmured. Then she walked, shoulders hunched, to the door.

“Clean up the mess you made of the pool house before Mom gets home,” Logan ordered, following her.

Fortunately, Matt and my mother were away on a business trip, and they’d taken Chloe with them. Otherwise, there was no way I’d be able to explain everything that had happened in the last two days.

I glanced back at my brother, who still stood in the doorway of my bedroom. He gave me a saddened look and sighed again.

“Your angry outbursts are getting more and more frequent. You realize that, don’t you? Maybe it would do you some good to talk with Dr. Lively…” He ducked his chin and concluded, “Just think about it.” Then he walked out and left me alone to consider his words.

***

The next day, I cleaned up the pool house with Miss Anna’s help. My mother and Matt would be coming back that afternoon, but since I’d thrown out and replaced everything I’d broken, they shouldn’t have noticed anything. My credit cards had come in handy, and I’d never had a problem using money to fix the damage I’d done.