The Moth and the Flame (When Rivals Play #2) - B.B. Reid Page 0,120
innocent, and the ones who aren’t, I trust him not to go too far. The punishment always fits the crime.”
“You don’t think a year in boarding school was going too far?”
She cringed as if replaying a memory and peeked at me from under her lashes. “I wasn’t all that innocent, either. Ever humiliated me in front of everyone at school, so I assaulted one of his teammates with a bottle of whiskey. He ended up needing stitches.”
I hid my smile while thinking Four was my kind of girl after all. “Still…I’m not sure I could have forgiven him just because he batted those pretty gold eyes at me.”
Four held her sides as she bent over laughing. “Trust me, it wasn’t easy,” she grumbled once she settled down. “I went down kicking and screaming until I realized I wasn’t just hurting him but myself as well.”
“And now? You’re a little fish in his much bigger pond. What does he do when he wants his way, and you want yours?”
“We fight and then we fuck,” she answered plainly before shrugging. “One of us usually compromises after that.”
“What?” I chortled, and she laughed, too.
“I never said we had it all figured out!” She then shot me a devilish grin. “Either way, I always win.”
“I guess you got under more than just his skin,” I teased.
“She did.”
I looked up, and Four’s head whipped around when we heard the deep voice. Ever was leaning against the pillar just feet away, and neither of us knew how long he’d been standing there.
“She got deeper than anyone ever could.”
I would have gagged if I hadn’t witnessed the look in his eyes as he watched Four. She wasn’t kidding about the way he looked at her. I felt like I was intruding as they gazed into each other’s eyes. Slowly, she stood, and they naturally drifted to one another, but then Jay D broke the moment when he launched himself at Ever.
Ever glared down at the pup through narrowed eyes as Jay D pawed at his legs. “Cockblocker,” he sneered.
Four giggled and closed the distance between them. “He’s just saying hi to his daddy.”
“Four, I keep telling you that mutt isn’t a real baby.” Much lower he said, “That comes later.” It was obvious his promise wasn’t meant for my ears, but even if I hadn’t heard, I’d have a pretty damn good clue judging by the blush reddening Four’s cheeks.
“What do you want, McNamara? You’re embarrassing me.”
“Gruff’s here.”
“What?” she screeched. I almost laughed at the startled look on Ever’s face when she broke free from his arms and shoved past him with Jay D hot on her heels. She was gone before he’d even recovered.
“Who’s Gruff?” I asked when the whiplashed look on his face cleared.
When he finally looked at me, I could tell he’d forgotten that I was even there. I felt a stab of envy and hoped that one day, I could be to someone the girl who made everyone else cease to exist. I lost hope each day that the ‘someone’ would be Wren. Last night, he told me that he loved me, and even though he’d made it clear he hadn’t meant as a friend, I knew better than to believe in his drunken ramblings.
“Back home, she was a mechanic,” Ever answered. “Gruff’s her old boss.”
“That’s interesting. I always thought bosses were people you avoided until it was time to get paid.”
He snorted. “He’s been more of a father to her than a boss.”
I noticed the tightness in his voice and said, “Let me guess…he doesn’t approve of you?”
Ever sighed and he seemed to completely deflate. “If he does, he definitely won’t by the end of dinner.”
He was gone before I could ask him what he meant.
A startled gasp fell from my lips when I emerged from the bathroom a few hours later and found Wren waiting for me on the edge of the bed. His head was down as he stared at the floor, but it shot up, and the moment he saw me standing there, he stopped breathing. I had nothing on except the towel wrapped around me, and even though it was huge and thick, under his fervent gaze, I still felt naked. Water dripped from my hair onto the floor, and for a while, it was the only sound. I watched his Adam’s apple bob as he struggled to swallow, and I wondered if he was fighting to keep whatever was on his mind from spilling out.