Page 14 of Heartless Stepbrother

Our eyes met.

The world fell still.

The ocean behind me, the breeze that had danced across my skin moments ago, they vanished. Or maybe they just dulled beneath the weight of his stare. A stare that pinned me where Istood, that stripped past skin and bone and rooted deep in places I didn’t want anyone to see. Cold. Amused. Dangerous.

There was no mistaking him for what he was.

Even cloaked in shadow and sin, even half-naked on a beach where no one was supposed to be, he looked like he belonged there. Like this was his kingdom, and I was the fool who’d trespassed.

He didn’t look away.

He didn’t blink.

He looked right into my soul.

The girl beside him made a small sound. Something between a sigh and a whimper. Her face remained hidden in the shadows, irrelevant somehow, fading into the periphery as the boy calmly, almost arrogantly, fastened his pants. His movements were slow, practiced, confident in a way that made my stomach knot and my cheeks blaze with heat.

He wasn’t flustered. Not even close.

This wasn’t his first time being caught. And probably wouldn’t be the last.

And still… he held my gaze like he was daring me to flinch first.

A fresh wave of heat surged through me, humiliation, panic,something else, and I hated that I didn’t turn away sooner. Hated the tiny, involuntary tremor in my hands. Hated the part of me that was still watching.Still breathing him in.

I had to say something.Anything.

“I— Oh my god,” I stammered, the words crashing out in a whisper that felt too small, too human. “I didn’t see… I mean, I wasn’t— I didn’t know anyone was—“

I stopped. Swallowed. Tried again.

“I was just walking.” I gestured vaguely toward the shoreline, my arm stiff and awkward like it didn’t belong to me. “I didn’t mean to… see anything.”

My voice cracked.

He didn’t answer.

Didn’t move.

Didn’t even blink.

The girl looked down, avoiding everything, me, him, the sea. But the boy… he stood like he was carved from stone and darkness, watching me drown in my own discomfort with a quiet, maddening fascination.

I took a step back, the sand sucking at my heel, a softshhffthat sounded far too loud.

“I’ll just go,” I whispered, barely managing to keep my voice from shaking. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

But something in his expression shifted then, just slightly. Like a predator watching prey bolt too soon.

His lips curled.

Not a smile.

Not quite.

But something worse.

Something promising.