My Stepbrothers’ Plus-sized Obsession のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 61 - チャプター 70

XAVIER Tonight I can't sit in it anymore.I take the black coupe out of the garage myself. My hands stay locked on the wheel, knuckles pale, jaw tight enough that the muscle pulses under my ear.It doesn't help. Every time I blink, I see HER. My phone vibrates in the cup holder. Rafe. Third time tonight. The same message lights the screen: Vesper. Tonight. Don't make me send someone to find you.I don't answer. I take the exit into the city anyway.Vesper takes up the top two floors of a glass tower downtown, and my name has been on the VIP list for three years. The doorman unclips the rope before I reach it. The bass thumps up through the floor and into my ribs as I climb the stairs, and the smell of expensive liquor, perfume, and smoke thickens with every step.Rafe sees me first.Rafe Calloway owns the place. Technically his father does, but Rafe is the one who is always here. He's on the leather sofa with one boot on the table and a bottle in his hand, and when he spots me, he s

MELANIE "Yes," I say, and the word comes out through my teeth so tightly that it leaves my jaw aching, because it is the only word I can get past the heat that has climbed from my chest into my face.Tessa Whitlock who shamed and insulted me for my body, who made it very clear how much I did not and would never belong in her world. My fingers curl so hard around nothing that the cut in my palm opens again, and warm blood slides onto the tile, and the sight of it brings me back to the only thing that matters, which is that my anger will not put a single spoonful of food in Penelope's mouth.I open my hand one finger at a time and look Evangeline in the eyes, because she should see that I mean it. "I'll do whatever it takes to make sure Penelope eats tonight and every night after, and that she is well taken care of," I say, and my voice shakes on every second word, "and that is the only reason I am agreeing.""Whatever your reasons, you will do it properly." Evangeline smooths her b

MELANIE I can barely see straight, but I know it’s Xavier who reaches me first, and he drops to his knees on the tile. His hands stop an inch from my face and hover there, shaking, because he does not know where on me it is safe to touch, or if…just if it is safe to touch me at all. The warmth from his hands kisses my cheek, and I can’t help it; I like that he’s here, that they’re here…that they…they came for me. "Mel—" he starts, and stops, and I watch him swallow before he tries again. "Melanie. Look at me. Please look at me."My eyes find his, and the sob that comes out of me is so loud and so ugly that I press the back of my wrist against my mouth, but Xavier's face crumples anyway, and his eyes fill with tears. I would laugh if it didn’t hurt to even smile. He’s such a cutie, isn’t he? What is wrong with me? Is he…shiny? Valentin is already beside him, down on one knee in his dark suit, and he does not touch me either; his eyes move over my cheek, my split lip, my bandage

XAVIER My breath catches in my throat, the sharp, jagged sound cutting right through the heavy silence of the bedroom.Melanie is shaking so violently her entire body trembles like a leaf caught in a gale. Her skin is stark white, her eyes wide and bloodshot, fixed on nothing at all. She looks like a woman who just stared down the barrel of a loaded gun and watched the trigger pull.I don't think. I move.I close the distance between us in a single stride, dropping to my knees right in front of her. I wrap my hands around her ice-cold, trembling fingers, squeezing them tight to anchor her to the earth."Mel. Hey, look at me," I say, my voice cracking at the edges. I pull her forward, dragging her upper body against my chest so she can feel my heartbeat, trying to force the panic out of her bones. "Look at me, sweet cheeks. You're safe. You're here with us. Breathe."A choked sob tears out of her throat, hot tears spilling over her lashes and soaking directly into the fabric of my s

MELANIE I wake in the dark with a deep, heavy ache low in my belly. For a long moment I lie still, waiting for it to fade. It does not. The day has gone entirely; the lamp beside the bed is turned low; beyond the glass wall, the garden lies pale in the moonlight.Then the first real cramp hits.It seizes my whole lower belly, so sharp and so sudden that I curl in half with my mouth open and no breath coming. I know this pain. I would know it anywhere. It travels into my lower back, then down both thighs, in a hard, grinding pulse. My breasts are tender, my stomach swollen and tight. Warm wetness spreads between my legs.Fuck no. Not now!I throw back the blanket off my body. Red. Dark red against the white sheet, dark red soaking the soft shirt, dark red streaked down my thighs.My period. I have not seen a single drop in months, now it has arrived all at once, tonight, in their house, in their bed. A second cramp rolls through me before I can finish the thought.The scream leaves