Page 109 of Their Ruthless Sadist

“I assume you’ve already talked to Jamie?”

“Not in depth, no.” That much was true. I’d only heard what I had to hear, and even then I had tried to block it out.

He huffed out a breath. “Fine. You want to know?”

I tilted my chin as a confirmation.

“It was great. Your sister’s a beautiful submissive, and I enjoyed her company far more than I thought I would. She was eager, attentive.” He raised his hand quickly. “And no, there was nothing sexual about the encounter. I answered her questions, listened when she wanted to talk, and…”

And holy fuck, Edge had a thing for my sister. It was so fucking evident I could hardly breathe.

“You know how old she is, right?” I asked, my tone curt.

“I do,” he quipped. “She’s thirteen years younger than me. Yeah. I get it. I’m too old for her.”

“Twelve,” I corrected, not that it mattered. “She’s twenty-four.”

“Fine. She’s twelve years younger than me.”

It was obvious he hated that fact.

“She mentioned she’s going back?”

Wary blue eyes locked on my face. “She asked. I told her I’d call her.”

“And you haven’t called.”

“Fuck,” he growled before launching to his feet. “What the fuck do you want me to do, Zeke?”

“What do you want to do?” I was surprised by how calm my voice was.

His head snapped around to me. “I want to call her. I want to invite her back to the club or out to dinner. Fuck. It’s all I can think about, and I know you want to punch me right now. Sadly, I can’t blame you. I want to punch me, too. But don’t worry. I know what you wanted from me, and I did it. My obligation’s over.”

“Call her.” I shook my head quickly. “Wait. No. I didn’t just say that.”

Edge was staring at me, his eyes wider than I’d ever seen them. There was a glint of hope there.

“Zeke.”

“No, I know.” I sat up and stared at the hard surface of my desk before taking a deep breath and looking up at him. “It’s not my place. Jamie’s told me that a million times. And she’s right. She’s an adult. She can make her own decisions.”

Edge was still staring, but now his mouth was hanging open.

I laughed because fuck me running. I couldn’t believe what I was saying. I was giving this man permission to… Hell, I wasn’t even sure what I was giving him permission for. To talk to my sister? Have dinner with her? Chain her up and— Nope, not going there.

“Zeke? I need you to open your mouth and tell me what’s on your mind,” Edge said, his tone pleading.

Swallowing hard, I forced myself to maintain eye contact. “You like her?”

“More than I should,” he admitted, and I had to admire the man. He had balls of steel. No one had ever admitted as much to me. “And not in a one-night kink club encounter sort of way, either.”

Son of a bitch.

I pushed to my feet and stepped around my desk. “Fine. Call her. Take her out. Wine her, dine her. Do whatever the fuck you feel you need to do.” I stopped when I was right up in his face. He was only a few inches shorter than me, so we were nearly eye to eye. “But you hurt her, Edge, and I will break every fucking bone in your body. Then, I’ll wait for you to get out of traction and I’ll do it again.”

His eyes were stone-cold serious when he said, “The last thing I want is to hurt her, Zeke. I swear to you. That’s the last thing I want.”

I could hear the sincerity in his words, but I couldn’t speak. I had just given this man—one of my best friends—permission to date my sister. And I knew deep down that he wasn’t some blowhard college kid who wanted to take her for coffee and stare deep into her eyes while they chatted about mundane bullshit. This man was into kink, which meant he would likely—