The Billionaire Stepbrother's Forbidden Claim
When Claudia’s mother marries into the powerful family, she gains two affectionate stepbrothers—and one who refuses to even look at her. Damien Mancini is cold, distant, and unreadable, a storm wrapped in silence. No one knows why he seems to despise her on sight… and Claudia is too stubborn, too warm-hearted, to let it go.
Raised to love loudly and tease playfully, Claudia makes it her mission to break through Damien’s walls, no matter how often he retreats behind them. What begins as curiosity becomes a challenge. A challenge becomes an obsession. And every time Damien slips—every accidental softness, every moment he protects her before he can think—Claudia feels herself pulling him in closer.
Damien tells himself it’s just acceptance, the slow forming of sibling-like affection.
But the truth hits harder.
It’s not acceptance.
It’s craving.
The more he fights it, the more he needs her—her voice, her laughter, her attention that burns like sunlight through every crack in his armor. And when he can’t stop himself from treating her differently—too gently, too specially—Claudia realizes the tension between them isn’t fading. It’s spiraling into something neither of them are supposed to feel.
In a home built on forced closeness and growing secrets, one thing becomes clear:
The line between hate and desire isn’t just thin—it's already been crossed.