My One-Night Stand Is My Billionaire Stepbrother.

Chapter 12

My heart leaped into my throat.

I spun around, my hand trembling as it rested on the cool brass doorknob. There was only one person in this house who would knock on my door at this hour. Richard and my mother had already retired to their suite in the east wing.

Slowly, silently, I turned the lock and cracked the door open.

Ethan was standing in the dim hallway. He had already discarded his tie, the top buttons of his shirt undone, his dark hair slightly disheveled. He looked exhausted, the sharp angles of his face cast in deep shadow, but his eyes were wide, bright, and wild with an intensity that terrified me.

Before I could speak, he pushed the door open, stepped into my room, and closed it behind him, clicking the lock into place.

"Ethan, what are you doing?" I whispered, stepping back into the center of my bedroom. "Someone will hear you. If Richard walks past…"

"I don't care," Ethan rasped, his voice rough and raw. He strode toward me, stopping only when he was a foot away, his presence completely filling the room. "I've spent three weeks watching you pretend. I've spent three weeks listening to them talk about a baby that is supposed to cement this sick, perfect family dynamic."

"It's not sick," I whispered, though my voice lacked any real conviction. "It's... it's their life, they are happy."

"And what about us, Aurora?" Ethan stepped closer, his chest nearly touching mine. The heat radiating off him was a dizzying contrast to the cold distance he had maintained for weeks. "Are we just supposed to wipe our memories? Am I supposed to look at you at the office, or across the dinner table, and pretend I don't know the exact curve of your waist? Pretend I didn't taste you in the dark?"

"Yes!" I cried out softly, a tear finally slipping down my cheek. "We have to! Don't you see? There is a baby coming, Ethan, a real baby. That child will be my sibling. It will be your sibling. If we... if we do this, we destroy everything. We make our love something disgusting."

"I don't care what the world calls it," Ethan growled, his composure completely snapping.

He reached out, his large hands grabbing my waist and pulling me flush against his hard frame. The impact knocked the breath from my lungs. He tilted his head down, his lips brushing against mine as he spoke, his breath hot and desperate.

"I tried, Aurora. I swear to God I tried to be the brother. I tried to be the professional boss, but every time I look at you, all I see is the girl behind the mask. All I want is the only thing I'm not allowed to have."

He captured my lips in a fierce, desperate kiss that tasted of salt, tears, and absolute ruin. It was different from the kitchen. This wasn't a slow build; it was a violent collision of weeks of suppressed agony. I sobbed into his mouth, my hands clawing at his shoulders, pulling him closer even as the logical part of my brain screamed at me to stop.

We fell backward onto my bed, the heavy weight of his body settling over mine, pinning me to the mattress. He kissed me like a dying man, his hands tangling in my hair, pulling me into him as if he could weld our bodies together.

..but as my hands slid under his shirt, tracing the familiar muscles of his back, a sudden, sharp sound from the hallway made us both freeze.

It was the distinct, heavy sound of Richard's footsteps, accompanied by his low voice on a phone call, stopping directly outside my bedroom door.