365 Nights, Two Stepbrothers, One Me.
I moaned out his name. "Damien, you are not trying hard to get me, yet .."
He smirked and whispered to my ears. "I like being hard, Not "trying" hard."
When Lila Sinclair's mother is sentenced to life in prison, her world collapses overnight. With nowhere else to go, she is taken in by Sebastian Blackwood, her mother's former lover. A powerful, reserved man who agrees to shelter her under strict conditions.
Lila is placed in his household... and into a life she never asked for, sharing a roof with two stepbrothers who change everything.
Damien is danger wrapped in charm...intense, controlling, and impossible to ignore. Ethan, on the other hand, is steady, kind, and grounding...the only place she feels safe when everything else feels like it's slipping away.
But Lila's situation comes with a hidden clause: her stay in the country is temporary. Within 365 days, her legal protection expires. To remain, she must marry one of the Blackwood heirs.
One house. Two brothers. Twelve months of blurred lines, buried secrets, and emotions she was never meant to feel.
As desire clashes with safety and passion wars with peace, Lila is forced into a choice that could secure her future...or destroy it completely.
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Chapter 3
Ethan Blackwood's POV
"Can you let me spend at least one damn day at home before blowing up my phone?" I groaned, holding the phone to my ear as I sprawled across my bed, one hand tugging lazily at my damp hair.
On the other end, Jared's laugh was smug. "Bro, stop pretending like you don't miss me. You're literally sitting in that mansion bored out of your mind."
"Correction," I smirked, "I was sitting bored out of my mind. Now I've got a new housemate. Way more entertaining than your ugly face popping up on FaceTime."
"Ahhh, the infamous adopted sister your dad was talking about." Jared dragged the words. "So what's she like? Cute? Boring? Trouble?"
I chuckled low. "Definitely not boring. Trouble? Maybe. Cute?" My lips tilted as the image of Lila in that silk robe from earlier flickered through my mind. The way she bit her lip nervously, the way her laugh had slipped out like it didn't belong to a stranger... "Yeah, she's cute."
"Don't 'yeah' me, Ethan. Cute how? Like..you'd ruin your life'cute, or just pat on the head' cute?"
"Shut up." I threw a pillow across the room even though he couldn't see it. "She's off-limits."
"Mmhm. That didn't sound convincing." Jared whistled. "Anyway, stop dodging me. Tonight. You're coming."
"Not happening." I leaned back, arms behind my head. "I'm not in the mood for your wild parties, man."
"It's not my party," Jared corrected. "It's Stephanie's birthday."
I stilled. "Stephanie?"
"Yeah." He chuckled knowingly. "Your ex. Ring a bell?"
I rolled my eyes. "That's exactly why I'm not going. Why the hell would I put myself in the same room as her and her perfect little circle of designer demons?"
"Because, my guy," Jared's tone dropped, "you need to show her you've moved on. She's already parading that new boyfriend of hers like some trophy. You think she won't rub it in your face if you skip tonight?"
I clenched my jaw, thinking of Stephanie's smug smirk. Jared wasn't wrong. The last thing I wanted was for her to think she'd broken me.
"Fine," I exhaled, dragging my hand over my face. "I'll go. But I swear if I regret this..."
"You won't," Jared cut in, victorious. "Just bring that charm of yours and..hell, bring your new sister. That'll shut Stephanie right up."
I rose up. "Hmm,, that's a blast idea you got there."
"I'm the highest in the room." he shrugged.
"Shut up," I said again, but this time I was grinning. "I'll figure something out."
By the time I hung up, my mind was already spinning with possibilities.
***
I found myself standing outside Lila's room, knocking twice before pushing the door slightly open.
She peeked out, wide eyed, her hair falling in loose waves around her face. "Ethan?"
"Don't look so surprised," I teased, stepping inside like I owned the place. My eyes swept over her room. "Wow. Dad really went all out, huh? Looks like a damn hotel suite."
Lila rolled her eyes but smiled. "Yeah, it's... something."
I flopped onto the armchair like I belonged there. "So. Big plans tonight?"
She shook her head. "Just figuring out how not to get lost in this giant house."
"Perfect." I leaned forward, grinning. "Then you're coming with me."
Her brows knitted. "Coming where?"
"To a party." I spread my arms like it was obvious. "My ex's birthday party, actually."
Her jaw dropped. "Wait...your ex? And you want me to come?"
I smirked. "Exactly. I need her to see me with someone else. Someone gorgeous. Someone who'll make her choke on her champagne when she realizes she lost me."
Lila laughed, that soft, melodic laugh that made something tug in my chest. "And you think I'm the person for that job?"
"You're perfect for it." I winked. "Besides, it's not about you. It's about me winning."
She folded her arms, biting her lip like she was thinking. "Okay... but, uh, I have no idea what to wear. Or how to even act at some fancy party like that."
"Lucky for you," I stood up dramatically, "I'm a goddamn fashionista."
"Oh, really?" she teased. "I thought you were just a rich boy with good cheekbones."
"Both can be true," I grinned. "Now, stand up. We're raiding your closet."
I opened the wardrobe and whistled. "Damn. Dad really does spoil you already." My hands skimmed over silks, velvets, lace. "But we need something that screams eat your heart out, Stephanie."
Lila hovered by the bed nervously. "I don't even know what that means."
"It means," I said, pulling out a sleek black dress that looked like it was made for sin, "this one."
Her eyes widened. "That's... kind of short."
"Exactly." I tossed it at her. "Trust me."
She disappeared into the bathroom, and I leaned against the doorframe, smirking to myself.
When she stepped out, I swear my breath stalled. The dress hugged every curve, the fabric slipping against her skin like it had been sewn on her body.
I blinked, then forced a grin. "Okay, wow. Remind me never to underestimate you again."
Her cheeks flushed. "Stop staring."
"Not possible." I circled her, tugging lightly at the strap to adjust it. "Needs a little fixing." My fingers brushed her bare shoulder, lingering longer than necessary. Her skin was warm, soft.
I moved to her hair next. "Let it down."
She shook it free, and I ran my fingers through it, tousling it slightly. "There. Now you look like you didn't even try, which is the whole point. Sexy, effortless, lethal."
Lila laughed nervously, twisting to look at the mirror. "I look... different."
"You look perfect," I said before I could stop myself.
Our eyes met in the mirror, and for a second, the air shifted. My chest tightened, my pulse kicking up.
She smiled shyly, breaking the moment. "You're ridiculous."
"Ridiculously good at this," I corrected quickly, pulling back with a grin. "Now, twirl for me."
She did, laughing as the hem flared around her thighs. I let my gaze trail over her once more, unapologetic.
"Damn, Stephanie's not ready," I murmured, shaking my head.
When she stopped, I pulled her into a playful hug. She fit against me softer than I expected, her laugh muffled against my chest. My hand lingered at her waist a beat too long before I let go.
"See?" I said lightly, covering the tension building in my gut. "We make a great team."
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7.2
Azura Briggs was just a broke college student working freezing valet shifts to pay her adoptive mother's crushing medical debt.
Her desperate life shattered the night a bulletproof Maybach violently cornered her in an alley, and a ruthless billionaire kidnapped her by mistake.
After a harrowing escape, Azura was forced to take a humiliating "plus-one" gig at a high-end gala just to survive. But her date turned out to be the billionaire's arrogant nephew, who promptly abandoned her to the wolves. Cornered by a sleazy executive and his psychotic wife, Azura was publicly slapped, her dress torn, and left bleeding on the floor while hundreds of elites watched in disgust.
Just as she prepared to fight to the death, the crowd violently parted. Hunter Mcintosh, the terrifying man who had kidnapped her days ago, dropped to his knees in the broken glass and wrapped his bespoke jacket around her trembling shoulders.
Azura was completely paralyzed. Why was the monster who threatened her life now destroying billionaires just to protect her?
But the illusion of safety didn't last. Trapped in his Maybach hours later, Hunter threw a draconian employment contract at her feet.
"Sign it, and her care is covered. Forever."
He knew exactly how to break her. He was offering to pay off her mother's debt, but only if she signed her life away to become his personal assistant. With no other way out, Azura picked up the heavy pen.
8.3
He laid me on the sheets, climbed over me, caged me with his arms. "Last chance to run," he said, voice low."I need the money," I whispered, feeling so tiny in his arms."You're soaking," he muttered. "Virgin or not, your pussy wants this."I moaned, looking away, couldn't help it,"Eyes on me, sweetheart," he pushed his tip in slowly."Fuck," he groaned. "So tight."He fucked me like he was claiming something. "Come for me," he whispered in my ears, moving faster."Damien," I cried out his name as I came."That's it," he growled. After a long minute he pulled out slowly. "One night," he said again, almost like a reminder....weeks later, I walked through the quiet hall of my school. A massive portrait stared back at me.Damien BlackwoodPrincipal Benefactor and OwnerColumbia University.Same man who'd just taken my virginity for money. My stomach dropped. "Oh fuck... what have I done?"
9.2
When Alma's father stood in front of the bulldozers to protest, the energy company's thugs beat him half to death in the mud.
Instead of arresting the attackers, the police handcuffed her bleeding father and threw him into a cruiser.
"Stay back, kid," the officer barked, shoving Alma away.
Her father was denied bail and framed for assaulting an officer. The corrupt mayor just smiled and told her not to cause a scene. Meanwhile, the company mailed her weeping mother a severance check that barely covered a month of groceries.
Alma was forced to watch her family be completely destroyed by men with money and power.
Kneeling in the cold dirt where her father's blood had spilled, she didn't shed a single tear. The panic in her chest died, replaced by a cold, absolute hatred.
She realized that crying wouldn't do anything. In this world, justice didn't exist for the weak.
Years later, Alma stepped onto a prestigious Ivy League campus, her cheap backpack slung over her shoulder.
She was surrounded by the arrogant children of the very executives who ruined her life.
She lowered her head, hiding her dead eyes, and put on the perfect mask of a timid, helpless charity case.
Undergrad was just a training ground, and these elite kids were just her practice dummies. The hunt was officially on.
9.8
Erica Murphy had spent three years rotting in a freezing prison cell.
She thought she was serving time for a tragic accident, but the truth was much darker. Her husband, Colten, had framed her for his mistress's drunk hit-and-run, stolen her fortune, and left her to take the fall.
The day Erica was finally released, a speeding car intentionally slammed into her, shattering her spine. As she lay dying on the emergency room table, flatlining on the monitor, Colten and his pregnant mistress didn't come to save her. Instead, they tossed a stack of divorce papers onto her bloody hospital blanket. They wanted her to sign away her last remaining shares and take on thirty million dollars of toxic corporate debt.
"Sign it," Colten demanded coldly, looking at her crushed body with utter disgust. "Consider this the last bit of dignity I'm giving you."
The original Erica died right there, suffocating in despair and betrayal, unable to understand how the man she loved could be so monstrous.
But when the flatline on the monitor suddenly spiked and her eyes snapped open, the traumatized victim was gone.
Replaced by the cold, calculating consciousness of a future special ops commander. With microscopic nanobots rapidly fusing her shattered bones together, Erica picked up the pen, preparing to burn Colten's entire empire to ashes.
8.6
Eleanor Sinclair always knew her stepmother and stepsister were leeches, but she never expected their betrayal to reach into her private study.
In the dead of night, she caught the family's trusted nanny of twelve years photographing confidential trust documents. The mastermind paying her off was Lillian, Eleanor's stepmother, who had been secretly embezzling estate funds and bribing tutors to deliberately ruin the academic future of Eleanor's younger brother, the only legitimate heir.
Emboldened by their deceit, the parasites grew arrogant. Her stepsister, Isabelle, deliberately flaunted her secret affair with Eleanor’s billionaire fiancé, sobbing fake tears while waiting for Eleanor to suffer a humiliating nervous breakdown.
When the tension finally peaked, Lillian played the victim so perfectly that Eleanor's own father, a powerful U.S. Senator, stormed into the room with a raised hand, ready to strike his own daughter.
"You will apologize to your stepsister immediately! I will not have this family harmony destroyed by your petty jealousy!"
They actually expected her to be a weeping, heartbroken girl. They thought cheap hotel affairs and stolen pennies could outsmart the true Sinclair bloodline. Did they really believe a few fake tears and a weak-willed father could strip her of her empire?
Eleanor didn't feel anger; she felt the cold, detached fascination of a biologist observing doomed insects. She calmly pulled out the forensic audits, locked down the estate's exits, and prepared her stepmother's psychiatric commitment papers. The merciless purge of her family had officially begun.
9.4
Blurb;
"I don't love you and I will never love you, Isabelle Yang!" I froze as the hatred in his eyes held me captive. I knew he wasn't happy with this arrangement. Neither was I.
"But I am your wife, Emerson."
"Wife?" He scoffed, stepping closer until my back hit the wall and I was trapped between his arms.
"You mean wife... or just the woman chosen to carry my heir?" His words were the truth. That was the only reason I was here. Still, they hurt more than I expected.
"You hurt my girlfriend by coming into our lives," he continued coldly.
"And I plan to make you feel twice the pain you caused her."
Then he did something worse than yelling-he sanitized his hands after touching me, as if I disgusted him.
He walked away, leaving me heartbroken and shaking, wondering what I had done to deserve so much hatred.
...
Isabelle Yang never imagined that her life could spiral into more darkness after catching her boyfriend and twin sister in bed on the night meant to celebrate their two-year anniversary.
Before she could even recover, a call from home changed everything. Her marriage had been arranged with the Winters-one of the most powerful families in Europe. And her husband? Emerson Winters, the ruthless heir who cared about only two things... himself and his childhood sweetheart, Salma Hayden.
But what happens when his love isn't enough to bear an heir, and he is forced into a marriage with Isabelle-a woman he sees as a mistake, a burden, an obligation?
What will become of two hearts trapped in a marriage where hatred and resentment rule the day?
Read this book to find out;
The Billionaire's Unwanted Wife
A novel by Queenebunoluwa15