My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 54

Sister.

The word felt wrong in my mouth. I didn't see a sister when I looked at her. I saw a puzzle. I saw a wall that refused to fall.

For years, my life had been a straight line of easy wins. Every woman I wanted eventually fell into place. Every man I dealt with eventually folded. The world was a well-oiled machine that gave me exactly what I asked for, and it was rotting my brain. I was bored. I was so goddamn bored of people saying yes before I even finished the sentence.

But Gianna?

Gianna was a glitch. She looked at me and saw someone she could spit at.

A dark, hungry itch started under my skin.

All I saw was the first real challenge I’d had in a decade. I wanted to see what it would take to make her look at me without that fire in her eyes.

She had walked straight into the sight of the most bored hunter in the city.

──━⊰ 𓆙 ⊱━──

The car door shut with a dull thud behind me.

I leaned one hand on the roof for a second, waiting for the ground to stop shifting under my feet. The driver stood quietly by the front gate, pretending not to notice.

Good man.

“Get some sleep, sir,” he said before climbing back into the car.

The engine rolled away down the driveway, leaving the estate quiet again.

It was five in the morning.

Whiskey. Too much of it. The party had stretched longer than it should have, and every glass after the fourth had stopped tasting like anything at all.

I rubbed a hand over my face and pushed the front door open. Carefully. Very carefully. If Claire heard me stumbling in at this hour, there would be questions. And Claire asked questions the way prosecutors built cases.

I slipped inside, easing the door shut behind me without letting the lock click too loud. The foyer lights were dim, the house half-asleep.

I loosened my collar slightly, trying to breathe and then I stopped.

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