Page 145 of Let the Game Begin

It seemed that our lips wanted nothing more than to chase one another to the ends of the earth, and I rose to follow him. I pulled away from his kiss and my head fell back against the bedspread as Neil pulled rapidly out of me.

I gave him a sideways glance: he was terribly close.

He grasped himself and rapidly moved his hand, hot seed spraying over my ass and lower back. His was a trembling orgasm but not an ostentatious one, and it was nearly devoid of emotion.

Then, satiated, he collapsed by my side, sweating and panting. He stared up at the ceiling while running his fingers through his tousled hair.

I gazed at him worshipfully, as one might regard a god.

My eyes traced the lines of the Maori-style tattoo on his muscular bicep before slipping down to examine his abdominal muscles, covered in a sheen of sweat, and his hairless pubic area from which his swollen member still sprung upward.

“Did I hurt you?” He sat up slightly to lean against the headboard and reached over to the bedside table to pick up his pack of Winstons.

He didn’t look at me, though I could tell he was waiting for my response.

“A little,” I admitted under my breath, making a fist against my lips. Though I could still feel the aftershocks of pleasure between my thighs, I was sore from basically my pelvis down. Neil pulled out a cigarette with his teeth and lit it before sliding the lighter back into the pack and putting it back on the bedside table.

“You need to learn how to fuck without kissing,” he said, staring into the cloud of smoke he’d produced to pollute the air.

I frowned at the caustic words. Suddenly, I felt humiliated and discomforted: I was cold and sweaty. His cum was dripping down my back, and I could still feel him between my legs. I sat up, covering my breasts with a forearm and looked around for my clothes.

“What did you expect? Look at the kind of asshole you’re sleeping with,” I muttered to myself, cursing myself for being so stupid. But said asshole grabbed my wrist and pulled me to him until my breasts were crushed against his chest and my eyes were level with his.

“Do you know why you need to learn?” He plucked the cigarette from his mouth, and with the same hand, placed a lock of sodden hair behind my ears. He exhaled the smoke through his nose as he did so. I couldn’t stand that smell.

“Because I should be more like the blonds you fool around with, I suppose?” I answered, now truly infuriated. I was genuinely prepared to slap him if he said one more offensive thing to me.

“No.” He smiled as he stared fixedly at every line of my face, as though I were a portrait to be analyzed. “Because if you keep on acting like a child, all I’m going to want to do is fuck the inexperience out of you,” he added in frustration, as though this were some insurmountable desire inside him to which he felt enslaved.

“Are you trying to give me a compliment?” I arched one eyebrow, deeply confused, but he just busied himself with his cigarette, leaning his head back to stare at the ceiling.

“I don’t give compliments, Selene.” He continued to smoke pointedly asthough to transfer all the buzzing thoughts from his mind to his cigarette. He was so fascinating when he was reflecting on something.

“Look at you, all serious,” I teased him, feigning a pout. Neil looked at me and wrinkled his brow.

“And dangerous, right?” he asked, lifting one corner of his mouth slightly. I was trying to keep myself from ogling his body, so I got closer to him, brushing my nose against his jaw. I breathed in his scent: he smelled like sex, like aftershave on his neck, and body soap on his chest.

“Could be more so.” I stared at the cigarette clamped between his lips, and he gave me a provoking smile. “Why do you poison yourself with those?” I wrinkled my nose and made a grimace of disappointment.

“What, have you never smoked a cigarette?” he asked archly, not touching me and not giving any sign that he intended to so in the near future.

“No, never.” I’d never picked up one of those self-destructive habits, never even tried indulging in the things I thought were bad for me. Though, to be fair, I had become very good at making mistakes recently.

“You wanna try?” he asked in that baritone voice that could make a woman do the worst kind of things for him. I alternated looks between him and the cigarette, which he now held between his fingers, as I considered the proposition.

“I’m not sure,” I answered, as unsettled as I might be if he’d asked me to jump off one of the city’s tallest skyscrapers without a parachute.

“There’s a first time for everything.” He brought his hand up close to my lips, and I opened them automatically to accept the filter of the cigarette, the same one that had so recently been between his lips. I inhaled the smoke with awkward, exaggerated movements.

Within seconds, I was hacking loudly and Neil immediately took the cigarette from me, sticking it back between his own lips.

“At least now I know for sure that smoking sucks,” I managed, through another cough. I felt like my throat and chest were both on fire.

“And that you’re a baby.” The asshole grinned as my eyes grew watery from coughing. “Don’t start. This shit is habit-forming, and it’s too hard to stop,” he added, blowing smoke out his mouth only to inhale it again through his nose, like a seasoned smoker.

“Trust me, I have no intention of starting,” I answered, making a disgusted face. I sat up to face him and pulled up the covers to conceal myself, at least from the waist down.

Neil moved his cigarette to the other side of his mouth and narrowed his eyes, peering at my bare chest. His lascivious stare made my nipples stiffen and goosebumps break out across my skin.