My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 376

Chapter 376

Her fingers tightened slightly around the tablet, “I wasn’t planning to,” she whispered.

“I know.”

But I couldn’t trust her, the urges didn’t ask permission first, “You spent years training yourself to reach for pain every time your brain got overloaded.” I watched her carefully. “That doesn’t disappear overnight just because somebody finally helped you for once.”

Her eyes immediately flicked up to mine after that. The sadness in them hit harder than I expected.

I exhaled slowly through my nose, “Mess,” I murmured quieter now, “you told me yourself that sometimes you don’t even realize what you’re doing until afterward. Until the blood is already there.”

She gave a tiny, almost invisible nod, her lower lip trembling.

“I’m not taking your control away from you,” I said softly. “I’m trying to help protect you while your brain learns different, better habits. That’s it.”

Her chin trembled slightly at that, “So what?” she whispered weakly. “You’re just gonna confiscate sharp objects from me forever?”

Despite myself, the corner of my mouth twitched slightly.

“No.” I tilted my head. “You’d probably start throwing forks at people.”

A startled laugh escaped her before she could stop it.

“When you’re in a better place…. mentally,” I said quietly, “you can have them back.”

Her eyes searched my face carefully then, probably looking for judgment. She wouldn’t find any of it because the truth was-I didn’t look at Gianna and see weakness.

My hand moved before I could think better of it. I brushed one loose strand of hair carefully back behind her ear.

“You trusted me enough to tell me the truth,” I murmured, “So trust me enough to help with this too.”

Her breath caught softly. And after a long moment, Gianna nodded again and leaned into my hand, giving me that look again.

I didn’t understand it. I wanted to.

I had spent my entire life learning how to read people. I knew what a man looked like right before he pulled a trigger. I knew the exact look of raw terror in an enemy’s eyes when I gripped their throat. I knew what greed looked like, what submission looked like, and I certainly knew the heavy, dirty look of lust when a woman wanted me in her bed. Those were simple things. Those were things I could use, things I could control.

“Gianna, my love, is this you?”

The word “love” stared back at me from the screen. I slowly turned my head, my eyes dropping down to the top of Gianna’s head as she stared at the flashing screen, her body going completely rigid.

“Who the fuck is Leone?” I snarled.

Gianna’s head snapped up, her beau green eyes lifting from the glowing phone screen to look straight into my face. The second her gaze met mine, all that beautiful, soft warmth from before completely vanished. It was like someone had pulled a plug inside her, every single drop of color instantly drained out of her face, leaving her skin looking completely pale and white as paper.

Her lips trembled, parting slightly as she stared at the pissed-off anger taking over my features.

“That’s…” she whispered, “Raphael… that’s my ex-fiancé.”

Janedoewritings Author

Let me know what you think.. because things are about to go a little crazy in the next few chapters!