“Because, to me, you are not an object,” she said in a low voice.
I turned sharply to scrutinize her. Why would she say something like that?
I automatically searched her face for a hint of the feelings I despised, like pity or compassion. I would have put her out on her ass if I’d seen them there, but I didn’t.
Then I smiled wickedly.
Did she believe that women used me like an object?
Did she think of me as some kind of victim?
She was dead wrong.
The exact opposite was happening. I was the one who used women as objects. I was the one projecting Kimberly onto each one of them and taking revenge for what she’d done to me.
I was the one who broke them with my dominating attitude, making them like it and then tossing them aside, just like Kim had done to me.
I was on the other side now.
“You really are an innocent, Selene. Too much of an innocent.” I took another step back, getting further away from her scent, which only confused me.
“You sure? You use them, and they use you. It all comes from the same place.” She pushed off the wall and advanced on me. She walked slowly on those high heels and a little awkwardly, showing none of the confidence that usually irritated me in other girls.
With her perfect, well-proportioned body, she looked like an innocent fairy and a bewitching siren all in one. Not a single man at that club had failed to notice her.
Everyone—truly everyone—had looked lustfully at her.
And what about back in Detroit? How many guys were looking at her when I wasn’t there?
“Neil…” Babygirl prompted. “Are you listening to me?” she continued cautiously.
No, I wasn’t listening to her anymore.
And she had noticed my absence—that I was lost in my own reflections.
Acting on instinct, I grabbed her by the nape of the neck and pulled her to me. I clutched her hair in my fist and brought my lips to within a hairsbreadth of hers.
“You need to be gone in the next five minutes. You really need to get out of here,” I said in an angry whisper. Her slim little hands rested on my chest, and I could barely breathe.
“Okay,” she managed, sounding intimidated. Was she afraid of me? I rubbed the end of her nose with mine and pressed a kiss to its small, upturned tip.
She was perfect.
“Make that ten. Ten minutes.” I descended on her mouth. Ten minutes would be long enough to satisfy the sick need I had to taste her all over.
“Agreed,” she answered.
Good. I liked it when she was accommodating.
Still holding her by the hair and trying not to hurt her, I wrapped my other hand around her waist and groped her ass hard. Selene let out a tiny hiss.
She’d just have to get used to me and it wouldn’t be for the rest of our lives, after all. Just the next ten minutes.
After a moment’s hesitation, she bit her lower lip and shut her eyes. She was ready to submit to me, the devil himself. So I kissed her.
My tongue slid impatiently into the paradise that was her mouth and was immediately met by hers, ready for me.
Timid and uncertain.
