by Sara Cate
Midnight City (TMCS #1)
Never Let Me Go (TMCS #2)
Always Yours (TMCS #3)
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Alex & Noah
Seek Me (TMCS #4 – Standalone, Friends to lovers/Angst)
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Unexpected Forbidden Romance:
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PUSH (Standalone, Taboo/MMF)
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To Burn In Brutal Rapture (Standalone, Taboo/Age Gap)
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Alabaster Penitentiary:
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Distorted, Volume 1 (MM)
Joyless, Volume 2 (MMF)
Brainwashed, Volume 3 (MM) – Coming in 2022!
Fragments, Volume 4 (MM)
Ivory, Volume 5 (mystery, *wink wink*)
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Twisted Tales Collection:
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Serpent In White (A drug cult MMMF retelling of The White Snake) Coming November 19, 2021!
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Twisted Christmas: A Taboo Christmas Anthology
Unwrap Him by Nyla K (An Age Gap, Taboo MM)
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Romance After Dark Taboo Anthology: Darkest Desires
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Double-Edged by Nyla K (A Taboo MMM) Coming March 21st, 2022!
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Don’t forget to share and leave a review! It means the world!
About the Author
Hi, guys! I'm Nyla K, otherwise known as Nylah Kourieh; an awkward sailor-mouthed lover of all things romance, existing in the Dirty Lew, up in Maine, with my fiancé, who you can call PB, or Patty Banga if you're nasty. When I'm not writing and reading sexy books, I'm rocking out to Machine Gun Kelly and YUNGBLUD, cooking yummy food and fussing over my kitten (and no, that's not a euphemism). Did I mention I have a dirtier mind than probably everyone you know?
I like to admire hot guys (don't we all?) and book boyfriends, cake and ice cream are my kryptonite. I can recite every word that was ever uttered on Friends, Family Guy, and How I Met Your Mother, red Gatorade is my lifeblood, and I love to sing, although I've been told I do it in a Cher voice for some reason. I’m very passionate about the things that matter to me, and art is probably the biggest one. If you tell me you like my books, I'll give you whatever you want. I consider my readers are my friends, and I welcome anyone to find me on social media any time you want to talk books or sexy dudes!
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Happy reading!
Through the River - Into the Woods
BY LEIGH LENNON
Copyright @2021 Leigh Lennon
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No part of this book may be reproduced in any written, electronic, recording, or photocopying without written permission of the publisher or author. The exception would be in the case of brief quotations embodied in the critical articles or reviews and pages where permission is specifically granted by the publisher or author.
Although every precaution has been taken to verify the accuracy of the information contained herein, the author and publisher assume no responsibility for any errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for damages that may result from the use of information contained within.
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The E-book copy is licensed for your personal enjoyment and may not re-sold or given away.
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This book is a work of fiction and is the product of the author’s imagination.
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Editing by: My Brother’s Editor
Proofreading services by: Deaton Author Services and Horace Proofreading
Content Proofing: Ashley Cestra and Kelly Green
Created with Vellum
“Through the River—Into the Woods”
A taboo MMF romance
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My world falls apart with the loss of my parents, leaving me with the two most wretched good-for-nothing men—my stepbrother and godfather. Close proximity with the two of them is making me think things a young lady shouldn’t. But, unless I’m reading their own signs in the wrong way, they may be having the same impure thoughts. All under the pretense of Christmas, lines begin to blur—changing our world as we know it.
Chapter 1
Kenzie
The story of how my parents met is both tragic and wonderful. I’ve heard it more times than I care to admit. Mom chronicled the events of how she and my dad fell in love so often I tuned her out, as she’d replay it for my stepbrother and me. As I’m watching the caskets of my parents lower into the ground, I wish she was here to share their fairy tale kind of love over and over again, just for me to groan and moan at their sappy as fuck love story.
“It was a Tuesday. I was all alone. My life was about to change. And I was scared as fuck,” she’d recount. My mom actually used the word fuck. “The curtain had been pulled, and I couldn’t see the other person in the room. Tears flowed down my face because the man on the other side was so attentive to his wife. His voice was jovial. He couldn’t wait, telling everyone they were about to welcome their daughter into the world. I had no idea what the gender of my baby was. But, at any moment, I’d become a mother. I may have been alone, but I wouldn’t be for long. The thought both overwhelmed me and filled me with happiness I couldn’t describe. My cries had gotten the attention of the couple. The curtain swung open, and instantly I envied the woman in the other bed. Her man was gorgeous, so beautiful, but in love with the woman who was about to make him a father. The two together were out of this world beautiful. And at the end of the day, they held their little girl, and I held my baby boy.”
The story up to this point might have everyone confused. After all, I’m the little girl—born to the crazy-in-love couple, not the woman I had called mom. The story continues. It has to, or I never would have been able to call the woman who raised me, mother.
“We kept in touch—your mom and I. Tanya had become an older sister to me. She’d wanted a baby for so long; her ability to calm you was amazing. I could never do the same with River. Your mom and I had plans. Big plans. For two years, we were inseparable, and your dad got a little tired of me always being there. If I didn’t have dinner with them at least four times a week, Tanya and I felt cheated. Hell, most times, you and River shared a crib during naps, we were together so much. The day she was supposed to pick me up to shop for decorations for both your and River’s second birthday party, I was waiting and waiting on my front porch. I’d left River with your dad earlier in the day after taking both of you kids to the park. He loved River and tolerated me for Tanya’s sake. After two hours of not being able to reach her, I got in my car to go find her. I pulled up to the house, the street full of ambulances and police cars. Tanya’s mom held River, but Robert had you in Tanya’s rocking chair, hugging you tight. Tanya had an underlying heart condition and died in the shower of a heart attack. All alone.”
Mom knew how to tell a sad and somber story. I’d never known the woman she referred to as my biological mom. Shannon Mayes Hanson had been my mother—just as Robert Hanson had been River’s father after he officially adopted him, and Mom adopted me. But that part is coming.
“Anyway.” She’d always continue, after the saddest part of my biological mom dying. “Robert was lost. I’d come and sit with you at night. River would often sleep in the same room, and I’d clean or get meals ready for the rest of the week. I needed to be in the house that Tanya loved. After all, she was the one that had taught me how to be a mom. My loss was incredible, but nothing like your father’s.”
Mom, thankfully, spared me the romance of how they got together. Thank goodness. She’d gone on to say it took time, having the guilt of falling in love, all because Tanya
had died. I don’t remember a time where my mom wasn’t in my life. I vaguely remember their wedding at the age of six, the day Dad adopted River, and Mom officially became my mother.
None of this matters. Or maybe all of this matters; saying my final farewell to my parents. What kind of fate is it that I’ve lost two mothers in my life?
I tug my jacket closer to my body in the light snow of a Montana winter that sprinkles on the two caskets waiting to be lowered into the ground. I’d insisted on poinsettias around their graves. After all, Mom loved Christmas. If we can’t experience another Christmas with her, I’ll make it as merry as I can on the day we celebrate both her and Dad’s life.
And beside me is the one person who understands my emotions at the loss of our parents. But as much as Shannon Mayes Hanson was my mother, River Mayes Hanson, has never felt like my brother. He’s more like the bane of my existence. River is everything I’m not. He’s cool, good-looking, likable, and an asshole. He’s a likable asshole, what an ironic statement.
I’m nerdy, never cool, certainly not likable, and I’m nice. Again, we’re polar opposites. Mom seldom talked about the organ donor, as she referred to as River’s biological father. He was, according to her, a genuine douche bag. The apple didn’t fall that far from the tree. River apparently had gotten his birth father’s DNA.
With all that River Hanson is, a pain in my ass being at the top of the list, he loved our father, and Robert Hanson loved River as he loved me.
We’ve yet to talk about what we’ll do after the funeral. We’d turned eighteen, just a week before the car crash that killed Mom and Dad. Social services hadn’t shown up on our doorstep to take us into custody because we’re officially adults. And college is in the future for River and me.
As are most things with River and me, we’re going in entirely different directions. Sure, we’ll both be in California, but he’ll be in San Francisco and I’ll be hours away in Los Angeles. With the lack of a relationship on both our parts, we’ll likely never see each other again.
I’ve yet to cry. I haven’t shed a tear. Not when Dad’s best friend showed up at the house at midnight to tell us of the drunk trucker who’d hit our parents head-on. River lost it. Isaiah held him tight after he’d taken a baseball bat to the closest wall.
Speaking of pains in my ass—is the man who broke the news of our parents’ passing. He’s next to River. Not sure why because River hates him. He hates Isaiah Woods so much, and because River lacks a filter, everyone, even our father, knew this. It’s about the only thing my dear stepbrother and I are on the same page with.
The graveside service ends after a small eulogy by Isaiah. It’s the only time my eyes meet with River’s, and we both roll them, knowing Isaiah is a pretentious fuck-turd who loves to blow smoke up people’s asses in the hopes he looks essential and important.
I’m in my own thoughts; I don’t realize the service is over. “Kenzie,” someone calls out to me. “Kenzie.” This time, there’s an irritation to his words. It’s Isaiah. And I’m not wrong. One peek at his sharp cheekbones and the way his jawline is tight, his irritation is strictly targeted at me.
“What?” I bite out, a little harsher than I usually do.
River doesn’t give a fuck how he comes off to Isaiah Woods. Still, for the small fact that Isaiah is my godfather and my dad loved him like a brother, I’ve never spoken to him in the way I’ve wanted to.
“Yeah, I’d watch that tone with me, miss.” The pitch in his words isn’t a surprise. He’s a commanding asshole.
I let out a strangled breath. “Yeah, sorry, Mr. High and Mighty. I’m sort of in my own thoughts with burying my parents.”
We still have six months before we graduate. And I’m just biding my time, understanding I have to co-exist in the same house with River. And what that means for me.
“About that, I need to go over some of the estate information with you. So, we’re going back to my house after the funeral.”
We’d taken a limo to the cemetery from his charming home. “Yeah, well, that’s where my car is. And since you didn’t give us a choice in how we’d get here today, making River and me meet you at your house, I have no choice but to return with you.”
He never shows emotion. Even when he delivered the eulogy, his voice never fluctuated. He was so clinical in his delivery. “Then it shouldn’t be a problem for you to stay, now will it? Be sure to tell River. And by the way, Kenzie, you’ll want to stress to him that this is not up for negotiation. He’ll want to hear what I have to say.” He stops and walks away—a step or two when he turns back to me. “And, Kenz, you’d be a good girl as to not challenge me.”
“River never listens to a word I say, so why would he start now?” I stop for a second, taking one last look at where my parents’ final resting spot is.
I stay for another moment, caring less about Isaiah’s empty threats. I search for River. He’s nowhere in sight. Not surprised. He does his own thing when he wants—never with respect for anyone else. However, right now, I wish he would have taken me with him. I’d rather have his company than that of the overbearing asshole waiting for me by the limo.
Chapter 2
River
The asshole is reciting his edict to Kenzie. Yeah, I couldn’t care less what the fucker has to say. He’s never been someone I give two shits about. Well, not now—after how he has devastated me. Mom used to laugh, claiming there was so much similarity between the two of us. I never understood her level of amusement over the disgust that would befall me whenever Isaiah Woods came into my line of sight.
“It’s like looking at you in twenty-five years, Riv.”
My mom. Her voice still lives in my mind. I wouldn’t care if she was here to itemize the similarities between the douche and myself. I’d appreciate everything she’d say. I’d even laugh at her, replying how crazy the statement had been. Then I’d not even cringe as Dad would wrap his arms around her slim waist, whispering in her ear. I’d never wanted to know what they did behind closed doors. I’m old enough to understand what it was. But no child wants to think of this when it comes to their parents.
Dad was my dad, and with that, he came with baggage. And Robert Hanson was my father. But my attention turns to Kenzie, speaking of that fucker. Why couldn’t I ever think of her as my sister? Instead of the six-year-old pain in my ass. Though I’d known her from birth. After all, we share the same fucking birthday.
The Uber I’d ordered to pick me up on the opposite end of the cemetery waits for me. Shit, I’d forgotten my car is at Isaiah’s mansion. I don’t know what had been up his ass last night when he called, demanding to meet him at his place before the funeral. I honestly have no idea what has caused him to think he’s the ruler of Kenz, or me, for that matter.
I never out and out hated Kenz, as I have with Isaiah. She’s more like a nuisance, a buzzing mosquito, just off to bug the shit out of me. From an early age—going back to around the time our parents had wed—four years after Kenzie’s biological mom died, I’ve always had this annoyance of her. She just was everywhere I’d been. Maybe I knew she wasn’t my blood. But I loved Dad, and he wasn’t my kin, either. Perhaps it was how she followed me around incessantly for years.
At twelve, she got the message when finally, I’d placed a baby picture of her in nothing but her birthday suit on the bulletin board of our middle school. She’d never told Mom, who sure enough, would have grounded me for a lifetime for being mean to my sister, as she called Kenzie. That was the day that I continued to ignore her, and she started to act as if I was just a necessary evil in our family.
But there was one thing in regard to Kenzie I had not expected. At fifteen, she left for the summer with her biological mom’s parents, looking like a kid. She, however, came home three months later with everything a young man finds attractive. She’d even ditched the glasses for contacts and had started putting a little effort into her appearance. My friends salivated over the girl who was always a nerd. Having her face bu
ried in a book, reciting every element of the periodic table or world capitals were just some of the nuances that bugged me. It became apparent of my friends’ intentions at the mention of hanging out at my house. They’d always avoided my home because of Kenz, but they only wanted to come here in their teens, for one reason. I put a stop to the shit before they could fill Kenzie’s head with the fact that she was indeed hot. I wasn’t blind. I knew a hot girl, but Kenzie didn’t have to know she was sought after like the popular girls in our school.
Every single suitor had to come through me. It was a known thing. I do, after all, own the title of King Asshole for a reason. But Kenz’s mind is always focused on academics. She doesn’t realize how many guys want her. Yeah, too bad for her. And somehow, knowing my sister is a virgin gets me hard in ways it shouldn’t. Not for a geek like Kenz.
My text alert starts going off. I try to ignore it because it can only be one of two people. It also happens to be the two most annoying gnats in my life. Just for shits and giggles, I tilt my phone to read whatever either has to say, groaning but also laughing at the way I have Kenz programmed into my cell.
Nerd: Where are you? Isaiah claims he has to go over shit from the estate with us. We might as well get it over with. I assume we’ll just live at home, for the time being, until college. I guess we’re going to need some sort of allowance.