CLAIM (Dirty Brothers Series Book 3)

by Penny Wylder

  Claim

  Dirty Brothers Series

  Penny Wylder

  Copyright © 2018 Penny Wylder

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or businesses, organizations, or locales, is completely coincidental.

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  Contents

  Books By Penny Wylder

  1. Anna

  2. Robert

  3. Anna

  4. Robert

  5. Anna

  6. Robert

  7. Anna

  8. Robert

  9. Anna

  10. Robert

  11. Anna

  12. Robert

  13. Anna

  14. Robert

  Books By Penny Wylder

  Books By Penny Wylder

  Filthy Boss

  Her Dad’s Friend

  Rockstars F#*k Harder

  The Virgin Intern

  Her Dirty Professor

  The Pool Boy

  Get Me Off

  Caught Together

  Selling Out to the Billionaire

  Falling for the Babysitter

  Lip Service

  Full Service

  Expert Service

  The Billionaire’s Virgin

  The Billionaire’s Secret Babies

  Her Best Friend’s Dad

  Own Me

  The Billionaire’s Gamble

  Seven Days With Her Boss

  Virgin in the Middle

  The Virgin Promise

  First and Last

  Tease

  Spread

  Bang

  Second Chance Stepbrother

  Dirty Promise

  Sext

  Quickie

  Bed Shaker

  Deep in You

  The Billionaire’s Toy

  Buying the Bride

  Dating My Friend’s Daughter

  Big Man

  Trapped with My Teacher

  My 5 Bosses

  Good Girls Say Yes

  His Big Offer

  Dangerous Love

  The Roommate’s Baby

  Perfect Boss

  Cowboy Husband

  Knocked Up By Her Brother’s Enemy

  Flirt

  Lust

  1

  Anna

  Geeze. Sometimes when people don’t want to be found they really don't want to be found. It’s a Saturday. I should be at C’est La Vino, sipping wine while hanging out with a friend or reading a book or doing anything that isn’t climbing through the woods in Vermont, probably covering every inch of exposed skin in poison ivy.

  I slap a tickle on my neck and cringe when my hand comes away with the remains of a bug on it. Gross. I can’t believe I’m doing this. But I am. Because I need to see it through. Granted, I’m not a trained PI or wilderness tracker. They probably could have found Robert Logan and his cabin in the middle of nowhere far faster. But there’s nothing like a person knowing you’re desperate for money to pressure you into a job you’re not prepared for.

  David Logan wants to find his son. He says it’s because he wants Robert to come to Samuel Logan’s wedding. He skipped his youngest brother Thomas’s. But I’m not dumb enough to believe that’s the only reason. Logan Sr. isn’t sentimental.

  The real reason is that Robert is his oldest son, and there’s that thing between rich men and their sons. They want the oldest to take over the family business, whether or not they have any interest—as Robert clearly doesn't.

  When you’re a part of a family like the Logan’s, you don't just vanish. And yet Robert did. It’s been almost a year since the family saw him last, and it’s taken a few months for me to get this far. Now I’m hiking in the middle of nowhere, searching for this cabin, and not having any fun at all.

  But it’s worth it. I need the money. God, do I need the finder’s fee on this man, even though for anyone else it would probably be ten times higher. But I can’t afford to wait for that kind of fee. My reputation and former life are waiting, I just need enough money to buy it back. To exonerate myself.

  I look ahead through the trees, and I think I see something. What looks like maybe a glint of metal. Please, for the love of God, let it be the cabin.

  It’s not the cabin, but it is a pick-up truck. A big one. “Are you kidding me?” I say to the air as I step out of the tree line. Sitting right there is a clearly lined drive snaking away down the hill to my right.

  Go fucking figure. I looked for a road for a couple of hours. The turn off must be so well hidden that you have to know it’s there to find it. That, or I’m just so bad at this outdoorsy stuff that it was right in front of my face the whole time. But I guess it doesn’t matter, I’m here. I pause for a second, wiping the sweat off my forehead. I should make at least a decent impression when I show up randomly at his door.

  I hear a chopping sound as I walk closer to the house. It echoes down the hill. So someone is chopping here. I assume it’s Robert, but no one has seen him for months. For all I know, someone could live here with him. For a second I think I should just go around the house and say hello, but I don’t think surprising someone wielding an axe is a good idea. Somehow I don’t think someone who went to all this trouble to disappear likes surprise guests.

  Instead, I walk to the door. There’s no knocker or doorbell. Why would there be? I take my water bottle instead. It’s metal, and probably loud enough to get noticed. Taking a deep breath, I bang on the door. It takes a couple of tries before the chopping falls into silence. I bang again, and I hear another door open, and rough, hard footsteps approaching before the door in front of me flies open and there’s Robert. And…oh my God.

  I recognize him from his pictures, but none of the photographs did him justice. Especially since he’s standing in front of me half-naked. That’s right, Robert Logan isn’t wearing a shirt, his skin is shining with sweat, and he’s still holding the axe. I have to force my eyes upward away from his chest and stomach because I’ve never seen a body like his and it makes me think thoughts I shouldn’t be thinking about the man I’m bounty-hunting.

  “Who the fuck are you?” His voice is dark and rough—exactly what you’d imagine coming from the image standing in front of me.

  My mouth is completely dry and now that I’m here, I’m having trouble finding the words I’ve practiced for months. This is really not how I imagined this moment would go. “My name is Anna Collins,” I say.

  He tilts his head and looks at me. His eyes are a brown so deep they’re almost black. It’s like I can feel them piercing my skin. His gaze travels my body from head to toe, no doubt taking in my disheveled appearance and the signs that I have no idea what I’m doing out here in the woods. “That’s your name,” he says. “Still doesn’t tell me who you are.”

  “Your father hired me to find you.”

  Robert goes entirely still, and then he laughs, a loud rolling laugh that rings out through the trees. “You? He sent you?”

  He shakes his head and walks away from the door. He leaves it open though, which I take as an invitation to come inside. Robert heads for a basin by the back door, and quickly washes his hands and face. I try not to get distracted by the sight of water dripping down his taut skin. It’s not working.

  “Tell my father he can go to hell.” He looks at me, hair dripping, and I feel the menace in his
words. Logan Sr. was right—Robert did not want to be found.

  I take a few cautious steps forward, further inside the cabin. “You and I both know that that answer isn’t going to work for your father.”

  “It doesn’t have to work, I just want him to hear it.”

  I bite my lip to stop the laugh that wants to come out. “Your father would like you to come home. Come to Sam’s wedding and take your place at the head of the company.”

  Robert freezes for a second. “Thomas is getting married?”

  “To Fiona Monroe.”

  He laughs and rolls his eyes. “Could have called that after the engagement party. That’s good. They’re suited for each other.”

  “So you’ll come back?” I ask, hoping it’s that simple.

  “No.”

  2

  Robert

  I don’t know who this woman is, but I’m trying to keep my back to her. I wasn’t expecting company, especially company like her. She’s got curves for days and the right amount of sweat to let me know that she’s been exerting herself. Which makes me think about her exerting herself in other ways. I think my dick went hard the moment I opened the door.

  I’ve been alone up here for a while, and even if I hadn’t, Anna Collins is a walking fantasy. I don’t want her to see that she’s made me hard when she’s here doing my father’s bidding. I don’t want to give him any more ammunition.

  I fill a glass with water from the spring—it’s ice cold and cuts through the heat that’s coursing through my body. I turn back around to face her and damn, that was a mistake. I don’t care why she’s here, I’m willing to give her a tour of the mountain and a whole lot more. Except for the fact that my father will be furious that I fucked the person he sent to find me. Actually, that’s not a bad idea.

  But no. I can’t. This refuge is too precious to lose, and I can’t let her bring me back to the life I hated. “How’d you get up here?”

  “I hiked,” she says. “Though I see that there’s a road. Now.”

  I hide my smile with the rim of the glass. Guess my camouflage of the road worked. “Well I’ll drive you down to your car and you can be on your way.”

  She laughs. “I’ve been looking for you for months. You’re not going to get rid of me that fast.”

  “Well, I’m not going back with you.” I walk out the back door back to my woodpile and chopping block. This log is just for firewood. Turns out the trunk of this tree wasn’t the right texture for the piece I’m imagining.

  “You have to at least give me a reason why you won’t go.” She followed me.

  I pick up my gloves and start stacking the chopped pieces into the woodpile that leans against the back of the house. “No, I don’t,” I say. “I’m an adult. I have no current ties, debts, bonds, or contracts with any member of my family, and I don’t want to go. And let’s be honest, sweetheart, there’s no way you can physically force me to go with you.” I let my eyes travel her body again, and I can barely control my response because I’m imagining all those curves pressed up against me and her trying to force me through the forest. That would end up with us both on the ground, with me over her, and— “though I’m enjoying imagining you trying.”

  She walks up to me. “It’s been almost a year since you disappeared. You can’t tell me that you don’t miss people. A little company once and a while.”

  I shrug, stacking more wood. “People are overrated.” She huffs like she’s going to argue with me. “My family is a nest of snakes and being around them means having to watch your back all the time. Every day. It’s exhausting and there’s no point. And as for people, I’m human. I see people when I go to the nearest town for supplies.” And stop by the bar where there’s a pretty blonde waitress that always makes time for me. “I’m not a complete hermit.”

  The wood is done, so I turn and move to the garden. There’s a part of me that hopes if she sees me working that she’ll give up. But if my father hired her, she’s not going to be a push over. She’s going to try as hard as she can to get what she came for.

  “You don’t want to see Sam get married? Thomas was devastated that you didn’t show up.”

  I shake my head. “No, he’s not. He’s sad that the family image was tarnished because I wasn’t there. My brothers are little copies of my father, and we’ve never been close. So playing that angle isn’t going to work. Sam doesn’t give two shits about whether I was there to see Rose walk down the aisle in a pretty white dress.”

  There’s no witty comeback, and I keep checking the vines on my tomato plants. They’re just starting to grow and I need to make sure they climb properly. There’s still silence. There’s actually silence for so long that I wonder if Anna disappeared. I turn around, and she’s there, sitting on the stump I use to chop wood, looking into the woods. She left her backpack in the house, and in her hiking gear, it almost looks like she belongs out here. Almost. But like it or not, we both know that she’s a city girl and she’s totally out of her element.

  “How do you do it?” she asks.

  “What?”

  “Be alone like this. I mean, I know you say that you’re not lonely, but I can’t believe it. Just me and my own thoughts, twenty-four hours a day? I think I’d go a little crazy.”

  She’s not exactly wrong, but I’m not going to tell her that. I’m definitely not going to tell her that a face like hers is the most welcome sight I’ve seen in a long time, or that the longer I look at her face, the more I want to see how those lips taste. But after that, I would want her gone. I chose this solitary life for a reason, and I’m not going to give it up just because my prick of a father thinks he’s entitled to it.

  But I think there’s a way for both of us to get what we want.

  “It can be a little isolating,” I say, slowly crossing back to her. “But who knows, you might like it. Maybe you want to help me be less lonely?”

  I’m already much taller than her when she’s standing, so sitting she has to look up to meet my gaze, and I like the look of her down there. I catch the way she swallows, the slight shake in her voice. “And how would I do that?”

  “I have a proposition for you.”

  She raises an eyebrow. “I’m listening.”

  “You stay here with me for thirty days. You let go of your cell phone, the internet, anything that connects you to the outside world, and my father. You see the kind of life I have and be my company. And you’ll earn your keep. If you can make it through the whole thirty days without the luxurious life that you’re used to, then I’ll go back with you to my father, and you’ll get whatever he’s promised you.”

  Anna’s mouth falls open. “How did you know he promised me—”

  “I know who my father is,” I snap. “I know he likes to hire desperate people, people who need something from him. So he agreed to give it to you, and now you’re here.”

  She swallows again, and I get distracted by the line of her throat, which leads my eyes down to where her shirt has been pulled open just a little too far. I can see a glimpse of perfect cleavage, and I fight my body’s instant lust. If she agrees, she’s going to be here for thirty days if she agrees, and I know that I won’t be able to hold myself back for that long, but the way she keeps glancing down at my bare chest says she’s having the same thoughts I am.

  “And this is the only way you’ll go back,” she says. It’s not a question, but an acknowledgement.

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  I crouch down so that I can look her in the eye, and I see her eyes widen a little at my closeness. “I’m not going to give up my freedom for just anything. Not because a city girl came and batted her eyelashes at me. If you stay, and prove to me you have some skin in this game, I’ll speak to my father. So what do you say?”

  It takes a second, but eventually she nods. “Okay,” Anna says. “I’ll stay.”

  3

  Anna

  What on earth did I just agree to? Am I insane? I can’t stay i
n the woods for a month. Not because anyone will miss me—they won’t. I don’t have any close friends after…everything that happened. My only priority has been finding Robert Logan. And here I am.

  But there’s no way that I’ll be able to stay here for a month. I’ll implode. The way he’s looking at me right now makes my body melt in a way I haven’t felt in years, and I’ve only been here for thirty minutes. If I’m here for thirty days, there’s no way I’m going to last.

  Would that really be so bad? My gut tells me that yes, Logan Sr. wouldn’t want me find his son just to fall into bed with him. But then again, he didn’t specifically say that I couldn’t do that either.

  I clear my throat, standing up from where I’ve been resting on that stump. Robert catches the movement of my hands as I subtly brush off my ass. His eyes flick back up to mine and I wonder if he’s imagining touching my ass. A blush rises up into my cheeks and I shake my head. What is wrong with you Anna? This man is your ticket back into your life, not some guy you’re picking up at a bar.