My One-Night Stand Is My Billionaire Stepbrother.

Chapter 16

For a heartbeat, the world stopped spinning.

The sharp, digital click of the camera shutter felt like a gunshot echoing through the quiet, marble-lined corridor. My lips parted from Ethan’s, my chest heaving as the cold air of the hallway rushed between us, instantly freezing the feverish warmth of our kiss.

We both snapped our heads toward the opening of the alcove.

Standing in the dim light, a sleek smartphone raised in his hand, was a young, ambitious-looking reporter. His eyes gleamed with the predatory, ecstatic look of a man who had just secured a lottery ticket.

"Well, well," the reporter whispered, a slow, toxic smirk spreading across his face. "The Kingston step-siblings. This is going to be the front page of the morning edition."

Panic, cold and sharp, flooded my veins. My hand flew to my mouth, my knees trembling so violently I would have collapsed if Ethan’s heavy frame wasn't still pinning me against the marble pillar, but Ethan didn't panic.

With the terrifying, predatory stillness that made him a legend in the corporate world, he stepped out of the alcove. He shielded me entirely with his broad shoulders, his shadow swallowing the reporter whole.

"Delete it," Ethan said. His voice was incredibly quiet, but it carried a lethal, low-frequency vibration that made the reporter’s smirk falter for a fraction of a second.

"I don't think so, Mr. Kingston," the reporter said, taking a cautious step back but keeping his thumb poised over the screen. "A scandal of this caliber? The squeaky-clean, newly blended Kingston family built on a lie? The board will pull out of the maritime acquisition by tomorrow morning. Your father’s stock prices will plummet."

"I am going to give you exactly one opportunity to walk away from this with your life and your career intact," Ethan murmured, his slate-grey eyes locking onto the man with terrifying focus. "Name your price, because if that image leaves this hallway, there is no corner of this earth you can hide in where my security team won't find you."

The reporter swallowed hard, the sheer, crushing weight of Ethan's authority finally registering. "Five million, untraceable, and I want a signed contract for an exclusive consulting position at Kingston Holdings’ media division."

"Done," Ethan said without a single second of hesitation. He reached into his tuxedo jacket, pulling out a sleek black card, and handed it to the man. "My private security detail will contact you in exactly ten minutes to transfer the funds and secure the raw files. If a single copy of that photo exists anywhere else, the deal is off, and I will personally ensure you spend the rest of your life in a federal prison. Now, get out of my sight."

The reporter grabbed the card, his face pale, and vanished down the corridor as if the devil himself were chasing him.

The moment he was gone, the silence of the corridor rushed back in, heavy and suffocating.

I leaned back against the cold marble pillar, a sob escaping my throat. "Ethan... oh my god. If Richard had seen... if my mother saw..."

Ethan didn't reach out to comfort me. He didn't wrap his arms around me or whisper that everything was going to be okay. He stood a few feet away, his back turned to me, his shoulders rigid and tense beneath his tailored tuxedo jacket.

When he finally turned around, his face was a mask of absolute, unyielding stone. The warmth, the desire, the wild passion that had consumed him moments ago had been completely extinguished, leaving behind nothing but cold, dead ashes.

"We are going back to the gala," Ethan said, his voice flat, formal, and entirely dead. "We will smile for the cameras, we will stand beside our parents, and when we go home tonight, Aurora... we pretend this night never happened."

"Ethan…"

"I am protecting this family," he interrupted, his grey eyes flashing with a sudden, agonizing harshness. "And the only way to protect them... is to stay away from you.”