My Shameful Secret (Forbidden Stepbrother Billionaire Romance) (4 page)

Another step, and I was just a few feet away from him.
 

Girls even younger than me did this all the time. There was nothing wrong about saying ‘hi’ to a boy and showing interest first. Right?

I took one last step, and I now stood directly behind him.

I opened my mouth to speak, but suddenly Elizabeth was calling me from behind. “Misha!”

The stranger in front of me stiffened, and I gasped when he started to turn.
 

Act cool, act natural, act—

Our eyes met.

My jaw dropped, and my heart nearly shuddered into a stop.

Saehan?

The guy whose sexy back I was crushing on – the guy I planned to hit on – was my own brother?
 

SAEHAN

Shock immobilized me at suddenly finding my sister standing right behind me. What was Misha doing?
 

Our eyes met, and what I saw in her expressive gaze had me sucking my breath sharply.

My sister wasn’t looking at me like I was just her brother.

Right now, for whatever reason, my sister had just become aware I was also a man.

A man…she seemed attracted to.

The realization had me fighting against the sense of headiness that fell over me.

She was still staring at me, and I let her, enjoying the way her mesmerized eyes slowly trailed over my body. When she wetted her lips, I almost groaned. Did she know – did she have any fucking idea what seeing her like that did to me?

My sister. Misha was my sister,
I reminded myself desperately. I had to remember that.

“Saehan?”
 

Misha’s whisper of my name had my eyes jerking back to hers. She gazed at me like she couldn’t believe it was me. Like she hoped it wasn’t me.

Fuck.
 

If only she knew…

I hoped for the same thing, too.
 

It was the one thing I wanted the most in the world, but it was impossible. She was my sister, and I was her brother.

“Misha.” She trembled at the sound of my voice, and I fucking loved the way her chest rose and fell in reaction to it. I loved it, even though I knew it was wrong.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Everything about this was wrong.

My head lowered, the realization of what I was supposed to do causing me to feel the most agonizing pain.

“There you are, you two.” It was Hector’s voice.

When I looked up, our parents had joined us, both of them beaming. I could only stand still as Hector and Elizabeth embraced me. When they stepped back, Elizabeth exclaimed, “I thought you wouldn’t be able to meet us.”

I managed a smile. “I wanted to surprise you guys.”

Hector grinned. “We
were
surprised. But I bet the happiest among us is this little one.” He ruffled Misha’s hair. “She could barely sit still the entire flight, she was so excited to see you.”

When Misha blushed at our dad’s words, my body reacted to the sight. It was as if my cock had suddenly developed its own brain, and all it wanted was to stay erect with every little thing my sister did.

“Go and give your brother a hug,” Elizabeth prodded.

I stiffened even as Misha protested, “Mom!”

I couldn’t let her fucking hug me now, not with my dick rock hard against my pants. She only had to come into the slightest bit of contact with my body, and she’d know right away.

I wanted her, and not in the way a brother should.
 

“It’s okay, Mom,” I drawled just as Misha took a step towards me. “I wouldn’t want anyone mistaking her as my girlfriend.”

My parents laughed. To them, the words were no big deal.

But to Misha…

My heart clenched at the flash of hurt in her eyes. After the dig I made about her when she was thinking of going on a date with another boy, I knew the words would hurt.

The way they were meant to.

From now on, for her sake and mine, it would be the only way I could talk to her.

Part II: The Kiss

1

“
You’re so nice
.” People told her that all the time, and Misha thought the same of them.
They
were so nice as well. So much so they couldn’t make themselves say what they really thought.

Everyone thought she was
too
nice, bordering on naïve. Misha thought the same thing herself, too, until…today.

Alone in one of the tables at the back of McDonald’s, she had been waiting for Elizabeth to pick her up when she heard a couple of girls laughingly make their way to the table across hers.

As Misha rummaged through her things, looking for something to while the time away, she heard one of them gush, “I can’t believe it.”

“Mm hmm…” was the coy reply.

“You really did it with him? Really?”

At her words, Misha quickly pulled out a book from her backpack and opened it randomly. She felt like she needed it to hide her face behind. It didn’t feel right, being able to hear what they were talking about. But at the same time, she couldn’t stop herself from listening in. It was just so fascinating, something that would never happen in
her
world. Even though she was about to graduate from high school in a few months, her life hadn’t changed at all. Her time was divided between school and home, with nothing in between.

“Up to you if you don’t want to believe me.” The words were drawled in a quietly smug voice. It had Misha curious enough to lower the book a little so she could peek at the speaker’s face.

Misha recognized the other girl immediately. It was none other than Jannie Ellens, a girl who graduated the same year as her brother. Also, the girl who had once caused Misha to throw a tantrum because Jannie had told her she didn’t have a brother.

Suddenly, she didn’t want to hear anymore. She had a bad feeling about this.

“You have to tell me what happened.
Please.
Take pity!” Jannie’s redhead friend begged.

Jannie feigned a deep sigh. “Oh…
fine
.”

As they talked, Misha did her best to block out the sound of their voices, but it was impossible.

“Where did you do it?” When Jannie named an expensive hotel downtown, Redhead Girl gasped, asking, “Isn’t that his mother’s place? His real mother, I mean?”

The sick feeling in Misha’s stomach worsened. In their small town, she could only think of
one
person whose mother owned a hotel – an entire hotel chain in fact.

Deep inside, she already knew who they were talking about, but a part of her still wanted to deny it.

Jannie boasted, “He booked the penthouse suite for us and it was…” She sighed again. “It was just beautiful.” Her voice lowered a notch, but her tone was just as smug as she revealed, “And we did it in every room in that suite.” A smile curved on her lips as she emphasized, “
Every
room.”

Redhead Girl shrieked in excitement at the words, and everyone turned to look at them.
 

Jannie laughed. “Will you shut up? You’ll have everyone knowing I did it with Saehan Charbonneau.” But she said the words so loudly it was obvious she really did want everyone to know.

Misha’s heart dropped like a stone.
 

She had always known her brother was far from being a saint. She only had to check gossip sites online to know who he was dating, who he was…
fucking.
 

But all these years, she had stopped herself from finding out.

Until now.

It was her first time to hear about Saehan and another girl, and it didn’t feel right. It felt like the most excruciating…
betrayal.

A moment later, and her phone vibrated in her pocket. Taking it out, Misha almost laughed hysterically at the name that showed on her screen. Oh, the irony.
 

Saehan Charbonneau.
 

Her brother.

Saehan
: Mom’s going to be late. I’ll be the one to pick you up instead.

Misha
: Okay.

They used to have longer conversations than this. Conversations that were also more fun, more…affectionate. But ever since his graduation in England, things had changed between them.

In the background, Misha heard Jannie and her friend talking again—

“Fourteen inches, Jen,” Jannie stressed. “
Fourteen!”

Misha whitened when she realized what they were talking about.

“…it was the longest I had ever seen, and oh, the way Saehan could keep it up for so long…I was
exhausted.”

Misha’s hands shook as she lowered her book to the table.

“…would you believe I passed out?”

Suddenly, she could picture it so clearly.

Jannie and Saehan in one bed, their naked bodies straining against each other. Jannie’s arms going around Saehan’s neck, her nails raking over the smooth hard panes of his back as he reared up and thrust—

Misha’s phone vibrated in her pocket again, cutting the scene short. She felt like catching her breath as she fumbled for her phone. It wasn’t a good kind of breathless, though. It was the kind that made breathing hurt, a lot.

Saehan
: I’ll be there in 15. Maybe 20. Can you still wait?

Misha
: Yes.

Saehan: Are you okay? Did something happen?

Jannie was telling her friend she was sure Saehan would call her again. Would take her to the hotel again.

Saehan
: Misha?

Misha
: There’s a girl here. She’s saying things about you.

Saehan
: WHAT THINGS?

Misha
: Like, how you took her to the hotel…and did…stuff.

Saehan didn’t reply.
 

That was fine. She knew what was going to happen.

Five minutes later, and he was there.

Everyone at the place sort of sat up at his presence, and the way they looked at him made Misha feel so foolish.
 

Why had she never noticed this before? Why was she realizing just now how, to everyone else in town, he wasn’t just Saehan Charbonneau, a former high school quarterback, the son of Hector and Elizabeth Charbonneau?
 

They looked at him like he was royalty, and to them, he probably was. His mother was Vivian St. Clair - England’s wealthiest woman entrepreneur – and he was the sole heir of all her billions.

If not for a twist of fate, he should have been royalty to Misha, too.
 

Everyone was staring at him, but Saehan didn’t seem to notice. He wore a grimly furious expression - one Misha knew she was to blame for.

She should feel guilty for that, but she didn’t. Right now, she just felt…different.
Terrifyingly
different.

Saehan found her the exact time Jannie realized he was there. Her friend Jen had realized the same thing, too, and she gasped excitedly, “Oh my God, is he stalking you?”

“Of course not.” But Jannie ruined it by giggling and tossing her hair over her shoulder. Silence followed, and Misha knew she was confidently waiting for her brother to look at her.

But he didn’t.

He couldn’t since he was still staring at Misha. She could feel it, even though she was busy pretending she was checking her phone, unable to find the courage to see how things unfolded from here.
 

“Who is she?” Misha heard Jen whisper.

“I’m not quite sure.” This time, Jannie’s voice was tight. Chairs scraped against the floor as she and her friend stood up. A moment later, and Misha heard her cooing, “Saehan.”