Page 46 of Moth to a Flame

He breaks the silence first, tapping twice on the top of his bag.

“You need me to repair your laptop,” I whisper.

“Correct.”

“Your full name?” I keep my eyes on his bag. He could say it’s none of my business. He could make it clear that when he saidmineyesterday, he meant mine to fuck, and that’s it. “For our records?”

“For your records, of course.” His hands flatten on the counter, long masculine fingers flexing. “Sterling. Landon Sterling.”

“Cool.”

Trying to pretend that he’s just another customer is a tall fucking order.

Somehow, I manage. My fingers don’t reveal how nervous I am when I take out his shiny, silver laptop. I lift my chin when I hand it over to him.

“Password.”Ten points for eloquence, Regan. “Please.”

“You’re so pretty when you beg.” He swipes his tongue along the top row of his teeth.

“I didn’t beg.”

“Here, let me.” He doesn’t call me a liar, which I am.

I just want to hear more of his voice. I want—after he fixed one of the broken parts of me—to fix something for him in return. Ihad no idea how much I wanted that, how wet it’d make me, up until this moment.

“My screen froze while I was working.” His voice is serious as he places his laptop on the counter. “I was going through some of the photos I’d taken recently, and—there you go. See for yourself.”

He flips it to me and all the blood rushes out of my face. I’m numb. Worse than numb. It’s this polarity again, these things he wakes in me. I can’t feel my body and I also feelsomuch. I feel everything at once because…

Because…

Clayton’s eyes. One green, one blue. In a velvet box.

My velvet box.

“Landon.”

I wish I could say that my fingers shake. That I’m scared or repulsed.

You’d do that? For me?

Yes.

“How did you know?”

Landon’s at the door. Twists his wrist.

Locks us inside.

“Don’t act so surprised.” He annihilates the distance between us, fast. Oh, he’s behind the counter. I’m dying. I’m alive. My chin is in his grip. “Little lamb, it’s my job to hunt you down. And I take my job very seriously.”

CHAPTER NINE

Landon

Things haven’t gone accordingto plan.

Wait, I had a plan?

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