BROOKSOh my God.I felt like the ground should open up and swallow me whole.Then, Chia turned on her heel and started walking, heels clicking like a metronome of chaos.I didn’t wait. Didn’t think. I just excused myself from Zade’s side, muttering a barely audible “I’ll be right back,” and went after her.The hallway she turned to was quiet. Empty. The sound from the gala faded behind us until it was just the two of us in this long, cold stretch of marble and shadows.“Why are you doing this?” I asked, breathless. My voice came out small. Too small.Chia stopped, slowly turning around.She smiled. Not the friendly kind, given that she was never actually my friend. The kind that made your stomach twist. “Stop acting like you’re the victim, Brooks,” she said. “I am not the one fucking my stepbrother like a desperate little slut.”Saying it so bluntly, out loud was like a huge slap on the face. Chia crossed her arms, leaning a little to the side with that same smug look that made my
BROOKS“Heath,” I breathed.He was already too close, eyes dark, breath warm against my cheek. He didn’t touch me yet, but his voice sent a full-body shiver through me.“You look so fuckinh sexy in that gown,” he murmured. “Tried to keep my distance, but I’ve been watching you all night. You knew what you were doing when you put that on.”I swallowed hard. Of all the wrong timings.“This isn’t the time,” I said quickly, glancing toward the door. “There are people everywhere—”“I don’t care,” he cut in, his hand disappearing under the slit of my gown.His fingers found me.I sucked in a sharp breath.Wet.“Look at that,” he said, smirking. “All that attitude, and still ready for me.”“Heath,” I warned, weakly. But I didn’t stop him.He took that as permission.With one swift pull, he lifted me onto the marble counter, wedging himself between my legs. My dress bunched around my hips.“This’ll be fast,” he said, already undoing his belt. “So hold on.”And then— he slammed home. I screa
BROOKSIt was the night of the gala. I sat in the backseat of the sleek black car, clutching the tiny bedazzled purse in my lap. The built-in screen played the live feed of the gala’s red carpet. Stephan and Venita had just stepped out of their car, looking like royalty. They walked the carpet with practiced ease, the cameras loved them. A few minutes later, Heath and Zade followed in their own car. Even Zade, who claimed to hate attention, handled it like he’d done it a thousand times. Maybe he had. This is definitely not their first rodeo. They were royalty so this life was all they knew.Then the car stopped. My turn.My chest tightened. I took a deep breath and waited for the door to open.And when it did, all hell broke loose.Flashes. Screams. Questions flying from every direction.“Brooks! Over here!”“Who are you wearing?”“Give us a smile!”I blinked against the blinding lights, trying to smile, trying not to flinch. I barely made it one step before the security team mov
BROOKSShit!I could only imagine how this looked.My cheeks were flushed. My lips were swollen. I was clinging to the edge of the pool like I needed it to stay upright. And Heath—fucking Heath—looked like the picture of smug, wet sin.Shit. Shit. Shit.“Zade,” I managed, voice thin. “I—I didn’t hear you come in.”His eyes flicked between the two of us, a small frown creasing across his forehead. “Clearly.”The word landed flat and cold between us.“Well, well,” Heath, unbothered, turned with a grin. “If it isn’t my little brother.”He climbed out of the pool like it was a scene from a goddamn fantasy. Water slid down his chest in thick rivulets, clinging to every hard line of his body as he grabbed a towel from the lounger it landed on earlier.He draped it lazily over his shoulder, shaking his head once to sling droplets from his hair.Zade didn’t respond. Not really. He just stared at Heath. Quiet. Expression unreadable.Heath smirked at that, as if Zade’s silence was more amusin
BROOKSHis fingers started to move, pumping in and out of me with slow, slick thrusts that made the water around us ripple. Each stroke was calculated—deep, dragging, obscene. “Still pretending you don’t want this?” he growled, the edge in his voice darker now, hungrier. “You can lie to yourself all you want, Brooks. But this?” He thrust harder. I gasped sharply.“This cunt’s been telling me the truth from the start.”I bit down on a moan, hard. “Fuck you.”“Yeah?” He grinned. “That mouth’s getting real bold now, baby.”His other hand caught my jaw, turning my face toward his so he could see it all—every twitch, every flicker of heat in my eyes as he split me open on his fingers. “You gonna curse at me while you ride my hand like a desperate little slut? Huh?”I hated that I loved how it sounded. Because I was riding his fingers now, grinding down, rolling my hips in time with every thrust. The shame was there but it couldn’t compete with how good it felt. How right it felt in a
BROOKSI was restless.Emotionally drained.My body felt heavy with everything that went down the previous day; Zade snapping at me, Chia’s threats, the stress of the money situation. I haven’t even eaten properly all day.Nothing tasted right. Nothing felt right.The heat this evening didn’t help.It was one of those thick, breathless evenings. My room felt like a furnace, the AC barely making a dent. Or maybe it was just me, because of everything I was struggling with.I tried reading. Couldn’t get past the same paragraph.Tried sleeping. Tossed and turned until I gave up.I just… needed out.The mansion was quiet. Eerily so. As far as I knew, everyone had disappeared into their separate wings or were out for the weekend. The maids moved like ghosts in the halls. I barely even saw them.I threw on an oversized T-shirt over my black two-piece and padded barefoot down the hallway, through the back entrance and toward the pool.The moment I stepped outside, the cool night air brushed a