Lahat ng Kabanata ng Ravaged By My Cold-Hearted Stepbrothers : Kabanata 261 - Kabanata 270

Zuri Dinner was set up in the formal dining room, long table draped in white linen, candles already lit down the center even though the sun hadn't fully set outside. I'd changed into the one nice dress I'd packed, and Maya had done the same, both of us hovering slightly awkwardly near the doorway until Diane waved us toward our seats like we'd done this a hundred times before, which, for me at least, we basically had. Mr. Voss took his place at the head of the table, tie loosened from earlier, sleeves rolled up in a way that made him look far less intimidating than his booming voice suggested he'd be. "Zuri." He pointed his fork at me the second everyone settled. "Last time you were here you were still deciding on a major. Where'd you land?" "Communications, actually." I passed the bread basket down the table. "With a minor in business." "Smart girl." He nodded, satisfied, before his attention shifted down the table toward Gabriela, who sat stiff-backed beside Audric, clearly

ZuriMaya was sitting up in bed when I finally slipped back into the room, laptop glowing on her lap, though the guilty way she snapped it shut the second I walked in told me she hadn't actually been doing homework."There you are." She set the laptop aside, relief written all over her face. "You were gone forever, I was starting to get worried.""Sorry." I grabbed my phone off the nightstand, still catching my breath from everything that had just happened outside. "I lost track of time.""Doing what, exactly?" Her eyebrows lifted, clearly clocking something in my expression I wasn't ready to explain."Nothing." I busied myself dialing home instead of answering that. "Just needed some air."The call connected on the second ring, my mum's voice warm and familiar on the other end, Jackson and Brandon's voices audible somewhere in the background already bickering about whether they'd packed the right shoes. We ran through logistics quickly, what time they'd be leaving in the morning, how

Zuri Chris set an easy rhythm at first, testing, and I felt every inch of him with each slow drag, my back arching up off the couch to meet him. The couch cushions gave slightly beneath us with every roll of his hips, and Ethan's hand tightened around mine, grounding me in the middle of everything my body was already spiraling through."You're shaking already." His voice came low, watching my face closely. "Too much tonight?""No." I pulled him down by the collar of his shirt. "Don't you dare stop."That seemed to be all the permission he needed. He caught my knee, pushing it up toward my chest, folding me open until the new position let him bury himself impossibly deeper than before, and the sound that tore out of me was somewhere between a moan and a sob."Fuck, there." My nails raked down his forearm. "Right there.""Yeah?" He held there a beat, grinding slow, watching exactly how I reacted to it before pulling back and driving in again at the same brutal angle. "This spot?""Yes.

AudricI found Gabriela pacing the length of the guest room, arms crossed so tight it looked like she was trying to hold herself together by force."What are you whining about now?""You think I'm whining?" She spun to face me, eyes flashing. "I'm telling you what's going on and you think I'm whining?""That's usually what it sounds like when someone paces a room muttering to themselves.""Your mother despises me." Her voice cracked on the word, real hurt bleeding through the anger. "And it's all that stupid, dumb Zuri's fault."Something in my chest went tight and hot at that, faster than I expected."Don't." My voice came out sharper than I meant it to. "Don't talk about her like that.""You're defending her." Gabriela's eyes went wide, something close to disbelief crossing her face. "You're actually defending her right now.""I'm telling you to watch how you talk about people in my house.""You don't even see what she's doing, do you." She threw her hands up. "She's turning everyon

ZuriThe backyard didn't look like the same place I'd walked through flower arrangements in that morning. String lights turned the whole lawn gold, round tables draped in white linen, a live band tuning up near a dance floor someone had built out of nothing in a single afternoon. Caterers moved through the crowd with trays of champagne, and the air smelled like roses and citronella and money.Alexander tapped his glass before the appetizers even finished making the rounds."Thirty years ago I married the most patient woman I've ever met." He pulled Diane in against his side, voice thick. "Patient enough to survive three sons who nearly burned this house down twice, and patient enough to still look at me like I hung the moon every morning since. To Diane.""To Diane," the crowd echoed, glasses lifting, and Diane laughed through actual tears before pulling Alexander into a kiss that had Ethan groaning into his drink beside me."Get a room," he muttered."They own the room," Chris said.