My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 652

Chapter 652

The kiss deepened, not with tenderness alone, but with urgency almost anger, aknost panic. As though she was trying to outrun something chasing her.

I frowned slightly against her lips.

This wasn’t like her.

She was leading every movement now.

Every time I tried to slow the pace, she closed the distance again, holding me there as though letting go would mean losing the last solid thing left in her world.

Confusion settled quietly inside me, not because she was kissing me but because I recognized what this wasn’t.

It wasn’t joy.

It wasn’t passion.

It wasn’t peace.

It felt like someone drowning, reaching for the nearest piece of land before the water pulled them under again.

I cupped her face between both hands and finally, gently, broke the kiss.

Our foreheads touched.

I looked into her eyes, they were still empty, still distant.

“Gianna…”

Before I could say anything else, she suddenly pressed her hand firmly over my mouth and climbed into my lap, catching me completely off guard.

I instinctively reached for her wrists, trying to slow her down, trying to understand what was happening, but she wouldn’t let me. She moved with a desperate urgency that had nothing to do with me.

She quietly climbed off me.

Without looking at my face, she settled back onto her side of the bed, turned away, and lay completely still.

I remained where I was, staring at the ceiling above us.

Whatever had just happened…

It hadn’t been about me. It hadn’t even felt like she’d truly been with me at all.

It had felt like grief had taken hold of her body, and all I had been was the person standing closest when it happened.

A strange heaviness settled in my chest.

For the first time in years, I couldn’t think several steps ahead. I couldn’t find a pattern. I couldn’t explain what had just happened.

I just lay there, stunned, listening to the sound of her breathing beside me, feeling as though I’d witnessed something I was never meant to understand.