All Chapters of FAMILY SECRET: CLAIMING MY FATHER'S TOY: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

"You shouldn't be in here."Holy shit.The voice came from directly behind me. So close I felt his breath on my neck. Every hair on my body stood up.I spun around so fast I nearly tripped over my own feet.Julian Kingston.Oh my god. He was taller than I'd thought. Way taller. And broader. He filled the entire doorway like he owned not just the room but the air I was trying to breathe. Those eyes. Dark. Unreadable. Locked on me like I was prey that just made a fatal mistake.Which, yeah. I probably had."I was just..." My voice came out wrong. Too high. Too guilty. "The door was open, I thought...""Shh." He pressed one finger to my lips.The casual way he touched me, like he had every right, made my breath stop completely.I tried to step back. His hand shot out and grabbed my wrist. Not hard enough to hurt. But absolutely unbreakable."You saw something you shouldn't have," he said quietly. His eyes flicked past me to the monitors. The ones showing warehouses and blood and a man on

My mother's heels clicked against marble, each step a countdown to disaster.Julian's fingers were still inside me, Silas's hand was still clamped over my mouth, and Mom was maybe thirty seconds away from walking into this office and finding her daughter naked on her employer's desk."Elena? Sweetheart, are you up here?" Closer now. Right outside in the hallway.Silas's eyes locked onto mine. He didn't look worried. He looked interested, like this was just another variable in an equation he was already solving."Julian." His voice was barely a breath. "Under the desk. Now."Something dangerous flashed across Julian's face. His jaw tightened, and for a second I thought he'd refuse just to prove he could. But then his fingers withdrew from me... slowly, deliberately, making me feel every inch of the absence... and he dropped to his knees and disappeared into the shadows beneath the desk.Silas moved faster than a man his size had any right to. My dress came off the floor and hit my hands

"Elena! Breakfast is ready!"My mother's voice floated up the stairs, bright and completely unsuspecting.Julian sat up from my bed and pocketed his phone in one smooth motion. "You heard her. Go play the perfect daughter.""What do you want?" The steadiness in my voice surprised even me.He raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?""You're in my room. Silas said you had instructions for tonight." I held his gaze and kept my arms crossed, refusing to let him see how aware I was of every shift in my body, every reminder of what I was still wearing. "So tell me what they are so I can go downstairs and convince my mother everything is fine."Something moved across his face. Surprise, maybe. Or something closer to approval. He stood and crossed the room in two steps, stopping close enough that I had to tilt my chin up to keep eye contact."What I want," he said slowly, "is for you to meet me at the university library tonight. Seven PM. Third floor, back corner. There's something you need to see."Th

The moment he said it, something in the room shifted.Then let’s begin.It wasn’t loud, but my body reacted anyway, like it understood something my mind was still trying to catch up to.I didn’t move, I couldn’t. My wrists were still bound, my breathing uneven, every nerve in my body suddenly aware of the space between us, of him, of Julian behind me, watching everything.Silas didn’t rush.He stepped closer slowly, deliberately, until the distance between us disappeared, until I could feel the heat of him without him even touching me.That was the first mistake.Because I felt it. I breathed in deeply before I could stop it."Look at you," he said quietly. "Already reacting." "I’m not..." I tried, but the words came out thinner than I meant them to.His gaze held mine. Unmoved."You are," he said. "And you’re going to stop lying about it." Behind me, I heard Julian shift. "This is pointless." Silas didn’t even look at him. "Watch," he said calmly. Then his hand lifted, slow enough

Silas set the tablet down on his desk and looked at us like we were students who'd failed an exam."Sit."We sat.He poured himself a scotch. Didn't offer us any. Just stood there, swirling the liquid in his glass, watching us."Julian," he finally said. "Explain to me why you thought putting your hands on Chloe Vance in front of half the student body was a good idea.""She called Elena a whore.""And? People say things. You don't give them ammunition by assaulting them on camera." Silas took a slow sip. "Do you have any idea how many calls I've already received? The university dean. Chloe's father. Three different board members. All wondering why my son is making headlines for attacking a woman.""She was threatening Elena. Exposing us.""Us?" Silas's eyebrow raised. "There is no us, Julian. There's me, running a business empire. There's you, attending university and trying not to fuck up your inheritance. And there's Elena, who is my concern, not yours.""That's not what you said las