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Author’s Notes

me and these long chapters… whew, chile. What am I thinking? This story is deeper than the Pacific Ocean. Jeez!

Yeah, Tori is showing her ho side and I’m here for it.

I’m still #TeamDuncan. I got a good feeling about this, but Kevin is growing on me.

I would love to know what you think will happen next. I mean, what’s going through your mind as you consume this story? Please share your reader notes, and feel free to ask me anything.

I did do a video.

Enjoy… and happy reading, your author, Sylvia Hubbard

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Chapter 9 – The Threat 

Tori knew they had napped there on the floor in their sexual mess for a moment. Her entire body and soul were on some high where she couldn’t move, and it wasn’t even sleep. It was as if she were sinking into some lustful ether where her consciousness floated on a cloud of bliss.

A phone chirped, and she knew it wasn’t hers because hers was still on silent from her meeting, and she had left all her other belongings in the car, including her purse and her work bag.

Her keys were probably still in the door.

In crime-ridden Detroit, all these factors should have roused her to action, but she didn’t care.

Kevin was still lying on her and hadn’t moved – even after the chirp on his phone. She knew he wasn’t asleep by his strong breathing on her breast, and then his mouth started to attack her nipple.

No, he chewed and suckled like she could give him a whole cup of milk.

Pushing him off of her, she huffed, “We’re not going for round two of that madness, Kevin.” She kicked her shoe off. The other one had fallen off somewhere, and she was unsure where it was – outside, with her dignity, most likely, or walked away, like her morals.

Their clothes were drenched, but she still tried to straighten herself even though her bra was ripped, her shirt was missing buttons, and she could feel his essence running down her thigh. And it was a lot of it.

She needed a hose down, a shower, AND a bath.

Kevin stood up before her, then dared to be a gentleman and help her to her feet. As soon as she was steady, she snatched her hand away. “Leave!”

With dread, he said, “We’re not done talking, Tori.”

“Talking? You don’t talk, Kevin. You yell and beat your chest, and then you force me into lustful entanglements.”

He ripped off his shirt and showed her the claw marks she had made on his neck, shoulder, and back. Some scratches were still open and bleeding.

“And you turn me into some wanton slut floozy!” she accused him. “Leave!”

“Bitch, you enjoyed every fucking minute of it,” he shot back.  

It was her turn to start pacing in front of him. “I don’t like who I become with you, Kevin. It’s not right, and I don’t want you around me.”

“You sound like every other woman I’ve dated.”

Stopping her pace, glaring at him. “Then you’re the problem. Leave! I feel shame looking at you for what I just did.” Tori started pacing again. “I was going to tell Shawn about Duncan-” she covered her mouth, embarrassed that she had revealed what she had done.

Kevin burst out laughing. “Tori, I know you fucked Duncan last night.”

She hit him when he started laughing again. “Oh great, but now I’ve fucked you?! Shawn will hate me.”

“You’re only fake marrying my little brother, Tori. I don’t-” He stopped and then his eyebrows shot up. “Oh, you like him, like him. You were trying to turn that marriage into a real one?”

“Well, not anymore!”

“Is it only because you slept with his brothers or he’s gay?”

“Bisexual,” she corrected Kevin and then fondly stated, “he was attracted to me. He wanted to last night, but wanted to wait. Why’d you seduce me? Why couldn’t you just be mad at me and beat the shit out of me?”

“I don’t beat women… I like,” he admitted, having the nerve to tease. “How about if I promise not to touch you for an hour so we can talk?”

“How are you suddenly so calm about this?”

Kevin folded those thick arms of his across his bare chest, emphasizing his nicely sized, firm pecs. “Because most of my frustration is out and I honestly came over here to talk, like I promised last night.”

Without his shirt, she could see he was lean like Shawn, but weathered. She was positive she saw a healed bullet hole in his arm and some healed stab marks on the side of his stomach. There was a small tattoo of a pink balloon on the left side of his heart, where the string was drawn down over his heart area.

That was another story that she wasn’t going to ask.

Knowing this man’s power from their entanglement, Tori realized she had control of the room, and he genuinely wanted to speak with her.

“I can’t do anything until I take a shower!” she declared, taking off her ruined jacket and hurling it at him.

“Did you need my help?” he inquired.

“Shut up! The guest bedroom features a shower, and some oversized unisex sets of jogging pants and shirts are available. You can borrow one of those shirts.” She stormed up the stairs. “And get my key out of the door and my bags out of the car!” She looked around the front room by the foyer. “And find my phone!”  

Tori didn’t know if he would get the items or not, but it felt good to order him around. When she reached her bedroom, she locked the door just in case Kevin had any ideas, and then she went to the bathroom to peel the clothes from her body and jump in the shower.

As the water ran all over her, she cried, screamed, and mumbled her disgust, and then fussed profusely at herself. Thirty minutes later, she was rubbing down with peppermint shea butter and then finding some pink jogging pants and a tank top. It killed her even to try to put on panties because Kevin was still there, but she decided not to. Once he was done talking, she’d kick him out and tell him to avoid her as long as this fake relationship was going on. Afterwards, she swore she’d never lay eyes on any of the brothers again.

Shawn would never forgive her and most likely never want to see her anyway after the slut she had been with his brothers.

There was no coming back from what she had done with Kevin. Her dreams of having some type of happily ever after were going to be ruined because she was acting like a two-bit hussy.

Tori was determined to salvage what she could from this experience, get the benefits of networking, and hope Shawn would continue the facade at all costs, even if they didn’t set eyes on each other. She knew that the job meant too much to him, and hopefully, they could come to amicable terms since the Cosgroves were aware of her.

Wait, would the two older brothers have told the younger brother what she had done? Kevin and Duncan certainly talked with each other. If his older brothers kept him in the dark, perhaps Shawn didn’t know. Indeed, not this morning since he didn’t mention it in the texts.

You have to tell him yourself then. You aren’t the old Tori anymore, she told herself.

Shawn had texted her just that morning, still encouraging her for the documentation he needed. So he hadn’t known of Duncan? But now Kevin…

Internally, Tori was a hot mess, but she took herself downstairs to face the older Carter brother bravely. She could hear him in the kitchen, running a lot of water and probably tearing something up. The keys were out of the door. Her purse and briefcase were in her office, next to her phone, and even the foyer was clean and smelled of vinegar. He sanitized?

Walking into the kitchen, she watched as he washed his hands, which were covered in oil and dirt. He’d cleaned up from their sexual escapade and was wearing the extra clothes she had provided.

“Where did you get oil and dirt from on your hands?” she demanded.

“Your car,” he said casually.

“What did you do to my car, you vindictive bastard?”

He looked over his shoulder at her and smirked. “I’m not that petty… yet. Your belt was loose. Didn’t you hear that huffing noise when you hit the accelerator?”

She knew there was a light on her dashboard and that the oil needed changing, but she had been so busy with her projects that completing those tasks had been challenging. “How can you tighten a belt in a driveway? Isn’t it illegal to do that in a residential area?”

“I’m a mechanic, Tori. I keep my tools in my vehicle.”

“Don’t you need to be at some service center? Or something?” Feeling self-conscious, she said stiffly, “I would have taken it in, but I’ve been busy.”

Kevin turned around with those hard brown eyes glaring at her as he dried those large hands.

That hard look made her explain herself. “My father… he usually took care of things like that.”

“It’s okay to admit you were spoiled, Tori. I won’t fly off my rocker like I did before.” He crossed his arms over his chest with a judgmental glare and said, “You’re welcome.”

“I didn’t ask for you to do that.” Yet she couldn’t be as mean as she felt she should be. “Thank you, Kevin.”

He nodded to a dark yellow box she hadn’t seen until he pointed it out. “It’s from Duncan.”

Narrowing her eyes suspiciously, she warily walked over to the box and opened it to see several servings of roasted chickpeas.

Seeing the heap of delicious snacks brought memories of an enjoyable time with the quiet middle brother, and a nice, big smile spread across her lips.

“That’s all it took? Some beans to make you happy?” Kevin snarled.

He tried reaching for some, but she snatched the box away protectively, popping several in her mouth and loudly smacking her lips.

“Don’t be jealous, your brother knows how to brighten a girl’s day,” she taunted and looked at the clock. “You have one hour, Kevin. Now talk.”

Kevin went over to her refrigerator and poured two glasses of water.

Tori wasn’t a water fan, but she drank it because he had taken the time to do something thoughtful for her. “Let’s start with the night you guys pranked me. I know Shawn didn’t know.”

“Not until last night. My mother had planned this nice Canadian getaway with your father, but like any other occasion, once you found out, you would find some way of ruining it. So she begged for my help. I knew you crushed hard on Shawn.”

“So that’s why I received the note the day before with the orders to tell no one,” she surmised.

“You needed to be consumed by the thought,” he explained, and it worked. “My mother said you hardly came out of your room, and you barely paid attention to what they were doing. However, I had no plans to meet you there. I was going to set you up and then break your heart.”

“You’re a brave man to tell me this to my face, Kevin Carter, with this water glass by my hand,” she warned.

“I wouldn’t call it bravery,” he snorted. “I’ve done a lot of other stupid things like this and received the painful repercussions.”

Tori got them back on the subject. “But Duncan was there that night.”

“He knew of the plan and said he initially just wanted to watch your heartbreak, but something changed his mind. Since he’s a couple of inches taller, he just hunched down, and you never knew the difference because it was so dark. I wasn’t aware of that detail until yesterday. All this time, I slept well knowing you’d been heartbroken.”

“He told me not to say anything to anyone, and I thought we couldn’t even talk about it together because our parents dated. You only made me angrier about my father’s relationship with your mothers.”

Kevin snatched a couple of chickpeas from the box. “Don’t try to turn this back at me, Princess.”

The nickname didn’t annoy her, and she chuckled. “And that’s why Duncan showed up last night to let me know it was him who did the kiss?”

“No, Duncan was not supposed to bring his raggedy ass over here. The plan all along was that I was supposed to come over today and explain everything and convince you to stay in the fake relationship with Shawn because we thought that after everything you heard from Norman, he would send your introverted ass running for the hills.”

“This whole situation really means a lot to all of you,” she determined. “But it can’t go on as normal anymore. Shawn has got to know the truth. I need to let him know what I did.”

Kevin looked shocked. “You seriously would tell Shawn the truth of what you did with his brothers?”

“Yes, Kevin. I couldn’t settle my conscience around him and his newfound desire for me without letting him know the truth.”

“Well, you don’t have to do that because he already knows. While you were in the shower, I called and told him I fucked you.”

___ *** ___

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Her Substitute Husband… His Brothers (c) 2025 Sylvia Hubbard All Rights Reserved

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