Mated To My Obsessive Stepbrother

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

KASMINE.

I dropped to my knees beside the bed, staring at the pile of my belongings with a mix of horror and confusion. My mind raced, searching for an explanation, but there was none. None that made sense.

Kester... my brother... had kept all these things. He'd taken them.

I felt sick. My chest tightened, and the room seemed to spin around me.

My hands were still trembling when I noticed a book. It had fallen out of the box, landing near my feet. The leather-bound cover was worn, its edges frayed as though it had been handled countless times. A diary.

I stared at it for what felt like an eternity, my pulse hammering in my ears. Fear clawed at my insides, twisting and tightening until I felt like I couldn't breathe. I didn't want to pick it up. Whatever was inside that diary, I knew it wouldn't make anything better. It would make it

worse. So much worse.

But I couldn't leave it untouched. Not after everything I'd already uncovered.

My fingers hesitated before finally reaching for it. Slowly, I opened it to the first page.

My name stared back at me, written in Kester's familiar handwriting.

MINE.

fingers trembling so

perfect in it. I couldn't help myself. It still smells like her. I kept it in my box. My

The ribbon. I thought I'd

my eyes closed as my breathing grew ragged.

No, this

But it was.

was a crude drawing-of me. My face, my hair, and my

know when it began, this maddening fixation on her smile. It's as if the world stops when she laughs, and I am the only one lucky

1/3

Chapter 16

+25 Bonus

do I touch the sun without

it's wrong. Gods, I know it. But how can something that feels so real, so consuming, be wrong? I can't stop thinking about her. The way her hair falls, the way she looks at me without knowing what I see in her eyes. She's too

by, whatever

darker.

but I can't stop myself from peeping through the hole I had carved on my wall. The way her chest rises and falls with each breath, the softness of her lips as they part-Selene, I ache to kiss them, to taste that sweet innocence before she knows what I'm capable of. My hand itches to reach out, to touch her skin, feel the warmth of her, but I won't. Not yet. I won't

hands tracing the lines of her body, feeling every inch of her. She moans under my touch, and I can't stop myself from wanting more. I want to hear her beg for me, want me like I want her. I can't wait for that moment when

it, but I've seen her naked in my mind more times than I can count. I wonder what it would feel like to trace my fingers along the lines of her body,