Why do our secrets keep hurting us?
Why do our secrets keep coming back?
Why can’t our secrets just die?
Emersyn Sharpe was nothing like I expected and everything I could have ever dreamed of. She stayed and she changed everything. She put the guys in their place. She had fire and spunk, a ferociousness I wished I possessed.
Her darkness called to mine in a way that felt like home.
But hiding secrets is hard work and even the people who think they already know the worst, can’t be fully trusted. No matter how desperately you want it.
The truth may set you free, but the lies? They keep you bound so tight, you don’t even realize you’re trapped.
Milo coming home brought Liam back to us and Boo-boo fit right in. Everything was supposed to get better. So how did it get worse?
Why, why did she leave? Why couldn’t she have waited?
My name is Freddie Dunlap and I’m going to find her.
At the heart of it all was a secret and a lie.
A secret we didn’t tell her.
A lie we told ourselves.
Emersyn Sharpe is more than just the girl we watched over. She’s very much the woman who fits us.
The last thing we should have done was take her and the worst thing we did was keep her, but she needs us. I think, more than one of us—myself included—needs her.
The secret wasn’t ours to share and the lie?
I bought into the lie that keeping her was saving her. The lie that persuading her to trust us was needed. The lie that falling in love with her was as natural as breathing.
It didn’t matter if I wasn’t alone in falling into this trap. It mattered that when the trap closed, it put her on one side and us on the other.
Damn and we were so close too…
My name is Vaughn Westbrook and I’ll be damned if I give up now.
My name is Emersyn Sharpe. Until a few months ago, I was the lead performer for a traveling show finishing up a contract. I had been beaten, but never broken.
Then they took me.
I didn’t belong in their world.
Still, they took me and I didn’t know why. They promised to protect me and to keep me safe, but they had to know I’d run. They had to know.
Now my world and theirs might be on a collision course and as much as I didn’t belong in their world, I didn’t want mine to rain down on them.
Not on Jasper, the dictatorial jerk who kissed like he wanted to own me. Not on Rome, the tortured artist who protected me. Not on Kestrel, the liar with the soulful eyes and dedicated heart. Not on Liam, the bastard who loved his brother. Not on Vaughn, the beautiful man with the beautiful voice who made me want everything I shouldn’t. Not on Doc, the gifted physician who’d kept his promises to me.
I ran.
But I didn’t get far and now…now I don’t know what will happen next.
Emersyn Sharpe doesn’t belong in our world.
In fact, the very last place she should be is with us. But someone is hurting her. We’ve all seen it. We tried to ignore the warning signs. We tried to trust the people around her. We tried to believe in her world.
Too late.
When she nearly died in front of us, we had to act. We took her. She doesn’t belong in our world, but I’ll be damned if someone lays a finger on her under my watch. I’ll kill them first.
Now that she’s here…I don’t know if I can let her leave. I’m Jasper Horan, anyone who tries to take her will have to go through me and my boys. You’ve been warned.
Broken dreams.
Broken lives.
Broken bird.
Our feelings for her were like wild animals finally freed from their cage. But my sparrow, she was the most brutal fighter of us all. She’d had to be.
The battles she’s survived, she’s done in silence and alone.
Not anymore.
Never again.
Milo let her go. Jasper took her. Vaughn sheltered her. Liam taught her. Rome connected with her. Doc pushed her away. Freddie went after her. All because we wanted what was best for her.
Me?
I was in this fight. Our promises might lie shattered in the debris of the life we’d thought she had, but we weren’t abandoning them or her.
Oh no, I would never leave her again.
My name is Kellan Traschel, I will be whatever she needs me to be. And if war is what must be waged, then hell was what we would rain down.
Beautiful, I love you. No ands, ifs, or buts. No beating around the bush. Will you marry me?
From the first proposal on the playground when we were five to the one two weeks ago, Coop has always been there for me.
Baby Girl, the only thing I’ve ever wanted is you. Forever.
Protector. Best friend. Lover. Jake’s a part of me in a way I can’t define. Even when we were apart, I knew we would find each other.
This is my love song for you, Angel.
Music is Ian’s love language. He doesn’t just wrap me up to keep me safe from the world, he pulled me into his. He shared his love and the knots that bind our hearts are beyond anything I could have imagined.
From the day I met you—you were the one, Babe. The only one.
Archie’s my hero in some ways, he pushes and he demands. At the same time, he savors and teases. He’s a builder and a fixer. I had no idea that the day he arrived was the day the last piece missing in my world would lock into place.
Marry us.
My name is Frankie Curtis, the four men I love more than anything else in this world want me to marry them. They want forever.
They want me.
When did we become the adults? When did we become the ones who had to make the hard calls? One by one, we’ve all left our teenage years behind. College brought new challenges even as Bound Hearts brought us more.
Whether we’re making music, love, war, games, or trouble, we’ve found a good balance. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Together, we know we can do anything.
We’ve learned that even being apart doesn’t mean we aren’t together.
Life has a habit of throwing curveballs. School, careers, new hobbies, friends in need, and family demands are hitting us from every angle. We’re going to need each other more than ever.
Archie, Coop, Ian, Jake, and I are a team. We’re constantly figuring it out and sometimes, we fight. We also make up.
And we’ll have each other’s backs, today, tomorrow, and into the future.
Everything changes. Even the things we didn’t ask for. Jake, Archie, Coop, and Ian were my best friends and three of them still are and they’re also now my lovers, my boyfriends, and pretty much the anchors keeping me from getting washed away.
I’ve had great moments and I’ve had horrible ones. One thing is for sure, I’ll never forget my senior year.
It’s the year everything changed.
It’s the year I found them. I lost one and now he wants me back, but I have no idea how to trust him again.
I wish… I wish for a lot of things, but with Halloween right around the corner and the holidays coming, I gotta stay focused on the future even if part of me is still trapped in a night I can’t remember.
170 some odd days left in my senior year and everything has changed. I went from untouchable to dating my best friends to making out to being betrayed. Why can’t they understand humiliating and controlling me doesn’t say I care?
Could this get any worse?
We’ve all crossed lines. Broken the rules.
Ian had asked me to Homecoming.
Jake spent the night in my bed.
Coop and I had made out on the sofa.
But Archie? Archie and I had blown past all of them.
Now?
I had to get out of here more than ever. Change was inevitable. College was coming. That was where my focus needed to be. Not on the four guys I adored. Our friendship was everything and there wasn’t enough chocolate in the world to salvage this situation.
Losing them for a few months hurt.
Losing them forever might be inevitable, but it would be unbearable.
When it comes down to acclaim in the yearbook, my class rank would probably earn me my only entry, but very little else. I don’t wear cosmetics, do my hair or really give a damn about my appearance in general. I don’t need to be cool, and I’ve managed my high school career navigating all the different groups from the nerds to the jocks to the theatre kids and the band geeks.
Kicking off senior year, my only focus is to make every AP class count and keep my grades up. Shouldn’t be hard, particularly with my so-called untouchable status. Oh yeah, imagine that—I had a reputation. Hadn’t been a blip on my radar until the end of junior year when one of the girls’ dropped that little nugget on me. Apparently, the guys at school considered me the best girl to hang out with for fun or homework, but nothing else.
While I’m not looking for a date, it’s a little hard to swallow that I ranked as the best bud and tutor, but would definitely never fall into the Girl Most Likely To Get Asked Out.
Pfft. What did I care? One more year and I was off to college, so what if the numbers of female friends I used to have drifted off and I’d scored a permanent seat in the friend zone. I had subjects to study, grades to maintain, and colleges to get into. Fine, I didn’t care about the rules or status before, and I wouldn’t now.
181 class days to go, and I’ll graduate. No problem, right?
