Hott and Taken (The Hott Brothers Book 1)

by Leah Sharelle

  He said I had been his one and only, the reason his heart beat.

  He lied.

  “Mack?” my sister called from my son’s room, followed by a childish giggle from Daxx. The sound calming the thump in my chest, but it did nothing to ease the frantic worry that Lenoxx would come looking for me if only for the contract my father signed.

  And if he did, what the hell was I going to tell him about Daxx?

  My intention to keep Daxx from his father had been born out of a combination of fear and loathing. Fear that his father would insist that Noxx get full custody of our child, the loathing aimed at Will Hott.

  That morning when the doorbell rang, and I found the package on the doormat, the unbelievable and overwhelming feeling of despair and heartbreak too much to bear, I didn’t even want to hear him try and explain. What could he possibly say? That it wasn’t him in the photo lying on top of a woman, who had her hands all over my husband’s back. His tattoo of my name there for everyone to see. For me, though, it had been the tape that had me packing my belongings, his sexy gravelly voice speaking to some woman on the phone, organising a time when she can come over. I heard him arrange a sick day from work, call her baby, and tell her he couldn’t wait and was counting down the seconds until he had her in his arms again.

  All the things he used to say to me.

  Letting out a disgusted growl, I headed to the other end of the house where the bedrooms were. Daxx had his own room now, Mallory and I cleaned out Mum’s old sewing room so Daxx could enjoy his own space.

  Making my way through the door, I stopped and took in the sight of my boy and his Aunty Mal playing on the floor, which was riddled with Lego blocks, toy cars and a multitude of plastic green army men. Daxx didn’t have a great attention span when it came to playing inside. He loved being outside playing in the dirt, pretending to drive the tractor, or chasing after the farm dogs. Just as long as he was out and not cooped up in the house.

  “Hey,” I greeted quietly, smiling at my son when he looked up and gave me a toothy grin. Last week he lost two teeth one day apart; thanks to two separate accidents, now, he was one less up the top and one less at the bottom. He got so excited that he lost two teeth he refused to let us put them in a glass of water for the tooth fairy, instead opting to keep them in his toy chest. My boy was an individual and very stubborn. A trait he got from both of his parents.

  Mallory looked up at me and immediately she frowned at me.

  “What?” she demanded, knowing me well.

  “We might have a small problem,” I hedged, not taking my eyes off Daxx, who was thankfully not picking up on my mood. Yet.

  “The contract?”

  Sighing, I walked further into the room and dropped down on the play mat beside Daxx and leaned over, and kissed the top of his head. His baby hair soft under my lips.

  “I wish it was just the contract. You will never guess what HBC stands for.”

  Mallory tilted her head and waited for me to tell her, not even bothering to try and guess.

  “Hott Brother’s Cattle,” I announced watching the information sink in enough so she would see the bigger picture.

  “You have to be shitting me.”

  “Nope. When I got to the solicitors, Hendrixx was there waiting, he is still the same pain in the arse by the way. He was just as shocked to see me as much as I was to see him. Can you believe he had no idea Dad had died?”

  “And,” I went on before Mal could answer, “Will died too. A few months before Dad apparently.”

  “Um, yeah, I know,” Mallory answered, looking down at the miniature truck in her hand, shocking me.

  “What! You knew and didn’t tell me?” I asked, completely outraged with her. How could she keep something like that from me?

  “What would have been the point, Dad said telling you would serve no purpose and I agreed.”

  “You agreed with Dad,” I scoffed at her, “since when did you ever do that?”

  “Okay, I see that you aren’t very happy, but he was right. You had enough on your plate with keeping this place going with Dad sick in bed half the time. Then there was Daxx, money worries, putting our employees off because there was no money to pay them with. Will Hott dying didn’t seem all that important at the time,” Mallory defended, and fortunately for her, making perfect sense.

  I never liked my father-in-law, and he made no secret he never liked me, after all, he had no problem threatening me with his own son’s legacy. As far as he was concerned, I was the daughter of a poor farmer; I was not the ideal match for his son. Lenoxx choosing me as his girlfriend, brought nothing to the table for Will. He didn’t see a struggling peanut and olive farm any kind of goldmine to add to the family business. In fact, I heard him arguing with Lenoxx that I would become nothing but an albatross around his neck, that my family’s farm would pull him into debt, then Will would be forced to bail him out.

  I hated hearing that and had all intentions of storming into the conversation to give him a piece of my mind, but Lenoxx spoke up, and what he said left me not only speechless but deeper in love with him.

  “I don’t care what you say, Dad. I love Makena, she is my future, and if she wants to keep her dad’s legacy going, then I will work side-by-side with her making sure she succeeds. You don’t have the first clue about her or her dad. He might not have the money we have, but he has grit and determination, and so does Makena. Get used to it, Dad, Makena is going to be a Hott one day, whether you like it or not.”

  One year after that, we ran off to the city together; months later, I did become Mrs Hott.

  Maybe old Will knew better after all.

  “I guess, but you should have told me after Dad died,” I conceded gruffly, not liking her keeping things from me, but understanding, sort of.

  “Well, it is old news now. What about the contract? Can we get out of it?”

  Anger bubbled to the surface again, the contract wasn’t exactly a contract of lease, more like an agreement to a partnership. Dad really screwed me royally by going to the Hott patriarch for help, effectively sealing my fate, bringing my deception out in the open before I was ready. A thought suddenly popped into my head, a thought that sent chills down my spine.

  “Do you think Dad knew about who Daxx’s father was?” I asked, keeping eye contact with my sister to see her first reaction to my question. I don’t know why it didn’t surprise me to see a blush creep over my sister’s cheeks, because it should have.

  Oh, my god, Dad knew! How, when, why didn’t he say anything to me?

  “He knew Mack; he knew the minute he saw Daxx … at least that’s what he told me in the days before he died. He expressed his desire for you to let Noxx know for Daxx to know his other family. He also knew how hard it was for you when you got home with a newborn, refusing to say who the dad was. Dad knew how bad Will was when it came to his money and his sons, and that you were probably scared that Daxx would be taken from you, so he left it up to you and accepted your decisions.”

  “Then why go into partnership with Will?” I whined, sounding like Daxx when asked to come inside to get ready for bed.

  “Guilt, Mack. He felt guilty for not making the farm the success it should be. For changing from one speciality to another, and for running this place so far into the ground. He thought his bad choices could be the reason for Noxx going for full custody of Daxx if he ever found out about him. They would have argued they could give him a better life, more financially stable,” Mal whispered, keeping her voice low so not to alert Daxx to the serious situation we were finding ourselves in now. And serious it was. Will might be gone, his hatred of Dad and me buried, but Lenoxx was now the powerful one. Hendrixx outlined in great detail the extent of their global business; there was no way I could ever dream of reaching the success they were experiencing. Each day was a struggle to put food on the table and feed in the paddocks. Thanks mainly to Dad, but speaking ill of the dead wasn’t going to change the fact that Lenoxx would sooner or later k
nock on my front door and want to talk to me. We still had the issue of getting divorced to deal with, let alone the hefty amount of money we owed his company. Which meant my time was nearly up. Time I thought I had more of, a lot more.

  Picking up a handful of Lego bricks, I absently clicked them together in a haphazard shape, so lost in my misery, I didn’t notice that Daxx had crept closer to me.

  “Mumma sad?” my boy asked me, his lisp cute as hell.

  “No, baby, Mumma is fed up,” I answered, pulling him onto my lap and wrapping my arms around his small body, cradling him against my chest. His little arms holding onto me, soothing me instantly.

  Daxx might be a rambunctious three year old, but he loved affection. It didn’t matter what time of the day, what I was doing if Daxx wanted a hug and some love from Mummy he came looking for me.

  “Is Mumma hungry?” he asked with a serious voice, his hand going to my belly and rubbed it.

  I let out a laugh, Mal joining me. Ahh, the innocence of a child.

  “Yes, I am!” I said excitedly, “How would you like to help Mumma make some jelly slice?”

  Daxx let out a whoop, his face splitting into a happy grin.

  “An some for Digger?” he asked hopefully, the farm dog who used to be my Dad’s now too old for farm work and spent most his time following slowly behind Daxx wherever he scampered to around the place.

  “Yes, baby boy, some for Digger too,” I promised, setting him on his feet then got up.

  “Mal? We need your help with the jelly, don’t we Daxx?”

  We needed something fun to take our minds off the impending doom that was sure to drop in our laps before too long. Jelly slice fit the bill perfectly.

  “Yeah! Come on Aunty Mal, let’s goooooo,” he shouted, zooming around the room in a circle, kicking blocks and cars around as he did.

  “What about the farm? Don’t you have a million things waiting for you to see to?” Mallory asked, climbing to her feet.

  “Yeah, but some things are more important.” I looked at my son having fun kicking little Legos around the room, my heart full of love for the creature created out of a love I thought would last a lifetime.

  “Charlie will come get me if he needs to,” I assured her, then held out my hand for Daxx.

  “Come on, little man, we have some cooking to do.” Daxx hurdled towards me, slipping between my legs before I could pick him up and ran out of the room, shouting to Digger.

  If only I could be that carefree and oblivious. Money worries all gone, losing the farm no longer an issue … just jelly slice and a dog to worry about.

  “Things are going to change around here, aren’t they Mack?” Mallory asked, nervousness evident in her question.

  Looking around at my sister, I contemplated exactly what was going to happen to bring the changes. HBC now had a hand in the running of my family’s farm, and Lenoxx was soon going to find out that we’d made a child together. Either one meant he was in my life again. One until the terms of the contract played out or until we lost everything to HHH Cattle and the other …

  Forever.

  Either way, I was screwed.

  LENOXX

  The axe came down hard on the log, splitting it in half with a satisfying crack. Kicking the two halves out of the way, I picked up another log sitting it on the chopping block then raised the axe over my head.

  What the hell was I doing here, chopping a pile of wood when I should be storming over to Waterford with the divorce papers and throwing them at Makena? That is, if I had divorce papers.

  Seeing Makena again shocked the shit out of me, all I could do was stand there and stare at her with my mouth open like an idiot while my brother welcomed her with open arms and an exuberant hug, calling her baby sister. Not to mention her reaction to seeing Fenixx, those two were always thick as thieves, their relationship close. I didn’t like to admit it burned me to see Fenixx and Drixx making her smile and laugh, and she hardly spared me a glance. The only thing she gave me was one whispered word.

  My name. Noxx, not Lenoxx.

  One word that went all the way to my dick. And like an idiot, I stood there with a semi and watched her run off–again.

  At least this time, I got to see her go, and I did absolutely nothing to stop her. I didn’t ask her why she left me? Why she believed those photos instead of me? Or where the hell she had been all these years? So many questions I needed answers to and nothing came out of my mouth.

  “And you run a multi-million company,” I grumbled, slamming the axe down on the wood, sending two pieces flying in different directions.

  “And you talk to yourself.”

  Spinning around, the axe poised ready to strike, to see my mum standing behind me, her brows drawn down in a frown.

  “Ma! Will you stop sneaking up on me, woman,” I growled, embarrassed she caught me talking to myself. Thank God, that was all I said and not something that would take away my manhood, like begging my wife out loud to come back to me.

  “Sorry,” Mum singsonged, not sounding sorry at all.

  “You know the day your dad and I found out his super sperm impregnated me with triplets, our world suddenly turned upside down. And that world hasn’t stopped spinning this way and that since. You boys are the lights of my life, but you are also big huge massive pains in the butt,” she announced, giving me that stare that only mothers can pull off, you know the one, with one look you can be reduced from a grown successful CEO to a six year old boy caught breaking a family heirloom.

  “Is that right, Ma? Do continue,” I drawled, turning around I grabbed another chunk of wood.

  “Hendrixx is playing a dangerous game with a nineteen year old, Fenixx spends all his time here on the property and hardly ventures away from cows and horses, and you—”

  She paused long enough to make me glance over my shoulder at her before she hit me dead centre in the chest.

  “You are still in love with your wife, who just happens to be living forty short kilometres away and is currently on the phone with Drixx. From what I heard, he is planning on going over there tomorrow to have a look around the place and see what arrangement they can come up with about the contract.”

  “And… you’re telling me this, why?”

  “Don’t be facetious, Lenoxx Hott,” Mum scolded me, “ all I am saying is I think you should go with your brother.”

  “Because I am the CEO?” I asked, confused suddenly. “Hendrixx is the COO; he handles all the dealings with the local farmers, not me,” I reminded her, ignoring my mind screaming at me to do exactly what my mum was suggesting.

  “Because she is your wife. You both have things to say, questions to ask, and answer, I’m sure. Not that you have shared what went on between you two, but for two people who loved each other as much as you and Mack did once, don’t you think you owe not only her but yourself to either end the marriage once and for all, or—”

  Whirling around, I tossed the axe to the ground, angry at the direction of the conversation. It was true I never told Mum or Dad about the details of why Makena and I split, mainly because I don’t know myself, but also because it was personal. Dad never agreed with my relationship with Makena, and when we got married, he stopped talking to me altogether. My brothers and I still kept contact, and Mum sent messages through Drixx and Nixx behind Dad’s back. She had been a very supportive wife, had her own mind and opinions, but she also knew when to choose her battles. My old man had been a stubborn hard arse son of a bitch, and sometimes Mum had to play peacekeeper for the greater good.

  Now, however, she was just making my blood boil.

  “Or what, Ma? Get back together, perhaps? After four years of nothing from her, you expect me to waltz over there and say, ‘hey baby, I forgive you for leaving me for absolutely no reason what so ever, then disappearing, and leaving me in a constant state of worry, let’s forget about it and move on as if you didn’t crush my heart’. Is that what you want, Ma?” I was being totally rude, completely out
of line, but come the fuck on!

  Quicker than I could blink, Mum leaned over and picked up a shard of wood as big as a brick and threw it at me. Hard.

  “Hey!” I shouted, rubbing my thigh where the wood hit me.

  “Maybe yes, but if you were thinking about this from a rational perspective instead of acting like a baby, you would see that Makena wasn’t the kind of person to fly off the handle for no reason what so ever. That girl always had her head screwed on right; she was loyal to her family and you.”

  Mum walked up to me, her face softening from crazy psycho to gentle Mumma bear.

  “Noxx, I might not know why she left you, you have chosen not to share that with me, for reasons that are all yours. What I do know is, that girl loved you with a fierceness that rivalled the way you loved her. Go see her son, get your answers, and maybe just maybe your life back too.” Mum raised on her toes and pressed a kiss to my cheek. “I miss my son … the man he used to be.”

  Patting me on the arm, Mum bent over and grabbed the axe, handing it to me.

  “We have farm hands to do this, you know, just saying.” She winked then headed back up the track that led to the main house, singing Islands in the Stream as she went.

  Mum had a Kenny Rogers fetish. When she first found out Makena’s last name, she insisted I marry her. She said someone with such a famous last name had to be marriage material. How wrong she had been.

  Mum wasn’t wrong about some things, though; I did want to see Makena again.

  Almost as much as I wanted to take her into my arms, taste her soft lips again until all the bad and pain melted away. I missed that dimpled smile, and her sparkling, sea-green eyes. I craved the feeling of her touch on my body, the way she would draw patterns on my bare chest and back after we made love, her hot breath panting against my neck as she came down from the multiple orgasms I gave her.