Page 62 of Heartless Stepbrother
He hummed thoughtfully, like he was genuinely considering it… then shook his head the slightest bit. “Not yet.”
The proximity was maddening. His breath was warm against my cheek, his presence swallowing the air around me. I wanted to shove him away. I wanted to not be this aware of him. I wanted him gone.
But he wasn’t. And he knew exactly what that did to me.
Riley lowered his voice, the sound sinking straight under my skin. “I didn’t come in here to scare you.”
A lie. Or maybe not. With him, it was impossible to tell.
His hand lifted, fingers brushing the air near my cheek, stopping just shy of contact. “You were pretty dramatic earlier,” he said. “Running off. Acting like I’d asked for your soul when I only wanted a kiss.”
My pulse stuttered. “You tried to bribe me with my own bikini top.”
He shrugged one shoulder, unbothered. “A fair trade, if you ask me.”
“It wasn’t.”
He hummed, his eyes dragging over my face like he was reading every flicker of defiance. “That’s why I’m here.”
My stomach twisted. “What?”
Riley leaned in the smallest bit closer, enough to make heat crawl up my neck. “To see if you’d changed your mind.”
“I haven’t.”
He studied me. Really studied me. The intensity sharpened, not teasing this time but assessing, as if deciding something.
Then, with infuriating calm, he nodded once. “Alright.”
Relief fluttered through me, too temporary.
“But don’t worry,” he added, his voice dropping to a low, dangerous promise, “you will soon.”
My breath caught. “I won’t.”
His smirk was slow and devastating. “We’ll see.”
And then, finally, he shifted back. The mattress rose as he withdrew his knee, the sudden loss of his presence leaving myskin buzzing, as if the air had been electrified and he’d taken the current with him.
He stood, rolling his shoulders, then dragged his fingers across the edge of my dresser as he passed, claiming the room with the smallest, cockiest touch imaginable.
At the door, he glanced back over his shoulder, eyes gleaming with that infuriating self-assurance that made me want to throw something at his head.
“Night, princess.”
The door clicked shut behind him.
And I exhaled only when I realized I’d been holding my breath the entire time.
The silence after he left felt louder than his voice ever had.
I stared at the door for a long, trembling second, waiting for my lungs to remember how breathing worked. They didn’t. Not right away. My whole body felt wired, like every nerve had been tuned too tight.
“Stupid,” I whispered to myself. “Stupid, stupid.”
But it didn’t stop my hands from shaking.
Riley wasn’t dangerous in any real sense, not the kind that lurked in dark alleys or crept up behind you at night. He wasn’t going to hurt me.
