The Moth and the Flame (When Rivals Play #2) - B.B. Reid Page 0,47

long legs, twenty-four-inch waist, and perky DDs, anyway? If she could just find a runway on the other side of the world and leave us the hell alone, that would be great.

I spooned food onto the plate and trekked back up the stairs, but when I made it to my room, I found Wren preparing to leave. He was typing on his phone and hadn’t noticed me yet.

“Where are you going?”

My stomach turned as I silently prayed it wasn’t Exiled.

“Sam’s. She said her parents aren’t home.”

I swallowed down the bile threatening to rise when I realized there was a worse alternative to Exiled.

“So what, are you like her boyfriend now?”

He grimaced as he continued to type on his phone. “I’m going to fuck her, Lou. We don’t need a label for that.”

The plate nearly slipped from my hand. Wren’s mumbled words felt like a band around my throat cutting off my next breath. He didn’t even notice me slowly dying. He was probably describing all the dirty things he wanted to do to her while I was already a forgotten, insignificant blip in his past.

This was the part where someone would tell me to shut up, that I was overthinking, being dramatic, and a tad silly.

But it didn’t feel that way. My fears were very real. For as long as I’d known him, there had been no one else, and now out of the blue, I was expected to share him with little resistance?

Not a goddamn chance.

She’d only ruin the parts of him that were still beautiful.

I couldn’t allow that to happen.

“Why do you like her?”

He glanced up then, more than likely detecting the jealousy I tried so hard to hide. “Why does it matter?” he shot back with a confused frown.

“Because it’s getting serious, don’t you think?”

He snorted. “Hardly.”

“But you want to have sex with her, so that means it’s serious!”

He stared at me for a moment before tossing his head back and laughing. “God, you’re naïve.”

A growl so fierce ripped from my belly that it vibrated my entire body and shook the plate in my hands. “Just answer the question, Harlan.”

His laughter died as quickly as my composure had unraveled.

“Jesus…” he swore with narrowed eyes. “What the fuck is up with you, Lou?”

A valid question. What had come over me? I’d always been possessive of our friendship but not like this. It was as if someone had flipped a switch and woken up a part of me I didn’t recognize.

Neither did Wren, judging by the way he was looking at me right now.

“I just…” I inhaled and slowly released. With every breath of air, I felt more in control. To be safe, I set the plate down before I could do something rash…like hurl it at his head. “I don’t trust her.”

He shrugged and pocketed his phone as if my revelation didn’t matter. “I’m not in love with her, Lou. I want to fuck her because she’s sexy sure but also because she’s not…”

“Not what?” I demanded when he hesitated.

He looked pissed off, and I could tell he was reluctant to answer me when he pushed the words through his teeth. “Jailbait.”

I felt like I’d been kicked in the stomach. All I could do was watch him go when he turned on his heel and flung his body through my open window.

The wind howled and blew the curtains on my window. I was still frozen in the same spot when it dawned on me that he was running away.

From me.

To her.

Spinning around, I raced down the stairs, my heart reaching out for the troubled boy it craved while pounding a mile a minute. I barely slowed enough to throw open the front door. The sky had opened up in the seconds it took me to run outside, and just then, a lightning bolt cracked across the sky, illuminating his shadow moving through the pouring rain.

It was beating down on his back, soaking through his clothes, but his steps were quick and determined. Not to get to her, I realized, but to get away from me.

“Wren!”

Thunder rumbled at that moment, drowning out my voice. The small part of me that was still unsure how much of him was really mine told me it was a sign to turn back now. To let him go.

But I couldn’t.

I knew us too well.

“Wren!” This time, my voice carried, and when he turned around, I realized I didn’t know what the hell to do or say. His eyes were pleading as he stared