Theirs to Pleasure

Title: Theirs to Pleasure

A Reverse Harem Romance

Series: The Marriage Lottery

Author: Stasia Black

Genre: Steamy Romance

Release Date: June 1, 2018

Blurb

In a world where there’s only one woman for every twelve men, a lottery is the chance for five lucky men to win the prize of a lifetime… her hand in marriage.

All Charlie ever wanted was to protect his sister. But when they are separated and Charlie is imprisoned in an enemy camp, Charlie’s tortured by thoughts of what might be happening to her.

Until one day, a beautiful servant named Shay starts bringing him his meals. Even her name sounds like a sigh. Shay. For the first time in months, Charlie has someone else to think about other than his sister.

Where did Shay come from? Who’s giving her those bruises on her face? And how can he protect her when he couldn’t even protect his own sister, much less himself?

When Shay breaks him out of his cell with promises of reuniting him with his sister, Charlie has no clue just how much his protective instincts are going to be stretched to the limits. Because the township where his sister lives? Turns out they have a law that every woman must marry five men. And His. Sister. Married. Five. Guys.

What’s worse? Shay’s the next up for the lottery. 

ADD TO GOODREADS

Excerpt

Chapter One

CHARLIE

Charlie blinked blearily at the sliver of sunshine coming through the window where it wasn’t boarded up. The sun was setting. Another day gone.

He looked at the wall where he’d just finished scratching a line into the cinderblock with his fingernail, briefly glancing up the wall at all the similar hash marks.

Three months. It had been over three months since he’d woken up in this very room—covered in his own blood, with a headache so bad he’d been convinced he was gonna die. He had no idea where he was. A tiny office in a really old building, he thought. Cream-colored painted cinderblock walls. It had an institutional feel. Maybe a hospital?

There was a thick wooden door with a tiny rectangular plexiglass window, but all it showed was the end of a dark alcove, so no clues there. Through the tiny bit he could see through the outdoor window, he could only see the plumbing of another building.

When he’d first woken up, part of him had wanted to just give up and die. Because no matter how many times he shouted questions at the guards who occasionally delivered food and water, no one would tell him anything about his sister Audrey.

Had those bastards killed her right there by the spring where they’d knocked him out? Or did she manage to run away after all?

In the end, he’d fought for consciousness and clung to life as hard as he could. Because what if she was here? What if these motherfuckers had her too? What if they were—

He cut that line of thought off just like he did every time it sprang up. He’d go fucking insane if he let himself go there.

Voices sounded in the hallway and he scrambled to his feet. Well, as much as he could with the handcuffs and connected ankle fetters. He shuffled hunchbacked toward the door and the small plexiglass window.

And saw her.

He thought she was a mirage the first time she came and pushed his tray of moldy bread and sour mush through the skinny two-inch rectangular hole that had been sawed in the door.

She was tiny with long dark hair, wearing a faded white dress. Like some sort of angelic apparition.

But then she got closer and he saw that no, she was a flesh and bone woman. Because surely an angel wouldn’t be walking with a limp and have a black eye and a split lip.

She refused to approach with the tray until he backed up to the opposite wall. Then she slid it through and ran away as fast as she could.

Charlie couldn’t even be mad that the tasteless bowl of mush spilled all over the floor. If he were her, he wouldn’t voluntarily get within three feet of a man either.

He hadn’t spent the last eight years hiding Audrey away from the world for nothing. Which was when it hit him—Audrey. If Audrey was here, this woman might know her.

It was all he could think about. So the next time the woman came, he ran for the door and started firing questions. “Do you know a girl named Audrey? She would have been brought here the same time I was. Two months ago.”

The woman had been so startled by his voice she’d dropped his tray and fled.

“Wait!” he’d shouted after her. “Audrey. Do you know her? She’s my sister. Please!”

But all he heard was the sound of rapidly fleeing footsteps. And then nothing.

She didn’t come back for three days.

It wasn’t unusual to go that long between meals. They gave him a gallon of water once or—if he was lucky—sometimes twice a week. But meals were hit or miss.

Still, the next time he heard light footsteps approaching, he backed away to the furthest wall and raised his hands in surrender.

He didn’t dare say a word. If Audrey was here, this girl could be the key to getting information about her and he wasn’t going to fuck it up again.

She was cautious as she approached. Hesitant.

He waited patiently as he could manage.

She shoved the tray through the hole, sending the bowl splattering again, and then ran away.

As much as it killed him, he did the same thing the next three times she came.

And on the fourth, he said in his calmest, gentlest voice, “I won’t hurt you.”

She startled so much she almost dropped the tray again.

But she didn’t make a run for it.

Considering that a win, he continued, still not moving from the wall and keeping his hands up and visible. “My name’s Charlie.”

He didn’t push any further than that.

She didn’t say a word. Just shoved his tray through and skittered away.

But the next time, he started talking about Audrey. “I have a sister about your age. Her name’s Audrey. She drove me crazy growing up. Little sisters, you know? Always coming in my room and bothering me and my friends when we were playing video games. Trying to tag along when I’d go to the mall.” He shook his head. “Jesus, it feels like a million years ago.”

The woman hadn’t bolted. The tray was paused halfway through the slot.

Charlie didn’t move an inch but he kept talking.

“Dad and I couldn’t believe how lucky we were when all the girls and women in town got sick but she stayed healthy. It was like a miracle.” Charlie huffed out a sad laugh. And then, when the woman still didn’t leave, he told her about what happened with his dad and the mob that came to the front door, and how he escaped with Audrey out back.

“She’s dead now?”

Her voice was so soft at first Charlie thought he might have imagined it.

He sat up straighter and she flinched backwards, tray clattering against the slot as she yanked it back.

“Sorry, sorry,” Charlie said, chains rattling as he lifted his cuffed hands again and put his back flush with the wall. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I— I don’t know where she is. She was with me when—” He swallowed, looking down. “The men from here, they attacked us when we were getting water.” He lifted his eyes to hers where she watched him warily through the plexiglass. “I thought if they brought me here, then maybe they brought her too.”

Her eyes dropped and Charlie’s heartbeat sped up. What did that mean?

“Is she here? Do you know her?”

Her eyes flicked back up to his. “A lot of girls come through here.”

Nausea hit Charlie fast and hard. She was confirming his worst fears. No, his worst fear was that Audrey was dead. But what this woman was describing was a close second.

It was an open secret that girls were trafficked all over the territories. The President had officially outlawed it, but there was a reason Charlie chose to stay with Audrey in an underground bunker for almost a decade. Law and order were so far from a reality yet, it was fucking laughable. The old wild west looked like a picnic compared to the Texas of today, and Texas was actually way better than most places.

Charlie bit his cheek against the million questions he wanted to ask. Don’t press it. She’s just opening up. Push too hard and she could bolt again.

But then those big doe eyes of hers blinked up at him again. “I could maybe… ask around.”

“Yeah?” The word came out half-strangled. Was she really just— Just offering like that when he’d— “Cause that would be— It’d be fuckin— Sorry, I just, it would mean everything—”

“I’m not promising anything,” she said sharply. Then, as if she’d just remembered the tray in her hands, she gestured down to it with her eyes. “Here. Take this.”

And, though she watched him warily, she stood still as he approached. He came slow, careful. She was skittish as a deer. When he got close enough to take the tray, he saw her hand was shaking.

And for the first time since she’d shown up, he thought about her. Really thought about her, and not just in relation to the info she might be able to get him on Audrey. What was life here like for her? She said girls came through. But not her? She obviously had some sort of position h