My Fiance is Sleeping With My Step Sister

Chapter 23

Devon came back earlier than I expected. I had been lying on the bed staring at the ceiling with my thoughts chasing each other in circles. The moment he opened the door I sat up quickly, pretending I had just woken from a nap.

He did not look convinced. His eyes scanned me the way they always did, careful and sharp, and he came to sit beside me without saying a word. His arm went around me and I leaned into him because I did not know how not to.

“You are quiet,” he murmured, pressing a kiss to my hair.

“I am fine,” I said too quickly.

He tilted my chin up so I had to look at him. His gaze held mine for a long moment like he was trying to pull the truth out of me. “Something is bothering you,” he said softly.

I forced a smile. “I am just tired.”

He frowned but he let it go, though I knew he did not believe me. Devon was not a man who gave up easily, but he was also not one to push if he thought it would hurt me. That was what scared me most. That one day the thing I was hiding would cut too deep for him to forgive.

We ate dinner together in the room, Joey’s doing of course, and he made me laugh with stories of when he was a boy before everything went wrong. I laughed with him, I kissed him, I let him touch me, and yet the weight in my chest stayed.

It was later, when we were walking outside under the night sky, that it happened. Devon had laced his fingers through mine and the cool air smelled of pine and damp earth. For a moment I thought maybe the day would end in peace.

Movement at the edge of the trees caught my eye. I stiffened before I could stop myself. Devon felt it immediately, his whole body going still.

“Stay behind me,” he ordered, his voice low.

I opened my mouth to argue but then a figure stepped out of the shadows and every drop of blood in my body turned to ice.

Kyle.

His smirk was the same as it had always been, cruel and mocking, the kind that once made me feel trapped with no way out. My knees weakened but I forced myself to stand tall.

“Well,” he drawled, his eyes flicking between me and Devon. “You did not waste time, did you, Adriana?”

Devon’s grip on my hand tightened painfully. “Who are you?” His voice was deadly calm.

Kyle ignored him, his gaze locked on me like he wanted to peel away every layer I had built to protect myself. “Did you tell him, little mate? Did you tell him how you begged me once, how you swore you belonged to me?”

My stomach twisted. Devon’s head snapped toward me so fast I thought I heard his neck crack.

I could not breathe.

Kyle laughed at my silence, a cold sound that scraped along my bones. “I should thank you. You running away gave me a reason to send those rogues sniffing after you. And now look where we are. You in another man’s bed while pretending you are innocent.”

“Enough,” Devon growled, his body vibrating with anger. His eyes glowed faintly in the darkness, his power barely contained. “Leave now before I rip you apart.” He takes a step forward.

But Kyle only grinned wider, like he had already won. Sowing his seed of discord. He stepped back into the shadows, his voice carrying through the night. “He will see the truth sooner or later, Adriana. And when he does, you will wish you had stayed with me.”

Then he was gone. Where did he even come from, there's supposed to be patrol at the border.

The forest was silent except for my heartbeat pounding in my ears. Devon turned to me slowly, his face unreadable.

“Adriana,” he said, his voice strained. “What did he mean?”

I opened my mouth but no words came. My throat closed and all the air seemed to vanish from the world.

Devon searched my eyes, waiting, demanding, needing. I could not answer him. I could not tell him everything, not here, not now.

The silence stretched between us until it felt like a chasm. My chest ached and my eyes burned. For the first time since meeting him I was afraid not of the world outside but of losing him.

I whispered his name but even to my own ears it sounded like a plea.

And deep inside me, a voice I could not silence asked the question I dreaded most. Would he still want me when he found out the truth I had kept from him?