Page 30 of Fire Fight

Maybe that’s why my body goes haywire whenever I’m near Cadence, mistaking the primal need for skin-to-skin contact with the baser urge of lust.

Arnold arrives home and Raelene makes space for him on the sofa while Cadence fixes him a plate. A happy family eating dinner while the black sheep sits outside alone, getting stoned.

My smile lasts through the deep pangs of jealousy, thinking if she prepared food for me, she’d probably spit in it.

And you’d probably eat it, relishing the taste.

The thought should cut me, but it floats away in the haze of other, partially formed notions.

Gone before they can gain traction.

Gone before they sting.

Back at our last high school, I promised myself I would act on my crush if Cadence ever showed an interest in another boy. The details of exactly what form the action would take remained hazy.

Ask her out.

Get on bended knee.

Tie her up and drip melted wax on those fabulous tits, watching her skin tremble and turn pink from the candle’s fiery kiss.

Ihopeda boy would make a move just to give me the impetus to action. A sign of limp-dick-energy that now makes me cringe.

Those old thought patterns must be the proximate cause for my current sweep of jealousy, there’s no other reason. Once I pryCadence free from Hudson’s clutches, I can resume my original plan to take my slow revenge.

I can’t imagine it will be a problem. The boy’s such a total beta, I’ll barely have to lift a finger to scare him away.

With my buzz on, I shouldn’t drive, but don’t want to crawl into the rear seat to nap as I usually do.

Not because I told Arnold I’d be around home more—although I made that promise; mindful of my inheritance—but because the internal cameras aren’t enough. To keep my favourite little enemy close, I need to be in the room across the hall, ready to pounce at a moment’s notice.

My eyes slip closed, and Cadence is there, staring at me with her changeable green eyes. Biting into her succulent lower lip.

A virgin.

She hung her head like she was ashamed. Doesn’t she know it makes her hotter? Is she genuinely that clueless?

My mind flicks back through the images it gathered while I was busy, showing me again the disgust on her face when I suggested she’d had sex with Hudson. A disgust noticeably absent when I threatened to sneak into her bedroom. Even her confirmed innocence couldn’t damper the thrill of excitement burning in her eyes.

Next time, instead of drawing back, I should play with her longer. Test to see if I can drive her crazy without losing myself. Claim her precious virginity as a prize before I strip away everything else.

Beginning with Hudson. Later expanding to the rest of her supposed friends.

An idea that makes me smile as I twist the key in the ignition, steering at a laughably slow speed down the hill until I’m safely parked in Arnold’s garage.

Home sweet home.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CADENCE

Next morning,the slam of Drake’s bedroom door wakes me.

I’m groggy from broken sleep and my confused brain thinks he’s just arrived home, then I hear him on the stairs and check the time on my phone.

Seven-thirty. Fifteen minutes until my alarm. He must be going down for his morning swim.

I roll onto my back, rubbing my eyes, feeling more exhausted than when I clambered into bed, ruined by another night of fitful sleep. Each confrontation with Drake leaves me in a worse mental state than the last and it’s not like I’m seeking him out. If anything, he’s deliberately putting himself in my way.

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