Chapter 20 Selene #2
“Yes, I’m so glad you could come. This is Neil,” Mia was introducing him to one of her work acquaintances.
The first thing I noticed about her was her artfully styled red hair and the showy jewelry that proclaimed her wealth.
The second thing I noticed was the young woman about my age she had with her.
The latter was blond and swathed in a bright pink dress that left little to the imagination.
She stared stupefied at Neil while he reluctantly pretended to be interested in what the older woman had to say.
My heart lurched, however, when he took note of the girl’s alluring stare and checked her out more carefully, lingering on the deep neckline of her curve-hugging dress.
He lifted the champagne flute to his full lips and took a small sip from it.
Slowly, sensually, staring directly at the enthralled blond.
He liked making girls succumb, making them dizzy with a desire that he undoubtedly would have satisfied had I not been in the way.
Would he ever stop trying to mete out his revenge on Kimberly through these women who reminded him of her?
Would he ever exorcise the ghost of that monstrous blond?
I sometimes even felt a stab of jealousy toward her, toward the babysitter I had never met nor seen but who seemed to be omnipresent in our relationship. I felt like, despite all the years that had passed since her abuse of Neil, she could destroy us at any moment.
“I don’t think I can do this,” I murmured to myself, feeling breathless. I stroked my hair anxiously and headed out into the backyard, trying not to trip in my high heels.
The bow at my collar seemed suffocating all of a sudden, and there was a constricted feeling inside me tighter than the pencil skirt’s waistband.
Goddamned jealousy.
I stalked down the walkway and sat down in a chaise lounge beside the pool. The sun had set by then, and the lights below the pool’s waterline alternated colors in a pleasing display.
My first kiss with Neil had been in a pool.
So much had changed since then—I had changed since then.
“What are you doing out here by yourself?” I started at the sound of his baritone in real life.
I looked up and first spotted a pair of shiny black shoes before my eyes slowly moved up his firm legs. He had one hand tucked into the pocket of his fancy suit pants while he held a champagne flute in the other.
How long had it been since I’d furiously hurled myself out the kitchen door?
It couldn’t have been more than a few minutes; Neil must have followed me pretty much immediately after I left.
“I needed to get some air,” I said sharply.
His soft chuckle of amusement only made me more uncomfortable, so I turned my eyes back to the crystalline water of the pool and ignored him.
“What am I going to do with you, Tinkerbell?” Neil crouched down and rested his elbows on his knees until his beautiful face was level with mine. I finally relented and gave him my attention again. Though I did frown at him. “I told you from the start that I can’t change…”
He sure had. In fact, he never missed an opportunity to remind me of that fact, as though I weren’t already aware…
“Yes, and no one is asking you to,” I shot back, a sullen look on my face.
“But it still bothers you when I look at other women,” he said with a smile so crafty that it made me want to slap it right off his face. I took a deep breath and looked back at the pool lights, which had shifted to blue and violet.
“You look mainly at the blonds,” I said, my voice soft but filled with bitterness.
Neil inhaled sharply and put his glass down on the little table next to us before reaching out to rub my knee.
I shivered when his fingers made contact with my bare skin, exposed by the skirt’s slit, but I told myself to stay calm.
Stay clear. He was trying to seduce me, but I wasn’t going to let him.
“Sure, I look at them. And then I forget their names the next moment. These days, I only have room in my head for you. I want you every day. I don’t know what exactly you’ve done to me, but you continue to be my Neverland,” he murmured hoarsely.
I probed his gaze slowly, and in his eyes, I saw his sincerity as well as his lust and his longing…
Longing for me.
He licked his lips, staring at my mouth before moving down to the place where my tight shirt stretched to reveal the shape of my breasts. Then he abruptly grabbed my hips and pulled me to my feet until my chest bumped against his.
The sudden contact made me rock back on my heels. His masculine scent went to my head, while his strong hands went to my ass, gripping it possessively until I was flattened against him.
“Feel what you do to me, Selene. Only you. No one else,” he whispered into my ear.
He licked down the curve of my throat as he ground his erection against my lower abdomen.
I let out a rough, involuntary moan and clutched his wide shoulders as if to keep from falling.
“You’re my new addiction. You need to quit being paranoid.
Concentrate on kissing me instead,” he growled angrily before crashing his mouth over mine.
He palmed one of my breasts and rubbed his hardness between my thighs and tore an embarrassing whine from me.
I had to put a halt to this quickly, or I wouldn’t be able to stop at all. I bit his lower lip and held it sensuously between my teeth.
Neil groaned, his eyes falling half-closed in arousal.
“I have a present for you,” I whispered into his mouth.
His eyes lit up, a flicker of wicked perversion.
I grinned and shook my head to nip lewd fantasies in the bud.
“I’m not talking about sex. We can do that after…
” I moved his greedy hands off my body and bent down to retrieve a small blue velvet box from my purse.
Neil cocked his head to one side with a look of confusion as I stood back up.
“Are you about to propose?” he teased with a smug smile before sitting back down on the chaise and pulling me with him until I was perched on his lap.
He began to stroke my naked thighs and wriggled in agitation underneath me.
“Babygirl…you aren’t easy to resist…” he said in a provocative whisper, breathing heavily against my shoulder.
“Think about opening this instead,” I instructed, trying not to look too embarrassed.
I’d never given him anything so important before, and I hoped he would like it.
I hoped he would think of me whenever he looked at it.
Neil took the box, his face becoming serious again.
Slowly, he opened it and peered inside. I knew what he would see there: a silver bracelet with a small charm on it shaped like a clam.
You are my shell was engraved on the back of the charm.
Once, Neil had drawn a shell with a pearl inside on my skin with a marker. He told me a story about it and instructed me to draw the same thing whenever I felt lonely.
I didn’t understand how much that really meant to him until the day I left Detroit, when he snuck a glass cube with a pearl inside into my pocket.
I had associated that talisman with my survival in the car wreck that had followed right after.
I kept my hand around that cube the whole time, even after I was rendered unconscious by the collision.
“Wear it when you’re feeling lonely, so that even if we’re far apart, I can still be with you.
” I looked at Neil’s face and found him astonished.
For a second, I was afraid he’d reject my gift, but then he stretched out his arm and tugged the cuff of his shirt up slightly, inviting me to put the bracelet on him.
I rushed to do up the clasp, admiring the way the polished silver shone against his amber skin.
“I’ll be forced to think of you.” He stroked it with a delicate touch that was entirely unlike him, like it was the most precious thing in all the world. He looked lost in thought, and his face grew shadowed. The moment between us was heavy with feeling.
“Pardon me…” Miss Anna approached then, and we both got to our feet. Neil kept one arm around my waist to keep me from running off.
“What is it, Miss Anna?” he asked, pushing a hand through his hair, clearly annoyed at having been interrupted.
“There’s a man in the living room asking for you,” she told him.
Intrigued by this, we both went back inside and quickly spotted the energetic figure of John Keller wearing a particularly distinguished suit. I froze immediately when I saw that he was talking to Mia in an isolated corner. They looked as though they might be arguing again.
“John, you finally showed!” Neil went over to him and clapped him on the back.
I was surprised; I hadn’t realized Neil invited him, though I probably should have expected it.
Their relationship had deepened in recent days.
They saw each other regularly at the clinic, and John was trying to convince Neil to come back to therapy or participate in follow-up sessions with the group.
Neil was still working on trusting him, though.
I stepped closer and watched Dr. Keller giving Neil an abashed smile. Mia sighed anxiously as she rubbed a hand across her throat, visibly unsettled.
“We’re going to have dinner shortly; would you like to stay?” Neil asked, apparently thrilled with the presence of this man who had been making inroads to his life, little by little. This man who still had so many secrets.
“Is Dr. Lively coming too?” Neil went on.
“Krug asked me to pass along his apologies for missing the party. He intended to come, but his son just got in from Boston, and he needed to spend some time with him. I’d be happy to stay in his place,” John answered.
“Oh, you don’t need to do that…” Mia attempted to dissuade him, but her son lifted a hand to stop her.