เข้าสู่ระบบSome secrets are kept in the dark. Others are screamed into the pillow. Aubrey "Yuna" Vance is a girl living a double life. To the students at Dam’s College, she’s the quiet, studious wallflower. But behind the closed doors of her mother’s new mansion, she is a voyeur, haunted by the rhythmic sounds of her stepfather’s bedroom and the shadow of a stepbrother who knows her every shameful habit. Jake Thomas is the billionaire athlete-turned-coach who built an empire on discipline. He’s the man who saved Aubrey’s mother from poverty, but to Aubrey, he is a walking temptation, a "hunk of a man" whose every glance feels like an intrusion. Then there is Drake, Thomas’s son. A popular biker with a cruel streak and a mountain of blackmail. He’s caught Aubrey at her weakest, and his price for silence is her total submission. When the school’s golden boy, Brendan, enters the fray with a public declaration of love, the fragile peace in the Thomas household shatters. Aubrey is no longer just watching; she’s being hunted. Between a stepfather who hides a mistress and a dark desire for his stepdaughter, and a stepbrother who wants to claim her out of pure spite or the sweet golden boy Brendan in which the world will be very much willing to accept but Aubrey is drowning in a sea of forbidden heat. In a house where the walls are thin and the secrets are thick, Aubrey must decide: Will she play the "good girl" for the world, or will she surrender to the noiseless dreams that keep her wet and awake at night?
ดูเพิ่มเติมCHAPTER ONE
The sound usually started at midnight.
A dull, rhythmic thud of a headboard hitting the drywall. It was a heavy sound, expensive and private, yet it bled through the hallway of the new house. I found myself at their door again, the cold floor biting into my knees. I leaned in, my eye pressed to the keyhole until the metal rim left a dent in my skin.
Inside, the room was a blur of tangled sheets and shadows. My mother’s back was arched, her fingers digging into the shoulders of the man pinning her down.
"Yes, Jake! Harder... God, Jake!"
Jake Thomas didn’t say much. He just moved. He was a mountain of a man, his back a map of shifting muscle that caught the dim light every time he lunged forward. I watched the way his hands—large, scarred from years of coaching bikers—gripped her waist like he was trying to snap her in two.
"You’re going to disturb the kids," he muttered, his voice a low vibration I could feel in my own chest. He didn't slow down. If anything, he hit harder, his eyes fixed on the door as if he knew exactly who was shivering on the other side of the wood.
I pulled back, my breath coming in short, shallow stabs. My hand was already down my shorts, my skin hot and damp. I couldn't help it. Every time he looked at me at the dinner table, or the way he filled a doorway just by standing in it, it all fed into this. He was a biker coach, a billionaire, a man who took up too much space.
And right now, he was taking up all the space in my head.
"What are you doing there?"
The voice was a low crawl. I jerked back, my heart slamming against my teeth.
Drake.
He was leaning against the opposite wall, his hands buried in his pockets. He looked exactly like his father tall, built, and entirely too handsome for his own good. But where Jake was steady, Drake was a live wire. Mischievous. Mean.
"I... uh..." I scrambled to my feet, my hand flying to the back of my neck to hide the heat I knew was staining my skin.
Drake didn't ask again. He just stepped forward, his boots silent on the carpet. He nudged me aside with his shoulder and bent down, taking my place at the keyhole. A slow, ugly smirk spread across his face as he watched his father work.
"You're watching," he whispered, his eyes crinkling at the corners.
I lunged forward, slamming my hand over his mouth before he could say another word. I didn't think; I just grabbed his arm and hauled him down the hall toward the living room, my skin prickling with the fear that the bedroom door would swing open.
He snatched his arm away once we reached the dark living room. "Care to explain that?" He crossed his arms, looking me up and down like I was a puzzle he’d already solved.
Drake was an asshole. There was no other word for it. From the moment my mom married into this family, he’d made it his mission to keep me under his thumb. He was the king of the school, the biker everyone wanted to be or be with. And he knew it.
"Stay out of it," I hissed.
"Why should I? I think I’ll go back in there and tell them." He turned, as if he were actually going to do it.
"You wouldn't."
"Try me." He paused, looking back at me. "Unless you do my bidding this weekend. My bike needs a tune-up, and I’ve got errands. You’re my shadow for the next forty-eight hours."
I clenched my jaw so hard it ached. This was his game. Catch me in a corner, then bleed me dry. "I'm not doing it, Drake. Go ahead. Tell them. Tell them I was watching them make us a sibling."
The words flew out before I could stop them. I was shaking, the adrenaline making my vision blur.
Drake stared at me. The smug look faded, replaced by something heavier. He stepped into my space, his chest nearly brushing mine. "Why?" he asked, his voice dropping. His hands found the small of my back, a touch that felt more like a brand than a caress.
"What are you doing?" I whispered, my knees going soft.
"Didn't you get wet watching them?" He leaned in, his lips inches from my ear. "We could help ourselves, Aubrey. No one has to know."
I shoved him back, my skin crawling with a mix of revulsion and a heat I didn't want to admit to. "You're sick. Just stay away from me."
"Why?" he teased, that smirk returning. "It's just an expensive joke, right?"
I didn't answer. I turned and bolted for my room, slamming the door and twisting the lock. I threw myself onto the bed, burying my face in the pillow to drown out the sounds still echoing from down the hall.
My heart wouldn't slow down. My legs were heavy, the friction of my jeans against my skin feeling like a dare. I reached into my bra, my fingers shaking as I squeezed, trying to replace the image of Jake with anything else. But it was no use.
The room felt smaller. Darker.
Suddenly, I felt a weight on the mattress. Hands—rough, veiny, and solid—hit my waist, arching me up. I felt a tongue, hot and insistent, tracing the dip of my navel. I sucked in a breath, my eyes flying open to the moonlit room.
It was him.
He didn't say a word. He just moved with that same brutal precision I’d seen through the keyhole.
His veiny hairy hands were aching me up, his hair, not long but they were brushing against the skin of my stomach that I stuttered, shaking, gasping, my legs suddenly wrapped around his neck, his long tongue ferreting into my empress that kept crying to be attended to.
It did, he was licking, sucking. My hands could barely grip the pleasure out of my breast when the center of pleasure have rendered every other part of my body useless.
"Ahhh..."
"Ahhhh..."
This is what..."Ahhh..."
"Fuck..." I hissed out and then, he loomed over me. His hair was a mess, his eyes dark pits of mischief and hunger. He looked down at me, his lashes casting long shadows on his cheeks.
My heart beat changed again..
"Did you get wet seeing me fuck your mother?"
The hall was filled long before the ceremony began.Rows of black gowns and square caps stretched across the auditorium like a quiet sea, restless with anticipation. Parents leaned forward in their seats, cameras ready. Professors whispered among themselves. The air carried that unmistakable mixture of pride, relief, and the trembling uncertainty that comes with the end of one life chapter and the beginning of another.At the front of the hall, beneath the golden seal of the university, sat the graduating class.Among them I sat, Aubrey Yuna scribbled on my gown.I sat still, hands folded in my lap, my fingers lightly touching the small silver cross that hung around my neck. The metal had warmed against my skin over the past few years, worn smooth by quiet prayers, late night tears, and long moments when I wondered how a life that once felt so irredeemably ruined could still be standing here.It’s been four years.Four years since the
He stood awestruck, his leg pinned to the ground. I knew his mind was riling, a stockpile of many questions he needed answers to.Have you forgiven me for ruining your life? Can you forgive me for ignoring you for four score seasons? Can you forgive me for abandoning you? Can an old man like me deserve a chance at love for once in his life? How do I convince you that it wasn’t all about a dead Evelyn but was you all along?I could feel the questions thumping loudly as my chest clasped against his. I couldn’t bear it anymore. The piled up nostalgia, deep longing and desperation peeling away. Then the tears that wouldn’t keep still tore through my eyes parting the sea of heavy makeup I had on.Then a wave of electric shock tore through my spine as I felt his hands on the small of my back. He held on too tight that I had to fight for my breath but he was all the breath I needed, the oxygen I thought I could thrive on. I stepped
"Because he’s tired, Aubrey. Tired of being 'noble'. Tired of pretending that saving the world makes up for losing the only person who actually knows him."Drake finally held out the notebook. "He wrote this for you. Over the last four years. He told me to give it to you after you graduated, but... I’ve always been bad at following his rules."I took the notebook, my fingers brushing the cool leather. It smelled like him."I realised Aubrey, I wasn't in love with you, I always wanted to tell you these past four years...I just loved the idea that you always looked at me and I didn't want you looking at someone else the way you looked at me."He continued, "Or maybe I thought it was me." He laughed, "I deluded myself into thinking it should always be me." He said smiling while I smiled too looking at the notebook in my hand. "I don't mind you becoming my stepmother...I won't mind...Jake deserves to be happy. He deserves
Years passed by so fast that I'm finally graduating from school with my friends Seraphina and Gina."Help me cut my hair," I said as I settled into the salon chair. My long, dark tresses spilled over the back of the seat."All of it?" the stylist asked, her eyes widening."All of it. Short. I want to change my looks, to see a different side of myself," I replied."As you wish..."As the scissors made the first sharp snip, I closed my eyes. It had been four years since the day the world exploded. Four years since Cynthia was sentenced to life without parole, and Vance was dragged back into the shadows of a high-security cell. Four years since I watched the headlines shift from my scandal to my survival. Four years since I've tried to reach Jake but no reply. But I hear his scores, he had started a movement of helping every victim of Cynthia's. I occasionally see him on the news struggling to redeem himself, that I can't help but smile so
He didn't even say anything after that but he got into the car and drove off. And I stood there, hanging...The taillights of Jake’s car bled into the darkness, two red stabs of light that eventually flickered and vanished around the bend. I stood in the middle of
"Things that don't concern me?" I asked, a sharp, disbelieving laugh escaping my throat. I couldn't believe those words were actually coming out of her mouth. "You still think this is about you or your plans, Mother? You still think I’m just a prop in your play?""Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you,
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY THREEThe moon was high when I finally stirred, the room swallowed by the deep, heavy stillness of late night. The air felt cooler now, a sharp contrast to the heat of the morning. I shifted slowly, my movements sluggish from a deep sleep, and turned toward the other s
"Don't try to make it look any less sick than it is!" I snapped, pulling my hand away. "You saw her when you saw me. That is the only reason you were attracted to me in the first place. You think saying 'I see Yuna now' makes the years of stalking and manipulation go away?""It doesn't," he whisper
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