My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 692

Chapter 692

He let out a humorless laugh.

“Do you think I don’t see what you’re doing?” His fingers flexed against my waist, “You tell me you love me… and in the same breath you ask to leave.”

He shook his head slowly.

“You think because I give you space… because I listen… because I don’t lock every damn door in this house… that I’ll just smile and watch you walk away?”

His jaw clenched until the muscle beneath his skin pulsed. His eyes became so dark they were almost impossible to read, and goosebumps rose across my skin at the sight of them.

“Tell me, Gianna,” his voice dropped even lower. “Is that what you think I am? Some weak bastard who’ll thank you for leaving him?”

He leaned closer until his words brushed against my ear.

“I’ve spent every day trying to build a life where no one could ever hurt you again. Making sure you’re happy, comfortable… that you never have to be afraid,” a bitter smile crossed his face, “And now you’re asking me to hand you over myself.”

His face became dark, almost unrecognizable.

“No. You’ve gotten far too comfortable testing me. You think loving you makes me weak? It doesn’t. It makes me fucking violent.”

His hand locked around my waist possessively.

“You think I’m Leone Caruso?” he spat the name, “You think I’m the kind of man who shrugs his shoulders and watches the woman he loves walk away? Then you don’t know me at all.”

His forehead rested briefly against the back of my head before he spoke again, quieter this time, but infinitely more frightening.

“Because once you’re mine, you don’t get to decide you’re not anymore. You can hate me for that if you want but you’re not walking away from me.”

My eyes stung with tears as I slowly turned my head, straining against his grip just to catch a glimpse of his face. I needed him to look at me, to see me through whatever fear had taken hold of him.

It wasn’t the fury burning in his dark eyes that unsettled me. It was the desperation beneath it.

The terror of losing me, buried so deep beneath his anger that he couldn’t even give it a name.

“Raph… You think I’m trying to leave you?”

He didn’t say anything else. He just kept breathing against the side of my head. Slowly, I reached down with one trembling hand and gently placed it over his where it was still holding tightly onto my waist. He didn’t pull away, but he didn’t relax either. His hand stayed tense beneath mine, every muscle tight as if he were still holding himself together.

“I asked to go to Philadelphia,” I whispered, my chest rising and falling fast against the dark mattress, “I never asked to leave you.”

His jaw flexed hard, a bitter, humorless sound leaving his throat, “Is there a difference?”

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Chapter 692

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“Yes,” I breathed out, fighting against the awkward angle of my body to keep my eyes on his face, “A huge one. You are my home, Raph. I don’t have another one.”

He acted as though he hadn’t heard a single word I’d said. He settled over the backs of my thighs again, keeping me pinned beneath him.

As I tried to speak, his free hand slowly traced the length of my spine, his warm palm gliding over the thin silk of – my nightdress.

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