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“Let me show you to your room,” I hear Noah say behind me.
My hands tremble as I lay out the plates and cutlery. Taking a moment, I close my eyes, reminding my flaring nerves what’s at stake. Mom’s happiness. Her marriage. Her chance at love and the life she deserves.
Everything will be ruined if Mom and Noah ever find out what happened. Worse, if Miles and I kissagainor do more. I can’t let that happen, even if it’s what every impulse in me screams for—his touch, lips, desire, his everything. All I can do is pray he doesn’t want the same.
CHAPTERTWO
Miles
I mistakenly said I wasstarvingas I devoured Layla with my eyes.
I planned on keeping my cool. The memory of the kiss hasn’t left me. It hasn’t lost any of its power. Every time I close my eyes, I relive the reckless thing I did when I found Layla alone at the back of the garden.
She was returning from the bathroom, and I headed that way, but it was like the universe, fate, or something conspired to get us alone. The thought is absurd, and it’s not like me to entertain stuff like that.
When I leaned down to kiss her, it felt like I was doing the right thing. I’d been fighting the desire ever since I saw her curvy body in the bridesmaid dress, with her wide beautiful eyes, her kissable lips so easily shaped into a smile, her full flushed cheeks, her openness, her everything.
Justher. Like a drug tempting me to relapse, although I never knew that feeling before I saw her for the first time. One look changed everything.
In my bedroom, I stare at myself in the mirror, muttering a silent promise that I won’t do anything to jeopardize Noah’s chances of happiness. Unlike me, he was searching for love for most of his life.
He thought he had found his dream woman once until he discovered she’d cheated on him several times. He called me a few weeks before they were supposed to get married, drunk, crying, and explaining everything.
“I promise, bro, you’ll find a woman who deserves you one day.”That’s what I said to my little brother.
He’s only two years younger than me, but I’ve always looked out for him and fought for him when needed. Yet, that night, it was like a magnetic pull to kiss his stepdaughter. What’s the matter with me?
I turn at a knock on the door.
“You coming, Miles?” Noah asks.
“Yeah, two secs.”
Clenching and unclenching my fists, I am determined to be strong and do the right thing. Even if it means being cold with Layla, which is the last thing I want, even if it means convincing her I’m not interested. It’s my duty.
My resolve almost crumbles when I walk onto the back porch. Layla is standing at the table, her back to me, showing me her wild brown hair cascading down her back.
An instinct touches me. I walk up behind her and gently smooth my hand through her hair. But then the savage desire will take control, guiding my hands down her curvy body to her thick thighs and wide hips—hips perfect for childbearing.
Jesus.
I promised myself I’d be better.
I can’t let those thoughts return—the ones that have hounded me ever since the kiss, ever since Iknew, in one bright moment, that Layla belonged to me and always would. Nobody else would ever touch her.
If she were a mother, it would be for our children one day. No other man gets to kiss her, be intimate with her, and have babies with her.
That’s my future.
We sit around the table together, the seating arranged so I’m facing Layla. She clasps her hands, staring down at her plate, unwilling to look at me.
How does she feel about the kiss? Does she regret it? Does she also want to do it again, like I do, despite knowing it’s wrong?
“I’m glad you’re home,” Noah says, grinning across at me, the years melting until he’s a little kid full of fear and hope again.
“Me too,” I reply. Ilie.
It would be good to be here if it wasn’t for the angel sitting across from me.
