Page 48 of Let the Game Begin (Kiss Me Like You Love Me #1)

Neil

I stared at the cigarette and vomited a cloud of dense smoke back into the air.

I’d been addicted to nicotine since I was an adolescent. I loved smoking because it relaxed me; it calmed me down, even if calm was not usually one of my strong suits.

The air that day was cold and biting; people were swathed in overcoats and wool sweaters, and I just stood there, looking around indifferently.

“You wanna get a move on? It’s fucking freezing out here.”

The Krew were waiting impatiently for me to go into one of the restaurants near the university. I didn’t get why Xavier always insisted on going to that one shitty place after classes, but I suspected he’d fixated on one of the waitresses there. Wouldn’t be the first time.

“Go in. I’ll catch up in a minute.” This cigarette was sacrosanct, and I was going to finish it.

“Fuck this!” Xavier walked into the restaurant, followed by Luke, Jennifer, and Alexia, while I stayed outside, deep in thought.

I hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep the night before.

Instead, I mused constantly about the note and its hypothetical sender.

The list of my enemies was a long one. I had made a lot of mistakes over the years, and now that was making everything more complicated.

I thought I had left my past behind me, but apparently it was chasing me down like a shadowy demon, impossible to fight. What I was most afraid of, though, was that whoever this maniac was, he might hurt my family, my siblings.

They were my Achilles’ heel. I would have killed with my bare hands anyone who dared to touch them.

My nightmares had also come back that night.

I had seen Kimberly again, and it felt so real that I vomited up my entire dinner.

My only consolation in the morning was the knowledge that she was still in prison, serving her sentence for what she had done, and I would never, ever see her again for the rest of my fucking life.

I chucked the cigarette butt to the ground and stepped on it, sticking my hands into the pockets of my jacket. Then I joined the others inside, sitting at our usual table by the window.

“Finally, asshole. How long does it take you smoke a cigarette?”

Ignoring Xavier, I sat down next to Jennifer. Not because I wanted to be close to her, but because it was the only seat available. She gave me a smile, probably thinking that I was going to accept the suggestion she’d made a half hour before that we lock ourselves in the restaurant’s bathroom.

Delusional.

I didn’t say anything. I didn’t want to talk to anyone, like usual.

Instead, I made myself comfortable and stretched my arm out over the back of Jennifer’s chair.

Then, my eyes caught on a man at the counter who was reprimanding his son.

He had him by the arm and he was shaking him all because the boy had spilled fruit punch on his pants.

Suddenly, he slapped the kid across the face so hard that it made my stomach knot up. In that moment, I could feel in my own body exactly what that boy was feeling in his. The burning sensation on my cheek, the throbbing in my head, the hot tears of humiliation…all at the hands of his own father.

My own father.

I hated that piece of shit William Miller with every fiber of my being. I was ashamed to even share blood with him. I dreamed of the day I’d see him dead, because that was what he deserved.

“Hey.” Jennifer tried to stroke my face, but I grabbed her roughly by the wrist to stop her. One cutting look from me was enough to make her tremble.

“Don’t touch me,” I whispered emphatically, though all the others heard me as well. She bobbed her head like a good bitch, and I released her wrist, though not before noticing Xavier’s sharp eyes fixed on me.

“Looks like someone’s edgy.” He quirked up one corner of his mouth and slapped the ass of a passing waitress, making her jump.

“Hey, baby, we asked you for four beers about ten minutes ago.” The girl blanched and then walked away without saying anything. We hadn’t been there ten minutes, but they never dared to argue with us.

“Can you try, for once, not to be a dick?” I gave him some shit because I hated it when he acted like a fucking bully. I didn’t like a lot of ways he acted, though I knew I did similar things.

“Sure thing, boss.” He pasted on a phony smile and glanced around, bored.

Alexia sat beside him, waiting to be given a scrap of attention.

Alexia had some kind of thing with Xavier, even though I fucked her, too.

He was fine with me getting down with her.

Him-her-me, her-me-him… That was how it had always been.

We were used to sharing, especially when it came to women.

“But look who it is. Sweet little doll.” Xavier whistled, looking toward the entrance and I followed the direction of his gaze.

The “little doll” he was referring to was Selene.

She had just walked in, followed by Logan.

She was wearing a white coat and a scarf the same shade of blue as her ocean eyes.

Her auburn hair fell softly around her shoulders, framing her high cheekbones and perfect face.

The tip of her nose was red from the cold, and her lush mouth was swollen and pink.

“Whoa, nice stepsister,” Luke added with an impish smile. Selene was never vulgar or flashy, but her beauty hardly went unnoticed. She was something rare: fresh and glowing with the kind of angel face that would have attracted anyone’s attention. Especially the fucking scumbags next to me.

“I’d know what to do with that ass.” Xavier watched as Selene took off her coat and sat down across from Logan. It was just them, but the table had more seats, suggesting their friends would be joining them soon.

“She’s nothing special; just a basic ho,” Jennifer cut in, glaring hatefully at Selene. I knew that look well; it was filled with the same resentment and sick envy that often had her beating up any woman who caught my eye, even if only for a night.

Unexpectedly, I found myself annoyed by the way she talked about Selene, because Babygirl was definitely not just one of many.

I didn’t say anything, though, because I knew if the Krew thought I had a soft spot for her, it would make her a target.

And I didn’t want anything to happen to her.

Those assholes shouldn’t even have been thinking about defiling her with their poison.

So I stayed calm and kept my face blank.

I knew that they were testing me, trying to get a rise out of me.

But I was a much bigger son of a bitch than any of them were.

“Would she be up for a three-way, do you think?” Luke suggested, just as the waitress came by with our beers. She hastily deposited them on the table and snuck away, taking advantage of Xavier’s distraction. He was still laser-focused on Selene.

A three-way? Fuck’s sake! These degenerates couldn’t even imagine the kind of girl Selene was.

They didn’t know that she’d only just lost her virginity to me or that she’d never seen or touched a naked man before me.

They certainly didn’t know how many times I’d fucked her or how intensely attracted I was to her.

Selene was pure in every way. A white rose in a sea of blackened ones, and I was the one who got to defile her. Me and no one else. I needed to be the one—the only one—who devoured her innocence, who sucked her blood, who breathed in her coconut smell and lapped at her delicate curves.

That was an insane line of thought, considering that, just the previous evening, I had made it very clear to her that she meant nothing to me.

And that was true, but I was selfish. A selfish bastard.

I stared at her, watching the way her lips curved into a gentle smile.

Her movements were always so elegant. When guys gave her urgent looks, she’d tilt her head down and repeatedly touch her hair in an awkward gesture that poorly disguised her shyness.

Even then, I logged her every motion because I didn’t just want to know the basics about her, I wanted to know all the little things.

Especially those little things that only I had gotten the chance to see, like the tiny mole next to her right areola.

Shortly thereafter, Alyssa, Adam, and the rest of them arrived.

Selene greeted everyone politely and moved next to my brother so Julie could sit beside Adam.

Then Lucky Kyle or whatever that fucking dude’s name was sat down on her other side.

All I knew was that he was Cory’s out-of-town cousin.

He was a tall, skinny idiot with the physique and general vibe of a failed musician.

The dude smiled at Selene and looked at her the way everyone looked at her: adoringly.

Of course he did; she was a fairy. Who could ignore that?

Xavier and Luke tracked my gaze and exchanged knowing looks.

“You fuck her yet?” Luke asked, sipping his beer. I looked at him, pasting on my usual mask of indifference. I would never have thrown my Tinkerbell to the wolves by answering that question honestly.

“No, not my type.” I looked at Jennifer.

Or rather, I looked quite eloquently at her large breasts, exposed in her low-cut sweater.

By that time, I had learned a lot about manipulating people, and the Krew had always been my best practice.

Making Jennifer and the rest of them believe that I only wanted her was one way to protect Selene from dangerous repercussions.

“You live together. There’s no way a horny fuck like you ain’t tapping that ass.” Xavier was the smartest of them all but still not smart enough. I smiled at him and took a sip of my beer, looking back at Selene, who was chatting pleasantly with long-haired Kyle.

“You’re full of shit. She’s Matt’s daughter. I don’t need that kind of trouble.” I shrugged and kept drinking, though the beer tasted worse with every mouthful. Selene continued to smile at that guy, and she seemed comfortable with him. Probably because they’d already hung out several times.