Moth to a Flame

5. CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER FIVE

Landon

This isn’t me who’s driving into the city. Those aren’t my eyes scanning for a free spot in a parking garage in Brooklyn. Isn’t my finger clicking on the fob to lock the car.

But it is me.

Fuck.

This obsession with Regan isn’t healthy. It won’t end well for her.

As I cross the street on foot on my way to Everglow Repairs, I ignore the alarm bells going off in my head. With my hands shoved into my jeans pockets, I tell myself nothing will happen to her. I’m in control. And she…She’s mine.

“Sorry.” A guy half my size in a flannel shirt bumps his shoulder into me.

I brush it off. He hasn’t noticed me while he’s been on his phone, and I’m not in a fighting mood. I’m in the mood for Regan.

Getting my hands on her, punishing her for being such a temptation. Showing her I’m the only one who can give her the rape fantasy she’s looking for while making her come so. Many. Times.

These cravings are so strong that I had to cancel all my meetings for the day. Legal, R she couldn’t have gotten it this fast. The gun, the leggings with the concealed pocket…She had it before today.

I’m not the monster she needs protecting from.

Someone else is.

Who?

“I’ll kill them,” I say, and I mean it.

“I can do it myself,” she mumbles, tightening her grip on me. “This…” Red rakes over her cheeks. “I can’t do this by myself. Help me.”

A tear streaks across her cheek, and fuck this. I’ll deal with whoever this is later. I need her to come.

I need to come.

“I love it when you beg.” I’m not probing or teasing her anymore. I shove my hand under her panties, parting her lips and going lower. “Love that you’re dripping for me.”

“Not for you.”

“Liar.” My lips curl in a smirk, and I let myself, momentarily, forget about the gun. “Such a fucking liar.”

I drag my finger up to her clit that’s hard beneath the pad of my finger. Harder when I rub and pinch and touch it the way Regan wants. Her moans aren’t shy and soft the closer she gets to the edge.

She’s almost there, and I’m going to feel it. So I slam my hand on her mouth.

“I remember ordering you to come.” Her eyes roll, her thighs clenching as she rides my fingers clumsily. That’s so fucking perfect, her desperation. For me. “You’re making me wait.”

She breathes hard, her brown eyes staring at me helplessly.

“Little lamb.” I press our foreheads together, rubbing her faster. “Just so you know, I’m not opposed to punishment if you don’t come on my hand.”

“Oh my God.” Her pleas are senseless babbles as she lets go. As her orgasm ripples through her, her thick thighs clench and unclench, her entire body leaning into me.

“That’s it.” To stretch out her climax, I slide one finger into her cunt, curling it. Stroking her without going too deep. When I take her virginity, it’ll be with my cock. “You’re such a good slut, Regan. So beautiful when you come.”

She mumbles and pants, holding me close.

With one hand, I unbutton and unzip my jeans. “Going to come all over your stomach.”

I take myself out and aim. Lust, obsession, and a feral need, that’s all me right now as I remove my finger from her pussy, shoving her shirt up so I can mark her body.

Fuck. What the hell is that?

I thought the gun was bad. Hot, no question about it, but bad.

The white, angry scars on her stomach—on my stomach—are worse. They mark an X right above her navel, and they look old. Light too, like she’s had laser treatments to make them less noticeable.

She hadn’t walked around naked in her apartment when I was watching her. I haven’t seen this before.

I see it now.

The gun. The scars.

The rape fantasies.

“Who did this to you?” I don’t recognize my voice. It’s low, lethal.

I’m that close to punching a hole through the wall.

“Don’t stop.” Her chin wobbles, her eyes begging. “Please, Landon, don’t stop. C-come. I want you to come.”

“The fuck I will.” I let go of my cock, my hand flying to her chin. My grip is punishing. Bruising. “You think I’m going to stand here and fucking come after seeing that scar? Knowing you were hurt? Fuck. No.”

Her hand is on my cock before I can stop her. Squeezing. Rubbing. Silently begging.

“Stop it.” I close my fingers around her wrist. “Stop it and tell me right now. Who. Did. This. To. You.”

“No.” She grips me harder. “You’re going to come. You said you were going to, and you will. Please.”

I’m experiencing the worst kind of visceral pain. Denying her is torture.

But I have to. Even a messed-up man like me in my most unhinged state can tell it’s wrong.

“I’ll tell you.” She strokes me despite my iron grip on her, finding the wet tip and smearing my arousal on my head. “I’ll tell you everything if you come.”

The sincerity and determination in her eyes are my undoing.

“Faster.” I rock my hips into her touch. “Harder.” Dipping my chin, I stare into her eyes. “That’s it. Good girl. Keep going. Just like that. Yes. More pressure. More…fuck. Kiss me. Fucking kiss me.”

I don’t wait for her mouth to reach mine. I slam my lips to hers, my fingers curling around her throat.

“Root to tip. Brush your thumb under the head.” My fingers wind in her hair, pulling. “Yes, yes, Regan. God, fuck. Baby. You’re so perfect. You were made for me.”

No kiss has ever been this good. No orgasm this intense.

“Good girl.” With one hand still holding her shirt up, I fist the base, where her hand doesn’t reach, emptying myself all over her stomach and especially the motherfucking X. “My good girl.”

“Thank you,” she whispers.

“Shh.” My seed on her stomach is not enough. I gather my cum on two fingers, dipping them into her mouth.

Pacifying her while I’m doing everything I can not to go out there and murder any man who hurt her.

I have a hard time talking myself out of it. I do it for her. I tuck myself in, zip up, and fix her clothes over her beautiful body.

“Who did this to you?” I repeat once I’m calmer. Once I can breathe without choking on my rage.

If this strong, unrelenting possessiveness is what Mom felt in her last days, then I don’t blame her. Killing Dad wasn’t ideal. I miss the giant man who taught me how to ride a bike and got me into computer science.

But I get it.

“He’s in prison.” Her voice is timid, and I hate it. “In Brinestone. He can’t hurt me.”

“Louder.” Contacts. Subscribers. Acquaintances. I run the names of everyone I know in my head. Anyone who could get me in there. “Give me a goddamn name.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Her eyes flicker to the stairs. “Rosemary could be here any moment. And I still have no idea how you found me. I can’t trust you.”

“I’ll tell you what you can trust.” My head pounds. My teeth gnash. “You can trust that I’m kidnapping you and holding you captive until I get a name. I won’t search for it online. I won’t get it from anyone else.”

Regan hesitates. It’s almost as if the idea appeals to her. Then, “Lester.” It’s a whisper. Another goddamn whisper, like he might reappear.

He won’t. He’ll never reappear.

“You will never be silenced again.” I cup her cheek, grabbing her tight. “Give me his full name. Say it loud.”

“Burkes. Lester Burkes.”

My nostrils flare. “He raped you.”

Woof!

Mojo. That dog I like despite myself barks from somewhere down the stairs.

I don’t take my eyes off her, though. I look her dead in the eye when she nods.

“I’ll fix this.” There has to be someone who knows someone in Brinestone.

Statistically speaking, out of the millions of subscribers we have, there has to be at least one person with a family member or a friend locked up there.

It’s just a matter of time until I dig into all of their lives, our privacy regulations be damned. The stock market can go to hell.

She squeezes my neck. “You’ll end up in prison with him.”

“I won’t.”

At the cutting edge of my voice, Regan relaxes. Her eyelashes flutter. “You’d do that? For me?”

“Yes.” And so much worse. Marshall can attest to that.

“Why?”

“I’m…” Possessed by you. One look and I was yours. I’m never letting go.

“Regan, who are you talking to?” Her sister’s footsteps grow louder. Faster, indicating she’s running up the stairs. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she yells, pushing me off her. “Landon, you have to leave.”

“One last thing.” I help her smooth her hair as soon as Rosemary steps into the hallway.

“Who the fuck are you?” She heads straight toward us.

“Regan.” My eyes are locked on hers.

When she understands that I’m not letting go, she whispers, “What?”

“Step away from my sister.”

“They named you that for a reason. What was it?” Fuck my cover. Fuck being a stalker. Fuck hiding what I want. I’ll deal with the fallout later.

The whites in her eyes almost swallow up the chocolate brown of her irises. “Excuse me?”

I slam a hand on the wall next her head. “Tell me and I’ll leave.”

Rosemary’s fingers are on my arm. I don’t bother shaking her off. I’ll never, ever hurt her. In the short time I stalked Regan through her laptop, all I got from her sister was that she loved Regan.

Regan blinks. Then her eyes soften and she shakes her head.

“Rosemary, it’s okay. He’s just asking about my name. Our names, really,” she tells her without looking away from me. A slow smile spreads on her face as a sinister look takes over her beautiful face. “Rosemary and Regan.”

The way she emphasizes the names…

It takes me too long to come up with an answer. I’m lost in her gaze. In her.

“Landon,” she whispers, like we’re sharing more than a secret. Like what we have is intimate. “If you don’t watch horror movies, we can’t be friends.”

Hmm. I do, in fact, watch horror movies. They remind me what my life would be like the second I let my obsessive nature latch on to something or someone.

Now it makes sense.

“Rosemary for Rosemary’s Baby .”

Mojo mewls, rubbing his nose against my jeans.

“Traitor,” the woman who was named after the Antichrist’s mother hisses.

Regan. She was the main character in…

“ The Exorcist .”

That lands me a wider smile from the woman I’m obsessed with. I’ll have more of those later.

Not at this moment. Not before I get myself under control and do something reckless like kidnap her and keep her locked up in a room.

I won’t kill her, though. No matter what, I won’t.

“Will someone tell me what the hell is going on?”

Regan doesn’t introduce us. She says, “Landon was just leaving.”

I smirk at her. It’s okay. I can be her dirty little secret.

For the time being.

Soon, I’ll become a part of her life.

Soon, I’ll take over it.