Mated To My Obsessive Stepbrother novel Chapter 69

Chapter 69

KESTER.

I hadn’t slept. Not even for a second

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I almost lost it. But I didn’t because it was Kasmine, after all. She’s the one thing that keeps me tethered. My antidote.

If it were anyone else, I swear, I’d have taken their heads off by now. The maids would be scrubbing the blood off the marble floors already.

I had been lost in thoughts all the while she was sleeping on me. Her soft snores broke through the static in my mind, calming my racing heart.

It’s always been this way for the past five years now. Her very existence is my calm.

She tames my demons, even without her knowing. Little wonder I kept taking her belongings and stacking them up in my room over the years.

But that fucking slap… Her hurtful words…

It broke something in me.

I felt it snap the moment her palm met my face.

For one breath–for one fucking second- I saw red. She had no idea how hard I fought it. How much it took to keep my hands at my sides when every instinct in me screamed to remind her who the fuck I was.

But I didn’t. I couldn’t.

Because if I did, I’d lose her. For good. And that? That would fucking destroy me.

So I let it burn. Let the rage curl under my skin. For her. Because she was the only thing that holds me together, and if I break, I don’t know if I’ll ever put myself back

Every so often, I ran my fingers through her hair, pressing light, absentminded strokes down the length of her back

She had cried herself to exhaustion. Shaken, broken, falling apart right in front of me. And yet, in the end, she had let me hold her. She had let herself fall asleep in my arms.

That alone was enough to unmake me.

Her soft breaths tickled my collarbone, and each rise and fall of her chest soothed the raw ache inside me.

My heart almost gave out the moment she said she wanted out. Even though she didn’t have a choice here, I was beginning to enjoy the fact that she was learning to open up to me willingly and that one day, she’d wholeheartedly accept what I feel for her.

I had waited eagerly for her to wake up because my surprise still awaited her.

“I won’t lose you, Mine. I won’t let you leave like she did. Even if I have to break you to keep you with me, I will.” I whispered to her while she slept. I’d die if she ever left me. She didn’t know that.

My world, my life, all revolved around her now.

A soft murmur left her lips, her brows pinching slightly before her lashes fluttered open. For a moment, she just lay there, blinking in confusion as if she had forgotten when she was. Then her gaze lifted, meeting mine.

Chapter 69

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She swallowed. And then, to my absolute fucking relief–she smiled. A small, lazy thing. Barely there. But real. “I thought I had ruined the surprise you had for me already,” she murmured, her voice hoarse with sleep.

I exhaled slowly, the corner of my lips tugging into something faintly amused. “Not even a hundred of you can ruin this surprise, love.” I pressed a lingering kiss to her forehead, letting my lips rest there for a heartbeat longer than necessary. She still smelled like herself–warm, soft, utterly intoxicating.

When I pulled away, she peered up at me, her brows furrowing slightly.

“So… where is it?”

I met her gaze, letting the ghost of a smirk play on my lips. You’re laying right on it, baby,” I teased, forcing myself to cheer up because my heart was still too heavy.

Slowly, so slowly, her hands traced down the detailed lines, following the curves of the massive wolf that sprawled across my entire back.

And then she found herself nestled right in the center of the tattoo, among the swirling darkness of the wolf’s fur.

“Kester…” Her voice broke, and my gut twisted painfully at the sheer emotion in that one syllable.