“Take it easy, Mr. Disaster. You know I need to breathe.” She rested her forehead on my chest, and I rubbed her head soothingly.
“Get dressed, Babygirl. And don’t wear anything too short or flashy,” I ordered her, and I regretted it the moment I said it. Even I didn’t know why I’d made such a ridiculous request—I didn’t have any right to tell her how to dress. But the idea of watching her walk into the club and seeing all the men drool over her ass bothered me. A lot.
She looked up at me, her brow creasing.
“What?” she asked.
“I just meant…” I scrambled, “I like the way you dress. You know how to be sexy in your own way.” I stroked her cheek, and she smiled while I tried not to reveal the strange, unsettled feeling that was tying my stomach in knots.
I headed back to the main house, partly to give her some time to get ready and partly to get away from her before I changed my mind and decided to keep her locked up in the pool house with me. I found Logan and let him know we were coming out with him before taking yet another shower.
I had hoped that the hot water would soothe my anxieties and help me reorder my thoughts, but I was still on edge, still troubled about what was going on inside me.
I couldn’t recognize myself.
I was getting more and more mixed up by the day.
Selene’s proximity created disorder, confounding my reality and staining the darkness that surrounded me with so many irritating colors.
I huffed anxiously and stepped out of the shower to dry my hair. Then I tended to my beard, careful not to cut myself because my right hand had started shaking once again.
“Fuck,” I blurted out. I needed to calm down.
Selene was just one girl among many others, and very soon she was going to disappear out of my life and out of my head. And I would be who I was before.
The me I recognized, the one who lived in a manageable amount of chaos without too much needless worry.
I went straight to my walk-in closet, glancing at the clock along the way. It had only been an hour since I left Babygirl in the pool house, and already I wanted to see her again.
I put on a dark pair of jeans and a sweater—the black-on-black look suited my mood.
I could have dressed a little nicer, but the truth was, I didn’t actually want to go out.
The only thing I wanted to do was to stay with Selene, preferably naked and bathing in her heat with her thighs locked around me and her heels digging into my ass cheeks, spurring me to dominate her harder with every thrust.
But for once, I was trying not to think only of myself.
“Meet me outside in thirty. Let’s take your car,” Logan demanded, walking past my open door. He’d just gotten out of the shower as well, and he had a towel wrapped around his waist and an open box of cereal in one hand. I rolled my eyes.
Only my brother pregamed on Saturday night with handfuls of dry Lucky Charms.
“Don’t be late; I’m not waiting for you,” I warned. Then I hurried down the stairs and out the back door.
The icy air clawed at my face like a metal pincer as I walked quickly across the yard to the pool house. When I walked in and didn’t see Selene, I was immediately alarmed.
Nervous, I went to the bedroom and only calmed down when I found her there rearranging some clothing in her suitcase. She turned to look at me, and her eyes were full of such all-encompassing heat that they activated a suffocating lust inside me.
“I’m ready,” she announced before I could say anything. She knew that I hated to wait.
I stood in the doorway and looked her up and down. She wore black pumps with four-inch heels, a pair of skinny jeans that were definitely too tight and displayed every single curve, and a gold top cut dangerously lowover her breasts under a short winter coat. She looked great, but apparently I hadn’t been clear enough earlier when I told hernothing flashy.
Again, I felt that strange burning sensation in my chest, so intense that I had to rub the area with one hand.
“You don’t like it?” she asked, chucking a lipstick into her purse.
What did she need that for? She already had on too much lipstick; it made her lips look even more plush. I lingered over the shadowy makeup surrounding her azure eyes, making them even more brilliant. Her long eyelashes, made even more noticeable by mascara, opened like fans around that crystalline blue. I stepped closer to get a better look at her, and she gulped, feeling the intensity of my presence.
“You’re back to the leather jacket? No elegant coat tonight?” she teased me.
