48
48
STACEY
Arms envelop me, keeping me safe as I stretch and yawn, the high sun glaring through the window making me wince and screw my eyes shut. For the first time in what feels like years, we slept until the middle of the day, peacefully dreaming of our future.
And what a great future it looks to be.
Base came in here at some point – he was fed up with Barry shouting at him for snoring. He’s sleeping on the other side of Kade, and he’s snoring so loud, I’m debating smothering him with a pillow and telling my boyfriend to hide his body. His flight isn’t until ten tonight, but he’ll leave in a few hours to go home and pack. Barry said he’ll go with him, wait outside the Prince manor then take him to Edinburgh Airport.
Lisa and Eva are still at the safe house, and I can’t wait to video call them again. I miss Eva – her smile and her little giggle.
I can hear movement downstairs – and voices. Aria is cooking – the smell wafts upstairs and under the door. My stomach growls, and I slide away from Kade’s hold, sneak off the bed and tiptoe around it, careful not to wake him and Base as I leave the room.
Across the landing, I knock the door, and Tylar opens it. “Oh, hey!” she whisper-shouts. “Dez is still asleep,” she says, opening the door enough for me to see him face down on the pillow.
“I was going to take the dogs around the garden for some fresh air. Come with me?”
She nods and pulls on Dez’s hoodie, following me downstairs. Aria greets us as the dogs jump up on me, licking at my hands and wagging their tails. We don’t put their leads on as we open the back door and walk.
“Are you okay?” Ty asks me when we circle the house twice in silence, the dogs running back and forth with a ball.
“I think so,” I reply honestly. “I’m worried about Kade.”
“But how are you? I’m worried about you.”
I look up at her, hugging myself as the cold air nips at my skin. “I killed my stepbrother,” I say. “And I wish I’d dragged it out and made it hurt more. Does that make me a bad person?”
She shakes her head. “He was a monster. As much as dragging it out would’ve felt good at the time, the end is still the same. You won.”
“I won?”
“Who’s the dead one and who’s the one with her boyfriend in bed, waiting for more cuddles, and a life ahead of her?”
Me. That girl is me. I have my entire life ahead of me, and I get to spend it with Kade Mitchell. I get to love and be with Kade Mitchell, and there’s nothing in our way.
I smile at my best friend. “I missed you. But I’m glad you weren’t involved in any of this. It’s been… intense to say the least. But let’s talk about you – tell me how things have been since the manor exploded and what you’re going to do now all this is over.”
We circle the house four more times while catching up, and I feel lighter, as if some weight has been taken off my shoulders just by talking to Tylar. Even with everything that’s been going on, she’s been making happy memories with Dez, just like she was when we were all at our lowest, and that’s a good thing. It’s a sign that even when the world is in chaos, even when terror and havoc and death greet us at every turn, someone, somewhere, is having the best day of their life. It’s beautiful yet tragic. It’s hope of better things to come.
When we get back into the house, Tylar helps Aria with some chores while Ewan sits on the sofa with his laptop, doing some work. He’s looking into the possibility of rebuilding the manor.
The dogs stay downstairs as I go see Kade. He and Base are still asleep, the latter’s arm slung over Kade’s chest. I smile at them, pull off my hoodie then slide back under the covers and lie down.
Kade automatically, possessively, pulls me against him, causing Base’s arm to fall off him as he turns.
I rest my head on the pillow, staring at his beautiful face. I trace my fingers across his lips, down his scar to his chin then run my fingertips up the bridge of his nose to his thick, dark eyebrows.
He hasn’t had a seizure a long time now, and his blackouts are few and far between. I can tell when he’s lost in his mind. He stares at nothing the way his father does. He’ll blink uncontrollably, and his eye will twitch when he’s falling into his own reality. It exhausts him, and I know it makes him self-conscious of the way it makes him look.
But he looks like a survivor to me. He is a survivor.
“Stop staring at me,” he mutters, reaching up to grab my hand and pull me into his chest. “Go back to sleep.”
There’s a shift behind him, and Base throws his arm over him again. Kade’s eye pings open, and he frowns. “Can I kill him yet?”
I snort. “Wait until he helps Lu, then you can kill him.”
Kade pushes Base off him and moves us further to my side of the bed, rolling me beneath him with his arms trapped under my back, his head buried into the crook of my shoulder.
“Why are you cold?” he asks quietly, his warm skin against me.
“I took the dogs out with Tylar,” I whisper. “I didn’t want to wake you.”
He hums.
My fingers brush through his hair, and he falls back to sleep. Soft, little snores fall from his mouth; nothing loud like Base’s.
Base and Barry leave in a couple of hours. Tylar and Dez are going to head home too, and Ewan and Aria are going to sit down with us to properly go over everything that’s happened. Aria’s excited that her daughter is pregnant – though I think she’s worried about the situation, and she’s worried about Kade and the effect all of this will have on him.
Kade is doing okay. I can see that, deep inside, he can’t quite believe it’s over, but his therapist is good. He’ll make sure he’s okay. We’ll go to couples therapy too, like we planned. We’ll work on our relationship, live our lives and then, if he hasn’t already knocked me up, we’ll move on to the next stage of our relationship.
Having a family.
One day.
I shiver as he wakes again and kisses under my ear, and I can feel how hard he is against my thigh. “Is that morning wood?” I whisper, careful not to wake Base. My eyes flutter shut as he sucks on my pulse, his fingers digging into my hip, the other hand moving under my shirt, tracing my ribs.
“Maybe.” He’s kissing down my throat. “Maybe I need you. I always need you.”
“Yeah?”
He nods against my throat, dragging soft kisses up to my jaw, taking my bottom lip between his teeth. “I always fucking need you,” he breathes, rolling his hips into me. A tingling sensation is already twisting up my thighs to my core.
I glance over at Base, who’s still snoring. Kade grabs my jaw, demanding my attention. “He’s asleep.”
I nibble my bottom lip, and he presses his thumb to pull it from between my teeth. He kisses me as his hand glides down to my throat, holding me there when his tongue slips into my mouth.
I let out a whimper, and he pulls back, the hand on my throat now clamped over my mouth. “I need you to be quiet, Freckles.” He grinds between my thighs, the underside of his cock rubbing against my clit. Watching me as he dry-fucks me, he keeps his palm where it is and lowers his chest to mine, licking and sucking at my throat as he keeps grinding.
My eyes roll, and I mumble against his palm, begging him for more as I rock my hips up to meet his cock – so hard, so thick and long. I want all of him every day and every night.
His gaze shifts to Base again before he looks back at me, watching my eyes widen as he slips his hand down my side, under my waistband, making me tense so deliciously as he cups my bare pussy.
Mine, he mouths, pushing a finger inside me and making me moan into his hand. All. Another finger pushes in. Mine.
I rock my hips against his hand, and his fingers curl inside, pumping dangerously slowly, making me wetter and needier. I drop my hand between us and grab him through his shorts, stroking over the material while his fingers plunge in and out at a steady, rhythmical pace.
He kisses my throat, dragging his mouth down my chest while his fingers go deeper, then captures the material of my top between his teeth and drags it up and over my breast. I gasp as he sucks my nipple into his mouth. Every few seconds, he’s looking over at his sleeping friend.
His fingers thrust, my hips move, and I eventually pull down his shorts and my own, positioning him between my legs. With my mouth still covered, I moan as Kade pushes the tip of his cock through my entrance, still a little delicate from all the sex we’ve had lately.
Each inch eases in, and Kade pays attention to my other nipple, capturing it between his teeth, marking me as his as he fully sheaths himself in my depths. “Fuck,” he mumbles against my breast. “I’ll never get used to this.”
I arch my back, taking him even deeper. “Fuck,” he breathes again, lifting his head and moving his hand to kiss me.
He hikes my knee to his hip and fucks me slowly, tenderly, making sure we don’t wake—
“Is it too late for me to sneak out?”
I scream at Base’s words and wince as Kade pulls out, thankful that the duvet covers us as he pushes his friend off the bed.