Insatiable (The Edge of Darkness, #1)(81)

I’m three beers down, and she’s still talking to the girl.

“Oh! This is my brother.” She shoves me towards her. “Kade, this is Annika.”

I tip my beer to her. “Howdy.” Then turn to the side and lean on the bar.

Luciella nudges me with her elbow as blondie smiles and goes to walk away. “Talk to her, you idiot!”

I chuckle. “There’s no chance I’m letting my sister wingman me.”

“You’re annoying,” she replies before asking the bartender for another glass of Coke. “Base is an hour away. He came over in his jet with his grandfather and two of his guards for some meeting. He said he’d come see us.”

“Is that why you wanted to come here and made an effort with your hair?”

“I always make an effort!”

I snort out a laugh. “Your denial is far too obvious. I’m going for a smoke. Come with me.”

“No,” she replies, turning to Annika. “I’ll stay here.”

“Don’t go anywhere,” I warn.

As soon as I get outside, the coldness hits me, and I light up a cigarette. Music blasts, and I get a weird feeling, so I text Luciella and tell her to come outside and stand with me.

Luciella: Stop being overbearing. I’m fine.

Me: If someone kidnaps you, I’m not coming to look for you.

Luciella: It would be a blessing if someone kidnapped me away from you.

My eyes land on a message from Tylar. I don’t remember having her number.

Tylar Spence: It’s Stacey. Are you free to talk?

I press call before I can even think. We’ve never spoken on the phone, so this is weird, I think. This could also be a bad call, since I haven’t heard from her.

She answers on the first ring. “Hey. ”

I shut my eyes and drop the back of my head against the wall behind me. “Fuck. It’s good to hear your voice.”

“It is?”

“Yeah. Why are you using Tylar’s phone?”

“She left it in the studio. Mine’s broken. I smashed the screen and I’m waiting for it to get fixed.”

“I thought you were patching me on purpose.”

She giggles. “I was debating patching you.”

I raise a brow. “Really?”

“Yep. You were supposed to take me on a date before you left.”

“I’ll make it up to you,” I respond with a grin. “Tell me about your day.”

“It’s been slow,” she starts. “No. I want to know about your night. Luciella said in our group chat that she was talking to a beautiful girl and thought you two had great chemistry. She said she was going to introduce you both.”

I smirk. “Is my Freckles jealous?”

“You can obviously do what you want. We didn’t talk about exclusivity. Was she nice? Oh God. Don’t tell me. Does that mean we’re seeing other people? Do you want to see other people? It’s okay if you do.” She goes silent. “I’m embarrassing myself. Feel free to hang up at any point and put me out of my misery.”

I laugh. “It wasn’t like that at all. She kept talking to her at the bar and wanted me to flirt with her. I said no obviously. And I’d never hang up on you.”

“I would hang up on me,” she mutters. “You didn’t answer my questions, but don’t feel like you need to. I just want to know where I stand. ”

“Meaning?”

“Are we seeing other people? I don’t mean boyfriend and girlfriend. I mean are we casual or not?”

I can tell she’s face-palming.

“I’m doing it again. I’m sorry. I know it’s only been six weeks. I’ll shut up now.”

“I’m new to this, so I have no idea how it works. If you want to see other people, then go for it.” The words taste like poison. “I can’t promise their bodies won’t show up in the River Clyde though.”

Silence, and then: “That was kind of cute.”

I inhale deeply, blowing out smoke. “If it makes you feel any better, I have no interest in anyone else.”

“Okay,” she replies quietly. “That’s, um, good.”

“And when I see you, I’m going to touch you again. Just so you know.”

“I’d like that. Only if you let me touch you.”

My dick responds to her words by twitching.

“Oh, Lu just said in our group chat that she can’t find you.”

The twitch is gone just as quick.

“Shit,” I reply. “We’ll talk when you fix your phone.”

“Yeah.”

I don’t want to end our call, but I say, “See you soon, Freckles.”

“See you soon.”

The call ends, and I’m in a much better mood. So much better that when Base finally appears, I get drunk and dance around the club with him and my sister to some sort of electronic dance music until we give up at six in the morning.



As soon as I see her walking along the hallway on my side of the manor, my sour mood after travelling for hours vanishes. Her eyes find mine as I get to the bottom of my stairs, and like something from a movie, Stacey runs. Her long hair flows behind her, her robe unfastening to reveal her Grinch PJs, and when she leaps into my arms, I catch her by the thigh and lift her into me.