Her Independence Day Read online

  Copyright © 2018 by Victoria Belle. All Rights Reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, email to [email protected]

  Contents

  Her Independence Day

  1. Ashley

  2. Dean

  3. Jesse

  4. Ashley

  5. Ethan

  6. Ashley

  7. Dean

  8. Jesse

  9. Ethan

  10. Ashley

  11. Dean

  12. Ashley

  13. Jesse

  14. Ashley

  15. Dean

  16. Ethan

  17. Ashley

  18. Jesse

  19. Ethan

  20. Ashley

  21. Dean

  22. Ashley

  23. Ethan

  24. Jesse

  25. Ashley

  26. Dean

  27. Ashley

  28. Dean

  29. Jesse

  30. Dean

  31. Ethan

  32. Jesse

  33. Ashley

  34. Dean

  Epilogue

  Also By Victoria Belle

  About the Author

  HER INDEPENDENCE DAY

  A Reverse Harem Romance

  By Victoria Belle

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  BOOK DESCRIPTION

  Ashley is done playing by the rules. It’s time for a walk on the wild side.

  She’s going after what she’s always wanted, and what she’d never admit to wanting.

  Forget what her mother and her ex have always said, she’s going to be a painter. But that’s not the only thing she wants on the island.

  Her former stepbrothers are thrilled to have her back. All three Thomas boys are glad to throw off the shackles of ‘stepbrother’ since the nasty divorce between their parents. Even better, she’s not engaged anymore.

  Now they’re free to go after what they’ve always wanted: Ashley.

  Nights of captivating pleasure consume them. They can’t imagine ever letting her go. They don’t give a damn what the rest of the world thinks—Ashley and the Thomas boys are a wicked match made in paradise.

  But when Ashley’s life is in danger, they could lose her for good.

  As if that son of a b*tch stands a chance against the Thomas brothers when they’re protecting the woman they love.

  1

  Ashley

  I could feel the eyes of most of my students—minus the ones in the back row who were whispering in what they thought were quiet voices about their plans to meet on the corner at lunch to smoke—on my back as I scrawled the page numbers on the white board for them to open their books to. As I turned, the room was filled with the sound of rustling paper as everyone opened their copies to the directed pages and waited as I perched myself on the edge of my desk.

  We’d been reading George Orwell’s “1984” for the last two weeks, and I’d been hoping that my time as a substitute teacher for this particular English Literature class would be over by now for two reasons: one, they were a rowdy group of inner city kids that loved to push my buttons, and two, we had stumbled upon the first sex scene in the book, and I had no interest in reading it aloud to a class of kids who were very likely more familiar with the sexual terms in the novel than I was.

  But there I was, dressed in my yellow skirt, pink flats, and white blouse, about to read an intimate scene to them about Winston Smith getting steamy with the dark-haired beauty, Julia.

  Curse Mr. Patrick for having to get his appendix removed this week and having complications.

  I flipped open the book and glanced up at the students. Some had started reading ahead and were looking up at me expectantly. For them, this would be like watching one of those terribly awkward movies where you just can’t look away but you’re cringing the whole time.

  I swallowed, crossed my ankles, and started reading.

  I stuttered and blushed before we were even a page in, and the kids started giggling. Thank God this was my last day before my vacation.

  “Maybe we should just skip ahead a bit,” I mumbled as I flipped through the next couple of pages in a desperate search for a more vanilla scene. Maybe Winston would start talking about Big Brother again soon, and I could dive into that. It was more important subject matter anyway.

  “Oh, come on, Miss Rowe,” one of the kids groaned in the back.

  “Don’t skip the good parts!”

  My cheeks burned hotter. No. I wasn’t doing this. Mr. Patrick could indulge his crew of horny teenagers when he came back to teach if he wanted. This was far out of my comfort zone. I slapped the book closed and put it behind me on my desk, and then I walked around to collect a stack of papers that I had left on my chair out of sight of the students.

  “Such a prude!” one of the boys said. It was innocent teasing, I knew, but I blushed anyway because it was true.

  I handed out the pop quiz to shut them up.

  It only sort of worked. They erupted in groans of protest, which I ignored as I plopped down behind my desk and adjusted my skirt around my knees. “No talking. This should take you to the end of the class, so you’d better get started. And put your phones away.”

  As pencils started frantically scribbling on the paper, I pulled my phone out of my purse, which was neatly tucked under my desk, and smiled at the dozen notifications from my group chat with the Thomas brothers.

  My ex-stepbrothers.

  I scrolled through the messages I’d missed. I shouldn’t have been reading them in class because they were so racy and steamy that I probably turned an even brighter shade of red than I’d been when I was reading the sex scene.

  “Can’t wait to see you, Ash.”

  “Don’t forget your bikini.”

  “Bikini? Who needs a bikini?”

  I suppressed a giggle and shook my head at their incessant flirting. Ethan, Jesse, and Dean had been in my life since I was young. My mother met their father at a fundraising event when I was eight, and the two of them were married within a year. I went from being an only child to sharing my mom and my house with three boys, and being the tomboy that I was, I flourished with their company.

  I’d loved every minute of my childhood. The four of us spent most of our time outside, and I had a lot more freedom because my mom knew I was safe when I was out with the boys. Dean, the oldest, was six years my senior, so he’d been a teenager when I met him. He’d taken to me pretty quickly because of how competitive I was and how much I thoroughly enjoyed kicking his younger brothers’ asses at any and all sports we played.

  I was faster than them, too. Minus Dean. He had longer legs than me and a serious advantage. But by the time I was fifteen, I could catch up to him, which embarrassed him a bit because he was in military school at that time. But I was fast. Always had been.

  “Are you on the ferry yet?”

  “Get your ass back to St. Simmons, Ash. My brothers are losing their damn minds.”

  “Tell those kids they’re on their own and just come back to us.”

  I chewed the inside of my cheek as I texted back. “I miss you guys, too. I’ll see you soon enough! Xo
xo.” The hugs and kisses might have been a bit much, but then again, everything we did was a bit much.

  I’d been attracted to my stepbrothers for as long as I could remember, and I’d been struggling with that attraction for equally as long. It was taboo, and it should have been gross. But it wasn’t. They never felt like brothers to me but, rather, three best friends who always looked out for me. The flirtation had become a lot worse after I turned eighteen. We hid it from everyone we could, especially our parents, and the only person who knew how I felt was my best friend Lulu, who I was also excited to see upon my return to St. Simmons. She didn’t think it was all that strange, but she was never one for conventional relationships and had been known to be seeing several people openly at one time.

  Things would be weird this time around. My mother and stepfather had just divorced. That was why I was going back in the first place, to check on my mom and make sure she was holding up okay. They’d been together a long time, nearly two decades, and it had come as a shock that Ian had cheated on her. The relationship crumbled quickly after that, and now, neither of them were on speaking terms.

  IT sucked for the Thomas brothers and me because there were no more family events for us to use as an excuse to spend time together.

  But it was also a good thing because we technically weren’t stepsiblings anymore.

  I left the group chat, still smiling like an idiot as the students worked on their pop quizzes, and I blinked at the little notification box that popped up and said I had twenty-seven unread text messages from Nick Myles.

  My ex fiancé.

  My thumb hovered over the “read now” button. Then I locked the phone and dropped it in the front pouch of my purse. I didn’t have the energy to deal with him right now. I needed to get away from this place and from him. Things had ended badly between us, so badly that I suspected he was capable of hurting me.

  I needed this getaway for more than just to check on my mom. I needed to put some distance between me and my crazy ex.

  I pushed thoughts of Nick out of my mind and daydreamed about arriving in St. Simmons and seeing Lulu and the guys.

  ***

  I walked off the ferry, and the sun warmed my shoulders. I shielded my eyes with one hand as I stepped onto the boardwalk and stretched to the tips of my toes to look for Lulu. She shouldn’t be too hard to spot. She was always wearing bright colors.

  “Ashley!”

  I looked to the right along the railing and spotted Lulu rushing through the crowd toward me. As I suspected, she was wearing a neon yellow crop top and pink-framed sunglasses. I raced forward, towing my suitcase along behind me, and we slammed into each other in the middle of the boardwalk as the ferry blew its horn behind me.

  “Lulu!” I cried, wrapping my arms around her and squeezing tight. “You have no idea how good it is to see you!” Tears sprang to life in my eyes. I’d missed my best friend dearly, and all the bad shit that had happened with Nick over the last month had only amplified that longing to be closer to her.

  Lulu held me at arm’s length to get a better look at me. “Damn girl, you look good. You been working out?”

  “Maybe a little. I’ve gotten into spinning lately. Helps me work through some stuff.”

  “Well, it’s done you some favors. Those legs? Holy shit! You could crush a watermelon between those thighs!”

  I giggled and pulled her in for another hug. Then she took one of my bags off my shoulder and pulled me through the crowd out to the parking lot where her hot pink Volkswagen Beetle was waiting for us. She helped me load my stuff into the trunk and backseat, and then we piled in, and she put the top down. We hit the road, and the wind had me thanking my lucky stars I’d worn my hair in a bun. My long blonde locks were thick and completely untameable, and if I wore it down in a convertible, I would literally be combing it out for hours afterward.

  “So, tell me what’s new? How has New York City been? How’s teaching?”

  I stuck my hand out of the car and rolled my hand through the invisible waves of wind. “Teaching is good. New York is okay. Actually, Lulu, I have to tell you something.”

  Lulu glanced over at me as we stopped at a red light. The beach was on my right side, and the sun glared off the surface of the water. Lulu pushed her shades up onto her head, pushing her brown locks off her face and narrowed her eyes at me. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nick and I broke off the engagement.”

  “What? Seriously?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Why?”

  I sighed. “Things haven’t been good for a while now, and then I caught him with another girl in our bed.”

  “That bastard.”

  “Yeah. Pretty much.” I chuckled, and Lulu hit the gas as the light turned green.

  We were quiet for a couple minutes, and then Lulu reached over and grabbed my hand. She gave it a squeeze, and memories of sitting hand in hand in her car came flooding back to me. We always used to do this when one of us was hurting. It was a simple comfort, and one that I had missed dearly. She ran her thumb along the side of my pinky. “You all right?”

  “Yes.” I nodded. “I think it was for the best.”

  “Me too.” Lulu took a left turn, and we headed inland to her place. “Besides, the Thomas boys haven’t stopped talking about how much they’re looking forward to you being back. And they’re technically not your stepbrothers anymore.” Lulu looked over at me and waggled her eyebrows. “Bow chicka bow wow.”

  “Oh God.” I laughed. And damn, did it ever feel good to laugh.

  2

  Dean

  Three steaks sizzled on the barbeque in front of me. My stomach growled as I flipped them over, and the flames licked the grease and fat dripping out of the cuts of meat. I took a sip of beer from the bottle in my hand and stepped away from the heat radiating from the grill.

  My two brothers, Jesse and Ethan, were sitting at my patio table sipping on beers of their own. Normally on a night like this, we’d have been having a family dinner, but now that Anne and our dad were no longer married, the tradition had ended, and as the oldest brother, I’d decided to keep it going.

  I hosted Jesse and Ethan at least once a week, partly because I took pity on them since they couldn’t do a decent grilling job of anything to save their lives, and partly because it was the only way to preserve that feeling of togetherness that had been lost after the divorce. If Ashley still lived in St. Simmons, it would have been easier.

  Jesse kicked his feet up onto the table and crossed his ankles. “So, Ash should be on the island by now. Think she’s at Lulu’s, or what?”

  “Probably,” Ethan said, standing and going to the cooler by the back door. He grabbed a beer, popped it open, and offered me one. I shook my head, and he went back to his seat.“I’m surprised you didn’t offer her your guestroom, Dean,” Jesse said, a hint of mirth in his voice.

  I plated the steaks and shrugged as I turned off the barbeque. “She wanted to stay at Lulu’s.” But that wasn’t the truth. Truth was, I didn’t trust myself to have Ashley sleeping at my place. I’d had a thing for the girl for years and having her asleep in nothing but a T-shirt and panties just down the hall from me would be a sure-fire way to have me doing things I would regret.

  Or not.

  “That food done yet or what?” Ethan asked.

  “Yeah, should be good in a couple minutes. Let’s get the rest of the stuff inside.” I went into my kitchen and pulled out a potato salad from the fridge that Anne, Ashley’s mother, had dropped off earlier that afternoon. She still liked to bring the three of us homemade meals every now and then. I knew it was an attempt to try to keep the relationship between us alive, so I was more than happy to accept. And her food was pretty damn good.

  The three of us went back out and sat down to dig in to our meal. I’d also barbequed some veggies in tinfoil, and I passed the bundles to the others.

  “So you find any decent places, Ethan?” I asked. My baby brother had been looking for
his own place for the last couple months in St. Simmons. He was currently crashing on Jesse’s couch, and now that the three of us were starting to see a bit more money pouring in from our security business, he was ready to take the next step and become a homeowner, like me and Jesse.

  Ethan finished chewing his bite of steak and swallowed. “Not really. A couple places hit my radar, and my real estate agent showed them to me, but they weren’t big enough. I want somewhere I can stay for the next little while.”

  “And you’re a picky bastard,” Jesse said.

  “And that.” Ethan nodded.

  I leaned back in my chair and crossed my hands over my stomach. “Nothing wrong with waiting until you find the right place.”

  “Says the guy who doesn’t have this piece of shit sleeping on his couch,” Jesse drawled.

  We laughed. Ethan grinned sheepishly. “Sorry, brother. It’s temporary. I’ll be out of your hair soon enough, and just you wait. You’ll miss me and my charm.”

  “Charm?” Jesse asked. “If by charm you mean your tendency to leave your boxers on the bathroom floor, then no, I won’t miss your charm. Or your damp towels all over the fucking place.”

  “Fuck off. I’m not that bad. And I only use one towel.”

  “Yeah, equally gross,” Jesse said.

  Ethan looked at me for help, but I shook my head. “I’m with Jesse on this one. I’ve gotten a whiff of your towel once or twice. It’s not pleasant. I’ll say that much.”

  The three of us sat around and poked fun at each other for the next twenty minutes or so as we let our food settle and finished our beers. Then conversation shifted to business, and we were able to be serious for a little while.

  Business was good, and profits were great. The three of us had started our own security agency right here in St. Simmons at the beginning of last year. The first six months had been slow, excruciatingly slow. For a while, it looked like we might not have the success we needed to keep it going, but by the time we hit the one-year mark, we’d landed enough clients to keep our heads above water.