All Chapters of Her Stepbrother’s Desire, Her husband’s Obsession: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

It had been silent for three whole weeks. Aria was suspicious and on edge. Silence never bode well, especially not after the drama that had gone on with her family and Aston. It felt like chaos was about to burst any second. “You’re just a paranoid little rabbit”, Linda said over the phone, her voice muffled as she stuck a crepe into her mouth. Aria could practically see her in her mind’s eye. She missed her best friend. “Remember what happened the last time I got paranoid? Yeah. My grandfather got me married off”, Aria rolled her eyes, eyes bouncing side to side on the screen of her laptop. She was reading the documents on her laptop and inspecting for errors. The Rothschilds hadn’t made any moves so far, but she knew that the presence of even a single typo in her work could very well lead to another headline. “Your granddad is unpredictable, that was a one time thing, just calm down Aria”, Linda replied, and before Aria could drop more proof that it was in fact not a one time

The building was tall and imposing, the chrome and glass on the outside glinting in the sunlight serving as a severely intimidating background.It felt like she was in front of her grandfather's company as a teen again, bouncing from foot to foot nervously, hoping he didn't find out she escaped from her afternoon lessons.Except, this time, she was blocked from the outer view of...anyone by tall men in black. She felt like Aston had ordered the guards to hover as close to her as possible without touching her so she'd feel despair, so she'd know he was more powerful than she could ever hope to be.A smirk lifted Aria's lips.Heh.After today, she'd see if he dared assume he had more power than her.She waltzed into the building, the men surrounding her like a shield. It was empty."Tsk". She knew it. Her grandfather, even her father, had attended a lot of 'meetings' like this. They emptied the entire company in pure secrecy and held the real meeting somewhere underground. It was the p

It took all of Aria's self control not to put a bullet through Aston's head. In fact, scratch that, the only reason she didn't put a bullet through Aston's head was because she didn't have a gun with her.It was bad enough that he attended slave auctions, but he brought her son?! The apple of her eye?! The most precious thing in her life?!She could feel her skin bubbling hot like a visceral thing, like she was about to combust into lava any second now, and then, she felt a large hand on her thigh. "What the--""Cool off, Griffin. I have my reasons", Aston said, his hand on her thigh exerting force. Aria was suddenly torn between torching him to the ground right then and cooling off as he asked. His hand on her thigh was like fire, even though her dress was preventing any real skin to skin contact. Molten lava crawled up her neck and her face, and she was glad the room was dark.It was strange, having this kind of visceral reaction just to a man touching her. Hell, even Liam hadn't

Warning for this chapter: Death and bloodOh? “I’m going to give you five minutes to get to the car with me and Asher. Five minutes, Beaumont.” Aston had never been so confused by a single human in his entire lifetime. Three weeks ago she was a scared mess pretending to be strong in front of the Rothschilds, and now she was in front of him, her ultimate threat, and a bunch of violent, disgusting people, and she was bold enough to grab him by the throat? He was intrigued. He was captivated. He wanted to pierce her skull with a knife and see what went on in her little brain. “We’re making a lot of demands today, aren’t we?”, he cocked his head, settling his hands on hers and relishing in the way her knuckles flexed like she wanted to punch him. Aston felt a strange backwards curiosity, he wanted to know what her small fists would feel like on his face. Would they be as soft as she really was inside or would they sting as fiery as she was feeling right now? Questions. Que

Aria was panicking. Sure she listened raptly to all Asher had to say about his spy mission, sure she hugged him tight and warned him to always call her before he “followed daddy”, sure she had coaxed him to sleep. That didn’t mean she wouldn’t panic. Especially since Aston hadn’t gotten out yet. She had timed and strategized it according to the might of his men, and she expected them to come out hoisting him on their shoulders, not fucking Zaphen Eastwood. She had played the part of a concerned wife, asking where he was and what was going on with all the anxiety she could muster. It wasn’t hard to pretend. She hadn’t thought this through. She had looked at Aston properly when she grabbed him by the tie and damn, damn, DAMN her weakness for pretty things. She had gone soft, and delayed the timing of the explosion, so he’d escape. She didn’t expect him to escape with all his screws on correctly, but she at least wanted him to live. If for nothing else, at least to expla