My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 384

Chapter 384

“I didn’t mean it in a bad way, Gianna,” he said softly.

I didn’t answer. I just narrowed my eyes, glaring at him through my eyelashes with all the anger I had been holding onto since this afternoon.

“I wasn’t trying to say you’re crazy,” he murmured, “I wasn’t implying you need to be fixed, or that there’s something wrong with your brain.”

Slowly, his heavy palm shifted. He released my ankle, and the rough skin of his hand began to slide slowly up my bare calf, sending a wild, electric shiver straight up my spine. He moved with slowness, his touch warm agains my cool skin. His hand traveled up past my knee, sliding higher and higher up my thigh until his large fingers slipped right under the hem of my loose sleeping shorts.

He kept moving until the tips of his fingers pressed gently against the raised, ruined skin on the inside of my upper thigh and I sucked in a sharp breath.

He stopped there, his thumb sweeping back and forth over the tiny scars with a lightness that made my breath catch flat in my throat.

“I suggested it for this,” he whispered, his face softening as he looked down at his own hand on my skin. He looked up, “It is completely normal to feel overwhelmed, Gianna. And I know I can’t just stand here like a dictator and tell you to stop doing this to yourself, because it doesn’t work that way. You can’t just switch it off.”

He paused, his jaw clenching and unclenching as if the words inside his mouth were heavy stones he was hesitant and reluctant to spit out. He looked so uncomfortable, so completely out of his element, that I found myself holding my breath.

“You look at me every day,” he began, his voice uncharacteristically quiet, “And I know what you see, Gianna. You think I am perfect at everything I do. You think I have every single piece of my life figured out, that I built this empire and this whole house without ever stumbling.”

He let out a short, dry chuckle that had absolutely no humor in it. Slowly, his thumb resumed its gentle path, caressing my scars with a touch so soft it made my skin tingle.

“But I’m not,” he murmured, looking up to lock his serious eyes back onto mine, “Ever since I was a boy, I’ve had this… difficulty. I cannot put what I am feeling into words. My brain… it doesn’t work that way.”