Voracious (The Edge of Darkness, #2)

by Leigh Rivers

When the party’s over – Billie Eilish

This story ends on a cliffhanger.

It’s over. It’s been over for two years. He’s wrong. If it was over, then what the hell has this entire trip been? The sex. The kiss. The need to hold me. We aren’t done.

It’s impossible for a person to be as happy as I am and not have the other shoe drop like fucking thunder.

Me: It sucks being so close to you and not being able to do anything. How is it possible to miss you, yet you’re right here?

She could be singing a musical horrendously off-key with food all over her face, and I’d still see her as my own fucking angel.

Stacey is already a work of art. The idea of having my drawings on her skin makes mine tingle.

“What are you going to do when I go to Hawaii with my family in January?” “Burn your passport before you can leave.”

“Mine,” I say against her mouth. No one else’s.

“Close your eyes. I don’t want you looking at my friends or my brother while you come from me fucking you.”

“You’re doing so good, Freckles,” I say, kissing below her ear as I thrust harder. My voice is shaky, but I keep praising her. “Taking it so fucking well.”

She’s like my own sunrise. Beautiful. Perfect. She fills a part of me that’s been empty and dark for as long as I can remember.

She sold me to a married couple for two days then had to clean the mess up because I killed them both. I don’t remember skinning them alive, but apparently I did the wife first while the husband watched. Neither of them got near me.

I once drew what I assumed our daughter would look like – my most prized possession.

“I choose who I love, and I choose you”.

I’ve fallen in love with Stacey Rhodes.

We were in Edinburgh and a guy opened the door for her while I was at the ATM, and I imagined his body in a morgue and me behind bars.

sometimes I feel like I can actually breathe, and it’s when she’s with me.

Fuck, I’m in deep. But I want to be deeper. More. I need more of her.

She’s twenty-three days older than me and won’t let me live it down. She keeps saying she feels weird fucking someone younger than her. It always earns her a spank and being tickled into a fit of coughing.

Somehow, I fall asleep, and if I had to give up everything in the world for this, I would. I’d give it all up for Stacey.

If I want Kade to fight his way out of the deep hole he’s trapped in, then that’s what I have to do too. I’ve never stuck up for myself this way, and I don’t intend to stop. I’m done with his abuse. I’m done being fucking silent and letting him treat me like his personal punchbag.

In a black fitted suit and shirt to match his hair, his tattoo peeking out from his collar, Kade stands completely still – a statue – as his companions chatter.

Kade is sitting beside Barry – they’re talking.

Kade is watching me – I can feel the heat of his gaze on me.

It’s the same one she told me to listen to when we were younger to describe how she felt about me. I know every lyric by heart. She knows I’m here – she wants me to save her.

Miss Rhodes needs us more.”

Barry is already making calls while the girl I sent away nearly three months ago to keep her safe, keeping me anchored in this world without even knowing, slowly goes limp in my hold.

“I always knew they’d find their way back to each other. I’m glad they talked things out.”

“It’s beautiful.” With my eyes on her, I say, “So beautiful.” I want you forever, I say in my head.

Fuck, I love this girl.

“you need to be my girlfriend now. You’re all I can think about.”

Aria said that the initial shock would stay for a while, then I’ll start to overthink, but she’ll be with me. Like the mother I lost. She’s been amazing. After she washed me then got me re-dressed, she sat on the chair beside the bed she’d moved me to and slept there for two nights until I stopped crying, until she was happy for me to go to Kade’s room to sleep with the dogs.

Kade stress cleans. He used to freak out if he forgot to put his clean clothes away when I got to his room, then he’d go bright red and try to hide them under the bed, as if I wouldn’t notice. The cute and innocent Kade was adorable.

He’s a disease. And he’ll be dealt with. You don’t need to be silent anymore.”

When Stacey gets excited and jumps around, they copy. When she sleeps, so do they. When she cries during a movie or after watching a video on her phone, they cuddle into her for emotional support. When it’s time for bed, they wait for her to finish brushing her teeth and washing her face before climbing in with us.

It’s like a mixture of love and not being able to breathe unless she’s around – thoughts that run wild wondering what she’s doing, where she is, if she’s thinking of me. It’s the butterflies that flutter like maniacs when I know I’m going to see her soon. The Stacey Rhodes Effect.

“The world would need to hide if we ever had children. They’d undeniably be heathens.”

Attracted’ is not the label I’d use when it comes to you. It’s way more than that. You’re beautiful, in all your moodiness – I think you’re the most amazing person in the world. And you’re all mine.” I lean forward and capture her lips in a claiming kiss. “Mine.”

Remember that when you have any doubts. You’re stuck with me, Freckles.” I raise her chin to look at me when her head drops and kiss her again. “Get used to it.”

I buy her a Kindle

“Your cum is leaking out of me,” she randomly tells me as she takes a picture of our boarding passes. The group of grannies nearby give us a horrifying look. “No, I’m serious. When I sneezed? Boom.”

“Seeing you with kids makes me feral,” she says in a whisper.

I love her, and I want to tell her I love her,

I love her. I love her so fucking much.

“I wanted you from the beginning. I wanted you so fucking much, it drove me insane. I hated you because you were my sister’s best friend. I knew you couldn’t stand me.”

“When I got dared to kiss you, I begged myself not to fuck it up.”

“It’s only been half a year, but it feels like longer. You’re everything to me, Stacey. Everything. I think about you constantly, and I get excited when it’s time to see you. I’ve never been attracted to someone before; did you know that? Never. Not once did I come across someone I found attractive. I thought I was broken, that my emotions were limited, but I just hadn’t met you yet.”

“I want it all with you. I want to go home and tell everyone that we’re together, that we’re going to have kids and grow old together. Do you want to know why?”

“Because I love you. I’ve been in love with you for ages – it’s been all I’ve thought about. And I keep falling more in love with you every single fucking day.”