Page 144 of Like A Moth To A Flame

Iknew something was wrong the moment she pulled up.

I could tell by the way she stared off into nothingness, her hands gripping the wheel and her blue eyes unfocused. I hurriedly stuffed the note I’d been holding into my back pocket and jumped off the porch. She didn’t need to see it now, not with that far-away look in her eyes. She didn’t need to see the tiny, rushed scrawl calling her Butterfly and promising to visit her.

I’d kill him. I’d rip out his throat and fuck her in his blood.

No. No, I’d bleed him slowly. Make him watch before I take his final breath.

I walked around the car as the engine died, but still, she didn’t look up at me. Her pain shadowed her beauty, and I felt an instantaneous rage lift inside of me.

Not my baby. Not my Little Moth.

She didn’t even look over as I snatched up the handle and pulled her door open, kneeling in the gravel beside her. I watched herfight for breath, her hands shaking as her fingers grappled for the steering wheel, as if it were her safety net, and she needed it to keep herself grounded.

“Moth?” I asked, and she jumped at the sound of my voice. “What’s wrong?”

I watched her break, her shoulders lurching and her chest heaving as she sucked in a final, gasping breath, and then she broke, tears pouring down her cheeks and dropping down the front of her pristine, white sweater and splattering across the lock of her collar that just barely peeked over the turtleneck.

With shaking fingers, I reached over her, careful not to startle her as I found the latch of her seatbelt and clicked it off. I was careful to hold on to it as I slid it into place, afraid the sound would scare her.

“What happened?” As hard as I tried to keep to anger out of my voice, I heard it anyway, and that only made me angrier. “Who do I need to hurt? Give me a name.”

She shook her head and turned to look at me, her wide blue eyes sucking me in until I lost my breath right alongside her. My cock throbbed to life between my legs and I reached out, wrapping my arms around her and pinning her to my chest.

No. No, not now.

I couldn’t react like this now.

Before I knew it, her hand rose between us, shaking me from my wicked thoughts, a silver key nestled in the creamy skin of her palm as she showed it to me.

“I did it. I b-bought the old clinic. I bought it. It’s… It’s mine. It’s ours.”

She spoke to me, but when she pulled away, I found myself caught in the web of her eyes, which locked onto mine and drained every intelligent thought from me.

“Is that why you’re crying?” I asked. “A-are you happy? Is that it?”

Every word was a fight—a fight against myself, and the desire that pulsed against my thigh.

Goddamn, my parasite brain.

She shook her head, but her eyes never left mine.

“No. No, it’s not that. Its…” I watched her grapple for the words, fighting with herself as she struggled to find the words to say. Finally, her baby blues lit up in a way that made my heart soar. “Tommy, let’s get married.”

My breath caught behind a wall in my throat, my brain moving somehow too slow and too fast at the same time. This was everything I had wanted since the first day I saw her at the funeral—to own her completely in every way—so why was I so damn nervous all of a sudden?

“I want everyone to know. I want to tell the world. I want to be your wife.”

Something inside of me snapped, and I mentally shook away the apprehension, focusing only on the glow in her eyes and the way her lips twitched when she smiled. Even with a runny nose and tear-stained, red-rimmed eyes, she was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

“Are you sure?” I asked, my voice as sticky and dry as my throat.

She nodded, and when the smile cracked her lips and reached her eyes, a sparkle in the blue that I had only dreamed of before, I knew that she was. She was sure, so why was I hesitating?

We’d talked about this only a few days ago, and I’d been more than happy with the idea then, so what was this worry that had suddenly bloomed in my chest?

“Come on.”

Grabbing her hand, I helped her stand; her legs shaking as she stepped out of the car. My heartbeat was pounding in my ears, my breath sawing in and out of my lungs, tight and unsure as I led her away from the driveway and across the front lawn. Where were we going? I didn’t even know. All I knew was I wanted to walk. I wanted to take her somewhere alone, and I wanted to make it official.

---