Page 61 of Let the Game Begin (Kiss Me Like You Love Me #1)
I didn’t make a sound, and no tears ran down my face.
I was all alone there, my hands raised up to protect my face, unable to get to my feet.
In my heart, I had already decided that I was going to hold out; I was going to outlast her.
I wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of hearing me beg her to stop.
“Selene!” I thought I heard Alyssa’s voice and then Logan’s. Finally, it seemed that someone might be coming to help me. It was definitely my friends, but I couldn’t see anything except the darkness of my own hands over my eyes.
Someone tried to stop Jennifer; I could tell from her outraged screams, but by that point, she had transformed into a ferocious beast, thirsting for revenge. Her jealousy had completely taken over, and perhaps she really did intend to kill me.
A final strike against my hip made me flinch. Instinctively, I dropped my hands to cover the wounded area, curling forward. My breath caught at the intensity of the pain; for a moment, my lungs were getting no oxygen at all.
“Jennifer!”
That voice… That baritone was the only one in the world that could have given me enough strength to lift up my chin.
Neil grabbed the blond girl by both arms and stopped her blows. He crushed her against his chest and then turned his golden eyes on the victim of Jennifer’s ire. When he saw me, he look surprised, like he had been expecting someone else.
I looked at him, and that was the moment when I felt like crying. Tears seemed to well all the way up from the bottom of my heart to the corners of my eyes.
“Oh my God, Selene! Are you okay?” Logan rushed to kneel down next to me, but I couldn’t look at him.
I remained trapped by Neil’s eyes as he just kept staring at me in utter shock and disbelief.
Jennifer was breathing heavily, her arms still forced against her sides in his grip.
He released her in slow motion, like his body had been drained of energy.
“Selene.” Logan touched my face, and I felt his cool hands on my lower lip, examining the wound there.
But still my eyes couldn’t look away from Neil.
He pursed his lips, and in the working of his jaw, I could see how tense he was.
Then he tightened his hand into a fist and slowly looked back at Jennifer, who was now surrounded by the rest of the Krew.
“Okay, man, chill out.” Xavier tried to neutralize the situation, smiling a nervous smile. “It was just a stupid catfight.”
Neil’s honey-colored eyes were alight with rage.
He ignored Xavier and continued to stare menacingly at Jennifer, who didn’t have the nerve to emit a single syllable.
Beautiful and fearsome, he was daring her to say something in her defense, knowing full well that it would be useless.
When she kept silent, he advanced on her.
She began to shake, taking a step back from him.
Neil put both hands around her throat and slammed her back against the wall. The natural color drained out of Jennifer’s face, and it began to go violet. He lifted her cleanly off the floor and the blond girl began kicking frantically against Neil’s incontrovertible strength.
“Feeling short of breath, Jen?” he said softly, just a short distance from her lips.
He looked like a lunatic. Even his voice sounded deeper and more far away—far from reason.
Jennifer shook violently, her body racked with involuntary convulsions, and her eyes rolled back in her head. She was suffocating.
“Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts.” Neil was quoting Thich Nhat Hanh.
“How are you feeling right now?” he said, staring at Jennifer, whose face had begun to turn gray.
She made only occasional guttural sounds as she attempted to draw in breath, and even her legs had stopped shaking.
“What does it feel like to suffocate?” He questioned her again as her eyes flicked back to him, begging him silently to release her. But Neil’s fingers continued to exert deadly pressure around her neck.
No one stepped up to defuse the insane situation, not even Xavier or Luke. Even Logan just stood there next to me, dumbstruck at what his brother was doing.
This was unreal: Jennifer could very well die, and no one was lifting a finger.
“Touch her again, and I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you, Jennifer,” Neil menaced, right up close to her face before opening his hands and letting her collapse to the ground. She coughed uncontrollably. Her face was all red, her eyes were teary, and there were livid marks on her neck.
Neil walked over and knelt down beside me. He didn’t speak; he scooped me up gently in his arm. A pained grimace had been etched into my face, but it immediately disappeared when I put my head against his marble chest.
“Show’s over, assholes!” he snapped at the people still inertly watching the scene. I didn’t have the strength to say anything or to get him to let me go. So I allowed myself to be cradled in his strong arms as I soaked in his amber scent.
He moved through the space like a victorious gladiator traversing the arena after a bout, but there was no enthusiasm in the air around us, no celebratory atmosphere, just a deep, anguished silence.
“Thank you,” I murmured, before my eyes fell shut and I allowed myself to lulled into unconsciousness by a sudden drowsiness…
***
I woke up in a colorless but well-lit room.
I glanced around, disoriented, and then I tucked my chin to my chest. I wrinkled my nose, smelling some sort of strange disinfectant odor, and that was when I realized I was lying on a bed in the student health center.
Nearby, a nurse was writing something down in a folder.
“Welcome back.” She smiled at me and tucked the folder under her arm.
She was a young woman, probably in her early thirties with blond hair and large chocolate-colored eyes.
Her high breasts peeped out from under the light-colored top of her scrubs, and her glasses gave her a distinguished, cultured look.
“I gave you some pain relief. Fortunately, you didn’t break anything, just some contusions and a small cut on your lip.
” She gestured to my mouth, and I instinctively lifted a hand to touch it.
I could feel the rough surface of a bandage under my fingertips, but I didn’t feel any pain.
I guessed the pain meds were still working.
“Thank you.” I struggled to sit up and she helped me tenderly.
“You should thank Neil. He’s the one who brought you here and demanded I look at you right away. He was worried about you,” she informed me in a strangely admiring tone.
“Where is he?” I asked her quickly. She grinned and jerked a thumb at the closed door.
“Out there. Do you want me to let him in?”
I nodded. I was afraid of just about everyone except him in that moment. Neil was only a danger to my heart and mind, certainly not to my body.
The woman went to the door and gestured for him to come inside. When Neil appeared, he looked even more imposing and enigmatic than usual. I shivered and tightened my hands on my jeans-covered thighs.
“All right, she’s good to go. Can I get back to my scheduled patients now?” the nurse asked archly. He gave her a knowing look as he moved toward me.
“Well, you did owe me a favor, Claire,” he purred, and I realized these two definitely knew each other.
God, even the school nurse was one of his lovers?
“I’ll leave you two alone,” she answered with a blush before leaving to give us some privacy.
Neil drew even closer to me until I was hit with his amber and tobacco smell. His hair was extra disheveled, and his eyes were luminous like always.
“How are you feeling?” He positioned himself in front of me. I was still sitting on the bed with my legs dangling and he towered over me with his statuesque body. Looking at him always inspired a little bit of awe in me.
“Did you have sex with that nurse, too?” I pointed at the door behind him, and he grinned.
I flushed and tilted my chin down. None of this was my business, but I could never seem to hold my tongue about it.
“Just once, last year,” he admitted, searching for my eyes that eventually did look up to meet his.
“So, you’re telling me she might take a swing at me someday, too?” I answered bitterly, because the reason Jennifer hated me so deeply was standing right there in front of me, all charm and dark looks.
“That won’t happen again. The Krew know what I’m capable of when I lose control,” he said with an ominous confidence.
“And what are you capable of?” I said softly.
“I’d rather you didn’t know.” He moved closer, until his legs were touching my bent knees.
“Why?” I murmured.
“Because then you’d be afraid of me,” he answered firmly, not a hint of hesitation in his voice.
But I was already afraid of him. Afraid of what I felt with him, afraid of the person I became with him, afraid of the thoughts I had about him, and afraid for what the future had in store for both of us.
I swallowed and rubbed my index finger on my thigh, considering this whole bizarre situation. Jennifer and the Krew hated me. They were a dangerous group of people, and Neil couldn’t be there every time they tried to hurt me.
“Jennifer knows about Jared. She told me to stay away from you or she’ll tell him everything.
” I kept my eyes down, still shocked and upset by what had happened.
I wasn’t as upset about being on the receiving end of some gratuitous violence as I was at the way women would let themselves be tricked by men, even to the point of harming others rather than accepting reality.
“She’s not going to tell him shit.” He used his index finger to lift up my chin, and I flinched at the gesture. I was still on edge, and he must have realized it because he touched my cheek indulgently.
“She knows she’s going to pay for what she’s done,” he promised, his eyes locked on the bandage on my lower lip.