SHOULDN’T WANT THIS

MELANIE

Shit.

He shouldn’t be here. He shouldn’t see me like this. The last time this happened, we…

I tear my gaze away from him as heat floods my cheek. My eyes search the floor for my clothes.

“I’m sorry,” I begin to stutter. “I shouldn’t have undressed so quickly. I had no idea you were coming…”

“Stop.”

That tone. He’s closer now than before.

When I raise my head, Valentin is standing merely inches away from me, his left hand gripping the chest aid box…tight.

I hold my bloody sweater over my body, clutching it firmly to my chest with hopes that it does well to cover my breast and my tummy.

My stretch marks, my bruises from Brandon’s beatings, my million and one imperfections, I want to keep them away from his perfect gaze.

Val’s eyes darken on my neck as he reaches for me, taking a fistful of my sweater. I try to pull it back, away from him, but he doesn’t let it go.

“What are you doing?”

He doesn’t respond.

Val cocks his head to the right, dark green eyes sweeping over my naked body. He pulls his hand back.

“This won’t do.”

“Wait. What are you—?”

Next thing I know, he sweeps me up from the ground, carrying me in his arms.

I lock my fingers around his neck to stop myself from falling. It’s only a matter of seconds until he drops me.

My chest tightens. I close my eyes and wait.

Wait for the snide comments, the moment he tells me I’ve lost myself and need to lose some weight, tells me I need to eat more vegetables.

It never comes.

He gently closes the door of his room, heading down the corridor.

“What are you doing?” If I had a dime for every time I asked that question, I’ll be rich as fuck by now.

With him, you can never tell what’s going on in his mind.

“Where are you taking me?”

My voice comes out softer than I intend. I want to bark at him, protect myself from his cutting words before they come.

“You don’t want your daughter to wake up and find you like this, do you?”

I don’t have a reply to that.

Until tonight, I had done a good job of hiding my pain and scars from my daughter. She was better that way.

He takes me into his office and manages to close the door behind us. He still doesn’t let me go until he reaches his office table.

He places my feet on the ground carefully. I feel him tense behind me, feel the rage that seeps through the pores of his skin.

Val’s fingers graze the hook of my bra, and I shudder from the warmth of his touch.

“You’re home. You’re safe.” He leans into me, whispering in my right ear.

I push down the lump in my throat.

“No one’s going to hurt you,” his words drop like soft feathers all over my body, his fingers trace the skin of my back, examining the injury.

It goes all the way down to the curve of my ass.

“He did this with a belt.”

Question or observation? I can’t tell which, but I nod regardless.

Valentin Alistair drops to his knees behind me.

I stifle a gasp.

He never ever dropped to his knees for anyone. Yet, here he is.

His fingers curl around the waistband of my panties. He pulls them down, sending shivers down my legs with every inch he touches.

I bite my lip to stifle a moan.

This isn’t right. This is a bad idea.

“You really don’t have to do this. I can clean it up myself. I always do, and it’s not really…ouch.”

I groan in pain when the spirit laced cotton wool touches my open wound.

Val works in silence. He doesn’t ask me any questions, and for that, I am extremely grateful.

But the way his hands move on my body, the precision, the gentleness, the care, it makes me so fucking needy.

I haven’t been touched like this in so long, I could barely remember what it felt like, until now.

But we can’t, and he knows it.

He’s my stepbrother. We all made that mistake before, but we know better now.

It’s a good thing Cassian and Xavier aren’t here. If they were…

I need to control myself.

I do a good job of holding myself together, until Val murmurs against my skin.

“How could you let him do this to you?”

That broken, torn, and enraged question claws into my chest, digging every buried emotion; all the rage, anger, and pain I had carefully tucked away, to the surface.

I can’t do it anymore.

Tears rush down my eyelids, soaking my cheeks.

I don’t know. I really don’t know what I was thinking…all those years…why did I never stand up for myself? Why did I let things get this far?

“I don’t know. I…I…I don’t…”

“Hey,” Val calls out to me.

He’s on his feet now. He spins me around slowly, looking down at my teary eyes.

His large hands cup both sides of my face, and his thumbs slowly brush my tears away.

“We’re never letting you out of our sight again.”

Fuck. I want to kiss him so bad.

I shouldn’t do this. I shouldn’t feel all these filthy emotions clawing through me.

He’s still my stepbrother. We’re still… family.

It’s wrong. It’s awful. It’s…

Fuck it.

I lean in, rising onto my tiptoes, and crush my lips against his.

Oh my god.

His soft lips part instantly, welcoming me like he’s been dying for it too.

He kisses me back with raw, possessive hunger—deeper, wetter, he’s claiming my mouth as his.

I wrap my arms around his neck, pulling him down harder as I press my whole body into him.

A needy little moan slips out, but he swallows it greedily, his tongue thrusting between my parted lips.

Fuck, he tastes so good.

My pussy throbs hard between my thighs, already slick and aching just from this kiss.

His big hands are everywhere.

One slides down my back and grips my ass, squeezing the soft flesh possessively as he yanks me tighter against him.

I feel how hard he is—his big and thick cock straining against my stomach.

The other hand cups the back of my head, fingers tangling in my hair, holding me exactly where he wants me while his tongue fucks my mouth in slow, filthy strokes.

God, yes.

Just like that.

I suck on his tongue shamelessly, grinding against his hardness like a desperate slut.

Heat floods my core, my panties soaked through as filthy thoughts spiral out of control.

I shouldn’t want my stepbrother’s cock this badly… but I do.

I want him to turn me around and

fuck me until I’m dripping with his cum.

He groans into the kiss, the sound vibrating through me, and his hand on my ass slides lower, fingers digging between my thighs from behind, teasing right against my soaked cunt without pushing further.

I whimper, kissing him harder. Our tongues slide over each other, lips sucking, spit making everything slick and filthy, and so delicious.

My nipples are tight, needy pebbles rubbing against his chest, and every roll of his hips makes me wetter, needier, aching to be filled.

I never want this kiss to end.

I need more. I want more. I want…

“Well, well, well,”

The voice from the door stops the kiss cold.

“I don’t know about you, Cassian, but when I imagined our family reunion, it was nothing like this.”

Fuck.

I pull away from Valentin, swallowing the lump in my throat.

My heart pounds against my chest like a freaking drum, loud enough to deafen me.

Even as my gaze slowly travels to the door, I hope to God that I’m wrong. I pray, really pray, that the voice I just heard doesn’t belong to the person I know it belongs to.

It does.

Cassian and Xavier Alistair lean on two separate ends of the door, arms folded across their broad chests.

Cassian’s lips curve into a grin.

“It’s good to see you again, sister.”