Page 60 of Jealous Stepbrother
He kisses my temple, my cheek, the place just below my ear where my pulse is wild.
“You okay?” he asks, voice wrecked.
“I don’t know,” I answer honestly.
We lie there, the silence loud with everything we’re not saying.
Eventually, he reaches for the blanket and tucks it around me like we’re safe, like this room is a country outside laws and blood and consequence.
It isn’t.
I stare at the ceiling until the halo blurs and my eyes sting again.
I brace for the disgust I promised myself I’d feel, the self-loathing I thought would come roaring in to save me from him. It doesn’t.
What comes is quieter, meaner, more dangerous.
Something that might be… tenderness.
My throat tightens. I can’t let it. I can’t afford it.
But as his breath evens and night settles and the ocean keeps time, the truth rolls over me slow and cold.
I’m scared—terrified—that those feelings I was scared of catching are already here.
That, hell, it’s probably too late.
That I’ve fallen.
Hard enough to shatter.
CHAPTER 16
DEVOTION, DISEASED
Asher
Iwake sprawled across too much empty bed, sheets twisted around my waist and the trace of her still clinging to the pillow I’d shared with her tucked into my arms.
My body’s sore in the best way, but my head is a mess.
Last night was supposed to be punishment, a way to bleed out the fury that had been simmering since dinner. Instead, it felt like something else—something darker, something that scraped at the edges of my chest until I said things I wasn’t supposed to divulge just yet.
Be thankful we are who we are…
Christ.
The words echo back now, too raw, too naked.
I’d meant every syllable of course, and that terrifies me. Because if I meant that, if I meant everything I forced down herthroat and into her ears, then unfortunately for my baby sister, she’s out of time.
I drag a hand over my face, stare at the ceiling.
What comes next would be fucking insane, Iknowthat. She thought I was overbearing now?
I snort darkly.
But the simple truth is I was done pissing around.
