Insatiable (The Edge of Darkness, #1)

by Leigh Rivers

She’s walking towards me. Oh shit. What the fuck is she doing? Go away. My breath is slowly being ripped from my lungs as she draws closer. In fact, I don’t think I’m breathing at all.

Her hair flows down her back in curls, freckles dusting over her skin, and those eyes are fucking killing me. They aren’t blue, maybe a light green mixed with silver, like a forest in winter. What the fuck is wrong with me? She sits beside me and takes the cigarette from my lips, then places it between her own. The touch of her fingers against my lips doesn’t make me uncomfortable.

I clear my throat while she smokes my cigarette like it’s hers. There’s a breeze and fuck do I inhale the sweet vanilla – she smells good.

I turn my head and watch as she rests back, the end of the cigarette bright orange. Then she blows a cloud above us, eyes closed as the smoke dissipates in the air. Her eyes open, and now she’s looking at me. I’m stuck gazing right back at her beauty. Fuck. Once she’s done, she places what’s left of the cigarette back in my mouth. Her fingertips graze my lips and send a spark to my chest, and I’m not sure what that means. I toss the finished bud aside.

“My name is Stacey.” Her voice is soft, quiet and calming. Colour me even more fucking intrigued. “I joined Luciella’s dance class a few months ago.” I wouldn’t mind watching her body move, to see her ...

Stacey. A name for the mystery girl.

“What age are you?” I ask. She smiles at me, and shit, I’ve never liked someone’s smile before. I find myself faintly smiling back at her. “I just turned fifteen. Same as you.” Same as you.

Her grin grows when I hum, a dimple denting deep in her cheek, and she looks away and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. Butterflies, I think. I wonder if she feels them too? I must be ill. I’ll need to ask Mum what the fuck is wrong with me.

“You sound American and Scottish,” she says. “So does Luciella.” We spend a lot of time in America visiting our father. It was only natural we picked up the accent over the years. Mine is a lot stronger and deeper.

Hearing people yelling for Stacey, I sigh, knowing our meeting is about to be cut short. As much as I’d love to sit here and stare at her like a creep, I need to leave before she thinks I’m a...

“Giving you a heads-up,” I begin, flicking the cigarette into the grass as soon as I see my sister’s blonde head. I narrow my eyes. Even though I don’t want to say the next words that leave my mouth, my impulsiveness wins. “Just because you’re my sister’s friend doesn’t mean you can speak to me. ...

“Funny,” she snaps back, and I halt in my tracks, brows knitting together as I glance over my shoulder at her. She pops out her hip and crosses her arms. “And cute. I was just about to say the same thing to you. So why don’t you stay the fuck out of my way, Kade?” I like the way my name sounds on her tongue. I smirk, loving...

She barges into me with her shoulder, and I can’t stop the grin pulling at my lips as she marches away with my sister. Her scent lingers, her dark hair bouncing down her back, but she keeps facing forward, refusing to give me that one last look at her I’m desperate for – until she’s about to vanish down the pathway among the trees, when she turns and gives me the middle finger. Fucking hell. Why am I smiling?

The last person I slept with told me that as much as I’m a lovely girl, he couldn’t meet up again. Weirdly enough, he went missing a few days later, and still is.

It’s nearly the break of dawn as I step outside. The black Audi R8 waiting has me freezing. The tinted windows hide the driver, but I know exactly who it is, and the fine hairs on the back of my neck rise, my heartbeat accelerating. The alloys are shiny, as if they’ve been freshly polished, and the headlights nearly blind me. I grimace, wondering if I can turn around and walk away. Lu is going to catch a slap when I see her later.

“Unbelievable,” I mutter under my breath, seeing no other way to get home since an Uber will take forever to get to this side of town. With my heels dangling from my fingers, messy hair, and make-up far from fresh, I feel nervous. Out of everyone who could pick me up after a one-night stand, he’s the last person I want.

I don’t look at him – I keep my eyes forward, tossing my heels on the floor in front of me as I attempt to put my belt on. It retracts twice, and I blow out a breath when I finally manage to click it in. I try to ignore the addictive scent of mint, cigarettes and Tom Ford’s Noir. The same aftershave he’s used for years. I try to ignore him, but his presence is everywhere, even after two years of silence between us. I cross my arms in front of me, glancing at him sideways. “Lu said she was picking me up.”

He doesn’t respond, looking bored as he types on his phone, his elbow perched on the leather divider between us. He has a fresh tattoo on his hand, which somehow makes it look even more veiny. I gulp, quickly looking away before he notices me letting my gaze travel up the new tattoos littering his body. His knees parted, gym shorts showing off his legs, he leans back against the driver’s seat, still texting. My scowl deepens as I watch him reply to messages instead of driving me home.

As much as I’d like to say I’ve forgotten everything about Kade Mitchell, I’m a terrible liar.

Yes, Kade might be handsome, a person that ticked every box for me at one point, but he’s my best friend’s twin brother and completely off limits. I know that now.

The last conversation we had was two years ago, and he hasn’t as much as looked me in the eye since. I know Lu must have given him shit to get him to come pick me up.

After nearly three minutes of rock music playing low and him typing away on his phone, the sun starts to rise. My jaw rolls in annoyance, my gaze flitting between the steering wheel and the front gate of the house I left. “Are you going to drive or just sit here?” As usual, I’m met with silence. He clicks away on his screen, the corner of his mouth curling up into a smile.

I try not to stare at how handsome he is, despite being a reincarnation of the devil; how soft his skin appears under the harsh black ink. He doesn’t smile often, so who is he talking to? Annoyingly, my traitorous heart beats faster. Who’s making him grin like that? No. Stop, Stacey. Who cares who makes him smile?

I can’t stay in this car. I need to get the hell out of here. “I’m getting an Uber,” I say, unbuckling my belt, but Kade catches it before it can retract, yanking it to click back in without a word, eyes still on the screen. He types with one hand, the other holding my seat belt i...

You’re nothing. You’re fucking dead to me. His voice echoes in my mind, a memory of the last time we spoke. Words he threw in my face; words I’d rather forget. I look away from him, keeping my burning eyes on the outside world as he drives into my housing estate.

He turns his engine off and flicks the cigarette out the window without turning to look at me. He taps his finger on his lap, the muscle in his jaw straining. Say something, I want to shout. Yell at me. Anything!

“Thank you,” I whisper. “For driving me home.” For a split second, I think he might actually say something back. But instead, he looks me up and down slowly, taking in my after-sex appearance, and draws his gaze away from me with a shake of his head. He’s disappointed. Kade lights another cigarette and turns his rock music up loud enough to wake my stepfamily before speeding off without giving me another glance. Yep. He still despises me. And after what I did to him, he has every reason to.

The first time I ever felt this way, this overwhelming feeling, was when we met. He’d interrupted me by the pool at his manor. I remember the way he looked at me, and how it made a warmth build in my chest. His eyes were so full of life. We’d smoked a cigarette together in blissful, comfortable silence, before he turned into an asshole.

I’d tried to ignore him for years. But being around my best friend’s twin brother was too much – there was too strong a pull between us. Until that night, when everything changed. Kade Mitchell has been the broken shadow in my life ever since, and it’s all my fault.

Without turning the light on, I pull my dress off and unclip my bra, ready to remove my underwear. But before I can do anything else, a firm grip wraps around my throat, causing a strangled gasp to catch in my chest as the person backs me away from the door and slams me into the mattress.

Air rushes out of my lungs from the impact in a choked-out cough. Pressure builds behind my eyes as they fly open in fear to see Chris – my evil and deluded stepbrother – above me. I try to slap his arms as hard as I can, so he’ll release his painful hold, but it only causes him to tighten it and lower himself onto me, crushing my nearly naked body between him and the bed. “Who the fuck was that?”

There was a time when one person was able to make me ignore that side of myself. I helped him with his own darkness, and he made me feel alive, sustaining me with tender touches and words, stolen kisses and nights in his bed when no one knew. I was happy. I thought I was safe. I thought I was free.

After replying to say I can’t wait, I quickly send Chris a text telling him not to bother picking me up. I have the dress with me I’m wearing tonight, and I can grab a shower at Lu’s too. My stepbrother will definitely be pissed, but he’s always mad at me. A few days ago, after Kade dropped me off, I begged him to release me and lied that it was Luciella who drove me home. I have concealer hiding the faint bruises he left on me.

When my gaze drops to my chest, I stare at the small scar on my sternum, purple and deep. As much as my breasts hide it, it’s there. That was why Chris ripped a key against my skin – to deter others from touching what he thinks is his.

He made me lie to Nora and say I did it to myself, and she believed me. She’d wanted me to seek help from a therapist, thinking I was harming myself. No. Your son is just a fucking monster, Nora.

I wrap the silk around my wrist, getting a good grip of the material, then do the same with my foot and pull myself onto it. Flipping myself upside down, the material twists around my thighs, holding my weight safely as I quickly fix my hair. Then I let the music take me on a lyrical adventure, using my flexibility and rhythm to map out the perfect choreography I could use at the Festival of Fright Night at Halloween.

I flip myself upside down once again, settling in a full straddle, and pull off my top to reveal my sports bra. But when the material at the hook tangles and I start to spin slowly, my entire body freezes – there’s someone watching me. “Chris!” I snap. “You aren’t allowed in here!”

I narrow my eyes at him. “What the hell are you doing?” He smirks, making me step backwards as he takes one step forward, eyes dropping to my chest. “You know I like to watch you.” Uncomfortable shivers rush through me, bile rising in my throat. “I told you I’m going to my friend’s house.”

I wanna fight hin

“I’ll drive you. I’m not taking no for an answer.” “I don’t need you to drive me.” Chris lifts his hand to me, and I instinctively flinch away before he can touch the strands of hair that have fallen into my face. “You’ll do as I say, little sister,” he says. “Unless you want me to lock you in my room again. Maybe I’ll chain you to my bed this time?” I blanch. “No.” He smiles. “I’m driving you.” I gulp and nod, knowing I won’t win with Chris.

“So pretty and defiant,” he mutters, nudging his knee between my legs to force them open. His palm travels up my side. “Do you remember what happens to bad little girls like you?” “Get the fuck off me, Chris,” I warn him, shoving his chest but failing to move him away from me. He grins. The bastard loves when I get mad. I feel his excitement against me, and I swallow the strangling lump that’s building in my throat.

Sick fuck

Chris has been like this with me since I joined the family years ago. I tried to tell my dad when he’d barged into my shower the day we moved in and forced his mouth on mine. My dad refused to listen when I told him that the boy four years older than me had watched me undress on numerous occasions when I was only fourteen. Nope. I was apparently a teenage troublemaker, rebelling from the death of my mother.

Chris has kissed me on numerous occasions, mid-argument. But every time, my lips have clamped shut – hard enough to cause me pain – to deny the tongue trying to pry its way into my mouth as I fought back. As far as I’m aware, we’ve never fucked. But he’s drugged me. Hit me. Made my life hell...

“Come on. I can give you a lift to Lu’s.” The drive is filled with Tylar reeling off the rules of the studio, and I stare out of the window as I offer sounds of acknowledgment. But when she tells me that a house is currently on fire in Branchton, I look at her with pinched brows. No casualties, but apparently the homeowner was beaten to a pulp. The name hasn’t been released.

The drive to Luciella’s takes us through to the loch, and the trees surround the road. We stop at the electric gates of the extravagant manor I still find breathtaking. Tylar tells me she’ll catch up in a few hours before driving off.

As soon as the door swings open, my smile drops, and I’m trapped under Kade’s dark scowl. It’s full of so much hatred and betrayal. If I’m not mistaken, he’d rather see me beneath the wheel of his motorbike than standing on his doorstep. His two Dobermanns, Milo and Hopper, who are usually away with him at university, sniff at my legs and hands, both growing excited when they recognise my scent. Instead of cowering with my tail between my legs or backing down from their owner, I lower myself to fuss over the dogs while I level him with a look just as grim.

He breaks eye contact first, turning his large muscular back to me as he whistles for the dogs to follow. He’s wearing a hoodie, a backwards cap to hide his messy hair and has a beer bottle in his hand. I’m guessing he’s not going out tonight. I roll my eyes and mumble, “Great,” under my breath as I close the door behind me. This will be fun.

She sighs. “I know you’re not a fan of Kade and his friends. I’m hoping they stay away so you don’t leave.” I snort. She knows me too well, but I wouldn’t be leaving because I can’t stand them – I just can’t stand the looks he gives me. “Did you tell him to stay on his side of the manor?” “God, yes. I don’t think I can handle Base and his constant need to talk about sex. If they decide to have a full-on orgy again, I’ll kill them all.” “You weren’t even there,” I say. “It’s not like you witnessed it happening.”

I giggle, trying to rid myself of the memory as if I hadn’t been there without my best friend knowing. Tylar wanted to spy on Dez at the pool house, because she was still head over heels for him. She asked me to go with her, and obviously, so I could catch a glimpse of Kade, I agreed. I wish I hadn’t.

We walked into the building and froze on the spot while a full sex-fest went on in front of us, music blaring. Base, the Russian heir to an entire empire who never takes his eyes off Luciella, was snorting lines of coke from a set of tits while getting his dick sucked. Dez had someone bouncing over him and froze when he saw Tylar.

Kade kept his scowl on me as he took his place behind a blonde bending over a pool table, naked, unbuckling his belt with a slowness that made me grit my teeth. He didn’t take his eyes off me as he pushed into...