STEPBROTHERS (3 Book Stepbrother Romance Collection)

S
NAKE Copyright ©
2015 by Emilia Beaumont

VULTURE Copyright © 2015 by Emilia Beaumont

SHARK Copyright © 2015 by Emilia Beaumont

P
ublished
by Elwynn Cottage

Edited by Amanda at Stylus Ink

Cover by Elwynn Cottage

A
ll rights reserved
.

N
o part
of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Y
our support
of author’s rights is appreciated.

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

C
heating
, fucking, lying Snake!

I thought he was different than all the rest.

My stepbrother, Devan, was everything I longed for in a man: loyal, protective, and strong.

After being burned so many times by cheating scumbags, you can understand why. Devan’s the perfect guy; the standard I hold other men up to. If only I could have a carbon copy of him… tattoos and all.

But then he kissed me. And no matter how much I want him to be mine, I now see him for what he really is.

Another snake that can’t keep it in his pants.

He’s married, for fuck’s sake!

Their marriage is in trouble, but that’s no excuse, and it just happens to be one of the reasons why I’m living with the couple… I’ve made a deal to be their surrogate.

How did my life become so complicated all of a sudden?

Because now, after just one amazing kiss, I can’t stop thinking about my stepbrother and the baby I promised to give him.

H
e’ll get
under my skin, peck at my bones, and rip my heart to shreds.

My stepbrother, Harvey Guyer, preys on the innocent, the vulnerable, and weak. Discarding them without a second glance when he's had his fill. Businessman of the year, he thinks he’s hot stuff. And he’s the last person I need in my life right now. One abusive relationship was enough.

When I lost my husband, my whole fucked up world collapsed. I hate that he's dead, and I hate that I wasn't the one to kill him.

Can’t Harvey understand I need time to grieve? That after everything I’ve gone through I need to get back on my feet and process the emotional wreckage? I don’t want to revisit the dark places. Except my stepbrother refuses to take no for answer. He’ll lead me places I don’t want to go, force me to tell him things I do not want to admit to.

But whether I like it or not, he’s the only one that will listen to me. I can’t get him out of my head and hate the effect he has on me. One look, and I long for his hard body against mine. Yet the pleasure might not be worth the pain, because once he has me trapped in his talons, he's going to drag me kicking and screaming back into the light.

No, it’s too soon. My trust levels are running on empty.

I barely survived one nightmare, I don’t know if I can outlive my wildest dreams.

T
hea Reagan
: Good girl? Always.

Loyal daughter? Without a doubt.

Hiding a scandalous secret? Only when night falls.

I put up a good act, hiding my true self beneath a wholesome mask. But as the daughter of a High Court Judge I must be extremely careful, and the men I entertain must be relied upon to be discreet.

However, everything changes when Vincent, my stepbrother, comes into my life. Rugged, handsome and downright dirty, he’s a far cry from the rich businessmen I’ve set my sights on. But Vincent inadvertently sets in motion a chain of horrid events that sends my world into a dangerous spin.

The scandal would ruin me, embarrass my father and lower his opinion of me.

Bribed, threatened, and used, I’m trapped and can see no way out… I can’t ask for help and yet Vincent takes it upon himself to deliver the final blow.

V
incent Hudson
: Bad Boy? F*ck yeah!

Disowned? I didn’t need them anyway.

Man with a temper? Keep looking at me like that and you’ll find out.

When the red curtain of rage falls over my eyes, I’m unable stop myself. The anger that builds up inside me demands an outlet: a punching bag, a man’s face…

In my line of business the reputation of being a savage can come in extremely handy. But this time it went too far.

I’m a sucker for a damsel in distress and though when I met Thea she is anything but helpless, I can’t help but think she will be my f*cking downfall.

And one gratifying act could mean a lifetime in prison.

S
HARK
is
a story of a Good Girl gone bad. And a Bad Boy foolishly trying to do good.

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S
tanding
in my property manager’s office after he’d called me to tell me I was late on the rent again - as if I didn’t know - I kneaded my temples. How had I let this get so out of hand? I was risking homelessness! What had I been thinking? “Can you give me another month? I know I can get the money together.”

“Mila, I’ve given you a lot of latitude already. You’re a great tenant, responsible and quiet, and I know you take great care of the place, but I can’t float you any longer.” Harvey folded his arms across his chest, adamant in his decision; there was no way I was getting out of this mess by batting my eyelashes. “I’m sorry.”

I let out a breath, the urge to scream building up inside. “So how much time do I have?”

“The end of the month. That’s it.” He sighed, his eyes darting away in guilt. “But if you can get me the full rent for next month, we can do a payment plan for the back rent that you still owe. If you can’t come up with the full rent by then, well, you’ll have to find a new place. It’s out of my hands - I have a family to feed.”

Smiling, I nodded. There was a sliver of hope after all, yet it would be a struggle to come up with all that I owed. But I was grasping at straws, and I knew it. Even if I managed to get another job in time and they paid me in advance it wouldn’t come close.

“I can do it, Harvey, I promise,” I said, lying to myself and to him, unable to stop the words. “I’ll get a second job,” I mumbled, talking mostly to myself, all the while trying to figure how I could earn some extra cash. I was a lowly secretary for a big real estate firm making a little more than minimum wage. The hours were erratic, and even though I knew I was good at my job, the work never ended. I always had to bring paperwork home to finish it on time, so god knows how I was going to fit in more work. A night shift job perhaps?

I said goodbye and walked over to my place, just a few buildings over from Harvey’s office. My apartment was on the second floor, and I climbed the steps quickly, wanting nothing more than to just crawl into bed and stare at the wall for a while. I’d lived in my cosy little apartment for five years, since I had graduated from college, and it was the only place I really considered home. I’d decorated it myself, hung up the curtains, painted the walls and bought furniture that fit the rooms’ dimensions perfectly. I’d been doing fine on rent for the last few years, but early on in the year, the rent went up, and the struggle began. Six-months of barely scraping by.

And now I needed to come up with more than a thousand dollars; that’s how much I was short, and that was just the back rent I owed, I still had this months to pay. Then there was also another month after that, and then another, and the rent wasn’t going to go down. What I needed to do was win the lottery.
As if
, I thought,
I’m not that lucky.

My cell rang and I answered it, grateful for the interruption into my spiralling, doomed thoughts. If anyone was going to cheer me up it was my cousin, Suzanne.

“Wassup?” she said.

“I need to win the lottery or sell my body parts. Fancy buying a kidney?” I joked.

She snorted, “I’m not quite in the market for one, but I’ll let you know. However what I do want is a thick juicy burger. Wanna meet at Tasty’s?”

“Hell yes,” I said, grabbing my keys off the counter and walking to my car. “I’m on my way as we speak. I have to brainstorm with you on how to get more money.”

“More money, more problems,” Suzanne said.

“Less money, less apartment,” I said.

“Oh, shit, really?” Suzanne grew serious. She could be a completely sarcastic bitch, but she knew when to put the joking aside when a situation called for it.

“Seriously. I’m fucked. I just had a meeting with the manager. I have to have what I owe for last month by the thirtieth, or I’m out.”

“Are you going to be able to do that?” she asked.

“Right now, no. That’s why we need to have a brainstorming session. I’ll buy.”

“The hell you will. I’ll buy you a burger, and we’ll get your life figured out. See you in ten.”

I clicked off my phone and drove to the gourmet burger restaurant, thankful for the distraction and for the support. There were a lot of things I had control over in my life, but my absolute, complete addiction to hamburgers was not one of them. Tasty Burger was the best place in the city; there was always a line out the door and frenzied workers shouting orders out, either back to the kitchen or to customers. Suzanne and I had solved most of life’s problems in a booth over the full works: hamburgers, fries and thick shakes.

As I pulled up, Suzanne waved to me from the line. I sneaked in with her, and she hugged me.

“We’ll figure something out,” she said.

“I’m just worried I’m going to have to prostitute myself or something. Seriously. Or, I guess I could always just go live in a cardboard box.”

“I don’t think either of those are good long-term plans.”

We ordered food and waited in the pick-up line. “What did your manager say, exactly?” she asked.

“I asked if I could pay half, and the rest later but he said I needed the full amount for next month but that he would let me set up a payment plan for the back rent. He’s not being a dick; he really wants to help me out.”

“Well, okay, then we just need to find a way to get you a decent sum of money in a short amount of time.” Suzanne said it simply, as if it was an actual solution.

“Well, no shit,” I said. “How are we going to
do
that?”

“I have an idea…”

“I’m not going to like it am I?”

“You’ll just have to wait and see,” she replied and tapped a manicured finger against her studded nose.

O
n the way home
, I called Mark, an ex-boyfriend. I knew I should’ve resisted the urge, but he was always willing to come over, especially when neither of us was dating anyone and I had an itch to scratch. All the built-up tension of my disastrous life was taking its toll, and I needed someone to fuck it out of me, pronto.

He walked in, and without saying so much as a word to me, slipped off his leather jacket and yanked me towards his hard body. His lips found their way quickly onto mine. Mark smelled like engine oil and burnt rubber, and I lost myself in his embrace. I tried to remember why we’d broken up when he smelled this delicious.

Mark’s tongue urgently pushed its way past my parted lips, swirling inside as his hands trailed down my body, stopping to squeeze my butt. Seemed like I wasn’t the only one in need of a release.

“Well, hello there,” I gasped as we came up for air.

“Hey, babe,” he replied and pulled me, almost dragging me into my bedroom. “Let’s get these clothes off shall we?”

He pressed against me and I fell into him, feeling for the first time that day like there was some order in my life.

Mark was dark and brooding, a man of many muscles and few words, and totally wrong for me. We both knew it would never ever work out between us; heaven knows we’d tried, but it always ended the same: him cheating on me and fucking around. Too much heartache when I wanted so much more, someone loyal…

So, we had this little arrangement, and I was relatively happy. Of course it’d taken me a while to forgive his previous indiscretions, but he was set in his ways. I couldn’t change him. Instead I decided not to let myself get attached anymore.

Just fuck me and leave
. No complications. That’s all I needed right now. Mark would have to do until I found someone who wanted to spend time with me as much I wanted to spend time with him.

We fucked that night, barely speaking to each other, and as dawn broke the next morning, Mark slinked out from under the sheets and left. As I rolled over and looked at the empty space, a feeling of being used washed over me. But this was what I signed up for. This was what I wanted, right? And his hands, lips and cock had, I admitted, done wonders to clear away the cobwebs. I felt like I could breathe again. But the feeling wouldn’t last. The relationship was dead in the water, hollow and without substance.

I craved something more substantial, filling and juicy.