My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 236

Chapter 236

“No,” I said.

“Well…” she looked away, “I just think that once you love someone, you love them for life. There’s no second chance. If you think you’ve fallen for someone else, it just means you never really loved the first person to begin with.”

I stared at her. That kind of talk-that “one true love” bullshit-it sounded like something out of a book I’d never bother to read. But the way she said it, with that hollow look in her eyes, made it feel like a death sentence.

“That’s a pretty way to stay a prisoner, Gianna,” I said. I didn’t like the way she talked about him. I didn’t like the ghost of some pathetic piece of shit sitting in my bedroom, taking up space in her head.

I reached out again, more forceful this time. I grabbed her waist and hauled her back on my lap, forcing her to look at me. I didn’t care if I was being rough. I wanted her back in the present. I wanted her back with me.

“So what? You’re just done? One guy breaks your heart when you’re a kid and you decide to shut the lights out for good?” I leaned in, my breath hot against the skin of her neck. “That’s a waste of a life. And a waste of a woman who moves like you do.”

She let out a sharp breath, her hands resting tentatively on my shoulders, “It’s not about shutting the lights out, Raphael. It’s about being honest in love. Most people just play pretend. They move from one person to the next to fill the hole. I’m just… not interested in the act.”

“I don’t know shit about love,” I tracked a stray hair away from her face, my thumb dragging across her bottom lip. “But I don’t play pretend. I don’t do ‘romantic.’ I don’t do ‘forever.’ But I’m sitting here, and you’re sitting here, and the way you just took me apart that was… real.”

“Especially not in my bed. Or I’m going to make sure that by the time you leave this room, he’s the last thing on your fucking mind.”

She looked down at my hand on her leg, then back at my face. She didn’t pull away this time. Instead, she leaned in, her messy hair falling like a dark curtain between us.

“You talk a big game for a man who was just choking on my fingers,” she whispered, a smirk playing on her swollen lips.

I felt a jolt of heat hit me again, hard and fast. I gripped her hip tighter, my thumb digging into the bone.

“Yeah, and I’d do it again,” I hissed, “But don’t get it twisted, stepsister. I let you take that. I let you see what happens when I decide to stop being the boss. Don’t mistake my mercy for a weakness.”