Oh, was I distracting him?
I got up and washed the mug out in the sink before drying it and putting it back in the cupboard. I turned around to see Neil looking at my ass, his phone still clutched in one hand.
“Could you tell your lovers to look you up some other time? Perhaps after I’ve gone back to Detroit? That way they’ll have you all to themselves, and you can play your little games together.” I waved a dismissive hand, and he raised his eyebrows in surprise. He hadn’t expected that reaction out of me, but I was fed up, and his attitude needed to change, specifically the arrogant disregard. Neil’s only answer was to raise the corner of his mouth before, unable to hold back any longer, he burst into laughter.
Was he making fun of me?
I stalked around the kitchen island, determined to get out of there, but he took me by the arm and stopped me. He stood up, looming over me. I looked up at him, daring him to say something. If he tried to seduce me with words or actions, he would have gotten a slap to the face that time.
One he’d always remember.
“Tinkerbell…” he said in a soft, singsong tone, mocking me. I glared at him. “You are absolutely right…about waiting until after you leave to see all my lovers.” He tried to brush a strand of hair away from my eyes, but I moved to block him. All he did was laugh. “But the person I was texting just now was actually Logan. So you can relax…” He pinched my cheek before releasing me.
Oh, so hewasgoing to see all his other women after I left? Well, two could play at that game.
“And I’ll happily wait until I’m back in Detroit to ask Ivan out so we can get back to our…ah…unfinished business.” I shot him a wink and watched his shoulders straighten. His golden eyes went hazy with unmistakable anger, and he began to breathe heavily.
Guess my aim was good because that shothit.
I wouldn’t have done anything with Ivan, whom I considered just a friend. But just hearing his name was enough to provoke the human disaster in front of me and I hoped to make him feel some of what he made me feel.
That might be the only way to make him understand how much he was hurting me.
“I’m going to go get ready,” I announced cheerfully, wearing a smile just as broad as it was fake, and then sashayed victoriously back to the bedroom. All the time, I could feel his glower on me.
“Fucking brat,” I thought I heard him mutter in an irritable growl, but I didn’t care in the slightest.
* * *
Half an hour later, we were driving in Neil’s car.
Neither of us said a word about our little sparring match.
I wanted to ask him what this “place” he was taking me to actually was, but I didn’t want to be the one who broke first. Maybe I was being childish, but my pride got the better of me, and I couldn’t stand the idea of talking to him, not even just to get basic information.
I contented myself with giving him sideways looks while he focused on driving. He grasped the steering wheel firmly in one hand while leaning his head on the other, thinking who knew what kind of thoughts.
Neil often seemed to be lost in his own world, far away from everything…me included. It was like he retreated to some secret space in his head, and the door was barred to anyone else.
In his black jacket and jeans with the sweater I’d so recently used to keep myself warm, he looked every inch the enchanting beast.
His gaze was cold, his face perpetually frowning and unreadable, and his mouth lush and capable of biting, rousing me and stirring me up like none other. The lines of his face were firm, his jaw defined.
His clean smell hung around in the car’s interior, which cut through the air like a dart.
All around him, an ominous aura of darkness hovered.
Neil provoked a dangerous and painful kind of love, an otherworldly torment.
An eternal punishment that was scarier than death itself.
His beauty struck me like a bolt of lightning—terror and electricity at the same time.
The feeling was like a thick cloak of fog that obscured my common sense, bewildered my soul, and annihilated my sense of self.
My want for him refused to give me a break as my feelings only grew and grew.
I reached over instinctively and squeezed his thigh. Neil reacted to myunexpected touch with a slight indrawn breath, but he didn’t move. I, on the other hand, narrowed my eyes at the feeling of his powerful muscles underneath my fingers, with only a layer of jeans between me and his warm skin. I moved my hand up a bit higher, and Neil didn’t stop me, allowing himself to be fondled. I was surprised at how calm he appeared, especially when I reached his groin and began to trace the curve of his penis. He continued to stare at the road, concentrating, but I knew he was very aware of my hand pressing on his visible bulge.
