Forbidden Heat

**Around ten years ago**

“Zak, come here. This is Natalia, my daughter. From now on, she’s your cousin. Isn’t it wonderful to have a sister?” Lucien said proudly to me as he introduced his newly acquired daughter.

Lucien just married this scrawny girl’s mother and now they are moving in to live with him which meant that they would be next door. This is my first time meeting her since my mother refused to attend their wedding, just like the other family members. I glanced at the girl’s mother; she looks so normal. Everyone says that she’s a gold digger and fooled Lucien into marrying her to get to his money. If you asked me, I think Lucien could have found a better-looking gold digger and one without an annoying-looking daughter.

“Hi…” I replied dryly without even bothering to fake a smile. I glanced towards my mansion hoping that my mother wasn’t watching this exchange. She had made it clear that she didn’t want me to talk or have anything to do with ‘that gold digger’s daughter’.

The girl, Natalia, was plain ugly. She was too thin. Her hair was a funny color and didn’t look well taken care of. Her face was common and…her eyes looked so lonely…

“Hi, my name is Natalia. Nice to meet you,” she said softly as she presented to me her best smile. I knew a fake smile once I see one because I’ve faked over a thousand of them over the course of my short life.

“Hi, I’m Zak,” I replied shortly without a smile.

with certainty. This girl, she’s the same as

…

introduced us to each other a few days after mother and I moved in to live with Lucien in his mansion. I felt very shy when I came face-to-face with Zak. Zak was already a very handsome boy back then. I wondered if all rich boys looked as

Natalia. Nice to meet you,” I said as I

be great if we could become friends. After all, he’s going to be my cousin and my neighbor from now on. However, I didn’t get my hopes up. I was well aware of what I must seemed like in his eyes

comfort of the big mansion except that it could get lonely sometime being in such a big place with so few people. The worst was my new school, a private school where selected few heirs and key family members of elite families could attend. Frankly, the school was forced to accept me in because I was now Lucien’s stepdaughter, and therefore,

outspoken about how disgusted they were that I was attending the same school as they are. I kept silent throughout it all. I

amazing and that I had many good friends. I wanted mother to be happy with her marriage and have no regrets. So, what if school life isn’t going so well for me? If my mother could be happy after all this time that she spent dealing with the hardship of being a single mum, then it

that he was here. What was surprising was that I was here too. He was two grades above me which made sense since he was two years older. Zak’s situation at school was

the top and honorable student, no one could miss it if they walked past it every day. Everyone was his fan, both the girls and the boys. They all refer to him as ‘The Prince’. Whenever, I went to the toilet, girls would gossip about Zak and

I did know for a fact was that the more they loved or admired Zak, the more they

and disgust in their eyes, and no one wanted to be physically close to me. When I walked into a crowded room or hallway, it would immediately become silent, and people would part to the side to make way for me to get through. I didn’t let it get to me though, if they didn’t want to be friends with me,