Page 48 of Let the Game Begin

“Ah, an example. What the fuck were you looking at?” Neil asked, pulling the boy right up close to his face and daring the kid to object. Everyone around us had gone into a kind of suspended animation: silent and motionless.

“I… I… nothing! I swear,” the poor guy babbled, looking beseechingly at Neil. Neil just gave him a menacing smile before slamming his back against the wall and letting him fall hard to the floor.

I instinctively rushed over to the boy to make sure that he was okay. Had Neil actually lost his mind?

“The young lady here is rather shy. The next guy—or girl—around here who dares to look at her is going to end up like this asshole.” Neil gestured to the boy who was now sitting on the floor.There goes my anonymity.Everyone was giving me unsettled looks, and the boy who’d been hit jumped up and ran away. As I got back to my feet, I glared murderously at Neil.

“Now walk and quit your bitching,” he ordered in a menacing hiss. Everyone went back to talking among one another, pretending to ignore us. Neil proceeded toward the exit, and I just stood there, rocked by that senseless outburst.

I glanced around and spotted Jennifer not far away, staring fixedly at me. A flicker of jealousy lent Jennifer’s blue eyes a sinister appearance. Maybe she thought the object of her affections had been marking his territoryinstead of just trying to mock me? I turned my back on both of them and headed for the exit.

“You are actually insane!” I harangued Neil the moment we got outside. He leaned against the hood of his Maserati and lit up a cigarette. He stared at me, looking irritated but immovable as he took a few drags.

“Get in,” he ordered flatly, tossing almost the entire cigarette away. What was with this high-handed attitude? Did he get confused and think he was talking to Jennifer?

“I’m not your little lapdog. I’ll walk.” I switched directions and headed for the sidewalk that would take me to the nearest bus stop, but Neil took issue with that. Of course.

“Quit being a fucking baby and get in the car!” He grabbed my arm, halting my progress. Clearly Neil would have no problem publicly humiliating me a second time. I, however, still cared about how I appeared in public, especially at school, so I snatched my arm from his grasp and stalked toward his car.

Inside the car, I didn’t say a word. I forced myself not to so much as look at him and examined the car’s interior instead to distract myself.

The Maserati was sporty but luxurious, quintessentially masculine. A fiery red interior light bathed the rear seats, making them look as if they were swallowed by the flames of hell. It looked like some kind of innovative new spaceship that the devil would pilot.

A chrome trident, symbolic of power and royalty, stood out proudly from the center of the steering wheel. Neil grasped it firmly in his two hands, the backs of them shot-through with veins. Looking at them, I couldn’t help but remember how they’d moved against my body: focused, hungry, lusty, and skilled.

I drifted away into indecent fantasies about Neil and hadn’t even noticed when we arrived at the house. I unbuckled my seatbelt and shot out of the car, trying immediately to put some distance between us. I felt like I could smell him on me again, even though I knew perfectly well that was just a trick my brain was playing on me.

I tried to climb up to the front door but put my foot wrong on the first step and stumbled, bashing my knee. Luck was just not on my side today.The stab of pain was immediate and froze me for a few seconds. I slumped down on the ground, not caring about dirtying my jeans and tried to touch my new injury, but I winced at the pain.

“I’m absolutely correct when I call you Babygirl, aren’t I?” Neil had caught up with me. He knelt down and shook his head in amusement. He gave me such a tender look, and I found him terribly appealing, though a part of me couldn’t forget what I had just seen him do.

“You’re so aggressive and overbearing. I can’t stand you. I fell because I was trying to get as far away from you as possible!” I yelled at him, pointing at my leg, but he ignored the insults and instead just scooped me up into his arms.

I fell silent when my head touched his chest. He emitted such a good, clean smell, and I soaked it in like it was a drug. I couldn’t help but wonder then how the cruel person I had seen threatening Professor Cooper earlier could also be so sweet and considerate.

We walked into the house, and he deposited me gently on top of the counter in the kitchen.

“Take your jeans off.” Another order, this one more unexpected.

I looked suspiciously at him and inched away, ready to fend him off.

“You don’t need to do that; I can take care of it by myself,” I babbled in an effort to maintain a modicum of self-possession. There was no way I was going to get undressed in the kitchen right there in front of him.

“Selene,” he admonished, resting his hands on either side of my legs. He leaned in closer, staring intently into my eyes and I went still. “I’ve kissed you, touched you, and fucked you. Do you think a pair of naked legs is going to make much difference?”

Why did those words ignite lust inside me? I pictured us performing lewd acts, and he smiled wickedly, as though he knew exactly what I was thinking. I cleared my throat and tried to look away.

“Wait here,” he said before disappearing into the downstairs bathroom. A few minutes later he returned with a first-aid kit. He set it down on the counter to open it up, taking out a can of ice spray. He shook it at me and cocked an eyebrow.

“Take your fucking jeans off,” he ordered me again, more severely thistime. I huffed but decided to cooperate. I unbuttoned my pants and started to push them down. Neil helped me pull them all the way off before focusing on my red and aching knee. The skin wasn’t broken, but I would obviously have a large bruise the next day. When Neil so much as brushed his fingers over the area, I winced in pain.

“We need to get something cool on it; it’s already swollen,” he noted with a sigh. Then he covered it with a considerable amount of cold spray. I gritted my teeth at the burning sensation caused by the freezing spray. Still, I did feel my pain lessening.

Neil waited a few seconds before taking the opportunity to scope out my bare thighs, which I instinctively pressed together. My panties—white, cotton, and utterly unappealing—were completely exposed for his devouring eyes, and though we had indeed had a history together, I was still embarrassed.

Neither of us spoke, and when I tried to slide down from the counter, Neil wouldn’t let me. I looked around and realized that the house was suspiciously silent. Where was Miss Anna?

“Anna must be out shopping. She’ll be back soon,” he said, appearing again to read my mind in that unsettling way of his. It felt like a violation of my privacy.