Page 24 of Overdosed: Her Dark Side
Anders turned to face me, delicately gripping my wrist in his hand. His eyes locked with mine. “What would you do if I said I don’t care about our deal anymore?” he asked, his voice soft and calm, alluring.
“Anders…” I hesitated, my lips parting, but no words would escape them.
“What if we married, for real, and you stay with me... forever?”
My eyes shut briefly, and a deep sigh escaped my lungs. “How do you imagine it?” I met his gaze again. “You know why I have agreed to all of this in the first place. So, I could live my life without the fear of Shane finding out about Hope. If I had stayed in New York, with you, do I keep her a secret her whole life?”
Anders’s lips pulled together, and his head tilted. As if in a snap of fingers, suddenly his eyes seemed dark, and so did his tone, “Is this the only issue? Or is it about me? Or, I should say, that I’m not him.”
I shook my head. And kept shaking it. My brows twitched. “You better work on yourself first before you start a relationship. You have real big-brother issues.” I headed toward the door, but he caught me.
“Melanie, wait,” he breathed. His gaze held me captive. He brushed my hair aside, releasing a scoff.
I narrowed my eyes. “What? Why the scoff?”
His fingers trailed their path down my neck until they reached the collar and he grabbed to look closer. “It’s his shirt.” A scoff escaped his mouth. “You kept it all these years.”
I trembled. Why did I feel so intimidated whenever he was close? But Anders’ twistedness would never cease to amaze me. Slowly, he began to unbutton his shirt. His fingers pushed each button through its hole, one by one. And each button-down sent a shudder through me. And yet, I couldn’t do anything but stare at him.
“I don’t want you to wear his clothes.” His raspy voice rang in my ears as he leaned in closer to whisper. “I don’t want you to keep anything that belonged to him.” He leaned back, his eyes drifted back to meet mine. I felt as if his gaze was piercing right through me. Never breaking eye contact, he slowly peeled the shirt from my body. It fell to the floor, pooling around my legs. His fingers delicately traced my bare skin, sending a wave of sensation up my back.
“Damn, Melanie,” he breathed heavily. “I’ve been thinking about your lips ever since our kiss back in my office.” His gaze dropped to my lips, and he bit his lower lip.
In a swift motion, he pinned me against the wall. His face nestled in my neck, trailing slow kisses down to my collarbone.
“I’ve been fantasizing about you, Melanie,” he whispered against my skin. His hand descended my back, fingers tracing my spine. Warm breath, gentle nibbles, and teasing kisses made my body shiver. His touch was slow and gentle, deliberate, as if savoring each second. “How I would make your body quiver. How your legs would shake wrapped around my neck,” he spoke in a deep, low tone, marking each word with a kiss.
“Anders, stop it,” I hardly managed to mutter. I knew it wasn’t right. He was my baby daddy’s brother, and that was a boundary I couldn’t cross, but my body shivered under his touch making goosebumps rise in their wake.
“You don’t want me to stop.” He placed another kiss, this time on my arm before his eyes met mine. His hand found my inner thigh, inching upward. His eyes filled with intense lust.
My eyes closed shut, his heavy breath now against my ear.
“The way your body quivers in my arms has a seriously fucked-up effect on me. It fills me with insane desire,” he growled. “It makes me want to hold you up against this wall and thrust deep inside you.” He breathed heavily, slowly leaning down until I felt his lips on mine.
At first, the kiss was soft and slow, careful. Anders steadily deepened the kiss until it became possessive and demanding, heated, sliding in his tongue that danced around mine lustfully. His hand on the back of my head, his other trailing down my back, his lips on mine, and his tongue intruding. His lips moved to my neck, teasing bites sent waves of heat through my system. I was lost in the moment. My body responded involuntarily to his touch, succumbing to the sinful lust that engulfed me. For a moment, I lost control over my senses. I let myself indulge in the sinful desire that consumed me. My mind was clouded with lust. My body responded to his touch automatically. For a moment.
“Stop; it’s not right,” I moaned, trying to escape his embrace. “Shane, please…” I sighed, and in an instant, Anders pulled away.
“Shane?” He braced one hand above my head, clenched the other into a fist, and struck the wall behind me. His jaw tightened, his gaze turning black with rage. “Fuck!” his hiss rang in my ears in sync with the bang above my head, making me jump involuntarily.
Just then, mere seconds after Shane’s name involuntarily slipped my lips, we heard loud bangs on the door from downstairs.
“Guess we have a guest,” Anders growled, his clenching fists visibly shaking as if he struggled to contain his rage. Throwing me a deadly stare, he hissed, “I want you to stay upstairs with Hope. No matter what.” He hit the doorframe with force on his way out.
Instinctively, I seized Shane’s shirt from the floor and hastily put it on. I peered through the window, my gaze following Anders walking outside to Shane. My heart pounded with an intensity I had never felt before.
Why is he here at this hour? He was supposed to be away in Italy. When did he return? Why did he come here so suddenly? Did he discover the truth about Hope?
A myriad of questions ran through my mind. Anxiety crept in. But when I saw Shane pointing a gun at Anders, my blood ran cold. In an instant, I rushed down the stairs and outside, hoping we could avoid a tragedy.
“Just stop it already!” I cried out, but neither of them showed any sign of relenting. But it was when I heard Hope’s voice reaching me from behind, I felt as if the very ground beneath my feet had disintegrated into nothingness.
“Mommy,” she cried quietly, and my heart sank.
Shane’s stunned gaze landed on me. I felt like I was suffocating, drowning in a sea of lies and deceit that I had woven myself. That was it. Checkmate.
Game over.
