Kprescott

Stone was my best friend. My protector. My everything. Until he wasn’t. Kids like us didn’t have the best life, riddled with trauma, bounced around in a system that didn’t want us and couldn’t handle us. In our darkest hours, we had each other. Until we didn’t. We tried to hold on to what little we had. Maneuvering the rough waters of our circumstance. Until I couldn’t.

Sleeping with my boyfriend’s best friend, behind his girlfriend’s back, probably wasn’t my smartest idea. But Jase is mine, and it’s about time Julia knew it. Attending Lowell University was supposed to be a fresh start. A chance to end all the sneaking around and make our relationship official. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Julia is digging her claws into Jase. My boyfriend, Chad, is getting in deeper with a local gang. And my loathsome new stepbrother, Ares, has just moved in.

Trauma nurse Aly Cappellucci doesn’t need any more kinks. She likes the one she’s landed on just fine. To her, nothing could top the masked men she follows online. Unless one of those men was shirtless, heavily tattooed, and waiting for her in her bedroom. She dreams about being hunted by one in particular, of him chasing her down and doing deliciously dark things to her willing body. She never could have guessed that by sending one drunken text, those dreams would become her new reality.

Because they were sent there to kill her. Not fall for her. Not feel sorry for her. Not want to take care of her, or protect her, or be in to her. But sometimes, people enter your life for a reason. Sometimes, they even enter at the very moment you need them most. And Yvette Nightingale needs AJ and Logan. She needs them even more than they need her.

Maddie isn’t looking to be saved. She knows the only person you can count on is yourself. Her moral compass might not point true north these days - but at least she’s still standing. The military taught Tyler about loyalty. Being there for your brothers is the only thing that matters - but when it mattered most, he wasn’t.

Alec. Christine. Danny. This is how you say our names. Danger is our drug of choice, the triangle our addiction. Alec. Golden boy with diamonds in his eyes. Christine. Partner in crime and owner of my heart. They know what they want. Me. Danny. Unsure of everything they’re offering. But if she needs me, I come. So when he called, I went. It’s just that simple. Until it wasn’t. Until all those memories come rushing back with all the things we left behind. I only know three things. There is no her without him. No me without them. No we without us. We are Alec, Christine, and Danny.

I lived in the dark for three years. My whole world revolved around the whims and happiness of three men. It was just a trip into the forbidden. A way out of a bad situation and forward into nothingness. Quin, with his easy smile and charming good looks. He was always there for me...until he wasn't. Smith and his dispassionate attention. He was never there for me and he never regretted it. Bric, the one who listened, but only to himself. Self-absorbed, self-obsessed, and self-serving. He was never the one I wanted. And now he might be the only one I have left.

I look her body up and down as I circle her. Mine? I smile a devious, deviant, I'm-gonna-make-you-sorry-you-ever-started-playing-this-game-with-me smile. And then I take her hand. I lead her to the elevator. We go up to my apartment. I tie her wrists together with rope. Raise her arms above her head. And chain her to the ceiling. It's my turn.

I've never been afraid of the dark...but that doesn't mean I wanted to live in it. Maybe everyone wants what they can't have, but I should've thought it over before I unlocked the door to their forbidden world. Number One is mostly silent. He watches me very carefully. Number Two is mostly gentle. But it's the other side of him I like best. Number Three is mostly reserved. It was carnal, it was sensual, and it was erotic. That's it. That's all it was supposed to be. A trip into the dark. A peek into the forbidden. I just didn't expect to like them.