“I loved that,” she says with another yawn. “We need to watch it again.”
“Whenever you want.”
I’m seconds from falling asleep. I’ve never shared a bed with anyone. Even when I was a kid and Luciella got scared of the dark, I slept on her floor until she calmed.
The thought of sleeping next to someone has never occurred to me. I never wanted to. Never even imagined it. Yet, with Stacey buried into my side, her knee hiked over me, I would happily close my eyes and fall asleep. I hold her thigh, my nose in her hair, and I don’t bother asking if she’s staying.
Jason is right – I do like her. Is that weird, considering I’ve only kissed her a handful of times? Is there a timeline for feelings and all that emotional bullshit?
She doesn’t know it yet, but she’s kind of stuck with me. I can’t say that aloud without her running for the hills, but the fact that I’ve never once looked at another girl with interest or thought of them as beautiful until I saw her speaks volumes.
But I have no idea what to do with her.
Stacey moves beside me, resting her head on my chest; she can probably hear how fast and hard my heart is pounding. She’s patient with me. She’ll give me time to adjust to all of this. Even the way she places her palm on my chest next to her head is gentle.
The scent of her shampoo and the sound of her deep breaths are the last things I remember before I drift off. I fall into the first peaceful sleep I’ve had in years as we both cuddle into each other.
When I wake in the morning, the top I gave her is neatly folded on my dresser – and she’s gone.
I reach for my phone and notice I have a text from her. A picture she sent an hour ago. I’m passed out, spooning her with my face buried in her hair. She’s sleepily grinning and giving the middle finger, with a message beneath the image that says, You snore so loud, asshole.
23
KADE
My eyes strain against the light as Stacey follows me out the hotel.
She hasn’t spoken a fucking word to me. I woke up in her bed, her on the floor with a blanket – shivering. I draped the duvet over her and snuck to my own room before she’d woken up.
She washed all the blood from my hands, arms and face, even my hair, and then slept on the hard floor.
I texted her an apology, and all she said was that we had fifteen minutes before we needed to leave.
The silence is starting to piss me right off.
When I ask if she wants to grab food, she hums. Hums. What the fuck is that? A yes or a fucking no?
“Where’s your car?” she asks, looking around the car park.
For a second, I have no clue as I look around too, then it dawns on me, and I blow out a breath, even more annoyed I wrecked it. “We need to get an Uber.”
“What happened to your car?”
I shrug and pull out a smoke. It’s probably still buried in a ditch, unless Barry cleaned that up too, but I haven’t heard from him yet.
She types on her phone as she leans against a wall, crossing her arms with a scowl on her face, then checks the time on her watch while tapping her foot. Amused, I lean against the railing and fill my lungs with something not nearly as poisonous as her.
My side is badly bruised, but I welcome the ache. It stops me from staring at Stacey and wanting to spark a conversation with her, to see her smile or have her on her knees again.
I think she was touching the bruise when I was asleep, unless I was hallucinating. I remember opening my eyes to her face screwed up in confusion as her fingertips traced the purpling skin, her lip quivering before everything went black again.
Just as I go to ask, she storms towards our ride. I have to hurry to catch up with her.
I should thank her for at least looking after me when I obviously couldn’t even speak.
“About earlier—”
“Don’t,” she warns. “Just get in the car, Kade.”
I frown at the way she says my name. “Fine. Luciella thinks we just got off the flight,” I say as we both get into the Uber. “We’ll stop somewhere for food and head to meet them. My gran won’t be there. She sadly has the flu.” The last part is sarcasm.
Nothing. No response.
If she wasn’t Stacey, my violent side would want to smash her head into the glass for ignoring me. Make her bleed. Scream for forgiveness.
The silent treatment I give her is for her own good.
Her ignoring me now is just childish behaviour.
I shouldn’t care that she won’t look at me, but I find myself growing agitated and a tad nervous that she’s blanking my existence. She’s the only person in the world to ever make me feel like this, and that makes me fist my hands in rage.
I’m Kade Mitchell. I don’t do emotions. I don’t care about people, especially not people who fuck me over. So why can’t I stop looking at her?
My phone dings with my next contract. Half a million. A club owner from where we’ll be staying. Known groomer.
The last part confirms I’ll enjoy it.
I read the file while Stacey stares out the window.
He got off with rape, stealing thousands from an old lady and drugging an underage girl before getting a blowjob off her.
When I get a hold of this prick, I’ll make it hurt. The family of the young girl is paying Bernadette – and me – more than enough to drag out the pain. They reached out to Bernie a few weeks ago, after hearing about her from relatives back in Scotland, and specifically asked for her best.
And I don’t ever disappoint.
The hotel we’re staying at has a pool round back, surrounded by loungers. Base has been sending me pictures of him on one with a beer. Mum and Ewan have made the most of the bar, and Luciella has impatiently waited on her best friend, who’s currently typing on her phone with a frown and chewing her thumbnail.
The silence is making me uneasy. Fuck it. “Sorry,” I say, folding my arms. “For waking you up. I was just…” High as fuck. “Drunk.”
She doesn’t take her eyes off her phone. “It’s fine.”
It’s not fucking fine. Look at me. Yell at me. Do fucking something.
We’ve spent the last twenty-four hours bickering and getting each other off, and now she can’t spare me a glance because I shot someone who was trying to sexualise her? Of course, she has no idea what happened the rest of the day, but I’ve just been doing my job.
A job I don’t fucking want.
But if I tell Bernadette that I’m out, both me and my dad will likely see a death sentence. The rest of my family will get worse.
I refused a contract not long ago, and she threatened my dogs. My fucking dogs.
Shaking my head, I lean my elbows on my knees. “Fine.” I’m useless. “Forget the last twenty-four hours.”
“Already forgotten.”
My hands fist with unnecessary rage, and I roll my jaw. “Good.”
When we reach the hotel, Stacey blanks me and leaves the car.
I need to tamp down my irritation and tell myself not to drag her into a room and bend her over my knee. This attitude of hers is absurd.
I hug my mum and nod at Base to follow me to our room as Luciella lets out an excited scream and grabs her friend for a cuddle.
“Mate, I have so many fucking stories for you,” Base says as he unlocks the hotel-room door. “We’re going out later, right? I had a threesome last night and kept their numbers!”