Biker Stepbrother Read Online Free PDF Page B

my pale hair off my shoulder as my neck began to permeate with a nervous heat. My eyes danced around the room as echoes of dozens of conversations filled the air. Everyone was smiling. Laughing. Drinking. Watching me.
    Against my better judgment, I looked over at my mom. She threw me a look and then smiled before anyone had a chance to notice.
    I just have to get through tonight, then I can figure this out.
    I closed my eyes and slowed my breathing. The image of Gray came to my mind, almost bringing a smile to my lips. I wondered what he was doing and if he was thinking about me too, about that kiss.
    My fingers found my lips, tracing over the soft pillows Gray had claimed two nights earlier. I’d let him. I wanted it just as bad as he did, I just didn’t know how to reconcile those feelings at the time. Relief washed over me the second his lips found mine that night, and I took refuge in the fact that I wasn’t imagining the intensely unexpected magnetism between us.
    The clinking of a butter knife against a crystal water glass jerked my attention towards Holden, who was standing next to me like a king greeting his people. “Everyone, if I could just have your attention for one moment?”
    The room quieted. All eyes focused in our direction.
    “Thank you all so much for taking time from your busy schedules to join us tonight,” he said with a proud smirk. “I’d like to take this opportunity to ask a very important question to a very beautiful young woman.”
    A few sighs from women in the room filled the spaces between the silence. Holden reached into his left breast pocket and retrieved a blue Tiffany box.
    Wait? What happened to the red Cartier box?
    I knew I hadn’t imagined it. I saw that box. I saw the ring; the sparkling, dazzling, multiple-carat cushion-cut diamond. I forced a smile on my face and clasped my hand over my heart as if I were shocked.
    But what I really wanted to do was crawl into a hole. Hide away. Escape. Anything but be there right then, staring into the eyes of the man who I did not want to marry.
    “Eve Chadwick,” he said as he dropped to one knee. “Will you marry me?”
    I stared into his deep blue eyes and met his smile with a contrived one of my own. I could practically feel the stars of every single person in that room as they burned into my back. I couldn’t say no. I couldn’t embarrass Sterling or my mom or make a scene. People like us didn’t behave that way. We dealt with our issues in private, and we were to always pretend as if everything was perfectly fine at all times otherwise.
    “Yes,” I said. The words left an sour taste in my mouth, and I wished I could take them back. I didn’t want to marry Holden. I didn’t even want to be with him anymore.
    Holden slipped the simple, round diamond onto my finger and stood up to kiss me. I felt nothing.
    Our group of spectators erupted in classy claps and polite cheers. Mom and Sterling’s faces were covered in the happiest grins I’d ever seen.
    “Champagne toast!” Sterling yelled. Out of nowhere servers appeared with tray upon tray of filled champagne flutes, and knowing Sterling, he’d spared no expense and splurged for Cristal.
    I spent the remainder of the evening gushing about how happy I was. It took all of my energy to sell myself enough to convince everyone that I wasn’t planning on leaving him the next change I got.
    I watched Holden throughout the night, asking myself if he really was happy. Holden loved a lot of things, but I wasn’t sure he was truly capable of loving someone the way you should when you want to spend your life with them. He’d always made me feel more like an accessory than anything else. A pretty girl on his arm at parties. A piece of ass to keep him warm at night.
    Mom always told me that’s how things were. True love didn’t really exist. It was all a bunch of chemicals and hormones that went away eventually, so women may as well marry for money.
    “Only stupid women marry for