INICIAR SESIÓN𖤓 Alexei 𖤓Marisella is shaking like a leaf in the passenger seat.I’m shaking too, for the same reasons.Except, where she’s terrified about being observed by an intruder in what should’ve been her safe space, I’m seething.Hungry for blood.Aching to rip the spine from the man who’d gotten within meters of my… charge.I don’t know what she is to me anymore. It should be impossible to feel this way toward a stepsister.My knuckles prickle with tension on the wheel.When I drop Marisella at Aston Bay, a hotel with security sharper than its marble edges, her gray-green eyes are the coldest I’ve ever seen them.I don’t like it.“Where are you going?” she asks once I turn to the door after a customary sweep of the room.The building is secure enough to hold her while I complete my earlier mission.“Stay here. I won’t be long.”Her fingers are tight around her bag’s straps, random items sticking out from the open zip.Her soft brows furrow with irritation. “Within a week of your return,
𖤓 Alexei 𖤓Marisella is shaking like a leaf in the passenger seat.I’m shaking too, for the same reasons.Except, where she’s terrified about being observed by an intruder in what should’ve been her safe space, I’m seething.Hungry for blood.Aching to rip the spine from the man who’d gotten within meters of my… charge.I don’t know what she is to me anymore. It should be impossible to feel this way toward a stepsister.My knuckles prickle with tension on the wheel.When I drop Marisella at Aston Bay, a hotel with security sharper than its marble edges, her gray-green eyes are the coldest I’ve ever seen them.I don’t like it.“Where are you going?” she asks once I turn to the door after a customary sweep of the room.The building is secure enough to hold her while I complete my earlier mission.“Stay here. I won’t be long.”Her fingers are tight around her bag’s straps, random items sticking out from the open zip.Her soft brows furrow with irritation. “Within a week of your return,
꧁ Marisella ꧂The car is in motion before I collect myself.Alexei drives like a devil, speeding so fast the scenery blurs past.“Please tell me you’re joking.” My voice is small.“What did you see? Did you notice anything else?”“No. I—I slept off right after, and this morning I left in a hurry. I was so sure it was you.”“Even if it was, you had no business leaving your door open.”His tone makes me shiver.Why would he say that? I wasn’t in any danger from him… then it dawns.Alexei doesn’t trust himself with me.The tension amps up a thousand degrees.I force my mind away from that train of thought, digging through last night.It could’ve easily been a hallucination supported by alcohol, but I’m sure of what I saw. Even though I couldn’t tell how long the figure had spent at my doorway, I know it had been real.My hands clutch my bag.A real person, not Alexei, had been inside my house while I was vulnerable.My breath comes faster.“Those men… do you think?”“Whoever it was is go
꧁ Marisella ꧂ Without Sonya’s presence to dilute the tension, it swells, trapping me in a dense bubble of anxiety. Alexei and I in an enclosed space always spells disaster. The knowledge of what he’d witnessed me do last night is a hot knot in my throat. I can already feel my stomach tightening, my chest thick as I try—and fail, to calm my nerves. But then something else suffuses the suffocating air. Alexei’s eyes shift to meet mine in the rearview. Ice slides down my spine. Only then do I realize he’s been mentally absent this whole time. We’ve been driving almost ten minutes after leaving Sonya, and Alexei is only present with me now. How deep had his mind gone to completely erase his intoxicating soul? Had he been thinking about last night? My face prickles with a searing blush. His eyes flick up again to glance at me, so dark. So deep. They spell danger. Inevitable, thrumming danger. It’s all too much. “What do you think you’re doing?” I snap. “You’ve bee
𖤓 Alexei 𖤓 I now understand how the farmer feels.Watching your lamb waltz right into wolf territory, with zero sense of preservation or awareness.The men in this club watch Marisella like hounds eyeing a searing cut of tenderloin. Drooling. Eyes dilated and rapt.Even the women throw varying glances of envy and admiration her way.When I’d managed to tear my own hypnotized gaze from her, I’d counted too many men—dozens, courting death with their eyes.A ball of heat expands in my chest. I don’t know who better to unleash my rage on.The undeserving audience, or my daring, stubborn stepsister.Her dance is sin.The way her body moves pushes the song to the background as her hips chase a rhythm of their own.Since the night of the hotel, I’ve watched her distance herself, if not physically, then emotionally.She’s having more luck fighting this forbidden pull than I am—Before the thought can settle, I crush it with an unforgiving mental fist.I’d been in the middle of gathering in
꧁ Marisella ꧂Sonya’s magnetic personality comes in handy once more at Vanity, the nightclub she’d chosen for tonight.A peck on the cheek here, a flirtatious hug to a bouncer there, and we’re in.I hadn’t even gotten the chance to flash the ID that shows I’m 22.My coach bag holds nothing but my camera, phone, lip gloss, and pepper spray. All brand new, courtesy of the 50k Alexei had thrown at me five days ago, like some whore.At least not a cheap one.One half of my brain laughs at the joke while the other half cringes at how crass it is.Once we’re in, heads begin to turn.I’m not modest enough to downplay the fact that Sonya and I are in the top 1% of goddess tier women here.She walks deeper into the space, pulling me along. Her blonde hair, pulled into a messy bun, gleams with health in the pulsing lights, giving a girl-next-door vibe.Wide, round hips sway with every step, the chain of her necklace dripping a string of gems down her exposed back.And me?My dress ends a few mi







