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 Ifound 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 remainedserious, 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 justpulled 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.
