The Moth and the Flame (When Rivals Play #2) - B.B. Reid Page 0,48

back at me through the dark and rain. He wanted me to let him run away.

“Go back inside,” he shouted over the rain.

“No.”

“Go back inside!”

“No!”

He was glaring now as he stomped back across the street, but I didn’t care because as soon as he was within reach, I launched myself off the small stoop and into his arms. Wrapping myself around him, I held on tight and savagely sank my teeth into his sculpted jaw.

“Fuck, Lou.” He tried like hell to untangle me, but I only bit down harder, earning his grunt of pain. There was no way I was letting go if it meant sharing him with Samantha Davis. Or anyone.

I still couldn’t put together the reasons behind my actions. I was simply reacting out of instinct, and it urged me to fight like hell.

He was still wrestling to free himself when an annoyingly sultry voice called out. “What the hell…Wren?”

Peeking over his shoulder, I saw Samantha standing on her stoop, sporting serious camel toe in red satin shorts with lace trim and a matching cami.

I felt my dinner rising in my throat.

I couldn’t compete with that because I could never give him that.

Wren and I shared a bond deeper than Samantha could ever hope to have with him. Sex would only ruin it. Not that I wanted to…with him.

“Are you okay?” she shouted as she descended the steps.

Wren spun around until he faced her.

“What is she doing to you?” I heard her question.

It was then I remembered that my teeth were embedded in his skin. I realized how deranged I must have looked, but if the shoe were on the other foot, Wren wouldn’t have reacted any saner.

He simply had no understanding when it came to protecting me. Why couldn’t I be allowed to feel the same?

“Go back inside,” he ordered her. “I got her.”

“But she’s—”

“Go!” Like a whipped puppy, she scurried back across the street. Or at least I assumed she did. “Lou,” he cooed as he smoothed a hand down my back. “You’ve got to let me go.”

I shook my head, and when he winced, I finally let go, not wanting to hurt him further. My arms and legs were still wrapped around him, but he no longer seemed so eager to get away.

Laying my head on his shoulder, I whispered, “Stay with me.”

His hands tightened around my hips as if he wanted to do just that. “We both know why I can’t, Lou.”

His tone was level and without emotion, but I knew better. I lifted my head needing to look into his eyes, and just as I suspected, blue had completely taken over.

“We both know you want to.”

He sighed. “I wasn’t a virgin when we met, Lou.”

Nodding, I forced myself to swallow. “I know that.”

“I haven’t been a virgin since we met, either,” he clarified with a raised brow.

“I…know,” I responded a little less enthused.

“So what’s up with the cockblocking?” His gaze was unflinching as he waited for an answer.

Fearing that he’d see too much, I unwrapped my arms and legs from around him. His hands were there to steady me once I was back on my feet, but suddenly, his touch felt too intimate. His frown only burrowed deeper when I moved away from him.

“Lou?”

“I don’t know why, okay? It just feels different.”

“Different how?”

“For starters, you’ve never flaunted them in my face before. I know there are girls who…do stuff…with you…but I never had to know who they were or what they looked like. Trampy Bambi lives right across the street! I have to see her face every single day, all smug and sexed, and I hate her!”

“But why? What did she do to you?”

She reminded me that I couldn’t have all of you.

“Nothing. It’s just…you trust your gut all the time. This is me trusting mine.” Only I had nothing to go on except jealousy.

Wren stared down at me for a long time, his gaze hard and unyielding, and I knew he was just trying to stare me into submission. When a full minute passed, and I still hadn’t changed my mind, his nostrils flared, and this time, he was the one to pull away.

But then my heart dropped when his feet kept moving, carrying him across the street, and I helplessly watched as he entered her home and shut the door behind him. For a while, I felt too numb to move. Too numb to feel the rain. But then I realized the rain had stopped and the sky had cleared, and