by Lana Grayson
Sarah Atwood would be mine.
Her body would warm for me. Her will would break. Her pleasure would submit to mine.
And the child she’d conceive would belong to me.
I’d possess her completely—mind, body, and soul; past, present, and future; in defiance or utter obedience.
If she didn’t conquer me first.
I was to be nude at all times.
Darius’s perversions weren’t sated while he watched Max beat me.
The instructions came in the morning. No clothing. No covers. Nothing but the brush of cold air against my aching skin.
The remnants of the punishment striped me with bruises. Darius inflicted the worst of it. My ribs screamed from the strike with the cue, and Max’s flogger did the rest. What hadn’t been jostled and pitched, beaten and broken, was driven into the shower wall again and again within Nicholas’s feral thrusting.
I despised Nicholas for leaving me with Max.
I hated that he returned to mark me as his.
And I silently begged he wouldn’t leave me alone for the night.
He did, and I slept, but it wasn’t enough. I needed all of my strength for Darius’s next demand. It was Reed’s turn to fuck me, and the thought scared the hell out of all of us.
I didn’t fear Reed. He vowed never to hurt me, but I had no idea how he’d react. It was just as likely he wouldn’t touch me. Or, in his kindness, he’d deny his urges and tempt his father to take his stead.
And so I was naked, and I hoped my body would appeal to a base impulse buried deep in my step-brother.
Darius offered me a new gift.
“A proper collar, my dear.” He snapped the leather into place, forcing me to my knees before him. Max handed him a leash—leather, tailored, and remorselessly expensive. “You will crawl for your brothers. Bend over when they say. Present when they order. Take their cocks when they wish.”
I didn’t dare glance to Nicholas, standing silently at his father’s side. I’d already been fucked when they wanted to take me, positioned the way they longed to see me, and filled with their every dark desire.
Except I knew something Darius didn’t.
Secrets that would tear the Bennetts apart.
Secrets my family would have killed to learn. For years, Dad longed to watch Darius Bennett writhe like the worm he was. He didn’t live to see it.
But I would.
Darius passed Reed the leash. He held it too tightly. I coughed and edged closer to his legs.
“She’s all yours, son.”
Darius reserved no patience for Reed. His stare bore through him, just as fierce and unforgiving as the flogger stuffed in Max’s pocket.
Reed wrapped the leash in his hand, pulling me closer, as though that would protect me from his father. It wouldn’t. Nothing would. But I was glad he did it.
“You will fuck her,” Darius said. “Think you can figure it out?”
Reed tensed. “Yeah, I got an idea of how it’s done.”
“You will come inside her.”
“I don’t need instructions.”
“Are you sure?”
Reed said nothing. Darius scowled.
“Don’t worry.” Max snapped the flogger with a sadistic precision. The leather cracked against my side. I lurched onto Reed. He nearly dropped the leash. “Her pussy’s so tight you couldn’t pull out if you wanted to.”
My stomach prickled with sickness. The insult came so easily. I curled my fists, hiding the roughened carpet burns from when he took me.
Nicholas pulled his phone and answered an email, as though he didn’t even care that his youngest brother held me by a leash and Max gloated his victory over me.
God, I was trusting Bennetts.
Nothing could be more dangerous, but I wallowed through indignity and regained an ounce of control. It’d be worth it. It had to be.
Reed tugged the lead, leaving his father with a humbled nod. I attempted to rise.
Max slashed the flogger again. I dropped to the floor.
Nicholas’s bronze eyes briefly passed over me.
“Crawl,” Max said. “It suits you.”
I shivered. The heavy darkness in his voice carried the same authority as it did on my knees yesterday. He didn’t do it to correct me. He played a game for his father.
But what was he thinking? His order would only discourage Reed. I tugged his pant leg to offer my reassurance. Reed ignored me.
The hardwood hurt against my raw knees and hands, but it wasn’t as bad as where my skin pulled tight over the welts and bruises. I had to crawl slowly, and I knew, without a doubt, every Bennett savored the view of my slit as my hips rolled.
I flushed under my step-brothers’ gazes, but I loathed that Darius saw. He didn’t deserve the sight. Not that my step-brothers did either.
What was I getting myself into?
I inched over the carpet, stumbling as Reed’s pace increased. He didn’t look at me, and the hard jade in his eyes was not the Reed I knew lingering beneath the shell of the Bennett name. I jerked to keep up with him.
Nicholas walked by my side to the stairs.
I didn’t want to know how he matched my speed so effortlessly.
I didn’t want to know why his presence soothed my jumbled nerves.
Every strike that bit my skin faded under his touch. Every humiliation transcended shame and morphed into a beautiful expression of utter lust in his embrace. But every secret I kept from him burdened me with a horrible weight.
I should have told him before all this happened. Before Max and the beating, before Reed damned himself to a darkness he didn’t deserve.
Before I’d shuddered in absolute pleasure in Nicholas’s arms.
Instead, I kept my mouth shut, and now wasn’t the time to blab secrets and jeopardize everything.
We reached the stairs. Reed swore as I timidly attempted to push myself along the marble. He reached down, hauled me into his arms, and then settled me over his shoulder.
The leash swung free. I didn’t know what to do. I grabbed it, clinging to the leather as Reed adjusted me against his body.
“Reed, make her crawl.” Darius’s displeasure echoed in the hall. “How else do you plan to teach her respect?”
“I’m gonna fuck her, aren’t I?” He said. I held tight to him as a simmering rage tensed the muscles pinning me against him. “Christ, all this voyeur shit is getting old. I got her from here.”
His shoulder dug into my bruised ribs, but Reed didn’t let me go until he reached his suite. The door slammed behind us. He tossed me on the sofa and immediately covered me with a shirt that missed the hamper by two weeks.
“Wear that.” He turned so I could dress. “And take the fucking collar off.”
I tugged the shirt on, catching his scent of salt and ocean. Reed’s hair bleached light in the sun. His suite was decorated with surf boards and pictures of reefs and corals. Newspaper clippings and blog posts framed his sea-side décor. I didn’t have to ask why all of his photos were taken when he was a teenager. The surfer in Reed existed in a world before college and Bennett responsibilities.
I unraveled the leash as Reed sunk into the chair before the TV. He didn’t turn it on.
“I haven’t been in any of your rooms before.”
I was reduced to small-talk. My summer finishing classes never taught me how to engage a man ordered to rape and impregnate me. They always were a waste of money.
“This isn’t my room,” he said.
“But—”
“I have a penthouse in San Jose and a home on the coast—Half Moon Bay, for the surfing.” He gestured toward the surfboard on his wall. “But, my father decided that we should all be under the same roof to accommodate our guest.”
I hated the edge in his voice. He didn’t look at me. Didn’t move. Didn’t even glance at my bare legs tucked under me as I sat. His shirt hung loose over my curves.
It should have comforted me.
I felt
as exposed as ever.
I wasn’t naked, but it was close enough. Stripped and vulnerable and forced into a situation neither of us could handle.
Except instead of trembling under Nicholas’s touch or tensing for Max’s punishments, I had nothing forcing us together except Darius’s expectations.
Darius would hurt me if Reed didn’t fulfill his duty. And he’d kill my step-brother if I couldn’t convince him to hurt me.
I had no idea how to protect either of us.
“I won’t fight you,” I whispered.
Reed’s eyes blazed a dark, furious green—not nearly as regal as Nicholas’s constant composure or Max’s haunting reprimand.
“I don’t want to do this to you, Sarah.”
“I’ll be okay. I can handle it.”
“I can’t.”
“You won’t hurt me.”
“That’s not the point.”
I folded my hands before I clenched my fists. My words were too forceful.
“I’ll just…lay there. I promise. I’ll look away.”
“Jesus Christ.” He stood, knocking over the coffee table with a sudden kick. His hands wove through his hair. “You think that’s how I want you? Just lying there? Enduring it?”
“We don’t have a choice.”
“Maybe I’ll be the reasonable one. Maybe I’ll be a fucking man and not rape you.”
“But your father will.” I wrapped my arms over my chest. “And I don’t…it’s not an option.”
“Of course it’s not.” Reed snapped. “But instead you’ll spread your legs for me with no issues?”
Who were we kidding? I laughed. “We’re all gonna have issues because of this.”
That wasn’t the right answer. Reed exhaled. I froze as every hesitance coiling in his soul turned to suspicion.
“What aren’t you telling us?”
My stomach tightened.
Everything.
Nothing I could tell them. Not yet. I hardened my voice, hedging the question.
“I’m not a helpless little girl,” I said. “I know what I’m doing.”
“So it’s all part of the plan to get raped by your step-brothers?”
“If that’s what it takes.”
“Takes for what?”
I didn’t even know anymore. Everything they had done, every way I had been touched, every moment I spent beneath Nicholas dizzied me with stark confusion.
I’d see Darius Bennett decimated.
I thought this was the only way to do it.
Reed paced his suite. He grabbed a bottle of rum from a cabinet, but he didn’t drink.
He swore. “You have no idea what’s happening.”
Apparently not. He wasn’t the first of my step-brothers to allude to something darker, something frightening lurking unspoken and undiscovered within the estate. I didn’t like it.
“So tell me,” I said.
“It wouldn’t matter.”
“Maybe it would.” I bit my lip. “I know Nicholas is planning to take over the Bennett Corporation. He’s pushing Darius out.”
Reed laughed. “It won’t work. My father is too connected. Too powerful.”
“Nick is dedicated.”
“Nick is as power-hungry as my father. He’ll do whatever he can, however he can, to get what he wants.” He held my gaze for the first time. “He does nothing out of kindness. The sooner you realize that, the safer you’ll be.”
“I’m not afraid of Nick.”
“You should be.”
“I’ll handle him.”
“Sure.” Reed perked an eyebrow. It wasn’t a playful gesture. “It’s all fun and taboo and naughty. Fucking in secret and pretending to hate him.”
“I’m not—”
“You’re safe until you get in his way. And, Sarah? You’re already in his way. You are the single greatest threat to the Bennett Empire, and you don’t even realize it.”
“Funny.” My patience evaporated. “Hard to be a threat when you’re captured, fucked, and bred.”
“That’s the beauty of it,” Reed said. “You don’t have to do a damn thing. We’ll burn ourselves to the ground.”
He paced again. I covered my thighs with the couch’s pillow and dug my fingers into the stuffing.
“What are you talking about?” I didn’t like his frustration. The sincerity of his voice hollowed, jagged and frustrated. “Reed, what are you hiding?”
“You first.”
I lied. “I have no secrets.”
“Then I guess I don’t either.”
“Reed, please.”
“Do you know how fucked up my family is?” He asked.
I tugged on the leash. “I have an idea.”
“My childhood was nothing but pain and misery. Nick made it out unscathed. Max got it the worst. But…” He tapped his right ear. “I lost most of my hearing from one good clip against the head. My tie wasn’t fashioned correctly in a family picture. My father found that… unacceptable.”
None of it surprised me. Was that why he was scarred? “I’m sorry.”
“We survived. He groomed Nick to be the heir. Max was supposed to go into the military, but I guess you figured out how that ended.” He paused. “I admire you.”
“You do?”
Reed crossed to the TV stand and pawed through the video games stacked inside. He tossed me my smuggled research journal. It was only the copy I stole, but I clutched it just the same.
“You’re passionate about what you want to do,” he said. “I wish I had that choice.”
I tapped the folder. He didn’t know the half of it. “My dad encouraged me to go into genetics.”
“Yeah. I get how that works. I’m the third son.”
I shrugged.
“The Bennetts are an old family, and we adhere to certain traditions. The eldest is the heir to the fortune. The second son enters the military and honors his family’s name. The third…” He smirked. “Clergy. I took over what my mother did. Charity work. Ensuring the Bennett name shines like gold while we hold a woman prisoner in our rooms for our pleasure.”
“You have a choice. You can escape Darius.” I clutched at the pillow in my lap. I was so close. “I know he had something to do with my father’s death.”
“Sarah.”
“Help me. Nick’s takeover will ruin him, but if I could just find out the truth—”
“Stop,” Reed held up a hand. “Don’t make me pick a side. I like you, Sarah, but you won’t like me if you keep pushing.”
Goddamn it. I looked away. Suddenly, his shirt wasn’t long enough. I tugged it further down and adjusted the pillow. He noticed.
“Did…” He asked the question softly. “Did they hurt you? When they took you?”
“No.”
“I’m afraid I will. It scares the shit out of me.”
He wasn’t lying. I sighed.
“Nick was gentle, and Max wasn’t frightening. You won’t hurt me. You aren’t Darius.”
He fell onto the sofa. “That’s the problem. He expects things from me.”
“He has a lot of expectations for his sons.”
“We’re all gonna get hurt by this. I hate seeing you in pain.”
“Don’t worry about me.”
He sighed. “I gotta. Especially when I know what I have to do.”
The silence crawled over me. I dreaded it more than any touch.
“Maybe we can fake it?” I asked.
Reed snickered. “My father anticipated that. He doesn’t think I’ll rape you.”
“I already said I wouldn’t fight.”
That didn’t help. “I’m not the Bennett you want, Sarah. Don’t pretend.”
Dangerous territory. I didn’t like where the conversation headed. My fingers threaded through the buttons on the shirt. I didn’t take it off, but I was tempted, if only to distract Reed from stumbling on any other secret I wasn’t ready to admit.
Enough games. Enough torment. Delaying it wouldn’t help eith
er of us, and it wouldn’t protect Reed from his father.
It didn’t protect me.
I steadied my voice. “How do you…Should I lie on the bed?”
Goosebumps prickled over my skin. Reed silenced. His jaw tensed, and he stood so suddenly I flinched, the memory of too many strikes with a flogger all too real. He didn’t apologize.
“Bed’s fine.”
Reed didn’t wait for me. I heaved a silent breath and softly padded after him. His shirt just barely covered my curves, hardly hiding the last traces of lashed welts still coloring the back of my thighs.
Why was this so hard?
Nicholas took me bound to the bed, wrapped in his arms the next morning, and slammed against the shower wall. Max beat me into a puddle of myself and seized what remained.
But this was Reed.
Reed.
Warm, caring, and somehow good Reed.
Max might have promised his protection through sadism, and Nicholas challenged me in every conceivable way, but I recovered from the asthma attack with Reed. Played video games with him. Watched movies.
He was a nice guy.
A sweet guy.
A friend.
And I’d break as soon as he laid over me, filled me, and claimed me with every deviancy his brothers possessed.
His room flooded with brightness—white and clean and washed in the crystal blue of the ocean. The warmth faded as he pulled his shirt over his head. I might have admired his perfect beach body had the darkened tan of his skin not been sullied by the flicks of his scars. The same injuries adorned Nicholas and Max.
What had Darius done to his sons? And why did he have such power over them as grown men in possession of every wealth, luxury, and opportunity?
“Do you…” A flutter of panic built within me. I coughed it away. “Should I undress?”
“What do you want?” Reed asked.
Nicholas.
“I just want this to be okay.”
“You think this is ever going to be okay?” His voice chilled with the classic Bennett threat. “Do you think you’ll be able to return to your life once this is done? Do you know what we plan to do to you?”
“I figured it out.”
“I’m supposed to hold you down. Fuck you. Finish in you.”
I nodded.
“You know I’m supposed to knock you up?”
“Who are you convincing?” I asked. “Me or you?”