Controlling Interests: A Step-Brother Romance (The Legacy Book 2)

BOOK: Controlling Interests: A Step-Brother Romance (The Legacy Book 2)
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Controlling Interests (The Legacy Series #2
)

Copyright © 2015 by Lana Grayson

Published by Tika Lake Publishing

 

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof
may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever
without the express written permission of the publisher
except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

 

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

 

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you’d like to share it with. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

 

 

Cover Design
: Rebecca Berto

http://bertodesigns.com/

 

Cover Images Purchased from

http://www.periodimages.com

 

 

Other Works By Lana Grayson:

 

Legacy Series

 

Takeover – The Legacy Series #1

 

Anathema Series

 

Warlord – Anathema MC Series
#1

 

Exiled – Anathema MC Series #2

 

Knight – Anathema MC Series #3

Coming This Fall!

 

 

 

Keep tabs on me through Facebook or

 

 

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Join my mailing list to receive updates, news, special sales, and opportunities for advanced reader copies of upcoming novels!

 

 

And you can email me at
[email protected]
.

 

 

 

Please Note:

 

This story is a continuation of a dark step-brother romance which will include scenes of captivity, physical abuse, sexual encounters with multiple partners, and non-consensual situations.

 

The series will end with a Happily Ever After, and will not feature themes of cheating/adultery.

 

All of the characters are over the age of eighteen and are of no blood relation.

 

No Hamlets were harmed in the writing of this manuscript.

 

However, certain scenes and descriptions may be uncomfortable for some readers. Please read with care.

 

Thank you!

 

 

 

To My Husband...

A novel in
two
three weeks!

…Yeah, I know. I’ll relax once it’s done. ;)

 

 

Table of Contents

 

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Acknowledgements

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

 

 

 

 

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.

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