Page 17 of Auctioned to her Stepbrothers

Lyle and I hold our breath as the question hangs in the air. Then a soft voice says a word I'm not expecting at all.

"Yes."

* * *

"Shit," Lyle mutters when Club Scarlet is well behind us. Kylian's driving, and I'm riding shotgun. My younger brother is in the back alone, after failing to get Honor to accept a lift back to her hotel. Funny how she's agreed to be our plaything for an entire week but doesn't trust us to drive her a few blocks. "I can't believe that was Honor."

"I can't believe we fucked her. All of us." I can't get the thought out of my head. I keep replaying every second that I touched her pale beauty, and it's all different now that I know who she is. I took our stepsister's virginity. I was her first. As much as I know it was pleasurable for her, the lingering feeling that it wasn't anything like the experience I would have wanted for her weighs heavy in my chest.

"What's done is done," Kylian growls, but this can't sit well with him either. Honor has always invoked strong feelings in us, and this turn of events takes that to a new level. How can something so wrong feel so good? I can't get it straight in my head.

"But it's not done. We've got a whole week ahead of us." My cock stirs at the thought while my mind keeps telling me how damn wrong it is. Not that I'm a prude. I've done kinky things with past girlfriends and acquaintances, but Kylian isn't known for moderation. If Honor is supposed to pretend to be a victim, how will we know if we take things too far?

Lyle's thoughts are on a different track. "I wonder why she picked the name sparrow."

"Remember when you used to feed the birds," I say, the memory suddenly surfacing. "In the garden that Victoria planted out back." Kylian's shoulders hunch. We don't speak of Honor's mother often.

"Oh yeah. I forgot about that." Lyle's voice softens. "There was this one robin that would practically eat out of Honor's hand. She used to stand so still, and after it flew away, she'd laugh like it was the best thing that ever happened to her."

Silence falls as we drive north. Our destination weighs on all of us. Montgomery House. The mansion that has been in our mother's family for generations. The place where Honor lived with us.

The place where our father awaits us.

Kylian's steady behind the wheel, but I can feel his mood darken. Lyle's too. We should be coming up with a plan for how the hell Honor and the three of us are going to get through this week without anyone getting hurt. If it was up to me, I'd give her the money and let her walk away. I'd push down the strange desire that she's awakened in me and bury all the memories because I know that's what's best for her.

It's not an option, though. Not with Kylian so firm about getting what he's paid for.

I know my brother, though. This isn't just about getting value for money. There's more to it for him, although he'd never admit it.

And Lyle too. He adored Honor and seeing her again must have brought all that back for him. Could he walk away now? Probably not.

As always, we won't talk about it. We're good at burying our feelings and pretending they don't exist.

And, as always, the thought of seeing Dad brings out the worst version of ourselves.

There's no way I'm going to let that affect Honor. She's already been betrayed by my father enough for one lifetime. I won't let that darkness ever touch her—even if that means paying her the money, putting her on a plane, and never laying eyes on her again when the week is over.

But I hope to God it won't come to that because, despite how wrong this all is, I'm already anticipating seeing her again.

8

KYLIAN

THE BITTER HERO

Montgomery House is a paradox of marble and gargoyles, ivy, and flowerbeds, a stately pile of rock artfully arranged into a monster estate. It’s surrounded by enough land and forest to isolate it from the rest of the neighborhood, if you can call a loose association of ridiculously expensive properties owned by the wealthiest of the wealthy that. It's our birthright, all part of the family package we will someday inherit.

I fucking hate it.

Too many memories and not many of them good.

Honor used to play here with us. Hide and seek in the English garden maze or swimming in the pond beyond. All four of us. We were a unit, the fearsome foursome as Victoria called us. Before the bitch betrayed us and left us with him. After all I did to protect Honor.

I'm a man now, and sentimentality is a waste of time, but as a little boy, it fucking hurt.

I pull around the hundred-year-old fountain to park right in front of the entrance, a marble monstrosity with Roman columns and a high veranda. The building looms over me like a bad dream, a hulking shadow under the starlight. It's a heavy reminder of who we are and where we have come from.

Of who we're supposed to be.

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