by Lana Grayson
“Saved from what?”
“He’s going to kill you, Sarah.”
The shiver rocked me. I fell against the desk.
“You said your father wasn’t a murderer,” I whispered.
“I said he hadn’t murdered.” Nicholas curled his hands into fists. “Not that he wouldn’t. He wants the heir, but he’ll protect the family first. If he finds out you’re infertile and there’s no way to trade for the stock, he will kill you to save the company.”
“Christ.” Reed stole the whiskey from Max. He swore after the gulp. “What the fuck are we supposed to do?”
“He’ll kill you too, Reed,” Max said. “Selling your shares? Are you an idiot? If you die, your portion reverts back to the family. He’d slice your throat before letting you make a deal with Sarah.”
“He’ll do it anyway,” Nicholas said. My heart thudded with a newfound sorrow. I didn’t want to think about it—didn’t want to imagine them in danger. “Dad forced me to convince you to help. That’s why I pushed you to take Sarah. If you didn’t, he said he’d kill you. I believed him.”
Enough blood threatened to spill. Reed and Max stared at their brother. My tears prickled.
Would any of us survive this?
What was left to win?
Nicholas sighed. “Sarah, if you aren’t pregnant by the time you’re twenty-one, my father will murder you to avoid losing the company.”
“But…I can’t. The doctors said…”
“Did they say there was a chance?” Reed asked.
“Slim, if any at all.” I wasn’t about to give them hope. “But it won’t happen. I have to get away from Darius. That’s the only thing we can do.”
Max snorted. “You can’t hide from my father. No one can. There’s too much money and power. He’ll hunt you like a dog. If he found the man who killed our mother hiding in the middle of Central America, he’ll find a little Atwood billionaire, no matter where she goes.”
“Then I’ll sell the stock. You can have your fucking company.”
“It’s not about the stock.” Nicholas approached, gently stroking my cheek. “It’s about your family. He’ll protect the Bennetts until his dying breath, but he’ll kill to hurt you.”
Christ.
Nicholas was right.
I saw it in Darius’s eyes. Felt it in his urge to degrade me. He tried, and he failed, but I knew the Bennetts well enough to realize they’d never stop, never surrender, and never allow someone like me—a woman they saw as no challenge—to gain control over them.
I gritted my teeth.
I’d never surrender to Darius Bennett.
And neither would Nicholas.
“We should kill him,” I whispered. I couldn’t believe the words slipped from my lips. “Darius. Before he kills me.”
“Darius Bennett is the CEO of one of the largest and wealthiest privately owned corporations in the world,” Nicholas said. “He can’t be murdered. Not without starting major investigations into our family and company. It would be a media phenomenon, and every law enforcement agency on the West Coast would descend on us.” He exhaled. “His will is clear if he dies of unnatural causes. We’d lose everything.”
Max narrowed his eyes. “How do you know that?”
“You don’t think I’ve planned it? Thought about it?” Nicholas gestured towards me. “He kidnapped an innocent woman and plotted with her innocence. That isn’t a man who deserves to live, but he’s a man who must if we want to save our company and inheritances.”
“So what do we do?” Max asked.
“We’ll move on the takeover. My father doesn’t know that Sarah’s learned about her inheritance. We’ll keep it a secret.”
Reed swore. “That means we can’t give him reason to believe she’s infertile.”
“No,” Nicholas agreed. “We can’t.”
The silence hung.
I knew what they wanted, and it wasn’t to free me.
The excitement fueled his strength.
“Sarah.”
He brushed his hand over my cheek. I wished I hadn’t shuddered. I was strong, but I’d never be strong enough to resist him, to fight him, to deny my every surrender to him.
And he knew it.
Max and Reed knew it.
And that was why my victory would ultimately end in defeat—a sweet, desperate defeat that’d forever bind me within his clutches.
“I’ll protect you,” he said. “We’ll all protect you.”
Promises. Always promises.
Only this time, I believed him.
Without the secrets restraining us, and with the ticking clock measuring my life in single, frightening moments of possession, I had no reason not to trust Nicholas Bennett.
“But it won’t work,” I whispered. “Keeping me here is a mistake.”
“It’s only our option,” he said. “The longer you’re here, the easier we can convince my father that you are our prisoner, the easier it will be to keep you alive.”
“And when I don’t get pregnant?”
“Leave that to me.”
“We can’t fake it.”
“Who said we’d fake it?”
The panic and fear, adrenaline and excitement poisoned me into quivered confusion. Nicholas’s touch provided the simple antidote.
Trust.
Devotion.
Passion.
I stilled. “But…you can take me as often as you can—”
“I plan on it.”
The fierce dedication in his words blistered me with heat. I blushed, but my perked eyebrow offered him a challenge.
“How?” I whispered. “You’ve all had me, and I didn’t get pregnant.”
“Then I try again.” Nicholas’s voice rumbled low and thick. “And again. And again. Every day.”
“Every day?”
He seized my hair, pulling my head back to expose my neck. His lips pressed hard against my throat, and I flushed as I caught the gaze of my step-brothers, stunned to silence.
“You’re not going anywhere, Sarah Atwood.” His breath heated my skin. “The safest place for you is right here. In my arms. In my bed. I’ll protect you. I’ll take you, and I’ll ensure you’re carrying my child before my father has cause to harm you.”
“You’re insane.”
“And you’re mine.”
His hands tightened against me, capturing me in a kiss before I could struggle away. Max and Reed watched in silent shock.
Nicholas didn’t care.
I gasped as he pushed me against his desk. He forced me down with that Bennett arrogance promising a dark, twisted, and primal act. It dominated us both.
Reed called our names. Nicholas didn’t look at him, his jaw clenching as he explored my prone body. He palmed my thigh, but I knew better than to refuse him.
He opened my legs and stepped between.
“Don’t move.”
Did he command me or his brothers?
“This is the beginning of the real takeover, Sarah. You belong to me. Your body. Your future. Your safety.”
My skirt peeled down. He ripped open the buttons of my blouse.
My breathing shuddered as the bra tugged away.
My step-brothers saw everything.
I paled, but my struggling ceased as his hand crept along my chest, sealing tight against my neck.
“Don’t fight me,” he whispered. “We’ve already had you. You know what we expect.”
The thought was once horrifying. Now it shivered through me. I’d never deny the sheer animalistic instinct roaring through him.
I won.
I’d keep my company and protect myself by threatening their empire. Nicholas demanded an heir, but my body would never betray me, not even to their hedonistic and primal desires.
I had won.
And my prize for my conquest?
Nicholas’s love.
Max’s aggression.
Reed’s kindness.
The possibilities and pleasures
, victories and empowerment dizzied me.
Three men. Three step-brothers. Three protectors.
Three lovers?
Nicholas’s urges might have once shamed me. Instead, I welcomed his hand against my neck, and surrendered to the instinctual submission of a woman possessed within the strength of her man.
He admired me. His hardness pressed against my slit.
He moved to his zipper. I searched for Max and Reed.
Would he really take me in front of his brothers?
The answer came suddenly, a quick, fierce, demanding stroke of his cock directly into my core.
I arched, my gasp fading to a low groan.
His cock stretched me, filled me, and claimed me, and I only arched against the desk to accept more of his length.
My face flushed, but I’d never resist Nicholas again. His brothers watched his savage thrusts within my body, listened to my gasped moans.
And they waited with fierce stares and fiercer intent.
Hungry.
This was wrong.
God, everything about it was wrong.
I shouldn’t have let him do this. Welcoming him with such betraying wetness only sealed his command over me. I wanted to be free.
I wanted to be his.
I wanted everything he couldn’t give me—his love, my freedom, even his promise to be with me forever.
I groaned. He was my step-brother.
A Bennett.
My family’s worst enemy.
And I wanted nothing more than for him to lose himself within me.
“This is your life from now on.” Nicholas grunted as his motions were meant to take, not tease. I bounced against the desk, held in place only by a grip that would have been cruel had it not delivered me to pleasure. “You will be mine. Taken. Used. Fucked and filled until you’re bred, and nothing is going to prevent us from getting what we need.”
His words weren’t kind, but I didn’t care.
I felt the emotion behind them.
The anger. The devotion.
The utter fear that even his basest urges wouldn’t be able to save me from the hell he created.
He kissed me. I whimpered against him, struck by the ferocious gold of his gaze.
His cock drove inside me. I grasped him, clenching over every offered inch of his depraved protection. I couldn’t hide my thrill, not when Nicholas knew exactly how to hold me down and force me to accept his love the only way he’d offer it.
He fucked with brute strength. Claimed me with unrepentant dominance. Nicholas tangled us in a passion so twisted he’d capture me, ravish me in front of his brothers, and claim me as his captive all to prove his devotion.
I tensed. I’d never fight him. He assaulted me on his desk, his aggressive thrusts brutal and frightening. But I accepted him and every shudder that bound me to his lust.
He promised he’d protect me.
The orgasm overwhelmed me within his strikes. I crumbled against him, offering my hips despite my silent and tempted step-brothers watching as he pounded me.
I cried out, whispering his name, drawn into utter pleasure and the sheer intensity of his strength.
A surge of heat jetted inside me. Nicholas claimed me, forced my submission, and offered me his adoration. He shuddered over me, but his words excited me more than his raging aggression.
“I love you,” he growled. “More than you can possibly know. I’ll do whatever it takes to protect you, even if it means sharing your body to save your life.”
I panted, but Nicholas didn’t give me time to rest. He hauled me off the desk and faced his brothers. I was forced to my knees before them—trembling, weak, and slick with his claiming.
“Everything has changed,” Nicholas said. “We have no time. If we want to save her life, Sarah has to conceive.”
Max and Reed hadn’t moved, but their eyes feasted over my every quivering movement. I shuddered, looking up to Nicholas—so stern and still it was as though he hadn’t spilled his every secret and longing inside of me.
“This isn’t about pride or ego.” His authority drew his brothers’ attention away from me. “This is about ensuring her survival. I need your help.”
I twisted my fingers in the carpet. My body hadn’t broken the haze of pleasure. The thrill whipped me, and the raw aggression and arrogance of his conquering left me breathless.
Nothing would stop Nicholas Bennett from securing his heir and path to the Atwood fortune.
He’d do it by taking me until I surrendered in my own selfish desire.
Then he’d offer what remained to his brothers.
He spoke the truth. I belonged to him.
And what should have terrified me only sealed my fate in endless passion and strict, unforgiving pleasure.
He pushed me forward. I fell onto my hands, bowing to my step-brothers as the air thickened with their own instinctual urge to dominate and take.
Nicholas’s voice growled with ambition, hardened with challenge, and threatened with lust.
“Who’s next?”
The End
Controlling Interests (Legacy Book 2)
1
Sarah
I expected abuse, rage, and violation from Darius Bennett.
Instead, he offered me a pink sundress and white strappy sandals.
Darius asked me to join him for dinner. It was more likely I’d claw his damned eyes out.
The gifted outfit rested over my unmade bed. I regretted leaving the comforter tucked and the pillows so neatly stacked. The message was clearer than if Darius had caught me within Nicholas’s arms.
I didn’t sleep in my own bed last night.
Then again, I hardly slept at all.
“I’m not having dinner with that man.” I faced my step-brothers and dared them to argue. “Not after he attacked me.”
Nicholas remained silent though no words spoken in his caramel cadence would sound as satisfying as the crunch of his fist against Darius’s jaw. His hand bruised. Neither of us cared. I kissed every last scape on his knuckles.
Then I kissed more than his hand.
I shivered. The sensual memory threaded with apprehension. The dread wasn’t nearly as bad as the lingering sense of utter helplessness which remained long after Darius’s assault. Fear didn’t lash me. Humiliation, frustration, and rage humbled me in ways I didn’t know I could be humbled.
I made a promise to myself then and there.
I would never be that helpless again.
I tossed the dress into the corner before Reed tumbled on the bed. He grinned. The flashed dimple meant trouble.
“Dinner?” He folded his arms behind his head. “There’s only one thing I want to eat now.”
I fully anticipated reliving the passionate and bewildering night in bouts of blushed awkwardness, but Reed wasn’t helping. I tangled my fingers in the buttons of Nicholas’s suit jacket as I lingered before my step-brothers half-nude with mussed hair and puffy lips. Reed had no sense of propriety.
Or modesty.
Or tact.
“There’s a limit to your puns,” I warned.
Reed was immune to shame. “Make you a deal. I’ll stop making puns when I knock you up.”
“Great.” I tugged at a fresh towel from my linen closet. “Then the Bennett Estate just turned into a comedy club.”
Max reached over my head, slamming the closet door and nearly taking my fingers with it. His shadow loomed, menacing. I weighed my options. If he wasn’t carrying his flogger, I had more wiggle room to oppose him.
“It helps to have a little optimism, baby,” he said.
“Optimism?”
Max was more predator than hero. “We’re doing this for your own good.”
“How magnanimous.”
“Just doing as we’re told, right, Nick?”
The air thickened.
And I was still very exposed.
Nicholas said nothing. Max retreated, and I clutched the towel against my body. Nicholas�
��s jacket hung over my curves, but it offered no protection.
All three of my step-brothers had touched, tasted, and tempted every last bit of me.
And I enjoyed it.
All of it.
Christ. Life wasn’t easy before, yet I handled my illness, school, the funerals, my mother, and the company with a smidgen of grace. It wasn’t neat and tidy, at least I wore clothes for most of it.
Now?
Well, I wasn’t wearing much of anything, and everything I thought I had under control twisted in the Bennetts’ shadows.
How was I supposed to confront the tattooed, muscle-bound behemoth who ordered optimism just hours after rutting me over the arm of a couch?
Was I just supposed to ignore the green-eyed charmer who winked before he ripped me from the floor to take his turn with my spent body?
And what defenses did I have against Nicholas Bennett?
He dominated me. He protected me. Then, he gave me to his brothers.
And I obeyed him. I accepted every touch and kiss and caress. But, even as Nicholas and my step-brothers enthralled me with pleasure and conquered me in lustful savagery, we all understood our places.
I owned him.
I owned them all.
The stock my family bought and the influence they garnered guaranteed me a controlling interest in the Bennett Corporation. In less than a year, I could ruin them for the virginity they stole, the skin they bruised, and the life they destroyed.
They planned to rape me. Imprison me within their home. Impregnate me.
They thought they’d control me.
Except, in the best and worse decision of my life, I fell in love with Nicholas Bennett, and I allied myself with Max and Reed.
My controlling interest in the Bennett Corporation was nothing more than a sword without a hilt. I could swing it, but was I willing to slice off my hand just to strike down Darius Bennett?
That answer was easy.
Yes.
I’d spill every last drop of my blood to destroy Darius. No punishment existed that suited a villain more snake than human, but I’d invent a torture fitting for the venomous fiend, if only to prevent the worse sin of all.