On the Edge (The Grange Complex Book 1) novel Chapter 14

Dexter

Victoria’s threats didn’t scare me, I had no idea what she thought she could achieve by blackmailing me. She didn’t need money; she wanted to feel important again, and to undermine me. I was supposed to meet with one of my clients earlier on, but after the unexpected visit from Victoria, I couldn’t focus. I was so uncomfortable when I saw Sasha with some loser that I had managed to sleep in and that fucking meeting had completely fallen out of my head. The guy was probably raging. This investment was important to me, but now my whole day was fucked and I needed to take the edge off my bad mood.

When I closed my front door I had an urge to knock on Sasha’s door, but I was sure that she wouldn’t want to listen to what I had to say, besides I was still pissed off with her about last night.

Fucking fiancée? Who did she think she was, accusing me of being a fucking pussy?

I had told her that I didn’t do relationships, but she thought that she was a clever beast. I’d never had to explain myself to anyone, and that wasn’t going to change anytime soon. I could fuck whoever I pleased. I banged her and it was time to move to the next one, but deep in my stomach I knew that she wasn’t like the others. Sex with her brought me back to the living world.

The problem was that since that row in my apartment, I couldn’t stop thinking about her pussy and her sassy mouth. It was like one time wasn’t enough. When I had her in my arms begging me to fuck her harder, it was fucking bliss. I had never listened to anyone else’s needs before and we did end up fucking eventually, but I went easy on her, devouring her pussy very slowly.

When I got into my car, the text messages began to come through. It was probably the client from earlier on. Too bad I didn’t give a fuck.

It had been days since I visited Mum. She was still angry with me. A couple of weeks ago I missed a family dinner, so I lost the status of favourite son. She didn’t believe my bullshit anymore, but I wasn’t prepared to sit through the whole meal and listen to how everyone was concerned about me.

Mum ran the house, cooked for my brother and hadn’t looked at another man since Pap died. She insisted that she still had to work. I paid off her mortgage and took care of all her bills, but she still refused to quit her job at the school, saying that it was because she needed to get out of the house once in a while.

The house that I grew up in was situated in south Gyle. My younger brother, Connor, still lived at home, playing his stupid video games all day long. I just didn’t get it. What was wrong with him? He seemed determined to become a loser. He was fucking twenty, not fifteen, and I was fed up with trying to get him to do anything with himself.

 “Dexter, is anything wrong? What are you doing here?”

“There is absolutely nothing wrong, Mum. You said you wanted to see me more often, so here I am,” I said, trying to sound like I was perfectly fine. Victoria was the reason I was pissed off, but right now Sasha was the bigger problem.

My mother was a short, petite woman with brown hair and kind eyes. Even now, her looking at me like that made me uneasy, bringing up unspoken subjects that weren’t worth talking about. Like the fact that I didn’t have a girlfriend.

I grew up in this house, but after Pap’s death, every time I walked through the door I felt haunted. Every corner hid a memory and even after so many years, the house affected me in certain ways, inflicting emotions and feelings that I tried to push away. My father killed himself in the attic. I was the one that found him. I had stood in the door, watching as he swayed back and forth.

“Do you want something to eat? I have a cottage pie,” Mum asked, snapping me back to reality.

“Okay, Mum, I’ll have some.”

I sat in the kitchen while she started moving around, preparing food for me. We used to talk like that all the time. I did miss her cooking. I missed my old simple life, when I didn’t have many responsibilities.

“How are you feeling? Still waking up early?” she asked innocently. Once I had made the mistake of telling her about my sleeping pattern; since then she kept bringing it up every time we were alone, asking me to see someone. That wasn’t happening and I didn’t need to see a specialist.

“Not since Joey passed away,” I replied, lying through my teeth. I scrolled through my phone, deleting all the messages from Victoria. She could go and fuck herself; she had nothing on me.

“He was a good man, Dex, so I know it must be hard for you having no one next door now.” 

I didn’t have to pretend in front of Mum. She knew that I didn’t get on with many people and never had many friends. Joey was an exception to that; we were very close and his death took a toll on me. We used to talk about politics, women and whatever the hell was going on in the world. It had been three months and since then, I’ve been on a slow descent into destruction.

“There’s a girl that just moved in next door. Sasha, his niece,” I muttered as Mum put a plate of her awesome pie in front of me. My tone was indifferent, but Sasha’s name stirred something in me, pulling me away from the gloom. I needed to have her in my bed again.

“A girl—so you met her? Is she nice?” Mum began her interrogation. I was twenty-eight and since Pap passed away, I hadn’t brought any women home. I started stuffing my face with the pie, distracting myself from Sasha’s moans that I could hear in my head. Fuck, this was getting out of control. She was no one; just a woman I’d fucked.

“Annoying. Blonde, not my type.”

“So you talked to her then?”

“Yes, we talked, but she isn’t like Joey, Mum. The apartment is on the market, and when she sells it, she’ll be gone,” I explained.

“This Joey—his death was unexpected and it was such a shock for you. Maybe you should see someone, Dexter. When your father died you slipped away and I don’t—”