Chapter 10 #4
“If that’s me you’re referring to, you giant asshole, I’m right here.
” Xavier popped out from behind Luke’s back with a cigarette between his lips and a nasty look on his face.
My eyes went wide as I spotted his black eye and slightly swollen nose.
I examined his bruises—definitely more obvious than Neil’s—and surmised that the fight must have been between the two of them.
“Glad to see you’re alive,” Neil said drily, taking in his friend’s appearance as though nothing had happened between them. I frowned and kept watching—those two had a truly incomprehensible relationship.
“You, too, apparently,” Xavier replied, looking at the purplish splotches that dotted Neil’s eyebrow and the corner of his mouth.
“Okay, let’s not start this again,” Luke intervened, looking directly at me. His forehead wrinkled, like he didn’t quite recognize me, and he stared down at me, lingering over my face.
“Selene?” he said uncertainly. I wasn’t sure how to respond or how I should greet him. Luke and I had shared one fiery kiss and a brief conversation on a bench that tragic Halloween night, which meant…
“Oh, look who came back. It’s the doll with the golden ass. Welcome back, kitten.” Xavier looked me all over in his typically sleazy fashion. Next to him, Alexia stared at me like I was some kind of leper.
“Don’t start that horny shit, you jackass!” she elbowed him, trying to break him out of the daze he’d fallen into, staring insistently at my breasts. Xavier snorted.
“If the girl is looking fuckable, I’m gonna look.
I always look at hot bitches, whether you like it or not.
You’re not my woman, and you don’t control me,” he answered, sounding annoyed.
Alexia sighed, and sadness swept over her face, making her look down.
Was it possible that everyone—me included—had noticed that this girl had feelings for Xavier, and he was still oblivious?
That wasn’t any of my business, though.
When it came to the Krew, trouble was always just around the corner.
“Is it done yet?” Neil turned his attention to Luke, jerking his chin at Xavier, who now had his eye on a nearby brunette, all curves and piercings. I shook my head as I watched him. The dude was obsessed with any living female.
“Not yet,” Luke answered with a sigh, and he caught me watching him. My gaze had lingered distractedly on the dimple in his chin. It was a detail I’d never noticed before.
Indeed, Luke had charms of his own. I couldn’t deny that…
“So you came out from Detroit to go to New Lion?” He smiled at me, and I smiled back. I had never been afraid of him. Sure, he was a member of the Krew and surely not as angelic as he looked, but I had always thought he was different from the likes of Xavier.
“I’m only here for two days and…” I didn’t have time to say more because Neil put a hand on my back and pushed me forward.
“What are you doing?” I snapped in vexation.
A wall of testosterone now stood between me and Luke.
There was no way to escape him so I turned my face slightly to look at him.
He was so beautiful, and my anger gave way to the familiar yearning sensation between my thighs.
I gasped and stiffened up when I felt his pelvis against my backside.
I was wearing my long coat but I was very confident that the thing poking into the base of my spine was the huge bulge he kept in his pants.
My throat suddenly felt dry, and I had to lick my lips.
“Walk,” he ordered, shoving me again. After the small group of men ahead of us got through, it would be our turn. But that didn’t mean he needed to push me or act like some surly barbarian. I looked to Logan for assistance, but he was talking with Alyssa and not paying attention to anything else.
“What is wrong with you? Stop forcing me forward,” I grumbled irritably. I turned to look at him and was about to say something else before Neil bent down to my ear.
“If I were really forcing you, Tinkerbell, you’d be screaming for me to stop,” he whispered provocatively, making me shiver.
It had been a while since I’d heard that name fall from his lips.
I gulped and tried not to break, not to show what he could have easily seen in my all-too-transparent eyes.
They were too sincere when it came to him.
I mustered the strength to turn around and gasp for air before following Logan and Alyssa into the club after the bouncer let us pass.
We walked down a long, black-walled corridor faintly illuminated with red lights.
Neil stayed behind me the entire time and put both of his hands on my hips when we moved into the crowd.
The gesture left me stunned, and I found myself wishing he’d stay close like that forever.
I could actually feel the fizzing as our souls connected, the collision of our joint desires.
I shot him a brief glance, barely moving my chin, and he pulled me close with a possessiveness that I’d never felt before.
My heart felt like it was going to explode out of my chest.
“Start looking around. We need to find that lucky guy,” he hissed into my ear, and my anger flared.
“This place is dope,” Logan said, turning to me just then and smiled before he walked away with Alyssa pressed to his side.
Intrigued, I did take a look around.
It was, in fact, a very strange place. It felt like we had crossed some border into a world of sin, lust, and the forbidden.
The walls were blood red, contrasting starkly with the black leather couches.
Round black tables with a single central leg made of highly polished steel were arranged around enormous dancing platforms. The surface of each one was covered with illuminated frosted glass, and there was a chrome-plated metal pole in the middle for exotic dancing.
We all proceeded to the bar, which was lit up with alternating lights and provided a dramatic play of colors.
Neil walked past me and leaned an elbow on the bar, perusing the illuminated shelves where numerous bottles of alcohol were arranged.
Then the inevitable happened.
His golden eyes succumbed to the blond bartender, who looked back at him with a wickedness that immediately irritated me.
I wasn’t his girlfriend; we weren’t together, but I simply couldn’t contain the jealousy.
Nothing like it had ever happened to me with Jared, but Neil was elusive, he didn’t belong to me. Maybe that was why I was afraid I might lose him at any moment.
I noted, then, that his things for blonds had clearly not diminished.
“What can I get you?” The bartender rested her hands palms down on the bar, tossing her long hair over one shoulder.
She had a jeweled septum piercing and was notably beautiful.
Although she had directed her question to Logan, her brown eyes immediately slid over to Neil.
He remained serious, but I didn’t miss the way his eyes flicked to the girl’s generous breasts.
I didn’t stand a chance against the kind of girls he slept with. He hadn’t even said anything nice about my dress. It was impossible to get a nice word out of him. Or maybe he wasn’t as attracted to me as he used to be.
Sometimes I was certain we had a connection, while other times my insecurities rose up to make me doubt everything.
“What do you want, Selene?” Logan asked.
“I don’t—” I started to tell him that I wasn’t drinking but I stopped.
“Do you want to order something to share? I don’t want to drink much either,” Neil asked me.
Me specifically and not anyone else. I nodded, and he smiled at me.
“I’ll choose. I’m not going to ask what your drink is because you don’t know them anyway,” he teased me, and the bartender giggled.
I blushed, of course, because Neil had succeeded in humiliating me, but what he did next astounded me.
He glared severely at the woman for daring to laugh at me.
He stared her down ominously and we all watched him in awe.
The bartender quickly took the rest of our orders and made an awkward exit.
Too often, I had no idea what his actions meant.
Had he been trying in his own way to defend me?
“Since when do you ‘not drink much’?” I dared to ask, and Neil turned to look at me. He took a seat on a stool, elbow against the bar, one knee bent and the other stretched out, supporting his weight.
He was such a rare beauty, the most attractive man I had ever seen.
“I hardly ever drink,” he answered, looking me slowly from top to bottom. We’d left our coats at the entrance, and my body was now completely exposed for his wicked eyes. He let them trail easily down from my breasts to my legs before coming back up to look at my face.
“Here you go.” The bartender handed us our drink, and I realized I didn’t even know what Neil had gotten for us. I moved to get a closer look at our cocktail, and Mr. Disaster took me by the hips. At first, I didn’t understand what he was trying to do.
Did he want me to sit on his lap? Sure seemed like it.
Neil was big and strong; he could maneuver me in whatever way he wanted, so he didn’t even bother asking my permission and instead just pulled me down onto him.
I sat, and as my butt met the hardness of his muscled thigh, something lit up inside me.
It was impossible to feel such a powerful arousal every single time he touched me.
My body could not simply go up in flames he put his hands on me.
I shot an embarrassed look at Alyssa and at Logan, who was standing next to the stool she was perched on, and I caught them exchanging a knowing glance.
“You’ve had a margarita before, right?” Neil gripped the glass, its rim decorated with a lime slice, and brought it to his lips. He took a sip as he waited for me to answer.
I shook my head, preparing myself for one of his insults or snarky little quips, but he just tightened his hand on my hip and pulled me closer to him. It was suddenly hard to breathe.