Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
DRAKE
Three hours it takes Cadence to get home.
Three. Fucking. Hours.
“Didn’t realise it was raining outside,” I say, pointedly staring at her wet hair when she walks upstairs. I block her, standing in front of her door, aching for a fight to release my tension.
Last night, I barely slept, tossing and turning while images of the girl sleeping just a few metres away kept intruding. Usually, I’d smoke until those thoughts couldn’t dig in their claws, but I’d used the last of my stash the night before.
A few hours of broken rest later, I headed for a swim. The moment the invigorating saltwater cleared my head, Cadence appeared and tried to walk off the side of a cliff, forcing me to touch her.
Forcing me to hold her shivering body tight against mine while images of it smashing into pieces on the rocks below sent my adrenaline spiking.
“You’re not going to answer me?”
Her temper flashes. “Stick your head out the window if you want a weather report.”
I take a wet strand between my fingers, rolling the strands, sniffing. “Rain scented like floral shampoo. Strange.”
She slaps my hand away, grimacing. “Are you in charge of my showers, now?”
“Depends what evidence you were showering away.”
I edge further into her personal space, watching her nerves take hold, gaining back some of my equilibrium.
“Tell me, how much access did Hudson earn?” Then I snigger, shaking my head. “What precious gift of his did you have to wash out of your hair.”
She winces. “You’re revolting.”
“Says the girl who fucked someone in return for a ride home?” I press my body against hers, hand across her lower back to keep her steady. Already knowing I’ll regret it later. Unable to curb the impulse. “Was he your first rich boy? Did he measure up to the poor kids you used to ride behind the sheds at Alabaster?”
Her face flushes a furious red. “I never did anything like that, but of course you’d believe a load of lame bullshit. Are you going to call me a lesbian next for refusing to flash my tits earlier? That’s the playbook, isn’t it?”
Cadence belatedly realises I’ve cornered her and struggles, planting her hands on my chest to push me away, the force nowhere near enough to get free.
It makes me wonder if she even wants to move away and the anger surges again. My lips find her ear to whisper, “Deep down, you’ve always been a whore just like your mother.” My hand lands on her thigh, skating upwards, searching for the hem of her skirt. “Standing here, denying everything, while Hudson’s cum drips into your underwear.”
She forces her words through gritted teeth. “I didn’t have sex with him.”
“Then you won’t mind me checking, will you?”
“Get your fucking hands off me.” She gives another ineffectual push as her chest sharply rises and falls, breasts heaving as she becomes more agitated. “You’re the one whose morals are in the gutter.” Then she gives a mocking laugh. “Or is your memory too shot from smoking to remember the forfeit you demanded to get into your car?”
“That’s hardly the same.”
“They’re exactly the same because all these things exist solely in your imagination.”
My finger grazes against the outside of her panties and her breath catches, cheeks flushed like she’s been running. “Do you want to know what’s really in my imagination, Cadence?”
I let my fingers brush against the skimpy fabric of her underwear again and instead of pushing me, her hands grasp at my shirt, clutching like she’s about to fall, pupils blown until there’s only a tiny sliver of green iris around the black.
“What I picture is returning your pills, knowing they’ll knock you out so thoroughly you’ll never know when I sneak into your room, draw back the covers, and tug down those ridiculous little shorts you wear.” My head nuzzles into the side of her neck, my mouth watering at the scent of her skin. “Is that what you want, too? To be helpless, incapacitated, waiting for me to take you any way I desire?”
A shuddering breath vibrates against my chest.
“Who else are you grooming that sweet little pussy for, Cadence? Hm? If you’re not fucking the boys at school, who are you fucking?”
Her shoulders curl, head drooping. “I’m not fucking anybody,” she whispers like admitting a shameful secret. “I’m a virgin.”
“A virgin with birth control in her medicine cabinet.” Even as I scoff, the thick denim of my jeans thins to tissue paper. I arch my body into hers, feeling her muscles jump and twitch against my thigh.
Blood surges in my ears, the same rhythmic roar as the ocean.
Blood surges into my cock.
“It’s for cramps. Not that it’s any of your business.”
There’s no trace of guile in her voice. A surge of possessive power hums through my veins until I’m desperate to lay claim to her. I pull back a little, just enough to watch as a sheen of sweat gathers atop the dainty spray of freckles either side of her nose.
Saliva pools in my mouth, head spinning until my control frays around the edges. It’s like falling under a spell.
With a jolt of shock, I step back. Unsure what I’m doing or how I got here.
My confusion only goes unnoticed because Cadence is more flustered than me as I twist aside, freeing the path to her door.
She darts forward, fumbling at the handle, and I can’t resist a final tease as my body pulses with need. “You looked awfully thirsty, just now. Be careful Gretchen doesn’t catch you looking at me like that or she mightn’t be as friendly.”
I can’t stay in the house. My body is restless, craving release, but I’m too appalled at my reactions to give in to the desire, pacing my room instead until it becomes unbearable, and I head outside.
Once I’m in my car, I drive up the hill, tonight preferring to stare at the wide expanse of water rather than driving to the public jetty where I usually park.
I need the distance.
A further aggravation today came when my regular supplier wasn’t in class, and a referral sent me halfway across the city. The reprobate took one look at the car and immediately tripled the price.
Dad likes to keep me asset rich but cash poor. The guy cleaned out my wallet.
Any other day and I’d have said fuck it and moved on, but I need something to keep thoughts of this girl from invading my mind.
I’m a hypocrite, smoking a substance I could get a prescription for if that process didn’t price it well outside my reach. A similar situation to Cadence with her pills.
But I don’t mind the cognitive dissonance; not when the anger feels so good.
I’m well used to my head and heart and prick sending completely different messages when it comes to her.
When my heart slows to a normal rhythm, I smoke and wait for the haze to blow through my mind, carrying the savage impulses away. On my phone, I access the house security system, navigating to the live feeds from the cameras installed in every room in the house.
The only time I’ve known Arnold to check the monitors was when a pair of eighteen carat gold cufflinks went missing. He discovered they’d slipped down the back of his dresser, letting me and Emily off the hook.
Cracking the password was a neat trick I picked up in boot camp. Like learning how to do spots on a camp stove, or how to unlock an individual prisoner transport cage using a paperclip.
I also learned how seldom criminals get caught. A piece of knowledge that made me bold.
While my mood mellows, I watch Cadence and her mother in the living room, eating on the couch, laughing and talking, touching and hugging.
There’s a visceral twinge of envy in my gut. Since Mum died, I’ve been touch-starved; first at boot camp, later by Arnold since our relationship is too strained for physical displays.
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.
I hoped a 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 pry Cadence 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.