Chapter 14 #3
“So? What did you want to say to me?” I crossed my arms over my chest, and unlike my mother, I wasn’t remotely polite. She wasn’t the one who’d been hurt, after all. She didn’t even know him or what a deceitful bastard he was.
“Cute house you have.” Neil changed the subject, looking around the living room off the entryway. My house was completely unlike Matt’s. There was no flash or luxury, no crystal chandeliers or giant pools in the backyard. Neil was mocking me, like always.
“Unbelievable. You really have some nerve showing your face here after what happened,” I shot back at him while he, utterly calm, looked over my shoulder at the pictures on the wall of me as a child.
“You were funny even when you were little. How old were you there? Five?” he teased, looking at one picture in particular.
I was in my mother’s arms at the beach wearing a colorful swimsuit and massively oversized snorkeling mask.
I should have had her get rid of that picture.
Stash it in some drawer or something so I wouldn’t feel so embarrassed.
“Don’t change the subject.” I moved to face him and looked him right in the eye.
I only came up to his chest, and his musky smell was so strong it was messing with my head.
Neil lowered his gaze to look at me, and I sucked in a breath.
His eyes were always speaking in that silent language that I was learning to understand and, just then, they were so obscured that I knew he was irritated by how I was approaching the situation.
“You’re trying to piss me off, aren’t you?” he whispered menacingly and I glanced warily into the kitchen, afraid my mother was going to see us getting so close to each other.
“I’m the one who should be pissed off, not you,” I retorted, and he smiled. I didn’t know why, and I didn’t even have time to think about it because Neil drew close to me and gently grazed my hip, making me gasp.
I was wearing a normal pair of jeans and a white sweater, nothing particularly sexy, but he was looking at me like he wanted to tear it all off me.
“I like it when you get aggressive, Tigress,” he murmured under his breath, moving his face even closer to my lips.
After a moment, he took a deep breath and did not kiss me.
I knew he wanted to, just like I wanted to, but instead he chose to stand motionless right in front of me, eyes gleaming with lust.
“Now’s not the time to be thinking about…” I began to say, but Neil moved closer still until he was right up next to my ear.
“Fucking you?” he finished for me. I could feel his hot breath on my skin, and his chest brushed against my breasts.
His baritone voice hit me like a jolt between my thighs, so I shut my eyes and bit my lip, swallowing hard. A chill ran down my spine and a raging fire ignited in the bottom of my belly.
“My mother is right there. Stop it.” I got up the nerve to push him back, but my hands started shaking as soon as I touched him. Neil took a few steps back, still giving me that same amused look, and I realized how hard it was going to be to resist him.
It was hard to resist the urge to undress him and feel his smooth skin against mine; hard not to run my fingers through the thick, wild hair on top of his head. It was hard not being able to kiss and caress his fierce body.
It was hard to resist the flames of desire that enveloped us every time we got near each other.
“I need to be alone with you,” he said seriously.
Luckily for me, Neil heard my mother’s footsteps and moved away from me immediately. He sat down on the couch, and I could breathe again. He balanced one ankle on the opposite knee and continued evaluating me closely, waiting for my answer.
“Here’s your tea.” My mother joined us in the living room with two steaming cups, looking at us in increasing confusion as she sensed the heavy atmosphere in the room.
I looked thoughtfully at the clock. It was eight, and I knew my mother was going out with Anton Coleman tonight, but I was absolutely sure that I could not be alone in the house with Neil. I could already picture how it would end: him and me, naked in bed.
I shook my head; I couldn’t afford to give in to him. I needed to avoid any compromising situations.
“Selene, I need to leave in half an hour, but…” My mother cleared her throat and looked sternly back and forth between Neil and me. “I am not leaving you here alone with a boy,” she said baldly, and my eyes widened in embarrassment.
Did my mother have to treat me like a child right in front of Neil?
I shot her a look, and she recoiled slightly.
“As you know, I’ve got an…appointment that I can’t put off, so…”
“Neil and I will go out,” I said hastily to end the conversation. I looked to Neil, chewing on my fingernail, and he frowned.
“Really? Out where?” my mother asked, taking an inquisitive stance with her hands on her hips.
“Not far, just to the diner a couple of blocks over. Neil’s never been to Detroit, so…
” I gave him a conspiratorial look, and he got up off the couch, looking a little annoyed.
I didn’t like the stiffness in his face or the tension in his body.
But he kept his composure in front of my mother, approaching me with his usual confidence and a phony smile.
“Sure, let’s go. If it’ll make you more comfortable, Ms. Martin, why not?” He was humoring me but doing so in a blatantly sarcastic way. My mother straightened up warily and scrutinized us both again.
“Okay… I’ll go get ready then,” she answered, heading up the stairs. The moment she was gone, I rounded on Neil, my eyes narrowed to two burning slits.
“You could have at least tried to sound enthused, you know?” I chided him as his stare, which had become ravenous, fixed on my lips.
“Someone should let your mother know that if I want to fuck her daughter, I will. I can do it up against a wall if I have to. No bedroom required,” he said, fully the swaggering blowhard.
“And do you really think I’d let you?” I answered pointedly, and he reached out to touch a lock of my hair. He twisted it around his index finger, fixing his eyes on me, making me see the little flashes of mischief that moved through them.
“Would you have the guts to stop me?” he asked softly, his thumb rubbing my lower lip. He gently traced the edges of it and breathed in deep.
“And would you have the guts to use me again after what you said to my father?” I murmured, and Neil looked from my lips to my eyes.
“I had to say that.” He continued touching my lip as he stared sadly at me. The flickers of mischief were gone now, giving way to the more sensitive, more human side of him.
“I don’t remember anyone forcing you.” I wanted to give myself over to his touch, but I forced myself to remain motionless and simply take it. I could keep doing it, too, for as long as I wanted.
“You don’t get it, Selene.” Neil rested his forehead against mine and closed his eyes.
His warm hand stroked my cheek while his other hand grasped my hip tightly.
It occurred to me that he always seemed to need some sort of contact with me, even if it was barely perceptible.
It was like it was necessary to give him the strength to talk to me.
“If you were clearer, maybe I would understand better,” I managed, and he looked back into my eyes. He pushed aside my bangs and looked at my scar, sighing.
“Well, I—” My mother walked in again on us. Tremendous timing on that woman. Neil immediately jumped back, and I tried to gather myself. I didn’t want her noticing how overwhelmed I was by him or the kind of intimacy we shared.
“Uh…Mom…” I smiled stiffly as she sat down on the couch.
“Anton’s running late; I’ll wait down here.
Maybe you should go get ready while I have a little chat with Neil,” she suggested and I almost laughed in her face.
I knew exactly how that “chat” was going to go.
Neil would refuse to utter a single word.
He was much less open or talkative than she believed him to be.
As expected, I saw him stiffen at the idea of having a conversation with my mother.
I hurried up to my room, though, because I didn’t want to leave the two of them alone for too long.
My mother didn’t think much of guys like Neil, and honestly, what parent would?
So I washed up and got changed as fast as I could, pulled on a pair of high boots, and did my hair, leaving it to hang loose over my shoulders.
I hurried down the stairs and immediately spotted Neil, wearing his leather jacket again and intently studying a painting on the wall. My mother, on the other hand, was intently studying him from the sofa, like he was some science experiment.
“I’m ready,” I said as I went down the stairs, afraid of getting another lecture from my mother.
Fortunately, Matt had only told her about our relationship, not that we slept together.
I wanted to get Neil out of there as fast as possible.
She’d already told me she didn’t trust him, so I was working hard to make sure she didn’t ask any more compromising questions.
As soon as I hit the bottom step, though, I realized their conversation had taken an unexpected turn.
“You like that one? My daughter is always complaining that I buy too many paintings and we don’t have anywhere to put them,” my mother was saying to Neil. Neither of them had noticed me.
“Yeah, I actually like Magritte a lot,” he answered with a small smile. “This one is called The Lovers, right?” He jerked his chin at it. Meanwhile, I crept forward slowly so I could observe the situation, careful not to interrupt them.
“That’s right,” my mother said, surprised.