 by Laylah Roberts.jpg)
Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 103413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 517(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 517(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
And fading a little every day . . .
After being kidnapped and beaten, Lottie Malone retreated from life into the safety of her brothers' protection, intending to stay there forever.
What she didn't know was that there were two unlikely heroes waiting to free her.
Liam Carmichael has the face of an angel and a soul that he believes is dark. Emotionally stunted and domineering, he lets few people close and that's the way he likes it.
But the moment he laid eyes on Lottie, she was his.
His. And his husband's.
With bad boy good looks and a huge heart, Nico knows that Lottie needs them in order to thrive.
They want to share her, possess her, claim her.
They just have to work out how to do that without breaking her.
Please note: This is a mmf romance. The heroine has issues with anxiety and self-harm due to past trauma so please read with caution.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
1
Liam Carmichael was sex on two legs.
And kind of a jerk.
But it didn’t stop Lottie from admiring how gorgeous he was. White-blond hair. High cheekbones. Firm jaw. And though he wasn’t looking her way, she knew his eyes were icy blue.
Face of an angel — soul of the devil.
Dressed in a suit that fitted him to perfection, as usual. She doubted he even owned casual wear; he probably slept in his suits. They had to be made especially for his tank-like body. He turned from talking to Regent to look at the man next to him. His husband Nicolas.
Not a jerk.
Nico was just as gorgeous, but in a different way. He had that whole bad-boy look down pat. His hair was longer, messy in a way that didn’t look contrived. Slimmer and shorter than Liam, but still muscular. Tanned skin. Tattoos down his arms, up his neck. He wore dark jeans and a tight, faded T-shirt that showed off his thick biceps.
Regent walked off down the hallway, leaving the two men alone in the foyer. She was sitting on the steps, dressed in a long nightgown and robe.
She couldn’t sleep, so she’d come down to see if Regent was still awake. He didn’t sleep much either. Often, she’d curl up on the sofa in his office and read a book while he worked. Sometimes she’d have to put on noise-canceling headphones when he was making sensitive calls.
She assumed sensitive meant he was talking about things that were less than legal, and she wasn’t privy to that information. She wasn’t privy to much when it came to any of her brothers’ lives.
Had to protect the princess.
She stifled a sigh. That wasn’t fair. It wasn’t like she did anything to disprove their belief that they had to protect her. In fact, with the way she acted, it was no wonder they were all overprotective.
The princess who couldn’t leave her tower because she was too fucking scared.
She was so sick of it.
All you are is a burden.
Shut up. Shut. Up.
She clenched her hands into fists, resisting the urge to bang them against her thighs.
Today had been a particularly bad day. She didn’t know why. Some days were just worse than others. Some days, the anxiety had a firmer grip on her, digging its claws in deep and whispering things to her she knew weren’t true.
Didn’t mean she didn’t sometimes believe them.
It was a school holiday, and Thea had dropped her brothers off earlier this morning while she went to work. Thea worked for Lottie’s brother Jardin whom she was also in a relationship with. Along with Jardin’s best friend, Carrick.
Lottie wondered what it would be like to be with two men. Her cousins, Beau and Maddox, shared their woman too. Poor Scarlett. Lottie figured one Malone man was enough. And they were Texan Malones, which made them almost completely wild.
She missed her cousins. They were fun and insane. Free.
While she was a prisoner of her own mind. Her anxiety.
Stop it.
Enough with the negative thoughts. If she kept going, she’d do something she’d regret. Thea’s little brothers, Keir, who’d just turned ten and Ace, who was seven, had distracted her for most of the day. They’d worn her out too. Which is what she’d been hoping for.
She wished she could sleep without nightmares plaguing her. Tonight’s nightmare had been a weird one. Liam had been there, telling her that she was safe. That nothing would happen to her because he would protect her.
She didn’t know why she sometimes dreamed that Liam had been there.
So here she was, sitting on the stairs, waiting for her oldest brother’s visitors to leave so she could creep down into his office and have him keep the nightmares at bay for a while.
But instead of leaving, Liam and Nico hung around in the foyer. Obviously waiting on Regent for something. She wished he’d hurry up.
Then Liam turned and looked straight up at her. Those icy blue eyes pierced her. Froze her on the spot.
Oh shit.
He knew she was there? Had he known from when she first sat down, or had he just seen her?
He arched an eyebrow as he ran his gaze over her. “Shouldn’t you be in bed, little girl?”
Rude.
She was twenty-seven, not a little girl, she didn’t have a bedtime.
Nico turned to look up at her. His smile grew wide. “Lottie-bo-bottie.”
She rolled her eyes at his foolishness, but a smile twitched at the corners of her mouth. Nico always made her feel better.
“Lottie-bo-bottie? Really?” Liam drawled.
She didn’t get what Nico saw in him. Well, all right, she kind of did. He was insanely handsome.
But were his good looks worth putting up with his giant ego and dickish personality?
Maybe he had other redeeming qualities. What they were, she had no idea. Regent had known Liam for years, but they seemed to grow closer after her kidnapping.