The Moth and the Flame (When Rivals Play #2) - B.B. Reid Page 0,73

answering my texts. I could be dead for all he knows.”

“I’m pretty sure the texts assure him you’re not.”

“Well then, he could be dead for all I know since he won’t respond,” I griped.

She looked at me then like she didn’t know what to do with me. “Do you really believe that?”

“No,” I said with a sigh. “He’s too badass.” I stubbornly believed Wren could kick Superman’s ass if he wanted to, no matter how many times he warned me he wasn’t invincible.

“Then relax. You know as well as everyone else with eyes that he can’t stay away. He’ll be back.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The only thing the two of you have in common is that you’re both dicks. You don’t seriously believe you’re just friends, do you?”

“We’re just friends,” I lied.

“Oh, please!” she scoffed and waved me off. “You’re dying to get his cock in you, and you know it.”

I blinked in surprise, not expecting this little church mouse to be so crude, and then I narrowed my eyes wondering if Eliza was as innocent as she seemed. “Believe what you want, but it’s not going to happen.”

“Because you don’t want it or because you believe you shouldn’t?”

Oh, I definitely want it.

“Both,” was what I dared say aloud. We’d danced around the subject—come so dangerously close—but never, not since the winter’s night we met, had we ever admitted our desires outright. I think we both feared doing so would permanently wreck the bond we’ve clung to for two and a half years. There were too many what-ifs to eradicate them all, and only one of them worked in our favor.

What if everything worked out between us?

What if it didn’t?

The latter was enough to keep us both on our leashes. Right now, I was the only one tugging at mine anyway.

“That’s bullshit, and you know it,” Eliza argued with more vehemence than I believed necessary. I shouldn’t be surprised though. She’d been team Wren since the moment she climbed into his back seat two years ago. I just figured that, like me, Eliza was harboring a secret crush although I doubt hers consumed her day and night. We weren’t the only ones afflicted, either.

Unintentionally, Wren had become a popular fantasy among my peers and a reoccurring nightmare for their parents. Everyone at my school and in my neighborhood knew of him. The boys marveled while the girls adored. He had bulldozed and trampled his way into every aspect of my life and was now more my guardian than the Hendersons. Not even they dared to exorcise him from my life. I think to them he was more a relief than a usurper anyway since I was pretty sure that Cathleen and Dan were the reason why Wren always knew when I ran away. Duty would have required them to notify Laura, my social worker, immediately, but Wren was more than cunning enough to keep the Hendersons happy and me off social services’ radar. I was just grateful her heavy caseload kept her home visits infrequent. My social worker was drowning in orphans, and I wasn’t even close to being her biggest headache. I ran away a lot, but I never hurt anyone like many of the kids thrown into the system. For them, it was the only way they knew how to survive because there wasn’t anyone to teach them better.

Wren wasn’t exactly a squeaky-clean influence, but some would say he was my guardian angel. I almost laughed at the notion. There was nothing angelic about Wren Harlan. He was too powerful. Too fierce. Too potent. He could have been my white knight, but his armor didn’t shine. It was shrouded in darkness, and it was only a matter of time before it swallowed him whole.

Over my dead body.

“What’s bullshit is that you won’t let it go,” I retorted.

“Fine.” Eliza’s eyes suddenly turned hopeful. “Since you don’t want him, can I have him?”

I was ready to rage and explain how that will never happen when I spied the smile she tried to hide and the mischievous twinkle in her eye. I was about to confront her when I stopped short, spotting Paula parked in front of the Hendersons.

“Looks like you spoke him up,” Eliza gloated gleefully.

Excited, I made my way to his car, but Wren was nowhere in sight. Cathleen and Dan were both still at work, and even if they’d been home, I couldn’t imagine them all sitting down for mid-day tea. The most obvious answer was that he