On the Edge (The Grange Complex Book 1) novel Chapter 7

Sasha

I was caught completely off guard when he opened the door and was suddenly standing there shirtless, wearing only boxers. Every time I was in front of him, I was unable to form a coherent sentence. This was getting out of control. I had to get laid, sleep with someone, anyone, so I could push this asshole out of my head.

His eyes took me in, stopping as usual on my cleavage.

“You have picked the wrong person to play your stupid power games with. I know exactly what you are doing, Dexter,” I roared in frustration, at the same time trying to dismiss his gorgeous brown eyes that were trailing down my body.

“It’s Mr. Tyndall to you, Barbie, and I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he snarled, coming closer. He was barefoot and the heat from his body was like a new drug that I couldn’t live without: addictive, but deadly. Why the hell did he have this kind of effect on me? We didn’t even like each other.

“You won’t win, fuckface, and you’ll regret starting this, because I promise you that I’ll make your life living hell,” I shouted, poking my finger into that wide chest, losing my control. I wanted to punch him and I hated myself for feeling that irresistible pull of attraction to him. He was arrogant, intense, completely selfish and had no idea how to talk to people. So far I wasn’t seeing any redeeming qualities in him, so what was the point of this?

“I want you in my bed, Barbie. Just one night. You really turn me on when you’re angry,” he growled, leaning over and bringing his face inches away from my lips. He smelled so masculine.

“I don’t sleep with losers,” I said, then turned around and marched back to my own apartment, slamming the door behind me.

Dexter

“I can’t believe that you used me like that.”

I turned around noticing Laura by the kitchen with her arms folded over her chest. She was one of the women that didn’t take my nonsense until I made her come at least three times. Hard work, but a great fuck.

“Used you? I fucked you hard and you loved it.”

“God, Dex, you’re such a fucking asshole sometimes,” she hissed.

“Maybe, but you like me anyway.”

She shook her head and disappeared into the bedroom. I didn’t fucking know what her problem was. Besides, she was putting her nose where she shouldn’t have, trying to dig information out of me. I sat on the sofa and started switching channels on the TV. Laura appeared from the bedroom completely dressed.

“Where the fuck are you going?” I asked her, watching her put on her shoes by the front door.

“Home, you wanker! I want nothing to do with you anymore. I can’t believe that you would stoop so low. The girl next door was having a viewing!” she said, raising her voice.

“Go to hell,” I muttered.

“Gladly,” she shouted and slammed the door behind her.

I ran my hand through my hair wondering what the hell was wrong with women these days. She had no idea what was going on between me and Sasha and it was none of her business. Besides, it wasn’t like I wanted to fuck her again. The only person that I really had any desire for had compared shagging me less favourably to eating dirt.

I had to find out what Sasha’s problem was. Okay, so maybe in the beginning I wasn’t very nice to her, but all the women loved my bad-boy attitude and snappy tongue. She was different, and the fact that I didn’t know anything about her was slowly driving me up the wall. I didn’t do well in normal conversation. Yeah, I could simply go over there, apologise and try to woo her over, but that fucking well wasn’t me.

I had sex when I needed it to tame the inner darkness, to ease the gloom that kept following me every day. She was so stubborn and my gut feeling told me that she just wasn’t going to let me fuck her easily.

***

The next couple of weeks passed quickly and I wasn’t getting anywhere near Sasha’s bed. We hadn’t had a chance to meet out in the corridor again, but I knew that she had more viewings. I paid someone at the estate agency to let me know of her progress with the sale. I wasn’t comfortable with digging too much into her past so I didn’t have her full history investigated. Everyone had their skeletons and all I wanted was to bang her, not marry the bitch.

I was surprised when I found out that she was a nurse. My contact told me that her parents were living in Glasgow and she’d moved out a few years ago. She had been working for the same agency for about ten months, doing a few shifts a week. Before she moved to Joey’s apartment, she had lived in London.

Potential buyers kept coming and I was doing everything I could to turn them away. I knew that I wasn’t doing myself any favours with winning her over, but I wasn’t prepared to face a new resident in the apartment next door just yet.

Since that day on the terrace I couldn’t think straight and my mood swings were more pronounced than normal. The guy in the estate agency that she dealt with was a greedy bastard. I knew his father and he kept filling me in with her upcoming appointments. A week from her first viewing, I borrowed three cats from my brother and let them run around the corridor when some older chick arrived for her viewing. At first I thought that it was an awesome idea, but when the cats started pissing everywhere I fucking lost it. The smell was horrendous and I had to pay a fortune to clean their stink out. But I achieved what I wanted: the woman didn’t come back for a second viewing.

I paid Darren a fortune to put off some of the interested parties, but I didn’t want Sasha to suspect anything, so I told him to keep at least one viewing a week.

For three straight weeks I was sabotaging Sasha’s appointments. I played loud music, told one of the pensioners that the landlord didn’t want any resident over sixty, and pretended that I was having a loud party when a family with two kids showed up.

Sasha didn’t react and that worried me the most. She hadn’t said anything to me while this whole thing was going on, but I knew that she was aware of what I was doing. It had been three weeks and I was getting tired of her indifference.

It was Thursday night and I was waiting for Courtney to come over. When I checked the time I realised that she was an hour late. We met through a mutual friend and she became my regular Thursday fuck.

In the past week, my messed-up mind kept waking me up at three in the morning every day. The weed didn’t seem to be doing anything. I needed sex or more pills.

Three hours later there was still no sign of Courtney. My dick was hard and I was bouncing off the walls. Sasha’s beautiful ass kept me high and dry. I grabbed my phone and dialled Courtney’s number.

“Hello.”

“Where the fuck are you? You should be here riding my cock,” I shouted into the phone.

“Dex? Is that you?”

“No, it’s Father Christmas. What the fuck?”

“I thought that you weren’t in. The girl outside the complex said that you had some emergency.”

“A girl? What the fuck are you talking about, Courtney?”

“The girl came out and said that she had a message from you. She said that you weren’t in. Blond hair and terrible fashion sense.”

“Fucking Sasha,” I growled at the phone and hung up. I was up on my feet before I knew it. Bitch! How did she know that Courtney was coming over? Rage rippled through me as I slid the door to the terrace open and headed around to her apartment. When I reached her door, there was a piece of paper attached with a message on it.

Don’t mess with me, fuckface. This is just the beginning.

Sasha

My pole-dancing training was going well. I made great progress in the first three weeks, slowly getting back to the shape I was in nine months ago. Everything in my life besides my apartment was falling into place, although today I was a little unfocused. My mind kept wandering off to Dexter.

It was easy to figure out the schedule he followed with the ladies and I couldn’t help but mess with his sex life a little. Tonight, when I was leaving for my pole dancing classes, I spotted one of the brunettes outside in the car park, all groomed up and ready to see him. I made up a story about Dexter having an emergency and that stupid cow bought it all. I couldn’t believe how easy it was. I decided to leave him a little message on my balcony door. My revenge was finally coming together.

He kept messing up my viewings, turning potential buyers away. I wasn’t stupid—loud music, cats peeing in the corridor, and moans in the late hours of the morning. Well, he didn’t know, but it was the beginning of a war.

I didn’t like confrontation, but I grew up in a council estate in the rough part of Glasgow and I had to fight my own battles there. Life was hard and sometimes people took advantage of others, just because they could.

Dexter Tyndall was the landowner of the complex, but he didn’t know that in the short period of time that I lived next to him, I found out a few very interesting things. He never went out during the week. He had his groceries delivered and he took short naps at four each afternoon. Yes, I was creepy enough to watch him from the terrace.

Turning women away was just the beginning of my plan. I wanted him to suffer, badly. He was probably going berserk without his favourite brunette.

Within two weeks, Gina asked me to work on my own routine. She showed me a few more advanced moves on the pole, then said that I was capable of training on my own. At first I struggled, but after doing exercises at home I was back on track. I normally worked out. I was slowly coming out of that vacant and dormant phase of my life. It was great to have people around me again.

I was exhausted by the time I drove back to the complex. Dexter was probably in his apartment. My phone rang when I was getting out of the car.

“How are you, darling? I haven’t heard from you since you moved to that isolated place and I was a bit worried,” Mum said. Yes, I meant to call her so many times and we kept missing each other. We'd had a little chat when I moved in, but we hadn’t spoken since then.

“Yes, sorry, Mum. I meant to call, but I have been so busy with everything.”

“I know, darling; don’t worry about it. You sound much happier though.”

“Yes, I am. It’s great here.”

“See, I told you. The timing was good. You weren’t yourself in London,” she said. My mother and I used to have a great relationship, but after my trauma with Kirk, I began distancing myself from her. Now I wanted to fix it by helping her with the inheritance, hoping that things could go back to the way they were.

“You were right. It’s amazing here, but the guy next door is so annoying. He sleeps around with tons of women and he scared all the potential buyers away. I don’t know how long it will take before we get an offer on this place,” I explained to keep her in the loop. I didn’t want to tell Mum that I was attracted to Dexter and that I kept dreaming about his amazing ripped body. It was embarrassing enough.

“Do you like him?” Mum asked.

Shit, I couldn’t hide anything from her. She always knew that tone of voice. “No, I don’t, Mum. He’s arrogant, selfish, and he owns the whole complex. I can’t stand him,” I grumbled, closing my eyes and forgetting about how good it felt to be pinned down by him in his little office.

“Sasha, bunny, you haven’t spoken about anyone else for almost a year. This man, your neighbour. I think maybe you should let yourself to get to know him.”

“But, Mum, he’s infuriating. Every day there is a different girl at his door and he’s playing a game with me. He has plenty of money and even more connections. We are constantly fighting,” I said, biting my lip and swallowing the gulp that suddenly appeared in my throat. Dexter Tyndall was stubborn, but I wasn’t going to let him win.

“There is no rush with the apartment, darling. I’m happy that finally after months I’m talking to my Sasha again, my short-tempered, cranky and stubborn girl. I think you’re finally passing through your grief. It’ll never go away completely; you just learn to live with it. So go ahead and get to know this boy. I know you like him—I can tell—but you won’t admit to it. Listen to what your heart wants, not your head.”

I swallowed my tears, pushing away toxic memories. Mum was right. I had been hiding, pretending that my past hadn’t crushed me. She knew me so well.

“He’s not a boy, but a hot bastard that is not interested in relationships,” I muttered.

“You can change him.”

“I don’t think so,” I replied, hearing a beeping noise on the other side of the line. Mum was getting another phone call.

“Sorry, bunny, I have to go. I think your father is calling me.”

“All right, Mum, talk to you later,” I said and hung up.

Deep down I wanted to get to know Dexter, but I wasn’t going to reach out to him. He had to stop sabotaging my viewings and apologise for the way he treated me.

When I walked up to my apartment, the corridor was empty. Dexter was either sleeping or he was out. There was a white envelope sitting on my doorstep. My stomach made a funny jolt. For some reason I had a feeling that somehow this was his revenge for turning his fuck buddy away.

I walked inside, locked the door and looked at it. On the top of the envelope there was a message.

To the Owner of Apartment 21

An Invitation for a Private Party in Apartment 30