All Chapters of Claimed by the wrong leister brother: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

“No.” My lips widened in a small smile that didn’t quite reach my eyes. “The idea of being convinced to love someone…it’s sickening.” I could almost hear a pin drop with how deafening the silence was. I wished, immediately, that I could pull the sentence back out of the air. Why had I even said it? Because I was angry? Because he’d kissed me an hour ago and it had felt like nothing? Because I couldn’t stop hearing Kade’s voice looping in my head like a broken record no matter how hard I tried to drown it out? My appetite vanished completely, as I pushed my plate an inch away. “Are you nervous?”Rosalind’s hand slid across the table toward mine. I withdrew my hands sharply away from the table, but maybe too obviously. Except I didn’t care. And before I’d say more than I intended to, I shot up from my chair. “I need some air.” I made it past the string lights, past the low hedge marking the patio’s edge, into the dark where the garden proper began with grass under my heels i

She looked at her hands for a second, her mouth opened then closed. And it opened again, her voice came out smaller. “It felt wrong.” She murmured. “I felt numb. Like I’d been waiting years for it and it finally happened, and I just felt sick. Maybe a bit disappointed and I hate myself for feeling that way. For wanting it to stop so bad that I hit him.” That’s my covey. ”That’s not how a kiss should feel.” I stepped in, close enough now that she had to tip her head back to keep me in focus. “A kiss shouldn’t leave you disappointed, Covey.” I leaned past her mouth, past her cheek, until my lips found the shell of her ear instead. I wanted to make her forget, to take her mind off the fact that Luca even breathes. “It should be wet,” I murmured. “I’d say sloppy n the best way. Like the person kissing you isn’t thinking about what comes next—Just this. I want you to see it, sweetheart.” “The sound of your mouth opening—with your tongues meeting for the first time, messy and too eage

“This was never about sides—“ “Noah.” His voice dropped, suddenly quiet in a way that scared me more. “I’ll ask you one thing, and I need you to be straight with me.” I faced him fully, my throat working overtime to swallow down hard. “Are you fucking my brother?” The room went completely silent before I heard Kade let out a loud laughter. He stepped away from Luca and further into the kitchen, laughing so hard still. “This can’t be real…” Kade chortled as he came back to where we were. “No.” My response came out sharply while my whole body flushed hot with the insult of having to even answer it. I saw relief break across his face so fast, so obvious before something uglier surfaced right along with it. “Good.” He exhaled hard. “Because for a second there I actually thought you’d stooped that low.” My palm connected with his cheek before I even realized, and the sound echoed off the tile with my whole hand stinging from the impact, and his head snapping to the side. H

My head shook slowly, tears burned at the back of my eyes. "But I’m not doing anything to your family. I didn't ask for any of this."Why was I suddenly being treated like a weapon they were both using against each other?I hadn’t asked Kade to want me. I didn’t ask Luca to fight for me, it doesn’t even make sense why he does. "You didn't have to ask, Noah. Everything is just too much for you to understand."I felt my own throat close up, the tears burned even hotter and I hated her a little for that, for finding the exact place that would hurt and putting pressure on it. "Why won't you help me understand?" I forced the words steady even as my voice shook. "“you haven't tried to tell me. I want to know just how deep this hatred runs between them. Make me understand.""My sons could never hate each other. And it's best you stay out of it."I sucked in my bottom lip for a split second, watching this woman I'd grown to love, suddenly turn on me. "That's not an answer, Mrs. Leister."

NOAH’S POV Maybe I should have fought harder for him to just take me home. But my teeth were chattering too hard to even form words, and some quieter, more honest part of me wondered if I’d ever really meant to go home at all. He knew that, didn’t he? That was the worst part about this man. He knew how to find the exact thing I hadn’t let myself admit and dangle it in my face till I stopped pretending it wasn’t there. I threw him a glance as the gates rolled shut behind us and the house came into view, all glass and wood lit up from inside. If Kade had his own house, why stay with his parents? Was it just to make Luca miserable the entire time? My hands shuddered in my lap, enough to stop me from chasing the thought any further. There wasn’t even space left in my head for anything except the cold, him, and the specific, dangerous silence sitting between us in the car. The car rolled to a stop into the compound, and the rain hadn’t backed down. It hammered against the roo