Takeover: A Step-Brother Romance (The Legacy Series Book 1) (18 page)

Reed shrugged. “How does this protect Sarah?”

Max answered for me. “It doesn’t.”

“If Nick seizes control of the company—”

“That will take
months
,” Max said. “You’re missing the point. This has nothing to do with Sarah. We can’t protect the girl.”

Reed wasn’t often angry. His voice lowered. Even Mom’s green eyes couldn’t dull the intensity and indignation that scarred us all as our father’s sons.

“I don’t care what you say, I don’t care about Dad. I am not hurting that girl. I’ve done a lot of sketchy shit for this family, but rape isn’t one of them, and I’m not impregnating someone by force so
my
child can be manipulated for our gain. That’s two lives I fuck over. It’s not happening.”

“You’re right,” I said. “Which is why we are changing strategy involving the girl.”

Max rifled through his laptop bag and swallowed a handful of pain-killers. “Are we letting her go?”

“No.”

“You want to keep her.”

Like he hadn’t had the same fantasy. “Very much.”

Reed scowled. “So you can rape her?”

“No. I plan to seduce her.”

He laughed. “You’re fucked in the head. Why the hell would she fall for you?”

“Because I’m a Bennett. I have land. I have our business. I have our wealth…” I shrugged. “And I have my pick of the women.”

“This isn’t a woman. She’s an Atwood.”

“Perfect,” I said. “Who better to seduce? Who better to have willingly spread her legs and offer me every part of her? I will seduce, bed, and take Mark Atwood’s daughter as my own—a beautiful toy for my amusement.”

Max perked an eyebrow. “Since when do you like that type of toy?”

I answered honestly. “Since the first time I saw her.”

Reed tilted his head. “What makes you think you’re the only one who’ll have her?”

“I’ll speak with Dad and convince him to let me have her to myself. Save her the indignity of serving three men in favor of submitting completely to me.”

“What a hero,” he snorted. “Steal the company, rape the girl.”

“
Experience
the girl.”

Reed and Max fell silent. I expected it. They didn’t understand the gift that we nearly lost, the beauty nearly taken from the world.

I saw through her rage, the shattering shell of her confidence, the strength she bluffed and the simmering hate she wielded as an ineffective shield.

Beneath her admirable resilience hid a passionate woman, imprisoned more by her own hesitance than any chains and ropes I might have used to restrain her.

Sarah Atwood wanted me.

And I’d ensure that fatal mistake would ruin her with pleasure.

It was a mistake returning to the Bennett estate.

The creeping stone mansion spilled into the otherwise pristine forest. The dark manor loomed within the shadows and spoiled the vibrant green of the mountain with its splashes of crimson and white blossoming flowers. It didn’t belong here.

It was nothing more than a trap. Worse, I set the snare myself.

Nicholas carried me through the threshold. I ignored the implication and braced myself for whatever I would find inside.

The manor and everything it encompassed etched from unforgiving stone. The foyer. The columns. Even the men. They hardened themselves for endurance and intimidation, chiseling flecks of their humanity into dust. Nothing soft or kind existed in their world.

I needed to rest before I could defend myself from them.

Darius Bennett met us on the grand staircase, positioned exactly where I took my last full breath and begged his heir for help.

I wiggled from Nicholas’s arms.

 “Welcome home, my dear.” He held a bag of my prescriptions and twisted it within his hand. “You look moments from death.”

That I believed. Anger kept me on my feet. The pinpricks of hatred jammed into the base of my skull, but I said nothing, only stared at the bag that contained my rescue inhaler.

I anticipated this cruelty.

“If you want your medications, you’ll ask for permission first.” He waited for an ill-advised profanity. It wasn’t worth the risk. “I trust we can come to an arrangement. I’d hate to see you in such pain again, my dear.”

He hated that it wasn’t a pain he caused. I didn’t waste a word on him.

“I’ll carry them,” Nicholas said. “She’s my charge at the moment.”

Darius chuckled. “I know an excellent way for her to earn the medications, son.”

Bastards. They could keep the meds.

Darius thought he could frighten me, that I wouldn’t dare climb the steps he guarded. I stormed forward, but Nicholas grasped my hand.

His touch somehow relieved me. My strides weakened the instant we passed from Darius’s view. I panted, slowing as Nicholas guided me into the depths of the house. The hall ended with steel doors, and he pushed a button to reveal an elevator.

“I can walk.” It took two breaths to finish the sentence.

Nicholas tucked the prescriptions into his suit pocket. “Don’t mistake pride for strength, Sarah. We should never have taken you from the hospital so quickly. You need to rest.”

We rode to the third floor, and my stomach twisted. That area belonged to my step-brothers, each claiming their own wing for privacy. My fingers tightened over the railing.

They wouldn’t dare try to violate me. Not when I was sick.

Then again, I had no strength to fight them.

“You’re safe for now,” Nicholas said.

Was I that easy to read? “Why should I believe you?”

His eyes burned a bit brighter, the gold hues crisp and demanding. I wished I hadn’t noticed.

He led me through the east wing and rapped against the doorframe to a darkened room. The lights flared.

Of course the Bennetts had a private theater.

The room furnished with amphitheater styled seating, oversized leather chairs, and a screen the size of our barn doors. Max stood as we entered. Reed munched on popcorn made from the actual popcorn cart still spitting fresh kernels.

“Welcome to my sanctuary.” Max waved over the wall-to-wall cherry cabinets which completely encased the room. The theater was dark, cozy, and housed a variety of liquors and snacks. He didn’t share Reed’s smile, but I swore he softened his voice when I edged closer to Nicholas. “You can use it while you recover.”

“Oh, but—”

Max didn’t let me answer. He flipped open a cabinet door.

If Heaven had existed, this was it.

“I lost count after a couple thousand movies.” He pulled out a selection and showed me the titles. Action, comedy, foreign, classic. “Whatever you like, it’s probably here.”

Reed waved to a cabinet. “Playstation, Xbox, and Wii down there too.”

Nicholas guided me to a recliner close to the screen, complete with fuzzy blanket, headphones, and a set of pink pajamas.

My stomach twisted. How did they get my favorite pajamas from my room at
home
?

“The doctor is coming at noon,” Nicholas said. “You should be resting when he gets here.”

I studied the offering with a guarded suspicion. What were they planning?

Popcorn?

Movies?

Games
?

I hated myself for envying the setup.

I hated myself more for considering their gift.

How long was it since I let myself watch a movie? I always had too many classes and meetings and funerals and sharp objects to hide from my mother.

Once the farm and company unceremoniously fell into my lap, I’d been consumed by work and email, schedules and classes, reports and P&Ls. When my asthma flared and I was forced to bed on a bad day, I still had classwork to finish and paperwork to sign. My recovery days became opportunities to conference call with Anthony about legal matters.

And now the
Bennetts
were the ones to offer me a chance to rest?

Unbelievable.

And worse, I almost fell for it.

“Stop it.” I pulled away from Nicholas. “You’re creeping me out.”

Reed stood, wiping the butter from his hands on his jogging pants. Max wasn’t in a suit either. They wore workout clothes. Their shirts stretched over barrel chests, trim waists, and powerful forms. For a moment—a split second of weakness and oxygen deprivation—I wondered what Nicholas looked like beneath his regal suits.

“What’s wrong?” Reed jerked a thumb toward the popcorn. He grinned. His dimple tugged so effortlessly. “We got junior mints too.”

“This!” I said. “All of this.”

“We’re just trying to help. Give you a place to recover.”

“Yeah, stop it. Christ.” My lungs seized. “Tie me up in the basement. Chain me to a wall. Don’t do
this
.”

Nicholas hesitated. “Do what?”

I couldn’t believe I was saying it.

“Don’t act like you’re my
brothers
.”

Enough was enough. I reached for the door before I lost the strength to deny the salty beckoning of the popcorn. Max’s words burned through me.

“Get in that chair, tuck in, and fucking rest,” he said. “We’re not playing.”

Neither was I. “I’ll be fine without your help.”

“You walk out of this room, and our father will make your life a living hell.”

“He already has.”

Max’s revelation laced with poison. “He’ll make us fuck you even if you aren’t fertile.”

The hair on my neck rose. I turned, pretending the words hadn’t twisted my stomach.

“
What did you say
?”

“Get in your pajamas and rest. If you think you’re strong enough to fight, then fight and suffer the consequences. He
will
punish you for the hospital, and you won’t like what he’s planning, ovulating or not.”

Reed no longer looked at me. He rubbed his face, massaging the lingering scars over his jaw and cheek. “The sicker you act, the safer you are.”

I wasn’t about to display any weakness before a Bennett, but the cough answered for me.

“He wants us to rape you.” Max spoke the word so casually, as if it were already written in stone and predestined. I trembled when I realized it probably was. “But no one is going to murder you. If you look like you can’t handle it…” He held his arms out. His muscles tensed, dangerously strong and completely inescapable. “We won’t touch you. Use some common sense.”

Nicholas said nothing, but his promise burrowed deep in my mind.

He wouldn’t hurt me.

Nicholas was many things—ruthless, ambitious. But was he a man of his word?

Reed waved the Xbox controller again. Max brandished a number of blue-ray videos.

Though my insides turned on me, slithering in the cold fear of what I knew would happen but hadn’t been brave enough to imagine.

They would take me.

They would try to breed a Bennett son into me.

I nearly died in Nicholas’s arms, and, if I was going to recover, I couldn’t risk the added stress of whatever depravity they planned for my virginity. I grabbed a title from Max’s collection at random.

Reed called me forward. “What’d you pick?”

I held the movie up with a trembling hand. He grinned. He must have known he was charming.

“
Diehard
. Love it.” He tossed me my pajamas and pointed to the powder room behind the screen. “Change in there. We’ll take care of you.”

Take care of me?

Nicholas nudged me when I didn’t move. His mocha words breathed heat into me.

“Do you need help changing?” He whispered.

The goose bumps returned. I shook my head. “I think I remember how it works, thanks.”

Nicholas didn’t like my tone. He moved behind me, seizing my arms and pinning me against him. I didn’t have the strength to fight, but I regained my pride far quicker than my energy.

“Now what do you want?” I hissed.

“Sarah, you’re our guest.” His voice rumbled in places that weren’t fair for him to strike. Max perked an eyebrow. “More important than a guest, actually. Do you know what you are?”

“An enemy.”

“Hardly. You’re a gift.”

“I don’t give Bennetts charity.”

“Not willingly.” His grip tightened. “But we’ll take it nevertheless.”

“Of course you will.”

“But now that you’re in our custody, we’ll do whatever it takes to keep you safe, protected, and healthy.” He paused. “I won’t guarantee happy. That’s up to you.”

“Don’t count on it.”

“You’re in our possession, Sarah. You
are
a possession.”

“For now.”

His voice dizzied me. I hated the betraying tingles that revealed too much. My cheeks flushed as pink as my pajamas. He didn’t release me, even as his brothers watched.

How was I supposed to fight a man like this?

Nicholas spoke of lust and ownership and captivity as though it were an offered romance. Everything he vowed to do was a crime, but yet every time he threatened me with a hint of his intentions, my defenses shattered.

Thoughts and feelings and
desires
rippled through what remained of my rationality.

His was a different breed of cruelty.

Nicholas deliberately teased me. He whispered with velvet promises laced in blood and wielded the menace of his passion like a blade to my neck. Part of me longed for the moment he finally decided to slice.