LOGINSome 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?
View MoreCHAPTER 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?"
"Alright." I replied smiling as he stepped away from me.Brendan rolled up the sleeves of his gray sweatshirt, revealing the lean muscles of his forearms as he headed toward the oversized professional-grade range. He looked at home here completely unburdened by the shadow of a patriarch or the weight of a legacy. He pulled a heavy cast-iron griddle from a bottom cabinet and set it over the flame with a satisfying clink."Alright," Brendan announced, his eyes sparking with a playful light. "The house specialty is coming up. Xavier, stop harassing the guest and get the orange juice out."Xavier didn’t move. Instead, he hoisted himself up onto the marble countertop, swinging his legs back and forth. He looked at me with an expression that was far too perceptive for a boy his age."So, Aubrey," he started, popping a blueberry into his mouth."On
I didn't say a word letting my hand roam, slow and steady over his skin. I traced the line of his ribs, the muscle of his chest, my touch nerve-wracking and deliberate. I wanted to feel the reality of him, the grounded, uncomplicated strength that had nothing to do with the Thomas. Every inch of him was an answer to a question I had been too afraid to ask.He was different. He smelled different. He wasn't Jake. I moved closer, nestling my body against his, fitting myself into the curves of his frame. My hand moved lower, grazing the waistband of his shorts, and I felt a shudder run through him that had nothing to do with the cold. It was a slow-burn ignition, a stirring of every part of him that he had been trying so hard to keep under control for my sake."Aubrey, stop," he whispered, though he didn't move my hand. "You've been through so much today. You're not in your right mind.""I've never been more sure," I murmured against his neck. I could feel his pulse hammering against my
I didn't say anything. I couldn't. I lunged forward, falling into his arms and burying my face in his chest. I sobbed uncontrollably, my entire body shaking with the aftershocks of the last hour. He held me so tight I could barely breathe, his heart thudding against mine like a drum."I’ve got you," he whispered, his voice cracked. "I’ve got you, baby. You’re okay."But the relief was short-lived. Brendan’s gaze shifted, lifting over my shoulder to the doorway behind me.Drake had followed me down. He stood at the foot of the stairs, still half-naked, his chest heaving, a dark bruise of shame and defiance on his face. He looked like a wreck, the discarded ring still clutched in his hand.Brendan’s arms tightened around me for a second before he gently moved me aside. He stepped into the foyer, his frame vibrating with a newfound, explosive anger."What were you doing to her?" Brendan yelled, his voice echoing off the high ceilings. "W
I dropped the phone on the bed, the screen glowing like a dying star in the dim room. I didn’t say a word to Drake, who still stood paralyzed, staring at me with a look of profound betrayal. I could feel the heat radiating from him. "Don't come close," I said, my voice shaking but firm when I noticed him making a tentative move toward me. "Just stay where you are. I'm getting out of here. And I'm going to show you, I’m going to prove it to everyone that I don't want to have anything to do with you.""That's a lie," he countered, his voice dropping to a jagged whisper. "There are so many things you want to do with me, Yuna. You just haven't realized it yet.""I don't want to see anything!""We had a great time just now!" His voice suddenly rose in a burst of frustration that made the very air in the room vibrate. All of a sudden, I could feel the energy of his anger filling up the small space, suffocating and hot. "For more than two days, we have been having the time of our lives..."
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