Mated To My Obsessive Stepbrother

KASMINE

Okay, Jake, I said slowly, drawing in a breath to steady the rising nerves clawing at my throat. "You're in control now. Let's talk. It's getting really late."noveldrama

My voic

sounded softer than I intended, but the pressure in my chest was anything but calm.

Jake didn't answer right away. He scoffed, but it wasn't his usual light-hearted scoff that used to come with

a smirk and a shake of the head when I teased him. No. This one was laced with something bitter. My spine stiffened.

For a brief second - no, less than that I saw something. I could swear I saw a different Jake sitting before me. Not the cool, sweet, composed Jake I used to know. But he blinked, and was gone in a millisecond, almost as if I'd imagined it or like my eyes had lied to me.

Jake was quiet for a long beat before he finally spoke in a low and almost fragile voice like it might snap if he spoke too

loud.

"I did love you, Kasmine..."

He didn't look at me. He kept his gaze ahead, staring out through the windshield into the darkness as though the trees beyond the roadside would offer him answers I couldn't.

"I really did love you," he repeated, slower and softer. "I just... I wish you had loved me back. The way I loved you. Maybe then..." His fingers curled around the edge of the steering wheel, knuckles going white, "Maybe then I would've had the guts to fight for you."

Something inside me dropped. It felt like the ground beneath us was starting to shift.

I turned toward him more fully, my eyes narrowing slightly as I tried to read his face. But he still wouldn't look at me.

"Jake..." I swallowed. "What are you talking about?"

He finally moved just his head, but not to face me. He shook it slowly, The faintest bitter laugh slipped from his lips, but it held no humor, only ache.

"I knew," he murmured. "I knew about you and Kester. All this time."

My heart thudded painfully against my ribs.

"What..." I tried again, my voice hoarse, "What do you mean?"

This time, he turned, and his eyes found mine. They weren't soft or kind anymore. They were tired and sad and filled with

something long buried that had finally clawed its way up.

"Don't lie to me," he said quietly.

He leaned back in his seat, exhaling through his nose. His hand ran down his face before he let his arm drop heavily onto the gear shift.

"I heard both of you," he said in a clipped tone that cracked at he edges. "That day in the office... The restroom,

I froze.

Je wasn't blinking.

"You thought didn't hear you, huh? But I heard it all." He let out a harsh, joyless chuckle, his eyes darting to the windshield again like he couldn't stand to look at me anymore. e. Your panting... the way you stifled your moan, the way he kept slamming into you slowly, probably teasing you with his cock to see how much you could hold back from screaming and letting me know how good he fucked you... And you, telling me you were okay. That I should go back to the office... I'm no fool, Kasmine."

My lungs forgot how to work. My breath hitched..

No. No. He couldn't have -.

"I stood outside that damn door for a full minute, Kasmine." His voice had dropped lower. "Listening, Knowing. Knowing. And still, I pretended I didn't. I convinced myself you'd explain it. That it wasn't what I thought."

His leg started bouncing restlessly. His fingers tapped erratically on the gear shift. And then he twisted in

his seat, finally facing me fully.

His expression had cracked wide open now, and I could see the anger, grief,

betrayal, and months of emotion pouring out

of the dam in one forceful flood.

"But it kept happening, didn't it?" he snapped, kept catching you two. In the breakroom. In his office. Hell, even in his car on your way home from the office! And every damn time, I swallowed it like it didn't kill me." śwnovel

I opened my mouth, but I didn't know what to say. What could I say?

"Jake..." I whispered, not realizing my voice was already trembling.

"You kept playing me. Playing with my heart, Kasmine." His voice broke slightly, and he scrubbed at his eyes with the heel of his palm before letting his arm drop again. "And I let you. God, I let you."

The car felt too small suddenly like the air was shrinking. It felt like his pain was eating all the oxygen around us.

knew that one would come back to bite ya. stringing someone along, as a "backup" while ur having regular intimate relations w someone else let alone a family member. i...

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