All Chapters of My Bruised Heart: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

MILES My mother was unusually quiet for the next few days. No insults. No orders. Not even a glance in my direction. And it was driving me fucking crazy. She wasn’t ignoring me out of kindness. No, that wasn’t her style. This was something else—something calculated. A new way to get under my skin. A different kind of punishment. It was working. I felt like I was pacing myself into madness, wearing a trench into the thin carpet of my room. Maybe it was the silence. Maybe it was the anxiety of not knowing when the other shoe would drop. Or maybe it was the suffocating realization that, despite everything, I was still waiting for her to acknowledge me. Like a fucking idiot. She had better things to do, anyway. Like preparing to move into the mansion with Mr. Black. Apparently, the man was so eager to merge our families that we weren’t even waiting until after the wedding. He insisted it would help us all bond. Like we weren’t just strangers forced under the same roof. I wouldn

DOM It was her. I pressed the nail of my thumb into my palm just to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. Yes. It was her. Miles Valentine. The name rolled through my mind like a whisper, wrapping around something deep and primal inside me. She was the girl who threw me completely off my game last night. The girl who wiped the floor with me in eight-ball. The girl who smirked at me like she knew she was going to win before the game even started. The girl who called me an asshole four times in a row just to see what I’d do about it. And now she was sitting at my family’s dining table. I had to be losing my goddamn mind. She hadn’t looked at me. Not even once. That should have been a good thing. It should have made it easier. But instead, I found myself staring, waiting, wanting—for what, I wasn’t sure. A glance. A smirk. Even an insult. Something to tell me last night hadn’t just been some drunken fluke, that she hadn’t completely forgotten. I watched as she picked at h

DOM My father replaced the dining room table. It was about half the size of the previous one. He said something about eating in a more comfortable setting where we could bond and get to know each other. It was bullshit. Since when did he care about creating bonds other than the ones in his law firm? Miles attempted to sit next to her mother, but Marcus beat her to it, plopping himself in the chair with a smirk. The table had six chairs on each side, with one at each end. My father sat where he always did, at the head, with Ms. Valentine adjacent to him. I took my usual place next to my father. That left Miles with three choices: sit next to Marcus, sit next to me, or make things awkward by sitting further away. She hesitated. For a second, she actually looked like she might turn around and walk right the fuck out. "Come sit next to Dom, Miles," my father said, deciding for her. I didn’t miss the way her mother’s tight smile deepened as Miles dragged her feet to the empty chair

MILES Dominic Black was full of shit if he thought I couldn't see past his asshole facade. I saw it in his eyes—the way he flipped like a switch, slipping from interest to indifference, from curiosity to anger. They were emotions I knew well. Except, lately, I found myself feeling nothing at all. I thought maybe I could spark something up by reading some dark romance. For a moment, I had escaped into the book. I felt. Just felt. And then, of course, the sexy asshole who would be my soon-to-be stepbrother invaded my space and yanked me out of my peace. I hadn't meant to make his nose bleed, but it was his fault for sneaking up behind me while I was in the middle of a steamy scene. He had it coming. Still, I felt bad. I'd never made anyone bleed before. Instincts I didn’t know I had had taken over, and at first, I’d been shocked. He didn’t deserve my care, let alone my kindness, but… I was already on the receiving end of someone else’s pain. I’d be damned if I became the cause of an

DOM I was just about to turn in for the night when I heard a knock on my door. I sighed, dragging myself out of bed, wincing as my muscles protested. Practice had been brutal, my body sore and heavy like a goddamn lead weight. I had just gotten comfortable, and now someone was banging on my door like their life depended on it. What the hell? The knocking turned into pounding. I swore under my breath and yanked open the door, ready to chew out whoever it was— But then Miles rushed past me. What the fuck? My hand stayed frozen on the doorknob, my mouth open with whatever insult I had ready, but the second I turned, my words died in my throat. Something was wrong. She was still in that damn sundress. The soft yellow fabric hugged her curves, the tie straps slipping slightly off her shoulders as she moved. But the girl in front of me wasn’t the teasing, sharp-mouthed Miles from dinner. Her eyes were wild, pupils blown so big they swallowed the silver in them. Her breathing was e