His Brother's Sin

CHAPTER FIVE

Jasmine kept thinking about Michael. He wasn’t just good-looking, he was distracting. The kind

of man that made it hard to finish a sentence with his presence. She couldn't sleep, she kept

thinking about how low his voice was, smooth, the kind that wrapped around your spine and

pulled you closer before you even realized it.

“I must be crazy. Why do I keep thinking about him? He saved my mom, that's all. Ugh”,

Jasmine said to herself.

Finally, she slept.

The first thing she noticed was the silence. Just… stillness.

And then…..

Him.

He sat a few steps away, exactly as she remembered in the restaurant… and yet not. Softer

somehow. The sharp edges of reality blurred, like the world itself had bent just to make space

for him.

“You’re staring,” he said, his voice quieter here, but no less steady.

She swallowed, her pulse quickening for no reason she could explain. “You’re not supposed to

be here.”

A faint smile touched his lips, slowly standing, knowing.

“And yet, here I am.”

Something in her chest tightened.

He took a step closer.

Then another.

Each movement is unhurried, deliberate.

Her breath caught as the distance between them disappeared, her body reacting before her

mind could catch up. Heat crept up her spine, unfamiliar and unwelcome, yet impossible to

ignore.“Tell me to stop,” he murmured.

But she didn’t.

Couldn’t.

Her fingers curled slightly at her sides as he reached out, his hand hovering just near her arm,

not touching, not yet but close enough that she felt it anyway.

The anticipation.

The pull.

The way her entire body seemed to lean toward him without permission.

“You shouldn’t want this,” she whispered, though she wasn’t sure if she was talking to him or

herself.

His gaze dropped briefly to her lips before lifting again, darker now.

“Then why don’t you walk away?”

She tried. She really did. But her feet refused to move.

And when his hand finally brushed against her skin, light, barely there, it sent a sharp, electric

warmth through her, stealing the air from her lungs.

Too much.

Too close.

Too real.

Her heart pounded as his other hand came up, slowly, as if giving her time to stop him.

She didn’t.

Instead, she felt herself lean in, drawn by something she couldn’t control, couldn’t understand

and just as his breath ghosted against her lips…

She woke up.

Her eyes snapped open, breath uneven, heart racing against her ribs.

The ceiling of her room came into view, bright and familiar.Reality.

She turned her head sharply, as if expecting to see him standing there.

He wasn’t.

Of course he wasn’t.

But the feeling lingered.

The warmth. The closeness. The way her body had responded so easily, so dangerously.

Her fingers tightened against the sheets.

“This is bad,” she whispered to herself.

Because the man invading her dream might be the last person she should ever want.

She got up to take a shower and hurried downstairs. Clara was already waiting as they

scheduled a salon date together.

“Having the chills of resuming Aat your new job?”, Clara asked.

“No, nothing like that. I just had a dream and I couldn't sleep early last night”, she said.

“Care to share?”

“Nope, this one is personal”, she said with a little laugh.