Page 128 of Insatiable

“She was my first kiss. First… everything. She’s my sister’s best friend. Does that make me a bad person?”

I shake my head. “No.”

He chuckles low. “She’s funny. If she was here and in a good mood, she’d say something along the lines of…Let’s dance. Horizontal. In bed. Preferably naked.”

His attempt at my voice is terrible, but it makes me laugh.

“She sounds funny,” I say. “What else?”

“I want to fuck her on my motorbike.”

My eyes ping open.

“I reckon she’d love it.”

My insides turn to liquid heat – having him nearly naked against me and saying things like that is making my heart pick up its pace even more. “I might take her out on it when we get home, if she gives me the time of day.”

I turn on my back, and Kade lowers his head onto my chest, snaking one arm under the small of my back, the other draped over my waist – cuddling into me.

“I’m going to take her to my apartment in Stirling.” Nodding against me, he slowly adds, “Maybe she’ll stay the night.”

“You have your own place?” I always thought he stayed in student accommodation at university.

Kade laughs, and the sound makes me warm. “I’m a grown man. Of course I have my own place, silly.”

I smile – the tone of his voice has turned cute as he grows sleepier. He curls into me more, and I play with the dark strands of his hair that are sticking up.

“How do you feel now?”

He sighs, stuttering a little as he replies, “F-Fine. I wanted to hear her voice. She didn’t answer though.”

I frown.

“I have a lot of money, but it’s dirty,” he admits randomly, eyes closed. “She’ll never let me spend it on her, will she?”

“Do you want to? If she’s your ex…”

Ignoring me, he relaxes completely. “I miss her,” he mumbles. “But we have no chance of getting back what we had.”

I fight the burn in my eyes. “I know.”

“She was pregnant. A girl. We lost her.”

My heart shatters. “I’m sorry.”

“It sucks.”

Kade’s temperature has lowered, and a light sweat has broken out on his skin. The room is hot, so I pull off my bottoms.

I miss her, he’d said.

I miss him too.

But Kade is right – we would never work now. Too much has happened. Chris would intervene again and ruin it, and Kade isn’t stable enough to hold down a relationship with all the skeletons locked away in his closet. He needs help, and he needs it fast.

The pillow shifts, and I gasp as Kade pulls me to him tighter; I fit against him like the perfect puzzle piece. I feel at home in his arms and almost burst into tears from the intensity of the moment.

Turning in his hold, I bury my head into his chest, inhaling his scent as he breathes steadily. My eyes finally fall shut when the sunrise splits through the window, and for the first time in a long time, I’m in Kade’s arms, feeling safer than ever.

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