Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 102929 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102929 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
I’ve loved two men in all my life.
Two extremely different men.
Where Julius and I blossomed from a loving friendship, Kraven and I stemmed from nothing
but hatred. A very thin line exists between love and hate, and I crossed it with both.
I fell in love with each of them at different times, in different ways, and with different words
and actions. Cause and effect has always been our problem.
This isn’t just a love triangle between the two men I love.
It's worse.
Because misery is the only certainty when you're in love with two brothers.
And now I'm faced with the impossible choice. Though nothing could’ve prepared me for
the devastation when they both declared, “We are yours.”
Then, all in one breath, they begged…
“Now… say you’re mine.”
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Prologue
Isla
I’ve loved two men in all my life.
Two very different men.
There was no confusing them.
Where Julius’s and my relationship blossomed from a loving friendship, Kraven’s and mine stemmed from nothing but hatred.
But love and hate were a very thin line I inevitably crossed with each of them. It was this tightrope we spent years dancing around…
Just waiting.
Breathing.
Living in these moments in time that would eventually become memories of our love stories with the choices of our pasts growing vines that felt like thorns of a rose you’d rip from a garden. The kind that would wickedly prick your finger and draw your blood to protect itself.
Its beauty.
Its scent.
Its vibrant red color.
Every rose told its own story of survival, each thorn served its own purpose until the petals faded and withered away before falling to the ground. I told myself I fell in love with each of them at different times, in different ways, with different words and different actions that held their own praise.
Cause and effect were always our problem. This slippery slope we skated across was on very thin ice, and it only became more hazardous as time went on.
Especially when they both admitted…
“Nothing hurts more than the woman we love, loving someone else in the same way she loves you too.”
You see, this wasn’t just a love triangle between two men I loved.
No…
This was deeper.
Harder.
More tragic.
This would inflict misery no matter the outcome.
A domino effect.
Because this was a love triangle between two brothers instead. I was always the one smack dab in the middle, the one who had to make the ultimate choice, the one they had to share.
And nothing could have prepared me for the impact when, together, they declared, “We're yours.”
* * *
Then, all in one breath, all in one second, they pleaded…
* * *
“Now… say you’re mine.”
Chapter
One
Isla
The beginning of all that truly mattered.
* * *
“You ungrateful little shit!” Mr. Bates seethed, slamming his fist down on the wooden table beside him.
The flimsy wood rattled wildly, and for a few seconds, I let it provide a false sense of security, like the soothing sound of your favorite lullaby. I took comfort in knowing what would happen next, so when he gripped the collar of the only jean jacket I owned and instantly jerked me toward him, I was expecting it.
“I’m done with your bullshit!” he spat too close to my mouth. “Do you understand me?”
He reeked of vodka. It seeped out of his sweaty pores. He’d been on a bender for the past two days, a strict liquor diet that he and his wife loved to live by. Staying out of their way was just a typical day for us. By now, I was used to this nasty treatment, and I knew he wouldn’t grant me any mercy. He never granted anyone mercy.
Especially us foster kids.
I hated him. Her. All of them. All the houses were the same, just with different faces. It all blended. All mean. All violent. Barking orders left and right. Most of the time, it was a living, breathing nightmare that held us hostage against our will. Where we could never escape, never fully wake up, never get a moment of peace unless we were left alone, and even then, that wasn’t very peaceful.
I experienced it all.
Every vicious word.
Every blow to my body.
Every whimper I heard.
Every sob.
Every time someone begged, surrendered, or gave up, they prayed to God to make them stop.
Someone should have done something, though no one ever did.
I braced for the painful impact that would inevitably come, and still, it hurt like hell when he hurled me onto the same unsteady table that hadn’t stopped rattling. This time, it wasn’t my body that broke my fall. No, it was my face that slammed into the corner of the table first, slicing my eyebrow before the top of my body crashed into splintered wood.