The Edge of Sanity Read Online Free PDF Page B

the packet across to Kayla. ‘And wherever Steve goes,’ she said, making insinuating eyes, ‘Charlie goes, too.’
    ‘Get lost,’ Kayla mumbled, blushing. She had only had one conversation with him. And even if he knew she’d got the hots for him, why would a twenty-something fantastic looking business man like Charlie be interested in her? He’d had a different blonde on his arm whenever they’d watched him and Steve leave the nightclub anyhow, so what chance would he notice her with her uninspiring black hair?
    She had got her dad’s genes to thank for her colouring. For the Goth look, it was good. She could dye it blacker than black and look totally cool. But in a kid’s way. And kids Charlie wasn’t into. Kayla sighed, but mentally ran through her wardrobe, nevertheless.
    ‘Kayla …’ Hannah cut through her thoughts, just as she was discarding the mesh camisole. The gathered bust with rosebud detail would make her look about twelve. And the dropped waist dress was out. The blonde chavs all wore sequin vest-dresses and long legs. Dropped waist made her look as if she had got no legs. Maybe the stitched hot-pants or Hannah’s short black skirt with the silk cami?
    ‘ … if I’ve told my mum I’m staying over at yours …’ Hannah mused, furrowing her brow ‘ … and you’ve told your mum you’re staying at mine, where are we staying?’
    ‘All sorted.’ Kayla blew a thin line of smoke into the air. ‘Just make sure you bring your black chiffon skirt, okay?’
    She jumped up, stubbed her cigarette out on the No Smoking sign and rang the bell. Lying to her parents didn’t sit comfortably, but needs must. Age twelve was about how they treated her. So she could hardly get ready to go to a nightclub right under their noses. They’d go mental, even though everyone her age went to Strobes. Well, she was going, and that was that.
    In any case, she was probably better out of the way, like she ever wasn’t.

Chapter Three
    Jolted from fitful sleep, Joanne crawled a hand from under the duvet and groped for the radio alarm. Finding nothing but empty space, she poked her head out and squinted disoriented around the room. How on earth had she managed to end up diagonally across the bed with her feet at the headboard end? Sighing, she heaved herself up, and jabbed at the pause button.
    Her feet had barely touched the floor when the telephone rang. Jo ignored it. She did that a lot lately. People meant well, but what could they say once they’d dispensed with the preliminary, “How are you?” Fine was her usual, programmed response. But she was far from fine in reality.
    Shivering despite the central heating Daniel and she had almost bankrupted themselves for last winter, she grabbed up her dressing gown, pushing one arm slowly into it as the answer phone kicked in.
    Hi. Jo and I are busy, right now, Daniel’s recorded message reached her ear, but please leave a message and we promise to get back to you .
    Jo swallowed back a tight lump in her throat. She had fallen in love with his voice. She had never even met him, yet her insides had turned to goo when she had first spoken to him on the phone. He’d rung her place of work, checking on an advertisement he had placed, and she had hardly heard a word he had said, listening instead to the seductive timbre of his voice—dark and sultry, like decadent dark chocolate.
    He’d melted her heart and got her tingling right down to her toes by the end of the conversation, which had been peppered with innuendo, she recalled with a ghost of a smile. And when he had called into the office … ooh, scrummy … the flesh had way exceeded the fantasy. He was at least six foot tall. And rather well toned under the shirt, Jo—and one or two other girls—had drooled as they’d noticed.
    The girls had ribbed Daniel, of course, which was when Jo realised he was actually quite shy—a total turn-on. If he had said Do you fancy a quickie? instead of a coffee she’d have