Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
QUENTIN
I didn’t think I would ever be able to get the feeling of Anora’s mouth on my cock out of my head.
She went from being terrified of my presence and running out of a restaurant when I so much as whispered in her ear to taking me in her mouth without restraint.
I didn’t understand what had changed, but I wasn’t complaining.
Showing up in her apartment the morning after the disaster date and letting our friends believe we had slept together was a bold and risky move, but my little moon surprised me by meeting me stride for stride. She was beginning to get used to me, and I could see the fear bleed away from her eyes the more time we spent together.
I had no idea what I was doing, or what to do about my feelings for her, but it was beyond my control now.
Anora Emerson had taken permanent residence in my mind.
My little moon, whose light seemed to never fade, even once the sun rose.
She was born for the dark. Adapting to it came naturally, and she embraced its depths. She wasn’t afraid of it, no matter how much I sent her way.
It was single-handedly the most infuriating thing about her, and the most dangerous.
Dangerous in the sense that I could see myself falling for her. More than I already knew I would when I saw her for the first time.
Getting to spend even more time with her after finding out she was Joey’s girlfriend’s best friend was something I hadn’t expected.
She’d burrowed herself into my heart and I couldn’t get her out. I knew that the deeper she dug, the closer she would get to the secrets I kept closest.
That was the thing about my little moon. She made me want to show her all the darkest parts of me. Because I felt like she could handle it. I felt like she wouldn’t run away.
But fuck , I couldn’t deny I was terrified.
I’d wanted out of the life I’d been living for so long. I’d grown tired of the bloodshed and craved a normal life. I’d avenged my sister Leila and spilled plenty of blood to make up for the bastards who took her from me.
Now it’s like she was whispering in my ear, telling me it was done. That I could finally live a life without violence.
But there was a small part of me deep down that had enjoyed what I did. Because I was good at it.
I liked to taunt the men I went after. I liked to have their lives in the palm of my hand and the ability to eradicate their filth from the world.
I thought back to the night Leila died, and how devastating it still was to me. She hadn’t done anything wrong in her entire life. She was freshly twenty years old, picking up night shifts at the diner in the city to pay her way through art school. One cold, rainy night, she took a shortcut through an alley to get home quicker. Instead, she was cornered, gang-raped, and thrown aside like trash after being beaten to a pulp.
I had no doubt in my soul that I’d find those men who had done it to her, so I hunted them down. One by one, I taunted them, so they knew I was coming, and then mutilated them beyond recognition.
I thought it would be a one-time thing, but then I thought about all the other young girls who fell prey to the filth in this city when they were just trying to get home late at night.
And then the mission started, and it didn’t stop.
It had been five years.
Five years of nothing but bloodshed and revenge.
There wasn’t a soul alive today that had taken part in my sister’s death.
If Anora wasn’t mine, and she wasn’t who I was meant to end up with, I refused to settle down. There was no one else I wanted. Nobody else would pull me out of the dark place where my heart now resided.
But my mind continued to go back to the what ifs. What if my secret got out and she couldn’t handle it? What if I ended up in prison? What if I couldn’t make as clean of a break as I hoped for?
Those what-ifs were what kept me from letting her all the way in and allowing our relationship to be anything more than physical.
But Leila’s death had taught me that life was too short not to go for what you wanted. So maybe that’s why I suddenly found myself parked in front of Anora and Rory’s apartment building, working up the courage to go inside.
* * *
“Quentin?”
Anora stood in the doorway of her apartment with her hair mussed, sleep in her eyes. I guess I couldn’t really blame her, considering it was two in the morning. I didn’t have the best sense of timing, but she was on my mind at all hours of the day, and I had to do something about it.
“Can I come in?” I asked.
“Sure, why not?” she questioned sarcastically, stepping aside and allowing me entry. The apartment was quiet and shrouded in darkness. Moonlight spilled through the curtains, and I smiled to myself as I watched Anora walk through it. It lit up her hair and outlined her with an ethereal glow, as if she were a goddess.
I’d be damned if I didn’t almost bow down and fall to my knees before her.
Only she had the power to bring me to my knees. She was my weakness above all else.
It was hard to make out my surroundings in the dark, but once we got deeper inside, I started picking up on things I knew were very much my girl. Like the plants littering the windowsills and the books scattered everywhere. Where I brought death to my surroundings, she filled hers with life and left a mark. Even down to the smell of her perfume that seemed to hang in the air. I took a deep breath, inhaling the familiar green tea and marshmallow scent.
From what I could tell, Rory had stayed the night at my place. It was just Anora and me in the apartment, which made me feel more at ease for the talk we were about to have.
“Did you want to have a seat?” Anora asked, going to flip on a decorative lamp by the couch.
“Don’t,” I said, reaching for her arm. She slowly lowered it, giving me a questioning look.
I almost didn’t reply, but if I was going to take a leap of faith with her, I might as well open up and be honest.
“The moonlight was made for you. It was made to shine on you. Don’t ruin it by turning on the light,” I explained.
Although it was hard to tell, I knew her face was crimson from my compliment and brutal honesty.
I stretched my arm behind me to scratch my neck, feeling bashful in a way.
I wasn’t used to sharing how I felt, so we were both out of our element.
I slowly made my way around the side of the plush sectional before plopping down and getting comfortable. The best thing I could do to make myself feel at ease was act nonchalant.
“So, what’s up?” Anora asked, tugging at her fingers in her lap, which I’d learned was her nervous tell. Despite that, she seemed incredibly calm in my presence for someone who had basically started a war when she sucked my cock dry.
“I wanted to come and talk to you before I talked myself out of it,” I said, leaning forward and resting my elbows on my knees, clasping my hands in front of me and giving her my full attention. So she knew that what I was about to say was serious and mattered a great deal to me.
“Okay…” Anora said, her tone wobbly and betraying her nerves.
I cleared my throat, suddenly feeling like I was swallowing sand. “I was wondering if you’d like to go out with me sometime?” I finally asked.
Anora burst out laughing, a crazed smile on her face that instantly dropped when she saw I wasn’t kidding. “You’re serious?” she asked.
“As a heart attack.”
“Because our last ‘date’ went so well,” she said with a roll of her eyes, using air quotes around the word date . “Not to mention we’ve already hopped right into the intimacy stage.”
Yikes.
I knew that would come back to bite me in the ass, but I couldn’t help myself when it came to her.
“Well, little moon, I’ve done a lot of thinking, and I want to take you out on a date that you deserve. A real date. Just the two of us. No pretending, no best friends to put on a show for. Wherever you want to go. I don’t want to ‘lightly stalk’ you anymore, as you love to put it. I want to be able to kiss you whenever I want and not have to pretend in front of our friends.”
Her mouth gaped at my openness, and it took her a moment to gather herself before she spoke again.
“What if I want to think about it?” she asked, crossing her arms over her tank top and pushing her boobs up in a delicious display.
Focus, Quentin.
“This is a one-time offer, love,” I said sternly. “Take it or leave it.”
I watched as she rolled her lips together, contemplating my offer and her next words.
“Fine,” she finally said, and a weight lifted off my chest at her reply.
“Fuck yes.” I stood up quickly and made my way over to her. She yelped as I gripped her face and my lips crashed into hers, savoring the taste of her.
I grazed my tongue against her bottom lip, eliciting a moan before intertwining it with hers. I kissed her with as much passion as I could, and when I released her face and turned to leave, I could see her body heaving out of the corner of my eye.
My mission for the night was accomplished: I’d left her breathless with kisses and yearning for more.
And, above all else, she agreed to be mine .
“Soon, little moon,” I promised as I walked out the front door and into the night.
* * *
If I thought that driving over to Anora’s house made me a nervous wreck, then taking her on an actual date was another thing entirely.
I was a badass serial killer who extinguished men who thought they were invincible from the planet, and yet taking an extraordinary woman to dinner made me panic.
Sneaking into dangerous men’s homes and gutting them like fish? Easy.
Looking into the eyes of a devastatingly beautiful woman and making small talk, being forced to show her who I was below the surface? Yikes.
I wanted to top the Italian restaurant we went to with Rory and Joey, and so a reservation at the city’s nicest steak and seafood place had our names on it.
Me
Wear something pretty tonight, little moon.
Anora
How did you even get my number?
I smiled to myself, happy she knew it was me without me having to say a word about my identity.
Me
I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you ;)
Our best friends are dating each other. It’s not rocket science, little moon.
I could already see her rolling her eyes, and fuck —I couldn’t wait to see her soon.
Me
I’ll pick you up in an hour.
What she didn’t know was I was already parked outside of her apartment building and waiting impatiently. I hadn’t worn a suit since I didn’t know when, and I knew I looked good without having to even check.
I just couldn’t wait to see Anora’s expression when she laid eyes on me.