Moth to a Flame (7 page)

Yummy.

My perfect moment was shattered by an angry voice behind Cale.

“What the hell, Lia?” Sam barked.

I jumped with a squeak from being caught.

Obviously not liking Sam’s tone, Cale spun around in one swift movement while pulling me behind him.

“Who the fuck are you?” Cale demanded as he glared at Sam, hands fisted at his sides.

I squeezed Cale’s arm, unsure what to do but needing to touch him. All I could do was cower behind him and watch the drama unfold.

Definitely a social imbecile.

“I’m her
date
. Who the fuck are you?” Sam retorted nastily, taking a step towards us.

Cale immediately tensed at his words, not his proximity.

Shit.

Cale knew that I didn’t date. This wasn’t exactly how I planned for this evening to go.

“Bullshit. Lia doesn’t date and she certainly wouldn’t waste her time with a loser like you, so back the fuck off,” Cale practically growled, his jaw clenching and unclenching.

Unsure what to do but definitely not wanting this to escalate, I spoke up. “Cale, I am having dinner with Sam. We’re friends. I was just about to tell you,” I uttered weakly.

Cale turned around and looked at me, clearly trying to figure out how I could turn him down every single time yet do exactly what I’d said I wouldn’t do with another man.

His hand reached up and touched my face.
A question.

With tears welling up, I frowned.
An answer.

“I see,” is all he said to me with a pained expression in his eyes before spinning on his heels and stalking out of the hallway and back into the restaurant.

My heart actually hurt to see him walk away.

Surprising me, Sam grabbed my hand and pulled me back towards our table. “Our dinner has been served. We better get back before it turns cold,” he stated simply, as if the events that had just unfolded hadn’t happened.

Without knowing what else to say, I nodded and followed him back to the table.

Meet Lia, social imbecile extraordinaire.

I AM GOING to kill that motherfucker.

That douche was not about to stake a claim on Lia when I could read loud and clear that she was not into him. The way he’d burst into that hallway acting like she belonged to him pissed me off so badly that my appetite was completely gone. My desire to punch him in the fucking face was so strong that I had to leave immediately. I stalked out to my truck to clear my head.

Why would Lia even entertain the idea of going to dinner with that guy?

She and I definitely had a connection that was getting stronger every time I saw her, yet she was dining with that dickwad. I needed to talk to her about this guy because there was no way I could share her. Not after the intense moments we’d already shared.

No fucking way.

A few minutes later, I started my truck and headed home. I was only a few miles away when I heard my phone chime with an incoming text. At the red light, I quickly read it.

Unknown:
Cale, it’s me, Lia. I am so sorry about what went down in the restaurant.

I told Sam I wasn’t feeling well and asked if he could take me home. He went to go get the bill and some boxes. His whole demeanor is unnerving. Will you meet me at my house to make sure I get home safely? XO

What in the hell?

I was tempted to turn the car around and take Lia away from Sam right there in the restaurant. He was scaring her for some reason and it made me want to beat the shit out of that fucker. Instead, I continued on to her cabin like she’d asked. Once I arrived at her place, I parked my car in the street and turned off the ignition. I replied back and wondered if she would read the text there with him or not.

Me:
Got it, babe. I’m parked in the street. That motherfucker looks at you wrong again, I’ll kill him. If you’re not here in ten minutes, I’ll find you. C

Minutes later, I saw a pair of headlights rounding the corner. In this secluded area, it could only be Sam and Lia. Trying not to seem like a caveman, I waited in the car for him to drop her off and leave.

When they sat in the idle car for a few minutes in the driveway, I tried not to lose my shit. I drummed my hands on the steering wheel, trying to calm the fury that was rolling off my back in waves.
If she doesn’t get out in the next two minutes, I am going to pull her out of that car myself.

Before I could finish that thought, the passenger’s door flung open and Lia flew out of the car towards her front door. I jumped out of my car and ran after her, making sure Sam wasn’t anywhere nearby. By the time I reached her, she was unsuccessfully trying to unlock her many locks and sobbing uncontrollably.

As if she sensed me behind her, she dropped her keys and flew into my arms, letting me pull her tight. “Shhhh, I’ve got you,” I cooed as I stroked her hair.

I looked over my shoulder towards Sam’s car, hoping to intimidate him with my glare. We silently faced off, challenging each other with hard looks. The glow of the interior lights was giving him an ominous appearance. With no further incident, he backed the car out of the driveway and slowly drove down the street.

“Come on, babe. Let’s get you inside.”

She nodded and picked her keys up from the porch floor to finish unlocking her door. Once inside, I led her to the sofa and pulled her into my lap. Her body was no longer trembling like it had been moments earlier, and I felt her start to relax.

“I feel safe with you.” Her voice was a mere whisper into my chest. “There are so many messed-up things about me, Cale, but with you, I feel like I can let them go.”

I shifted a little, causing her to sit up and look at me with those red-rimmed, green gems. “Lia, I don’t know what it is about you, but I can’t stop thinking about you. I want to protect you, to kiss you, to hold you. You can’t tell me you don’t feel the same way. Be the brave girl I know you are and give us a chance.”

“Cale, I want to try with you, but I can’t promise it will be easy. I have demons that rear their ugly heads. Are you willing to be with someone with such a foul past that consumes most of her days?” she questioned, frowning at the thought of her demons.

“Babe, there is nothing ugly about you. You maced me. Do you really think it could get any worse than that?” I chuckled with one eyebrow cocked, trying to lighten her mood.

She lifted her chin and teased me. “Sheesh, Cale. Are you ever going to ask me out?”

A smile tugged at my lips. Without another word, I crashed my lips onto hers and kissed the hell out of her until we both had to come up for air. “I’m taking you on a date.” It was a statement so she didn’t have an option to say no.

“I thought you’d never ask,” she smiled and pecked my lips once more.

I FORCED MYSELF to pull away from Cale’s tasty lips after a few minutes to look into his twinkling eyes, which were staring right back at me.

“Are you hungry?” I asked, knowing that he must be considering we both missed dinner.

“I’m hungry for something all right,” he growled as his eyes moved lazily to my lips then licked his own.

My body throbbed at his insinuation, and the crimson flood that ran up my cheeks was impossible to stop once it started. Cale caused my body to feel in ways I couldn’t ever remember feeling before, especially since the incident three years ago. His hands, which were on my hips, began sliding up and down, causing a shiver to course through my body.

“Cale,” I began, but he stopped my words with a soft kiss as his hands trailed their way along my thighs.

His thumbs began rubbing circles on the inside of my thighs, forcing a quiet moan to escape my lips. If he kept touching me like this, we weren’t ever going to leave this couch and I couldn’t be held responsible for what I might end up doing to his body.

I finally found the willpower to pull myself off of him and quickly stood up. “Cale, we need food and it might be a good idea for us to cool off before things go too far.” I wasn’t altogether convinced that I didn’t want just that.

“Babe, one day, I will take things far.
So far
. And when I bring you to the brink, you will beg me to take you all the way. Now, where’s my sandwich, woman?” he teased.

I gave him a little kick to his shin as I rolled my eyes and went into the kitchen to see what I could scrounge up. He mock-limped behind me and slapped my ass once he got near. Every time he touched me, my body shuddered with need. I needed to stop reading so many damned romance novels.

As I started making our sandwiches, he spoke. “Lia, in all seriousness, I think we need to talk. Why in the world would you go out with a douche like that? Did he hurt you? What did he say to you in the car? Do I need to kill him?” he rushed out quickly.

I sighed, setting the butter knife down, “He’s my deliveryguy and brings my, uh, packages to me each week. We’ve done this routine for years now. Yesterday, he asked me to dinner as friends. I agreed because my social life hasn’t been what it should lately and I thought I could use a new friend. When he brought me roses and told me how beautiful I was, I got the feeling that he wanted more than just friendship. At the restaurant, he was even weirder and acting really possessive. I should have never gone out with him in the first place.”

“And what happened in the car?” he asked.

I shuddered at the thought of Sam’s words earlier. “He actually had the nerve to try to kiss me, knowing I only wanted to be friends with him. When I pushed him away, he grabbed my arm roughly and said, ‘You will eventually learn to love me.’ Cale, he scared me.”

I looked up at Cale, who had remained quiet as he listened. His jaw was working on overdrive, clenching and unclenching. When he spoke, it was through his teeth.

“That motherfucking psycho. If he ever so much as looks at you again, I am going to kill him with my bare hands.”

I tried to ignore the shiver that skittered down my spine at his angry response. I held his sandwich up and smiled nervously. He pulled himself from his trance and grinned at me as he took a bite while I was still holding it.

“I think this is the best sandwich I have ever eaten,” he teased as he moaned in mock appreciation.