Chapter 19 #5
“What’s up?” Babygirl asked, gathering her slightly damp hair up into a ponytail on top of her head. I looked her up and down: She was sedately dressed, with no makeup on and her scar visible on her forehead, and I still thought her as lovely as a priceless pearl.
But I needed to banish those thoughts as well as the more perverse ones about her body because I was being an idiot, and the sound of Megan’s voice had brought me back to reality, reminding me of who—and what—I was.
I’d fucked up again: I’d had sex with Selene, slept next to her all night, and if that wasn’t bad enough, then I’d demanded she blow me.
This situation was getting seriously out of hand.
“Nothing…” I walked around her brusquely and scooped my boxers up off the floor, pulling them on right away. I didn’t even have a real change of clothes, but I needed to get out of there. Immediately.
“What kind of nothing? You were talking to Alyssa’s sister, right?” Selene knew who Megan was because she’d met her in a club. She’d actually thought that I was attracted to her that night.
Attracted to Megan, for Christ’s sake. Nothing could be worse.
I also grabbed my track pants and my white hoodie, which I discovered to my great annoyance now smelled like coconut.
“Yeah, that’s right.” I dressed myself in a series of rapid, mechanical movements before grabbing my cell phone and sticking it back in my pocket.
“And why has your mood changed so dramatically since talking to Megan?” Selene put special emphasis on her name, and I didn’t miss the hint of jealousy in her voice.
“Now’s not the time for twenty questions, Selene.” I flipped on her too rapidly, and Selene flinched.
“Now finish getting ready; I’ll drive you to school before I head back to New York.” I dismissed her so casually, not even meeting her eyes, because I knew that if I looked into her ocean, I was going to drown there.
“I can get there by myself!” She snapped before pulling a bag out of her closet and filling it with whatever crap girls carried around all day. She grumbled something unintelligible as she worked.
“I’m taking you.” It was an order. End of discussion.
“You’re being a bully again. I hate when you do that,” she railed, not looking at me.
“And you’re being fucking immature again. Why don’t you just quit whining and do what you’re told for once?” I said, going on the attack, and she shook her head at me, disappointed.
“You’re unreal. You don’t give a damn about me or how our whole situation has impacted my life!” She turned and pointed a finger at me, little but so brave.
“Oh, really? Is that what you think?” I grinned sardonically at her and moved closer until I towered over her.
“Yes. You won’t tell me what’s going on. You won’t tell me anything at all. How am I supposed to understand you? How am I supposed to support you or help you in any way?” She heaved a weary sigh and dragged both hands through her long ponytail, which she had slung over one shoulder.
“These things don’t concern you. It’s that simple,” I answered her with the first dumb thing that popped into my head just so I wouldn’t blurt out how mad I was at myself for all the feelings I had been wrestling with for so long.
“Sure, of course. I just need to shut up and take it all. Let you fuck me and wake up sore and covered with marks. Give you a—” She cut herself off, embarrassed, when I gave her a hard look. The kind that could make anyone shut up.
“Don’t put that on me. That’s the part I hate the most!” My voice grew louder as I became angrier, and my hands clenched into fists. My body was preparing to crush something. She lowered her eyes, seeing the tension in me, and stepped back.
“Look at yourself right now. You treat me like your personal punching bag. I have to just suffer your rages, your demands, and your mood swings. What do you want, Neil? A sex slave?” She gestured wildly, and I watched her full lips, the ones I wanted to kiss and bite again, like she really was mine and no one else’s.
“Yeah. If you were my sex slave, that wouldn’t be so bad,” I answered sharply, and she sucked in a deep breath before exploding.
“I hate you. In fact, you know what? I can’t stand to be around you.
You are…infuriating, arrogant, controlling, deranged, rude, and disrespectful.
Go back to—” But before she could finish her sentence, my phone rang again.
Selene stared at my pocket, so with a sigh of resignation, I took my phone out and answered it.
If it had been Megan again, I would have told her where she could put her questions in the nastiest way possible.
Instead, I saw Logan’s name on the screen. I frowned, answering it immediately.
“What?” I snapped.
“Neil,” he answered breathlessly, and my mood shifted on a dime.
“Are you okay, Logan?”
“You have to come back home. I’m not sure what’s going to happen, but I can tell you it’s urgent…
” My heart began to pound wildly in my chest. I immediately hung up the phone and, consumed with worry, brushed past Selene without giving her another look.
She took my arm to stop me, and I looked at her.
She looked terrified.
“I have to go. Something happened, but Logan didn’t say what,” was all I said, shaking off her hand.
“Okay, but…will you call me?” she asked uncertainly. I shook my head as I stepped away from her. I was going to hurt her again because I needed to do whatever was necessary to shatter her illusions.
“I never call a woman after I spend the night with her.” I looked at her lips one last time and breathed in the coconut smell that lingered in the air. And then I walked out of the room without a second thought.
The most important thing just then was getting back home and figuring out what was going on. When it came to my siblings, nothing else mattered.