I could tell from looking at her sad little smile that something wasn’t right.
Babygirl was upset, dwelling on something.
I wanted to go to her and ask her what had her so troubled. I wanted to kiss her and take her home, but instead I held still and kept leaning against that fucking bar to prove to myself that she didn’t have any power over me. She had no power as she danced, and some asshole rubbed the fly of his jeans in excitement. She had no power as she pretended I didn’t exist while she had fun with her little friend. She had no power as she let Kyle put his hands on her hips and chase her audacious movements. She had no power as he plastered himself against her, grinding his crotch against her ass.
She had no power…
She was completely free to do whatever she wanted with whomever she wanted, in fact…
Suddenly, I pounded my fist down on the bar as an indescribable madness began to pulse in my veins. I fought against myself and my instinctive urge to break the musician’s nose. I fought against my fear of losing Selene.
I fought my anxiety, my possessiveness, and the fear that, deep down, I simply wasn’t enough for her.
What the fuck were these human emotions burning up my chest?
They hurt; I felt like I was suffocating.
“Neil?” my brother called out behind me, alarmed, but by that point, my vision had already gone blurry from rage.
I stalked rapidly over to her, shoving aside anyone in my way. I never once took my eyes off Selene and Lucky, whom I was already picturing laid out on a stretcher, breathing through a tube.
Babygirl immediately spotted me striding menacingly through the crowd, and her eyes went wide as she abruptly stopped dancing. He, meanwhile, just made a confused face. I shoved Kyle aside violently as soon as I reached them. He stumbled back, and I stabbed a finger at him.
“Walk away from her now, or I’ll put you in the hospital. Your choice, dickhead,” I threatened him, totally unconcerned with the attention I wasattracting. Fortunately, the loud music kept my wrathful voice from carrying too far. Kyle looked me up and down with disgust plain on his face. He looked at me like I was an insect, human garbage, a psycho he’d cross the street to avoid. But I ignored his looks and seized Selene by the wrist and pulled her savagely against me. She trembled even as she glared defiantly at me. Lucky retreated like the coward he was.
“Did you like having someone else’s cock rubbing up on you?” I burst out, just a short distance from Selene’s face. I hated letting that part of me out; I hated the mindless beast I turned into when I lost my head. But Selene had a unique power to drive me insane, and not just in bed. “Is mine not enough for you?” I pressed.
“Your vulgarity is embarrassing,” she hissed at me, and my eyebrows shot up in surprise. I couldn’t stand it when she got all condescending, and I hated it even more when she did it in front of people.
“Oh, that bothers you now?” I said tauntingly. “Yet when I’m fucking you and I whisper all that filthy shit into your ear, you turn into a fucking faucet.” I went on, visibly infuriating her.
“What do you even want with me? Why don’t you go find Megan?” she shot back. I was thrown for a moment, but I realized that she must have noticed my appraisal of the dark-haired girl and had misunderstood. “You obviously like her even though you try to deny it. It’s pathetic,” she said, taking another shot. My hold on her wrist tightened until she bared her teeth in a snarl.
“So this was payback, huh?” For a fleeting moment, I wanted to bite the surly little moue right off her mouth. I should have been even angrier, but instead I just laughed. Selene was getting up to ever more childish antics, and all it did was show how much she cared about me. I was just about to explain how I didn’t give two shits about Megan when the musician came back over to butt in unnecessarily.
“Let her go. You’re hurting her,” he told me, jerking his chin at my fingers wrapped around my Babygirl’s slight wrist.
My Babygirl.Mine.Maybe that wasn’t clear to him.
I turned my gaze on him and gave him a fulminating sneer. I could have decked him, but I decided that it was my duty to teach him a valuable life lesson in a classier way.
I refocused on Selene and took her face in my hands. Then I bent to meet her lips, catching her off guard. But there was nowhere to escape. I held the back of her neck and thrust my tongue aggressively into her mouth, forcing her to give in to me. I was not at all surprised when she went rigid in my arms and pressed her hands to my chest like she was going to push me away.
But I knew she’d surrender soon enough. I knew my Tinkerbell, and she never could resist me. I pressed myself against her, enveloping her completely. I made her feel all the muscled planes of my body and chased her tongue with mine until she gave in.
I claimed her ferociously, hotly, and so intensely that she couldn’t keep up.
Her coconut scent was all around me; the delicate taste of her mingled with my own, which I knew to be mostly smoke, anger, and possessiveness. We became an unstoppable whirlwind of passion. She clutched my shoulders, trying to stop the assault of passion, and I knew she needed to catch her breath, but I didn’t care. I had a greater purpose; I was sending a clear message to anyone watching us at that moment.
I’d always been better with actions than with words.
A profoundly feminine moan from her throat got me even harder. My heartbeat was pounding in my ears, my body pumping desire out through every vein. I groped one of her breasts roughly, pulling a gasp from her. Then, I shot a sideways glance at Kyle, who was standing there motionless, just watching us.
Shocked and impotent.
I grinned into Selene’s mouth like a son of a bitch.
There was no need to hit him; he knew his place now. And, more importantly, he knew mine.
