Page 20 of Heartless Stepbrother
What was his name?
Why had he looked at me like I was the most interesting thing he’d ever seen?
Would I see him again?
The last question curled like smoke inside me, seductive and sharp. I hated that part of myself, the part that leaned in instead of backing away. The part that wondered what he’d say if we were alone again. What he’d do. How far he’d push.
“You better hope there is no next time. Otherwise I’ll make sure you don’t just watch.”
I shook my head, trying to dislodge the storm.
This was insane.
I was in paradise. My mother was getting married tomorrow, and I was supposed to be focused on family, on blending into this new life she was building. I was supposed to be calm, open,grateful.
Instead, I was obsessing over a stranger I’d caught mid-sin on a beach. A stranger who had turned my humiliation into his playground.
I turned away from the sea.
The room was cool when I stepped back in, the air conditioning brushing goosebumps along my arms. Sheer curtains danced in the breeze, casting moving shadows on the floor like ghost hands. I climbed into bed, sheets crisp and cold against my skin.
Sleep didn’t come.
I stared at the ceiling, my thoughts looping, the images replaying like a scene from a film I hadn’t agreed to watch.
Him.
The low drag of his voice.
The way he’d buttoned his pants without a hint of shame.
The girl with him, forgotten, discarded, a prop in a performance I hadn’t asked to witness.
“Consider yourself lucky.”
Was I?
Because I didn’t feel lucky.
I felt…marked.
Like he’d branded me with his attention and walked away with a piece of me I didn’t know I’d offered.
Eventually, exhaustion pulled at me, heavy and cloying. The edges of my mind blurred, thoughts softening, smoothing out like silk over skin. My last conscious image wasn’t my mother’s smiling face or the wedding dress hanging in her room.
It washis.
That smirk. That voice. That unreadable look in his eyes just before he vanished into the dark.
A look that promised chaos.
And possibly, something worse.
Or something better.
I didn’t know yet which scared me more.
CHAPTER FIVE
