My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 376

Chapter 376

Her fingers tightened slightly around the tablet, “I wasn’t planning to,” she whispered.

“I know.”

But I couldn’t trust her, the urges didn’t ask permission first, “You spent years training yourself to reach for pain every time your brain got overloaded.” I watched her carefully. “That doesn’t disappear overnight just because somebody finally helped you for once.”

Her eyes immediately flicked up to mine after that. The sadness in them hit harder than I expected.

I exhaled slowly through my nose, “Mess,” I murmured quieter now, “you told me yourself that sometimes you don’t even realize what you’re doing until afterward. Until the blood is already there.”

She gave a tiny, almost invisible nod, her lower lip trembling.

“I’m not taking your control away from you,” I said softly. “I’m trying to help protect you while your brain learns different, better habits. That’s it.”

Her chin trembled slightly at that, “So what?” she whispered weakly. “You’re just gonna confiscate sharp objects from me forever?”

Despite myself, the corner of my mouth twitched slightly.

“No.” I tilted my head. “You’d probably start throwing forks at people.”

A startled laugh escaped her before she could stop it.

“When you’re in a better place…. mentally,” I said quietly, “you can have them back.”

Her eyes searched my face carefully then, probably looking for judgment. She wouldn’t find any of it because the truth was-I didn’t look at Gianna and see weakness.

My hand moved before I could think better of it. I brushed one loose strand of hair carefully back behind her ear.

“You trusted me enough to tell me the truth,” I murmured, “So trust me enough to help with this too.”

Her breath caught softly. And after a long moment, Gianna nodded again and leaned into my hand, giving me that look again.

I didn’t understand it. I wanted to.

I had spent my entire life learning how to read people. I knew what a man looked like right before he pulled a trigger. I knew the exact look of raw terror in an enemy’s eyes when I gripped their throat. I knew what greed looked like, what submission looked like, and I certainly knew the heavy, dirty look of lust when a woman wanted me in her bed. Those were simple things. Those were things I could use, things I could control.

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