My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 240

Chapter 240

“Are you crazy?” I hissed, as I stepped closer to him, trying to hide our interaction with my body, “My mother is right there! Salvatore is right there! What is wrong with you?”

I scanned the windows and the garden, looking for any servants or guards who might have seen that. My face was burning hot.

“Don’t you ever do that again,” I warned, pointing a shaking finger at his chest. “You act like a normal person but here. You hear me? Never again.”

Raphael took a half-step forward, closing the small gap between us. He looked over my head, nodded politely to my mother, and raised a hand in a friendly wave.

“Of course,” he murmured, “I’ll be on my best behavior.”

Then, without even looking down, his hand moved. He slapped me again, even harder this time, the sound muffled only by the baggy denim of my jeans. I bit my tongue to keep from screaming, my eyes going wide as the sting bloomed across my skin again.

He pulled his hand back and adjusted his glasses with a perfectly calm expression.

“See?” he said, “I’m the picture of a gentleman.”

I stood there, frozen and trembling, the heat of his hand still burning through my clothes while my mother waved back at him from the table before she went back to talking to Salvatore.

“Raphael, stop,” I breathed, my eyes darting toward the table. My mother was now smiling at Salvatore, their hands still linked. I don’t know whose proximity was making my head spin, theirs or ours, “They’re right there. Please.”

“I like ‘please,'” he murmured. He reached out, and for a second, I thought he was going to straighten my collar like a gentleman. Instead, his hand drifted down, his fingers grazing the center of my chest.

I froze. The thin, white fabric of my t-shirt offered no protection. I could feel the heat of his palm through the cotton, and I knew exactly what he was seeing.

fingers, watching my reaction with a look of dark satisfaction, “And even if they were, I’d just tell them I was fixing a loose thread. I’m very good at fixing things, Gianna. You should know that by now.”

He finally released me, his hand sliding down to rest casually in his pocket as if nothing had happened. He adjusted his glasses, the sunlight glinting off the lenses, making him look innocent and studious again.

“Gianna? Raphael? Come sit, the coffee is still hot!”

My mother’s voice drifted over the terrace, but I could hear the hesitation underneath it. She didn’t look at me directly at first. She kept her eyes on her cup, her fingers trembling slightly as she held the porcelain.

I quickly crossed my arms over my chest to hide the way my body was still reacting to Raphael’s touch. I walked over with stiff legs, feeling Raphael’s presence right behind me.