My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 117

Chapter 117

He leaned down, his lips hovering so close to mine I could feel the heat of his breath. “Your mouth says one thing, but your pulse is screaming something else entirely.”

He tilted his head, his dark eyes raking over my face with a taunting, arrogant smirk that made my blood boil and my knees shake at the same time.

“I’m going to figure it out,” he murmured, “And trust me, it’ll be a lot easier for you if you just admit it now. If we did have a night together, no one else has to know. That can be our little secret. But if I have to go looking for the truth myself?”

He let the words hang in the air, his gaze dropping back to my lips that made my heart slam against my ribs.

“I won’t be nearly as quiet about what I find. So, what’s it going to be?”

“If you’re so sure, then go ahead,” I challenged, “Because we have never even been in the same room, Raphael. Let alone me letting someone like you touch me before my mother married into this mess.”

For a long, heart-stopping moment, he didn’t move. He just stared at me, his gaze dropping to my lips one last time with a look of pure hunger that made my stomach flip.

God, please, don’t let him put the pieces together. Don’t let him see through the mask. If Raphael ever realized that the girl he’d watched put on a striptease for him was the same girl now living under his roof, he would destroy me. He’d use it like a weapon to strip away the tiny bit of dignity I had left. He would ruin my life, and he’d probably enjoy every second of watching me fall apart.

Suddenly, he reached out and captured my face, his fingers firm against my jaw as he tilted my head back. He forced me to look at him, pinning me with a stare. He leaned down, his eyes dropping to my mouth, and like a traitor, my lips parted for him.

“Have it your way, Gianna,” he rasped, the words vibrating against my skin, “I always find what I’m hunting for.”

He leaned closer, moving with a slowness, as if he were giving me every chance to shove him away. But the struggle never came. Instead, pulled by some dark, magnetic force I couldn’t fight, I found myself leaning in.

Our noses brushed. We were so close that I could feel the ghost of his lips against mine, the static electricity of the “almost” making my skin prickle and burn. I was drowning in his shadow, my eyes fluttering shut as I waited for the final fraction of an inch to disappear.

Jules crossed her arms over her cartoon-character pajama top, her eyes narrowing as she looked at us.

For a ten-year-old, she had the investigative instincts of a bloodhound.

“Why is he holding your face?”

My heart did a painful somersault, “We were just… discussing my internship. Business stuff.”

“In the garden? In the dark?” Jules took a step forward, her bare feet padding softly on the stone. She looked at Raphael, completely unintimidated by him, “Are you guys…” she trailed off, “Because if you are, Mom is going to freak out.”

I felt my face turn a shade of red that probably glowed in the dark. I looked at Raphael, praying he’d say something to fix this.