My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 136

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Chapter 136

I felt my face heat up, a mix of shame and fury. “She was being kind. Something you wouldn’t know anything about.”

The truth was, I didn’t even know why I’d let Aileen get that close to me. I had never done anything with a woman in my life. But my brain was so fried, so broken from the lack of sleep and the constant Zaps of the TENS unit, that I had just clung to the first bit of softness offered to me in years.

Raphael let out a short, dry laugh that sounded more like a snarl. “Kind?” he hissed, and I could smell the dark expensive scent of him, and it made my stomach flip in a way I hated, “Is that what you want? Someone to hold your hand and tell you everything is okay just because you’re a little overworked? Are you really that weak?”

The word weak hit me harder than anything. It snapped something deep inside me that had been frayed and sparking for weeks. The exhaustion, the hunger, the throbbing in my knuckles, and the cold water in the sink, it all rushed to the surface at once.

“Weak?” I spat the word back at him, “You think I’m weak because I let someone be nice to me for five minutes?”

He clicked his tongue mockingly, “You want someone to be nice to you? Aw. Welcome to the real, fucking world, stepsister. You don’t get rewarded with kisses and praise for doing your job.”

Something hot and volatile surged up my spine.

“Grow up!” he added.

“I finished the work,” I snapped, stepping forward until there was barely any space left between us. “I did exactly what you asked, faster, cleaner, better than anyone else and you don’t even look at it because this-this is easier for you, isn’t it? Tearing me down instead of admitting I did something right.”

He finally moved his arms, uncrossing them slowly. He leaned down, his face so close to mine that I could see the dark, mocking swirl in his eyes.

“Is that what you told Aileen?” he whispered, “Did you tell her how hard you work while she was petting your hair? Did you tell her you needed someone to be ‘nice’ because big, bad Raphael is too mean to you?”