Chapter Two

Asher

I stayed frozen, my eyes locked on him. Jace stopped dead, his hand still on the bathroom doorframe. He didn't expect me to just barge in. The silence in the room was deafening, broken only by the water dripping from his dark hair onto the hardwood floor.

But then, right in front of my eyes, it happened. His dick twitched, then started to harden, growing even thicker and impossibly long.

My brain snapped. I felt the blood drain from my face. "What the fuck?" I shrieked, stepping back so fast I almost tripped over my own feet. "Are you fucking gay?!" I yelled, half-panicked, half-disbelieving.

A violent flush of red crept up Jace's neck. He snatched a white towel from the rack and wrapped it tightly around his waist, though it barely did a thing to hide the massive, jutting bulge underneath.

"What the hell are you doing in my room, Asher?" he snapped, his voice lower and huskier than usual, his chest heaving slightly.

My heart was pounding against my ribs like a trapped bird. I couldn't breathe. My throat was completely dry. Every single word of the furious, self-righteous speech I had prepared completely evaporated from my brain. I stood there staring at him like an idiot.

"You're... you're sick!" I stuttered, my face burning.

I spun around, cursing under my breath, and sprinted blindly back down the hall, slamming my bedroom door shut behind me and locking it.

The next morning was pure hell. By the time I walked through the front doors of the school, I was officially the biggest joke on campus.

In the cafeteria, people pointed and whispered the second I walked by. "That's the guy," I heard a cheerleader mutter. "His stepbrother literally took his girl right in front of him."

In the hallway between third and fourth period, a massive meathead from Jace's hockey team deliberately shouldered into me. My textbooks went crashing to the linoleum floor, papers scattering everywhere.

"Watch your step, nerd," the guy sneered, high-fiving his buddy while I scrambled on my hands and knees to pick up my notes.

I couldn't take the stares anymore. I skipped my afternoon classes and hid in the most remote, dusty corner of the school library, sitting on the floor behind the biography section. I stayed there until the librarian announced closing time.

Just as I was packing up my bag at an empty table, a girl slid into the chair across from me. It was Chloe.

She pushed a steaming paper cup across the wood table. "Hot cocoa," she said softly, offering a sympathetic smile. "You look like you need it."

I stared at her, confused and defensive. "Why are you talking to me?"

She rolled her eyes, leaning forward. "Because I'm sick of Jace acting like he owns this school. He's an arrogant bully." She took a sip of her own coffee. "I think you're a good guy, Asher. You're just misunderstood."

My chest tightened. I looked at her pretty face, searching for a joke, but she looked completely sincere. She was the very first person who hadn't treated me like a disease because of Jace.

Over the next few days, Chloe became my lifeline. We went to midnight movies just to get out of the house, and we sat in the library studying together until our eyes burned. When I vented to her about Jace, about how much I hated living in his shadow, she didn't judge me. She just patted my shoulder, her touch soft and reassuring, and listened to every word.

For the first time in years, I felt like I'd found an escape hatch. I finally had something of my own that Jace hadn't tainted.

Friday afternoon, we were standing on the steps outside the library.

"I'll see you tomorrow?" Chloe asked, smiling up at me. Before I could answer, she stepped up on her tiptoes and pressed a soft, lingering kiss to my cheek.

A rush of relief hit me. A smile tugged at my lips, but before it could fully form, a hand clamped around my wrist like a steel vice.

I was violently yanked backward, stumbling on the concrete. Jace was standing right behind me.

His face was thunderous, his jaw locked so tight a muscle twitched in his cheek.

"Stay away from Chloe," he gritted out, his voice a low, lethal growl that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. He glared at her over my shoulder. "She's not who you think she is."

"Get the fuck off me!" I roared, violently jerking my arm out of his grip. I took a step forward, putting myself directly between him and Chloe. "Why do you care?!" I screamed at him, not caring who heard us. "Isn't it enough that you steal one girlfriend after another? You have to ruin this for me too?"

Jace stared down at me.

He took a step back, his expression turning to ice. "You're going to regret this," he said coldly, turning his back on us and walking away without another word.

As soon as he was out of sight, Chloe grabbed my arm. "How can he treat you like this?" she whispered, her voice breaking. "I just want us to be happy together. Why does he always have to target us?"

"It's okay," I said, pulling her into a tight hug. My hatred for my stepbrother burned hotter than ever in my chest.

Chloe looked up, her expression dead serious. "Asher, we need to settle this. Let's arrange a time to talk to Jace. The three of us. We need to make it clear that he has to stop bothering us."

I swallowed hard, my stomach twisting. "I don't know... he's out of his mind."

"I know you're afraid of him," she said softly, squeezing my hand. "But this time, I'll be right there with you. We'll face him together."

She pulled out her phone and started typing rapidly. "I've sent him a message to meet us tomorrow night at eight. At the downtown hotel." She looked at me, her eyes fierce and determined. "Don't worry, he won't dare try anything."

I looked at her determined eyes, then nodded slowly. I thought this was our final chance to break free from Jace's shadow.