Page 2 of Their Sweetest Obsession

Swallowing against the anxiety that was so intense I wanted to gag, I dropped the bag on the floor. With shaking fingers, I opened the lid of the box and found a wedding invitation.

Looking at it broke something inside me.

“No,” I whispered to myself before I could even flip the card over. “Anything but this. Please.”

My desperate plea went unanswered as my eyes scanned the words.

Reeve was getting married.

A piece of my heart died reading the words, a sob getting trapped in my throat. It shouldn’t hurt so much. What I felt for my two stepbrothers wasn’t right. For years, I’d tried to pretend I didn’t love them so deeply.

We were family.

That was all.

Something I’d never had but always craved, and they had given it to me. They were my home. My safe place. My family.

It was all we could ever be. Year after year, I’d lied to myself repeatedly because it was wrong on so many levels. Even if by some miracle they could care about me as anything other than a sister, what I wanted—with both of them—wasn’t possible.

I’d known this kind of announcement would be coming. William had mentioned it at Christmas and then again when I went home for a brief visit a few weeks back. But I’d hoped Reeve wouldn’t give in. That he would ignore it like all the other stupid shit William harped on and on about, as Reeve did with most things his father said.

He and Wilder had been running Keats International for years now. Reeve had started almost a decade before William married my mom, and Wilder had stepped into his role afterward. It seemed archaic to expect either of them to get married in order to hold on to their roles within the company. Yet that was exactly what William talked about all the time—Reeve getting married in order to remain the CEO and president of the Keats dynasty.

Wilder told William he was an ancient old fucker, and he wouldn’t do anything he didn’t want to. In truth, William didn’t care one way or another what Wilder did as long as he stayed out of trouble. But when it came to Reeve, William had high and, at times, unrealistic expectations.

Reeve usually ignored William’s bullshit, but he hadn’t corrected the old man about the marriage issue.

“Marina?” Kara said softly, her hand touching my arm. “Hey, are you okay?”

Another sob got trapped in my throat, suffocating me as my fingers clenched around the thick card with the pretty, etched writing.

No, I was not fucking okay.

I was losing Reeve.

It was only a matter of time before I lost Wilder as well.

CHAPTER ONE

reeve

My personal assistant placed a stack of papers in front of me, leaning forward slightly. Turning my chair away from her, I readjusted the phone to my ear while scanning the screen of my computer.

“What do you mean, she hasn’t chosen a dress yet?” I growled into the receiver, reviewing the long list the wedding planner had sent me. So far, only one thing had been checked off—invitations.

Marina was in the middle of her final exams. I hadn’t bothered her with anything because I knew she was stressed enough. Planning a wedding a day after graduating college wasn’t ideal, but I wasn’t going to wait any longer to make her our wife.

Fuck, waiting the four years while she got her degree had been agonizing enough.

Neither Wilder nor I had been happy about it, but William was insistent. We had both told him to fuck off, but he’d made us a deal. Give Marina the time to have normal experiences, and he would accept our relationship.

I’d nearly ripped the old man’s head off, but it was Wilder who had agreed it was best for Marina. No matter what, the three of us would be together, but if William was on board, it would make it easier on our girl.

Making her happy was all either one of us wanted, so I’d conceded. But time was up. As soon as she walked across that stage to accept her diploma, our ring was going to be on her finger. William was lucky I’d even agreed to a wedding that included him and his current wife.

And then Stephanie had talked him into traveling, conveniently forgetting that her daughter was graduating from college with honors. Fucking bitch, only ever thinking about herself. Stephanie had never liked Wilder or me. When I’d told her and William the wedding was happening at the end of May, she’d thrown a tantrum that had lasted for days.

If I had my way, I’d let my lawyer file the paperwork, and Wilder and I would have our own ceremony with Marina on the beach of the private island where we would be spending the two-month honeymoon Wilder had planned for us.

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