The Edge Of Darkness Read online

  “Are you okay? Maybe we did do some damage.” His hands tugged lightly at the blanket that was over my lap and I panicked. “Here let me look—”

  “No,” I said a little too loudly and pulled the blanket tight against my waist.

  I closed my eyes, knowing he couldn’t see my mini meltdown behind my sunglasses, and for the second time in five minutes, he was probably looking at me like I was a crazy person. I wanted to pull the blanket over my head and wait for the ground to swallow me. The next five seconds of silence were pure torture. I was afraid to breathe. I was afraid to move. A part of me wanted him to be gone when I opened my eyes and the other part of me was desperately hoping he was still there.

  “I’m afraid we’ve made a nasty stain on your blanket.”

  Another part of me was screaming for joy on the inside. I opened my eyes and looked down at my lap. I smoothed my hands over the drying fabric and the crumbs of the broken petals.

  “You’ve gone silent on me again,” he said.

  I couldn’t help the reflex to look up at him again. “It’s okay,” I said, referring to the blanket.

  “At least it smells good.”

  “Yes, at least there’s that.”

  “I sense a hint of sarcasm.”

  “Only a hint? I must not be doing it right, then.”

  He barked a laugh, but when he spoke, I nearly melted. “I wouldn’t worry about that. You’re definitely doing it right.”

  Something about the way his voice turned to velvet at his words made an involuntary heat seep low into my stomach. I knew he couldn’t see the uproar he was causing my insides, but the need to wrap my arms around my middle had my arms twitching.

  His hands moved over the blanket again. “I’m afraid I’m going to have this hanging on my conscious all day now.” He teased.

  “That only seems fair.”

  “Yes, it does, but I have a better suggestion.”

  His voice slid over my skin like silk and I took a deep breath.

  “Better for whom?”

  “Go out with me.”

  His proposal stunned me for a second before I found my voice.

  “So, better for you?”

  “I like to think of it as a mutual enjoyment.”

  I was sure I was permanently going to be wearing this blush.

  “I fail to see how.”

  He shifted and his breath hit my face in warm puffs. “Go out with me and I’ll show you.”

  My entire body flushed at his words. My body’s responses to this guy frightened me to the point of wanting to get up and flee. The faster he left me alone, the better off I would be.

  “I think I can manage cleaning this up on my own.” I pushed at his hands.

  “I don’t mind helping.”

  “I think you’ve done enough damage for one afternoon. If you really want to help me out, then you’ll go back to your friends and try learning how to actually play the game without further injuring the innocent bystanders.”

  I felt bad for my sudden shift in attitude toward him, but I knew this would be the only way to restore order to myself.

  I listened as the sound of the rose petals, which had been breaking and dissolving under the gentle pressure from his fingertips in his attempt to scoop them up, stopped.

  “Did I miss something?”

  “Only my clue.”

  I didn’t expect him to laugh. “Do I make you that nervous?”

  I swallowed hard. “I don’t… I’m not…” My mouth snapped shut.

  “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  My cheeks burned and I fought the urge to cover them. “I have a feeling you would take it however you wanted either way.”

  He moved in close again, and my body responded with a slight sway in his direction. “You got that right, sweetheart,” he purred.

  “Hey, Dare! You coming or what?”

  I jumped at the sound of the interruption, and he sighed. “Give me a minute!” he yelled back. “I have a class starting soon,” he explained.

  “Class?”

  “Yeah, I go to the collage down the street. Do you go to school around here too?”

  I could kick myself for pushing the subject. Why didn’t I see that coming? I laughed at my own thoughts.

  “What’s so funny?” He was intrigued.

  “Inside joke.”

  “I can keep a secret.” He teased.

  “So can I.”

  He laughed and I was glad I’d distracted him from the school question. “These rose petals are pretty damaged. Do you think you can still use them?”

  I only nodded. My fingers fumbled to find the baggie to put them in and I blamed him for their slight shake.

  “You can put them in here.”

  Finally finding the baggie, I handed it to him. His fingers caressed mine as he took it from me and filled it with the broken pieces. He zipped it and handed it back to me.

  “I really am sorry about all this. What are you doing with all this stuff anyway?”

  “It’s my job.”

  I realized I was stalling his leaving. Turns out I didn’t want him to go as bad as I thought I had.

  “They’re scented oils,” I explained.

  Looking down, I searched for one of the vials I’d already finished. Finding it, I held it out for him to see. His fingers teased my palm as he took the tiny bottle from my hand.

  “This is cool.”

  I shrugged. “It’s just scented oils and dried flowers.”

  “Today, Dare!”

  “Damn it,” he hissed. “I have to go.”

  “Okay.”

  “I’m Ryland by the way. Ryland Dare.”

  “You’re going to be late, Ryland Dare.”

  “I like to break the rules.” He laughed. “Don’t I get a name?”

  I hesitated at first. What was the harm? I was never going to see him again.

  “Araya.”

  “Araya,” he repeated, and my name had never sounded so good. “I like that. A lot. Do you have a last name Araya?”

  “Noelle.”

  “Don’t forget about our date, Araya Noelle.”

  My eyes widened. “What?”

  “Don’t think I forgot.”

  “I can’t forget something I didn’t agree to.”

  “It’s only a matter of time before you do, though.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Why not?”

  I could think of every reason why I couldn’t. The number one reason made my fingers clench the edge of the blanket tightly.

  “Face it, you have nothing. Come on. Go out with me. I dare you.” He issued the challenge and his knowing smile was so obvious I could feel it.

  “Cute.”

  “I thought so too. Tomorrow night. I can pick you up—”

  “Here,” I blurted. What am I doing? “I’ll meet you here.”

  “It was my piercing blue eyes that made you give in, right?”

  “I didn’t even notice them.”

  He moved in close again. “Then it was my naked chest, right?”

  My eyes dropped toward his chest and I cursed my reflexes. Looking away quickly, I avoided looking at him and I swallowed hard.

  “Didn’t faze me.”

  He laughed out loud. “Are you sure you want to meet here? I don’t mind picking you up.”

  “I’m sure.”

  “Here it is, then. Six, okay?”

  I nodded, wishing I didn’t feel so guilty knowing it didn’t matter what time I agreed to.

  I wouldn’t be here.

  Ryland Dare

  Two

  I always felt like I was breaking and entering in my own home. Instantly I frowned, wondering what made me use that word, and I scoffed to myself.

  I hadn’t considered it mine in a long time, and I don’t think I ever thought of it as a home. It was my parent’s home, and I used the words parents and home as traditional labels only.

  A home was filled with love, memories, and happ
y endings. This was a place where my brother, sister, and I grew up with nannies, tutors, and butlers.

  My parents were a distant memory in my childhood. They blended into the background as they auto-piloted through dinners, holidays, and anything school related.

  When you grew up in that kind of environment since birth, you didn’t tend to miss what you never had to begin with. My parents had more important things to worry about than the three children they created and brought into this world.

  We were props, sitting pretty for the portrait of the all-American family my father tried to shove down the throats of his competitors. To Jonathon Dare, everyone was considered a competitor, a threat, and his shiny family, wrapped in a neat knot of lies, wasn’t an exception to the rule.

  Money was my father’s top priority. Work followed in at a close second. If you didn’t fall into those two groups, you were invisible until he needed you. He barely acknowledged Careless; she was the baby in the family. Sebastian was the oldest, and when it became apparent to our father that he had no intention of taking over the family business, he quickly became a shadow in a dark room.

  Now the burden suddenly fell on me. I was the golden boy. I was expected to inherit my father’s multibillion-dollar company in hopes that I followed in his footsteps.

  He wanted me to take over the world.

  Become a robot, make a family to neglect them, destroy the people around me, and do it all at any cost. The thought left a bitter taste in my mouth. I had no interest in becoming my father or anything like him.

  I wanted to live, I wanted to love, and I wanted to be loved. Not anytime soon, but I didn’t plan to take the same road he had, and I had only a few months to tell him that.

  As I made my way to my side of the house, I hated how ridiculously huge this place was. We could easily fit a small village here and still have room left over. I couldn’t wait to get out of here, and when I did, I wouldn’t look back.

  “Ryland.”

  Speak of the damn devil.

  I stopped but didn’t turn around right away. Why the hell did I come this way? Of course he would be in his study.

  Walking backward, I peered into the room. I was hoping to make a speedy getaway so I lingered in the doorframe.

  “Sir?”

  He didn’t look up from his desk as he spoke. It was his trademark. He never looked you in the face unless he was trying to intimidate whoever was on the other end of his stare. He was famous for it. People usually feared my father before they even met him.

  “Your mother wants everyone here for dinner tonight. Make sure you tell the other two.”

  I set my jaw. Sometimes I wondered if he even remembered the “other two’s” names.

  “She knows it’s not Friday, right?”

  Friday nights were designated dinner nights. No matter what was going on in our lives, we had to be there for Friday night dinner.

  “Who knows what your mother knows? I didn’t bother to ask her why. I’m just relaying her request. Regular time, don’t be late. Shut the door on your way out. Annie’s racket is getting on my last nerve.”

  Annie’s racket was more than likely the cleaning of his eight-bedroom, two-story, fifteen thousand square foot house.

  I ducked out of the room without responding, not that he would have noticed either way. Telling me to shut the door was his way of saying the conversation was over and he was no longer listening.

  The brief exchanges I had with J.D were always few and far between. They consisted of the bare minimum and nothing more. He got down to the point, and none of them ever involved anything personal.

  He didn’t want to know how my day was going and he didn’t want to share about his. He didn’t care what my plans were for the weekend and he could care less about school. To him that was just an obstacle that kept me from joining the family business now.

  I could hear Annie’s racket from the end of the hall and I bypassed the exit to my room to find out what she was doing. She was probably busy getting dinner ready since mother dearest decided to change things up tonight. Sebastian wasn’t going to like this, and I groaned inwardly at the thought of having that conversation with him.

  I found Annie in the kitchen where she was at the sink, peeling potatoes. A wicked grin tilted the corner of my lips as I attempted to sneak up on her, poised and ready to scare the five-foot four-inch slender woman.

  “When will you learn, Ryland Dare?” she scolded without turning around.

  My shoulders sagged in defeat and I slipped into one of the stools at the island in the center of the kitchen.

  “One of these days, Annie, I will get you. One of these days.” I promised.

  She turned around, potato peeler in one hand and the other planted firmly on her hip. Pointing the peeler at me, her eyes softened adoringly.

  “Here I was hoping that fancy-smancy school of yours was going to make you smarter,” she said, tapping the side of her head with the potato peeler.

  She sighed as if she were really upset.

  “Ha!” I heard from behind me and groaned. I dropped my head onto the counter, hitting my forehead against the surface.

  Careless walked in, fitting herself against Annie’s side and throwing an arm around the older woman’s shoulders. “I wouldn’t hold your breath, Annie.”

  “Shut it, brat,” I hissed.

  “Ryland James Dare!” Annie snapped, and the brat’s grin deepened as she batted her eyelashes at me. “I did not,” she lowered her voice and glanced at the door to the kitchen before she whispered, “raise you to speak to a lady like that!” She huffed, stabbing the air with a threatening finger. “You watch your mouth!”

  When Sebastian and I were younger, we’d made Careless cry by taking one of her favorite baby dolls and throwing it into a tree. Annie had gotten onto us real good about it. She said she didn’t raise us to treat girls or our baby sister that way.

  She hadn’t seen our mother coming up behind her, and when she heard Annie say that, she flipped her lid. She told Annie to remember whose children we were and that she wasn’t the one raising us.

  Annie didn’t cower from my mother’s wrath. She kept her shoulders square, her chin high, and took it. The only thing that kept her from telling our mother to shove it where the Carolina sun doesn’t shine was us.

  Annie was the sole reason we hadn’t turned into mini versions of our parents. She kept us grounded. She showed us love the other kids in our social circle weren’t lucky enough to have.

  She promised never to leave us alone at the hands of our parents. She knew who raised us, and later that night, we reassured her that we knew as well. Ever since, Annie was always aware of who was around and when.

  “Hmph!” Careless said, kissing Annie’s aged cheek.

  Walking around me to sit on the stool next to me, she bumped me with her elbow roughly.

  “Brat!” I coughed and cleared my throat loudly.

  “Ryland…” Annie warned.

  She turned back to the sink to finish the potatoes.

  “I told you, you shouldn’t have bet for him, Annie.”

  “You shush it, missy!” Annie scolded, spinning around.

  “Wait, wait, wait.” I frowned. “What do you mean, bet?” Careless snickered and made a gesture that her lips were sealed, and I turned on Annie. “Annie…?”

  “You’re sister is just teasing you, darlin’. Don’t you listen to her!”

  “Don’t do that. Spill!” I narrowed my eyes at Careless and she returned my stare.

  “Don’t you look at me like that, Ryland Dare! I’m not five anymore. You don’t scare me!” She folded her arms over her chest.

  “I can change that.” I threatened.

  “That’s enough, you two. Behave in my kitchen.”

  The kitchen went quiet and all you could hear was the rattle of the metal on the peeler as Annie finished off the potatoes.

  “We made a bet to see how long you’d last in school,” the brat blurted ou
t in a rush.

  “What?” I looked to Annie who had turned to glare at Careless. “You guys are betting on my failure?”

  “Of course not!” Annie huffed.

  “I am.” The brat scoffed. “Annie actually thinks you’ll stick it out. Poor, poor Annie.”

  “What do you mean stick it out? Why wouldn’t I?”

  “Oh, come on, Ryland.” Careless rolled her eyes. “What’s the longest thing you’ve ever stuck with? You get bored so easily.”

  “Like you’re one to talk,” I threw back in her face.

  “I never claimed anything else! That’s the difference between the two of us—I know I’m screwed up.”

  “Stop it, both of you! I don’t like this kind of talk. Neither one of you is screwed up. You’re too young to be set in your ways. You have plenty of time to grow up.”

  “Hey, at least Annie still has faith in you.”

  “I have faith in all three of you,” she corrected, frowning. “Where is Sebastian, by the way? Does he know about tonight yet?”

  Careless’s head snapped up. A grape she picked up from a bowl on the counter was stopped midway to her mouth. “What’s tonight?” She looked at me. “What’s tonight?”

  “She wants us all to have dinner together tonight.”

  “What? Why? Today isn’t Friday.” Her posture went rigid with irritation.

  “Who knows?” I shrugged, stealing a grape from the bowl in front of her. She growled at me, shoving the bowl out of my reach.

  I grinned at her and rustled the top of her head with my hand. Her hair knotted in a mess of strands the color of frosted sugar.

  “Ryland, you ass!” she hissed, pushing my hand away while attempting to push me out of my stool.

  “Knock it off, both of you! You,”—she pointed at Careless—“watch your mouth. That’s not very ladylike.”

  “Careless isn’t ladylike, Annie.”

  She shoved at me again with all her tiny might. Her stool made a loud scraping sound across the kitchen floor when she got tired of playing tug of war.

  “Bite me,” she hissed, walking around to Annie.

  She kissed her cheek before apologizing for the curse word. Annie smiled sweetly; she could never stay mad at Careless for long.