I jolted when I felt the sudden absence of Neil’s hand. I frowned, seeing that he’d stopped but not immediately realizing why. Then it became clear to me when I spotted his friends.
“Oh, there you are. We’ve been waiting for you.” Xavier raised a glass in our direction with his usual devil-may-care attitude. He chuckled as he lay splayed out on a couch amongst the others.
“We thought you weren’t coming,” Luke, sitting next to him, put in.
“And apparently you brought your little brat with you too.” It was Jennifer who spoke that time, in tones of the utmost bitchery. I stood back and looked at her challengingly. I could have shot something back at her, but I decided to ignore her instead. She wasn’t worth my attention. Instead, I evaluated her outfit and that of her friend Alexia.
Both were dressed boldly to catch the eye.
But Jennifer was the clear winner.
She wore a white dress that, along with her long blond hair, gave her an almost angelic appearance.
She was as beautiful as she was evil.
“Holy fuck! Babydoll, I didn’t even recognize you. How are you doing?” Xavier checked me out and lingered on my legs, exposed as they were in my short dress. Meanwhile, Neil sat down between Alexia and Jennifer, who immediately made space for him, and jealousy gnawed at my stomach.
“Well? Xavier asked you a question, princess,” Jennifer prompted me nastily.
All at once she gave me a sly grin and got up only to sit down on Neil’s lap, wrapping her arms around his neck. I went rigid as she crossed her legs, allowing her dress to rise up so high that I almost got an eyeful of her panties. I twisted my lips into a hard expression while Neil did nothing whatsoever to remove her, despite my obvious displeasure.
“Who told you that you could sit on me?” he asked her instead in a placid tone, not quite stern enough to get her moving. Had he wanted to, he could have pushed her away easily. We all knew what he was like.
But he didn’t seem to mind having her on top of him. Far from it, apparently, because he rested a hand on her bare thigh.
My jealousy only increased. It coiled around me like a venomous snake, and I felt an awful emptiness in my chest, but I forced myself not to lash out.
“Sit here, Selene.” Luke gestured to the place next to him, and I accepted his invitation. It wasn’t like me to do things out of spite, but if Neil didn’t mind Jennifer coming onto him right in front of me, then I didn’t mind sitting next to a guy I’d once kissed in Neil’s pool house. The Disaster, who had upended my entire life, noticed this and narrowed his eyes slightly at me in challenge. I grinned cheekily at him and took off my coat to give his buddies a better view of my seductive dress.
“So, where are you living now?” Jennifer continued to needle me as she stroked the back of Neil’s neck with her sharp claws. She feigned interest in my answer, but the fight in her eyes left no room for doubt: She hated me.
“Detroit,” I answered coldly, rubbing a hand over my knee. I forced myself to look into her bright eyes and tried to hide how much it hurt to watch her drape herself all over a man I considered…mine.
“Oh yeah, of course. And why’d you come back? A little vacation?” she asked arrogantly.
“Well, it certainly wasn’t to see your whore face,” I burst out.
Xavier burst into laughter. “Whore face? How classy, Babydoll,” he commented, bringing his cocktail to his lips.
Jennifer just took the hit and dug her heels in, casting a glance at Neil, who had been watching our spat in silence. She moved closer to him until her breasts were pressed to his chest, then tossed her golden hair back to expose the generous cleavage that made it so obvious she wasn’t wearing a bra. The message was clear: She was marking her territory.
“And yet…men still prefer someone like me to someone like you,” she said with a superior air, as though she were up to the challenge of being with someone like Neil and I was not.
“Only the ones with a negative IQ,” I snapped back, determined not to let her bitchiness get the better of me. She smiled and exchanged knowing looks with Alexia before giving me her undivided attention once again.
“But your man is no exception; just the other night he was hanging out with me and Alexia. He wanted to play heads or tails… Do you know what that means?” she asked insolently.
I didn’t know, but I could take a guess.
Just the thought of Neil continuing to have sex with other people—even worse, with the two of them—disgusted me.
I couldn’t seem to catch my breath.
“He wanted head from me and Alexia’s tail.” She gave me a sneering little wink, and that was the coup de grâce for me.
Suddenly, Neil sprang into action. He shoved her off him and slid her over onto the sofa before leaping to his feet.
“Why the fuck are you telling her that?” he barked reprovingly. My eyes sought out his; I wanted him to see just how hurt I was, but his gaze was locked on the blond.
