Theirs To Protect: a Reverse Harem Romance Read online

  After two weeks spent almost exclusively in bed—though these two weeks had been decidedly more active than the previous one—Audrey was learning the ins and out of her own body as well as those of her five husbands.

  They’d spent hours exploring one another. Sometimes in twos, sometimes in threes, one time in a giant sextuplet of tangled limbs and cocks and mouths that, now that she thought about it, Audrey was eager to repeat.

  She could describe all of their cum faces in detail and she had to say, life as a wife to five men had so many more upsides than she ever could have imagined.

  “He made it five whole minutes that time,” Graham said from the couch.

  Danny’s head sank to Audrey’s breasts as he slumped over her. “Sorry, Audrey.”

  “What?” She propped herself up on her elbows, forcing Danny to look up at her. “Why would you be sorry? Enough of this crap. I don’t know how or why these idiots have convinced you coming fast is a bad thing.”

  He shrugged, not looking up at her. “I just hear the other clan men talking. About how many hours they pleasure their women. And then I can’t even—”

  “That’s bullshit,” she cut him off and took his cheeks in her hands, pulling his face up so he’d look at her.

  “None of them are in this bed. It’s just us.” She looked around to include Clark and Graham as well. The other guys were out working but she meant all of them. “All I care about is us finding our pleasure. And I came.” She ran her thumb along Danny’s bottom lip and grinned when she felt the shudder go through his body. “Did you come?”

  He nodded vigorously and she laughed. “Then job well done.”

  She wrapped her arms around his neck.

  He laughed, his voice both deep and boyish at the same time.

  Then his face clouded over.

  “What?” She pushed a lock of his thick dark hair off his forehead.

  “Nothing.” He tried to shake it off, but she could still see something was bothering him.

  She grabbed his chin and forced his face back to hers. “Don’t give me that. Something’s up. What is it?”

  He shrugged a little and then laid his head on her breasts. “It’s just, the craziest thing happened at work today.”

  She tilted her head to get a better look at him. “Oh?”

  “Yeah.” He shook his head, brow scrunching up. “I was on construction crew today. We’re fixing up one of the old buildings on the square. The old bank at the corner of Main Street and 2nd.”

  Audrey nodded.

  “Me and this guy, George, happen to be taking our break at the same time out front. I didn’t know him real well but ya know, he’s cool.” The line deepened between his brows. “And then outta nowhere. BAM. A load of bricks from the second story falls on top of him.”

  “Oh my God,” Audrey gasped.

  “He was standing maybe three feet from me.” Danny shook his head.

  “Is he okay?”

  “I don’t know. Me and the other guys pulled the bricks off him and he was breathing, but he didn’t look good. His head was bleeding real bad and he was confused. Didn’t seem to know where he was and kept blacking out. The med crew came and carted him off. It was the craziest thing.”

  Audrey blinked and then hugged Danny even tighter. Three feet? Just three feet and that could have been Danny?

  What the hell? The world was bad enough with genetically engineered viruses and evil bastards like Jeffries without random piles of bricks falling on people and crushing them.

  “I’m so sorry,” she whispered. And she just kept clutching him because… well, she couldn’t seem to let him go.

  “And it just got me to thinking,” he said into her hair.

  She finally forced herself to draw back so she could look him in the eye.

  She nodded for him to go on. Whatever he was trying to say, she could tell it was important to him.

  “Well, I know I said it on our wedding night. But I didn’t really know what it meant then. I do now, though. All I could think as I was coming home was, what if it had been me standing where George was and I never got to tell you? I love you.” His earnest brown eyes searched hers. “You’re perfect, Audrey. You’re perfect and I love you.”

  Audrey’s heart melted and broke at the same time. He was so sweet.

  “You’re the perfect one,” she said, leaning up to kiss him. It was partially a stalling tactic because she didn’t know what else to say. But it was true, too. Danny was wonderful. And so were the other guys, each in their own way.

  The past two weeks had been amazing. Just stealing away from the real world and hiding away in their little honeymoon sex haven. For once, Audrey had just let go of worrying about all the things she couldn’t control.

  Jeffries and his threats.

  Losing her brother.

  In the back of her mind, she knew insane happiness like this was unsustainable. She couldn’t stay hidden away forever. The real world always intruded. Even back at Uncle Dale’s.

  But maybe if you’re careful never to be alone, to always stay close to one or more of your husbands, then Jeffries won’t bother you.

  Was that possible? Was it a real solution, or was she just lying to herself because she wanted it to be?

  She hugged Danny close. She was so happy it hurt.

  Was it so wrong to want to hold onto that for a little longer?

  She could worry about what happened next later.

  Tomorrow maybe.

  Or the next day.

  Chapter 34

  NIX

  When Nix got home from security rounds, it was again to an empty house. He sighed and looked toward the second floor, jogging up the stairs.

  He didn’t hear voices as he approached Audrey’s room and for a brief moment, he hoped it meant Audrey had gotten out of the house today with Danny or Clark.

  He pushed the door to the master bedroom open and crossed his arms over his chest at the scene that greeted him.

  All three of them were passed out on the bed. Audrey and Clark had at least pulled the sheet over themselves but Danny was naked as the day he was born, ass up.

  “You know at some point you’ll have to leave the house again.” Nix said it so loudly that all three of them startled awake. Audrey sat up, looking sleepy and befuddled as she pushed her hair out of her face. “You can’t just stay holed up in here forever. It’s not healthy.”

  She couldn’t have been that deeply asleep because she caught up quickly and adopted an obviously insincere smile. “Oh I don’t know. I think hermitdom suits me.”

  Nix frowned dropping his arms and walking into the room. “I’m serious, Audrey. I mean, obviously we hope you’ll get pregnant soon and then, yes, you’ll spend a lot of time at home, but right now, you barely even leave the bedroom.” He gestured down, indicating the rest of the house. “It’s starting to worry us.”

  Audrey’s head shot to Danny and Clark.

  Danny looked chagrined and Clark held up his hands. “We just want the best for you, love,” Clark said.

  Audrey pulled her sheet up tighter. “Well don’t,” she snapped.

  Nix sighed. It had been a good two weeks but Audrey had just as much spark and spirit as ever. He remembered missing it when it was gone, but now he found himself wishing there was some middle ground to be found.

  Nix held out a hand to Audrey. “Will you take a walk with me?”

  Audrey stared at his proffered hand suspiciously.

  “Jesus, Aud, I don’t bite.”

  “You sure about that?” She arched an eyebrow, getting off the bed slowly and sensuously. She was naked. In fact, Nix wondered when she’d last worn clothes. Sometimes she wore panties, but he and the guys had a bad habit of ripping them off her so she’d given up after the first week. “Because this mark right here on my neck says different.”

  She walked right up to him and extended her neck, pointing out the half-circle discoloration of skin where he’d been nibbling on her the nig
ht before.

  Her pert little nipples were hard points and Nix had to fight against his natural impulse to grab her and slam her up against the wall.

  But after two weeks of sating both his unquenchable appetite and hers, he liked to think he had a little more self-control than that.

  “Put some clothes on and meet me downstairs,” he growled, spinning to head for the door. “Oh, and Audrey?”

  She tilted her head at him.

  “Don’t keep me waiting.”

  That got him a glare and a huff that had him chuckling all the way down the stairs. Probably to get him back, Audrey didn’t come down for fifteen minutes, even though it looked like she’d only thrown on a pair of jeans she was drowning in—maybe one of the guys’?—and an oversized T-shirt that almost completely hid her beautiful figure.

  Aw, she was so adorable when she was being passive-aggressive.

  But at the same time, he needed to have a real conversation with her. He took her hand and dragged her out the back door.

  “Nix. What are you doing?” She threw an arm over her face to shield herself from the sun’s bright rays.

  “Getting you some Vitamin D.”

  The glare she shot him would have made a lesser man quail. Good thing he wasn’t a lesser man. Besides, for him and Audrey, this kind of bickering was foreplay.

  But again, dropping back into bed with her would only be delaying the inevitable and solving nothing.

  “I don’t want to do this,” Nix said gently. “I don’t want to fight.” He took her hand in his and for several long moments just reveled in the feel of her skin against his.

  “I don’t know if I ever apologized,” he said quietly. “For being an ass back when you were having such a difficult time. I just…”

  Fuck. He was no good at this shit. Talking about feelings and shit. But for Audrey, he’d try. “It’s just that, after Roxy—” at the widening of her eyes he hurried to clarify, “—Roxy was my sister.”

  Her mouth widened even further.

  “Roxy was my sister and…” Nix swallowed hard like he was forcing himself to continue.

  Audrey laid a hand on his forearm. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

  Why did she always do that? Pull back at the last minute. Give him an out. He’d seen her do it with the other guys too. For all that she’d let them into her body, she’d still never opened up to them about her past. Where was her family? How had she come to be in the field that day? She was holding things back from them—important things he knew could help them all understand her better. Sophia said she’d mentioned a brother when she first woke up that day after he’d tranqued her in the woods, but Audrey had never said a thing about him to any of them.

  And Nix knew if he was gonna get anywhere with her, he’d have to be the one taking the first step. So he took a deep breath and went on. “After I lost Roxy…” His throat constricted just picturing his sister’s sunny smile. She was the happiest, most optimistic person. Even after everything.

  And then the image of her right at the end flashed through his head. The memory he could never erase.

  His jaw went hard but he kept talking. “She thought I was invincible. That I’d always protect her.” His voice went thick with a mixture of fury and self-recrimination he didn’t bother hiding. “But I wasn’t. And I didn’t.”

  He told her about the militia group that had taken over the resort cabins. And how they captured him and his sister.

  “Phoenix. I’m so sorry.”

  Nix only realized his hand was clenched in a fist when Audrey’s warm hand covered his. Still, he couldn’t look at her. He heard the tears in her voice and he didn’t deserve them. Roxy was the only one who ought to be wept over.

  “They raped and brutalized her for hours.” He said the words but felt an odd detachment from them as he stared at the breeze ruffling the tree leaves of the big live oak in the center of the back yard.

  “And I just sat there.” He shook his head. “I just sat there and did nothing.”

  “Phoenix. You said you were chained up! There was nothing you could do.”

  He shook his head again. She was wrong. “Eventually I realized that if I just broke my hand, I could get free of the cuffs. So I did. And when the guard next came by to taunt me, I grabbed his gun and shot him in the head.”

  Finally, he looked at Audrey. “So you see. If only I’d done that hours earlier, I might have been able to save her. But I didn’t.”

  Audrey’s chin trembled and she rubbed the heel of her palm against her chest. “What happened to her? Was she dead by the time you got to her?”

  Nix’s stomach went hard as a stone and his throat was so thick, he could barely get the word out: “No.”

  “She wasn’t?” He heard the confusion in her tone and he shook his head the smallest bit.

  “No.” He stared at the dancing leaves and turned his face up to the sun. It was warm but not too hot yet. Not like it would get at the end of summer. The breeze made it feel even more comfortable.

  “Roxy would have loved this place,” he murmured, closing his eyes and feeling the breeze slide across his skin.

  Audrey didn’t ask anything else but he could feel the questions bubbling up inside her. And he’d gone this far. He might as well finish it. He kept his eyes squeezed shut, though.

  “It was late at night by this point. Lots of men came running when they heard the gunshot. But I’d spent three years in Afghanistan and I knew my way around an AR15. I took out half the camp on my way to get to Roxy. I think they thought they were under attack. They didn’t realize it was just one guy, picking up more guns as I went.”

  “Anyway, eventually I got to Roxy.”

  Nix opened his eyes, but only to look at the wide-open sky.

  “She was covered in blood. Head to toe. They had her tied to a post and she was just hanging there, limp. I thought for sure she was dead. But then I felt for a pulse. And when I called her name, she lifted her head and looked at me.”

  He didn’t know how to describe what had been in her eyes. It wasn’t his Roxy. But it was at the same time.

  That was the worst part. If he could have just said his sister was already gone, that would have been one thing. But no, he saw a glimmer of his sweet little sister—but it was like her trust in him and the basic goodness in the world had been betrayed in the deepest way possible.

  “I cut her free.” His voice shook. “When she collapsed into my arms, I thought it was because she didn’t have the strength to stand. And maybe she didn’t.” He lifted his hands to his head. “Maybe she saved up every last ounce of energy she had so she could grab my gun and shoot herself in the head with it.”

  Audrey gasped in horror and Nix just kept clutching his head like if he pressed hard enough, he could get rid of the memories.

  But no, he wouldn’t betray Roxy again. He deserved to remember in excruciating detail how he’d failed her.

  “You couldn’t have known—” Audrey started but Nix cut her off.

  “What the fuck did I think was going to happen after she went through all that? I should have seen it in her eyes. Fuck that, I did see it. The hopelessness. But I didn’t understand— I just couldn’t—”

  He turned away from Audrey, walking several steps away before stopping to catch a breath. His chest was so tight his lungs felt like they couldn’t expand right.

  He’d seen the fucking resort on his map. Why didn’t he take them west that day instead of south? He was so fucking stupid and it had cost his sister her life. After putting her through the worst hell he could imagine.

  He’d closed his eyes again so he startled when he felt Audrey’s arms close around his middle, hugging him from behind. Just like Roxy’s used to.

  It was the last straw.

  He broke.

  He sank to his knees and Audrey went with him, moving around to clutch his head to her chest, whispering soft words he couldn’t even make out.

 
He kept gasping for breath.

  Why couldn’t he get a fucking breath?

  “Shhhh.” Audrey ran her fingers through his hair and rocked him. “Shhhh.”

  It was only then that he realized he was blubbering like a baby.

  “But Roxy,” he sputtered, hiccupping and gasping for breaths between choking sobs.

  “I’m so sorry.” Audrey held him tighter to her. “This world has taken so much. I’m so, so sorry.”

  He buried his face against her, not wanting her to see him breaking the fuck down. Goddammit, this wasn’t what he’d meant to do at all when he brought her down to talk. He’d just meant to tell her his sister died. Not all… this shit.

  He took several deep, gulping breaths. For fuck’s sake, get yourself under control. He clenched his jaw and forced himself to breathe more regularly.

  Finally when he felt it was safe, he pulled away from Audrey and ran his hands roughly down his face.

  Then he pressed his forehead to hers. “I may never know who put my name in for the lotto that night. But I’ll never be able to repay them even if I spent the rest of my life trying. You mean everything and that scares the shit out of me. I’m sorry I was such an ass about it.”

  He pulled back and took her small hands in his. Christ she was beautiful. Strong and fragile at the same time. Her fiery red hair caught and reflected the sunlight. His fire angel. Full of piss and vinegar and passion and hard and soft.

  Slowly, so slowly, she leaned in and pressed her lips to his. The kiss started gentle but quickly escalated. As things always seemed to do between them.

  Not even a minute later, she was climbing into his lap and straddling him.

  “Talk is cheap,” she whispered with a devilish glint to her eye. “You wanna apologize? Show me how sorry you are.”

  Nix grinned and then, in one smooth motion, grabbed her, lifted her, and then had her on her back on the grass, his body poised over hers.

  “Your wish is my command.”

  Chapter 35

  AUDREY

  Audrey held Graham’s hand as he walked her to ‘work’, just like he or one of the clan had every day for the past two weeks. Yes, she’d ventured back out into the world.