apter 49
KASMINE
The night had turned against me.
The moment my eyes met Kester’s through that window, everything inside me turned to ice.
His dead, hollow eyes bare into me, stripping me bare. His expression had been deathly still, like a ghost. Like a nightmare made real.
Then, in the next breath, he was gone.
I had stopped immediately, my heart slamming against my ribs, my body cold despite the heat of Jake’s hands tangling in my hair, guiding me forward, completely unaware of what I had just seen.
And the fact that I didn’t even know if it was just my imagination or if it was even real added to my panic.
I didn’t give Jake the expected release he might have looked forward to. I had taken him high up to the sky and let him fall to the ground just like that. But, typical Jake… He was not even offended. Not even a flicker of frustration crossed his face when I pulled away, when I all but collapsed back onto the bed, shaking when I gave him something I’d consider half a release. Instead, he was grateful I even offered to help him.
I dreaded returning home.
If that was Kester I had seen there, then it was better I killed myself than let him kill me himself because he’d
tely kill me. I made Jake lock all the doors in his house and made him promise me he wouldn’t answer the door If anyone came knocking.
I hadn’t gone out with any of the cars at home. I went in a taxi. The same way I returned. I made the taxi drop me off a few blocks away while I walked down to the house. I didn’t want to attract attention from Kester if he wasn’t the one at Jake’s place after all.
The closer I got to the house, the more the dread curled around my ribs, squeezing. My palms were slick, my throat dry.
I knocked gently on the gate, and the guard opened it without asking questions.
The atmosphere inside the house was too still.
I closed the front door behind me as quietly as I could, barely daring to breathe. My heart hammered so violently that I swore it would give me away.
Please, let him be asleep.
The whole place was dark, save for the dimly lit sleeping lights that were on. I slowly stepped toward the stairs, resisting the urge to bolt up them two at a time. My legs felt weak–like they might give out at any moment–but I forced myself forward.
By the time I reached the top, my chest was so tight I could barely pull in the air.
Kester’s door stood just a few feet away.
1 hesitated
My fingers curled into fists at my sides as I leaned in, pressing my ear against the wood.
Nothing.
No sound. No movement.
+25 BONUS
Chapter 49
The silence should have comforted me, but instead, it sent fresh wave of unease through me.
‘He’s asleep,‘ I told myself. Or maybe… maybe he wasn’t even at Jake’s place to begin with. Perhaps I really did imagine it.
I straightened, swallowing against the tightness in my throat. ‘Just get to your room. Lock the door. Don’t think Just sleep.‘ I kept chanting to myself.
The hallway was empty, but it felt as if eyes were crawling over me.
I walked on numb legs to my bedroom dont, my fingers shaking as I turned the knob and slipped inside.
The darkness swallowed me.
1 exhaled quietly, pressing my back against the door for just a second before turning to lock it. My skin prickled, my instincts screaming at me that something was off, but Ignored it.
I needed to breathe. I needed to calm down.
But the moment I turned around-
The lights flickered on.
And I almost died.
A sharp, startled gasp ripped from my throat as I stumbled back against the door, my entire body locking up in pure, paralyzing terror.
Because there, sitting in the chair by my window, was the one person I had prayed not to see tonight.
Kester.
My stomach plummeted.
He sat with one leg crossed over the other, his hands folded neatly in his lap.
He didn’t move. He didn’t blink. His intense eyes were fixed on me, unreadable, gleaming under the glow of the bedside light he just switched on.
My breath came in quick, shallow bursts. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even think.
I wanted to run, but my body wouldn’t obey.
“I
“Kes…” I whispered with trembling lips.
He smirked, sending a deathly chill down my spine.
He tilted his head slightly, studying me like I was something fragile. Like something he was deciding what to do with before he finally spoke. “Welcome home, Kasmine.”
Chapter 56
Chapter 50.
KESTER.
I had lost my mind completely. The first moment I saw her
1 should’ve left. Turned away. But my feet wouldn’t move. couldn’t. I was paralyzed by the sight of her–her mouth, so fucking cager, swallowing him whole like it was nothing
She was, giving herself to that fucking asshole; her eyes closed, totally lost in it. And I just stood there, watching Helpless. So fucking helpless.
My heart slammed against my ribs, but it wasn’t anger that hit me first. It was hurt. A raw, gut–wrenching pain, something that ripped through me, shattering whatever fudding control I thought I had left.
I could feel the anger rising, boiling under my skin, the sickening burn of jealousy twisting my insides into knots.
I wanted to break something. Anything But most of all, I wanted to break her–to make her see that she couldn’t do this. Not with him. Not with anyone.
Seeing her frozen in place as she saw me only fueled my anger. I didn’t want to hurt her…. I didn’t want to. I had to keep my twitching fingers in place.
“Cat got your tongue?” I asked in all the calmness I could muster before standing up, “Hmm?” I took slow strides toward her, making sure she felt every ounce of the stormy anger brewing inside of me.
She wanted to step back, but she hit the wall behind her. If she thought for one second that I was going to hit her or do anything harmful to her, then she was mistaken.
She was shaking.
The closer I got, the more I saw the slight tremble in her hands. Her pupils were blown wide, panic spreading like cracks through the ice, but she didn’t move. Couldn’t move.
Good
She was scared.
I liked that
Because I wanted her to be. Fuck, yes. Because it meant something. Because it meant she understood–finally fucking understood that what she had done wasn’t something I could forgive.
That I was never going to let it go.
Texhaled slowly, willing the storm inside me to settle. The fury, the jealousy, the raw fucking ache of seeing her with him it had dragged me so deep into the dark that I wasn’t sure I could crawl back out.
1 lifted my hand.
She flinched, and it stopped me for a second.
I had never hurt her before… Would never hurt her.
But her body thought I would.
Her mind flooded with guilt, thought I would.
1 brushed my fingers against her cheek. Soft. Gentle. The way a lover might
+25 BONUS
Chapter 50
She was burning up
A fever of fear and guilt. I could feel her pulse hammering under my fingertips, her skin so fucking hot it felt like she might combust from my touch alone.
I leaned in, just a fraction, so that she could hear the quiet, deathly control in my voice.
“Go into the bathroom.” I paused, letting my thumb drag lazily across her cheek, my voice lower, quieter, so she had no choice but to listen. “Brush. Bathe. Freshen up.
She wasn’t breathing
I smirked at that.
“And
I wasn’t even touching her anymore, but she was frozen. I leaned even closer, my lips so close to her ear, when you’re done…” I murmured, “Lay down. And don’t even think about closing that door before you sleep.”
KASMINE.
I was terrified to death. Kester issued the instructions and walked away without another word.
What was he planning?
I reached for our secret phone and ran into the bathroom, calling Jake for the tenth time after Kester left my room but he was still not answering the call.
My hands were shaking so badly I could barely grip the phone. My breathing was all over the place. I was dying Had Kester harmed him already? I hope not. Otherwise, I won’t forgive myself for it.
I tried dialing one more time, pressing the phone so tight against my ear I could hear my own pulse thrumming through my skull. Nothing
I heard my door open with a force that made my phone fall from my hands. I panicked, picking it up immediately. I looked for the best possible place to hide it, but there was none.
“Kasmine?” Kester called. His voice was calm. Too calm. The kind of calm that chilled me to the bone. He was walking toward the bathroom as if he knew I was there.
Sometimes, I was tempted to think that Kester was watching me through some magic means or something… He always seemed to know what I was doing or where I was at.
I looked around frantically, searching for somewhere–anywhere–to hide the phone. Under the sink? No, it’s too open. We cabinet? Too obvious. The fucking bathtub? No time.
The footsteps were getting closer.
Shit
I only had one option.
Fingers fumbling, 1 yanked at the knot in my towel, unraveling it in a desperate motion. The phone disappeared into the thick folds of fabric, and without thinking, I tossed it behind the door just in time-
The door burst open.
And I was standing there.
+25 BONUS
Chapter 50
Naked.
For a split second, everything went still.
Kester’s eyes landed on me. His gaze dragged down my body, slow, dark, lustful. A muscle ticked in his jaw.
He stepped forward.
I stepped back.
My back hit the cold tiles, the shock of it making me shudder. His expression didn’t change.
He kept coming.
I swallowed hard, attempting to press my arms against myself in a weak attempt to cover up, but it was useless.
“Kester “My heartbeats collided with a crash. His presence was beginning to burn.
I never felt more exposed in all my life. No man had ever seen me naked. Let alone my brother.
A shiver ran down my spine–not from the cold, but from the way his green eyes darkened further, his gaze dragging over me in slow sweeps. My stomach twisted. My skin prickled under his stare, every inch of me hyperaware of him, of his presence, of the way he stood so still yet commanded every bit of space between us.
My arms twitched again in a desperate urge to cover myself–but I stopped. Because the second I moved, his eyes flicked up to mine.
Daring me.
“Don’t you dare…” He counted his words, and I swear I could hardly recognize his voice. “Come.” He said simply and left the bathroom. 1 hesitated but followed him into the room.
As soon as we were in, he reached for my wrist and grabbed me gently, pulling me toward the bed. His touch was too gentle. Where had all the anger gone? Wasn’t he meant to scold me or possibly kill me by now?
My feet moved anyway, following him like I had no will of my own.
The moment we reached the bed, he released my wrist and looked at me–really looked at me like he was drinking me in.
“Kester…” I whispered, but my voice barely made a sound.
His jaw clenched. One would think he was angry, but he wasn’t angry. No, this was something else. Something darker. Far more dangerous than anger. It was an intent, and it terrified me.
He gave me the slightest nudge, and I understood but hesitated.
“Now, Kasmine.” He commanded. His hands–still unbearably gentle–pressed against my shoulders, guiding me back until my bare skin met the sheets. My body stiffened.
I moved to cover myself, my hand instinctively crossing over my chest and the other placed above my center. Beneath his sweats was a thickness that againwas impossible to ignore, even to the blind.
His head tilted, his expression darkening as his gaze pinned me in place. “Don’t you dare,” he warned again.
I swallowed hard.
I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move.
And then he took a step back. His intense, predatory eyes scanned every inch of exposed skin. There was
Chapter 50
+25 BONUS
something almost reverent about the way he watched me as if he were memorizing every detail, branding, me into
his mind.
Kester didn’t speak. He didn’t have to. The way he dragged his fingers down his bare stomach to the waistband of his sweats said enough.
His broad shoulders, solid like stone, flexed as his muscular arms with long, visible veins subtly pushed down his pants.
And I stopped breathing.
His erection sprang free, thick, hard, already straining as if he had been holding himself back for too long. His strong thighs, which were built for control, stood firmly rooted to the ground.
A choked sound left my throat as I sat up, my entire body trembling.
“Kester…” I whispered, “What… What are you doing?” I asked breathlessly when the reality began to dawn on me.
He smirked, and for a moment, I didn’t recognize the man standing before me.
I shifted
out of Sperately backward, even though I was going deeper into the same space I knew I should be running
out of, but it was the only possible way away from him I could go for now… “Kester?”
“Tonight, I will finally make you mine, Kasmine. I hope you have what it takes to bear it.”
Today’s Bonus Offer
