Page 79 of Let the Game Begin (Kiss Me Like You Love Me #1)

“Did you really believe I didn’t know?” he whispered hatefully, right next to my mouth. “I got a message from someone who thought it was in my best interest to know what my girlfriend was getting up to here in my absence.” He smiled and tightened his fist around my hair.

I went white, my stomach closing as though trapped in a vise, because this wasn’t at all how I expected this to go.

“I wasn’t… We weren’t—” I barely got to speak before he cut me off again.

“I received some photos. Photos of you in his car, of you and him in the pool house at your father’s place. How many times did you screw him? You weren’t ready for me, but suddenly it was okay with him. Was it just him, or did you give it up for his little brother, too? Huh?”

He knew everything.

Jared knew everything , and I was so shocked that my heart felt like it was pounding out of my chest. My throat went dry. I couldn’t decide what was worse: the fact that someone had secretly taken photos of us and sent them to Jared, or that he had found out the truth in such a horrible way.

“Jared, I…” I burst into tears, but no look of pity or understanding crossed his face. His face, which now had none of the sweetness that I’d known him for in the past.

“Shut up! You’ve been acting like a whore.

” He nuzzled my cheek with the tip of his nose and breathed in my smell, pressing his temple to mine.

“I never would have expected this from you… Never,” he murmured in a jagged voice, a sign that he was about to break.

I held myself as still as I could, quivering in his arms.

“This is the way it always goes, isn’t it?

Men who respect women and treat them like princesses aren’t enough for you, are they?

They’re just total idiots as far as you’re concerned.

Isn’t that right?” He sighed heavily, and I could feel his heart beating at a gallop.

His grip on my hair just got tighter and tighter.

“You want these messed-up assholes who’ll just fuck you like an animal and don’t have the first clue how to treat you,” he added, his voice pure malice, and his breath still hot on my skin.

“But if I can’t have you, he doesn’t get to either,” he threatened under his breath, running his hand from my breasts to my thighs.

“Please, let me explain… I’m sorry, I know I made a mistake and—” I grimaced as his fingers clamped down violently on my thigh until I let out a groan of pain.

“You’re going to tell me where he is right now, and we are going to go see him.

” He jerked my neck back again and glared into my eyes, baring his teeth.

“You are going to cooperate with me, Selene, or I swear on my life, I’m going to hurt you.

Badly.” His breath hit my lips, and I closed my eyes, feeling tears leak down the sides of my cheeks.

“Aw, don’t cry, baby.” He caught one tear with his thumb and gave me a mocking smile. “You enjoyed messing around behind my back, didn’t you?”

I kept my eyes tightly shut, feeling humiliated, hurt, and imperiled. Jared wasn’t acting like himself, and he seemed capable of anything.

“Answer me!” He grabbed my jaw, and my eyes went wide with fear.

“Yes!” I screamed. “Yes, I enjoyed it, and I would do it again!”

My confession was met by a deadly, treacherous expression on his face.

Automatically, he raised his arm and stuck me with a loud slap that left me disoriented.

I touched the affected cheek and felt my flesh throbbing under my fingertips while Jared just glared in my direction as though he were about to leap on me like some deranged beast.

Immediately, I opened the car’s door and jumped out, trying to run away, but he was faster than me. He grabbed me by the arm and slammed me down against the hood, pinning both my wrists behind my back. I could feel the cold paint under my cheek and my hips struck the bumper.

“Let me go! Let me go now!” I screamed, looking around for anyone who might help, but there wasn’t a soul in sight. I started crying again as he forced me back into the car.

I tumbled into the passenger seat, and after slamming my door, Jared got hastily back behind the wheel, where he immediately started the engine.

“I already know where he is; you don’t even need to say a word.”

He really did know everything.

He knew where to find Neil, and there was nothing I could do to stop Jared from going to him.

I glanced down at the cell phone sticking out of my coat pocket and inched it out, trying to make sure the lunatic next to me didn’t notice.

“Selene!” He snapped, his eyes still fixed on the road. “Neil goes to Blanco on Friday nights, doesn’t he?” he demanded furiously, even though he didn’t require any confirmation from me. He just wanted me to collaborate with him because he had me trapped.

“I don’t know,” I mumbled, trying to control the fear that was blooming throughout my body. My legs were trembling along with my hands.

“But you’re his whore; you know that much at least,” he sneered as he shifted gears.

As he spoke, I swiped another tear from the cheek he’d hit and winced again at the pain.

I shuddered to think of the state I must be in because of him, but I was determined to warn Neil.

So I slid my phone out of my pocket and hid it alongside me, between my leg and door.

I quickly tapped out a text to Logan and sent it, staring straight ahead so as not to arouse suspicion.

“You never loved me. I should have known,” Jared said. I immediately put the phone back in my pocket. Love was no longer a feeling I associated with him at all.

“You just hit me,” I answered hatefully, and he laughed, like I’d just said something hilarious, like I was out here telling jokes. My face hurt so much it was hard to breathe. I stared down at my hands, which wouldn’t stop trembling and tried to calm myself down.

“Here we are.” Jared pulled over right in front of the Blanco sign and immediately dashed out of the car, slamming the door behind him. I got out as well and followed him, hoping that Logan had gotten there already.

“Has anyone here seen Neil Miller?” he shouted outside the club’s entrance, drawing every eye to us. I couldn’t even blush or feel embarrassed because the only emotion inside me was fear, and I was completely filled with it.

“Oh, there he is.” Jared spotted Neil a second later in the parking lot, leaning against the hood of his Maserati with a cigarette in his hand. He strode briskly toward him.

“No! Jared, wait!”

I screamed and my voice drew Neil’s honey-colored eyes to me. He turned confusedly in my direction, not understanding what was happening.

“You! You son of a bitch!” Jared rushed Neil and punched him in the abdomen, making him double over.

“Jared!” I screamed, my hands clasped against my stomach as though I’d felt the blow myself.

Neil’s shoulders slumped forward, and he rubbed the injured area.

For a fleeting moment, a pained expression crossed his beautiful face, but it immediately gave way to fury.

His gaze grew ominous, and the lines of his face drew tight.

He had turned his stare on me, and he was looking very intensely at one specific point: my cheek.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Xavier and Luke approached Jared, ready to defend their friend, but Neil immediately raised a hand to halt them.

“Selene!” called an alarmed Logan, who had just arrived. “What the hell is going on… What happened to your cheek?” He stared at me in shock, and I was trying so hard to hold back tears that I could barely speak.

“Jared… He already knew everything… He knew that—” But I didn’t get to finish because the furious voice of the man in question shouted over me.

“You fucked my girlfriend!” he screamed at Neil.

And now Logan knew everything, too.

His eyes went wide and he stood motionless, staring at the scene in front of him. He was in completely shock about everything that was happening.

Just like I was.

“You… I mean, you and Neil… You two…” he stammered, totally bewildered, but there was no time for me to explain, not then. I turned to Neil, his shadowy, imposing frame towering over Jared.

He tossed his cigarette and ground it out with his shoe, all the while continuing to stare at his adversary.

“You hit her,” he stated in a voice I didn’t recognize. It was like another version of himself had been imported from an alternate reality.

Jared quirked up the corner of his mouth and gave me a disgusted look. “She won’t be able to blow you for a little while, so sorry. Do you mind?” he sneered at Neil, and I flinched at yet another insult. Logan put a reassuring arm around my shoulders and Neil grimaced.

“Xavier, hand me that bottle.” He extended his hand for his friend’s bottle of beer, which Xavier gave to him without complaint.

“Why does he want that?” I murmured fearfully as a small crowd began to gather to watch our little drama.

“Not for anything good,” Logan answered, worried.

Neil stared Jared down for a moment, the bottle in his hand before casually cracking it against a nearby wall, making all of us jump. The bottom broke off and Neil was left holding a long, sharp splinter of glass.

What the hell…

Everyone’s attention was entirely on Neil now, all of them just waiting to witness whatever happened next.

Nobody even tried to step in because people loved to see a fight, but I feared the worst.

“Logan, stop him!” I lifted my hands to my face as Logan went immediately to his brother, who stood there fearlessly challenging Jared.

“Neil, don’t lose your shit. Put that down.

You’re not yourself right now.” He approached him cautiously, holding out both hands.

“I know you hate being touched without your consent, but you can’t react like this.

You’re not going to solve anything with that piece of glass,” he added in a persuasive tone, but Neil just kept staring at Jared as though trying to murder him with his eyes.