Sebastian Princeton wanted to throttle his triplet siblings—Tristan and Logan—for making his life a living hell. First, they invited themselves into his luxurious apartment in Manhattan. Though there were five large bedrooms, a fitness room, a modern kitchen, and a comfy lounge, he still thought it was a bit crowded, having gotten used to living alone for the past five years with only the occasional visits from his parents and grandparents.
The first night, they brought in their friends and had a blast partying in the house, emptying his cellar and fridge and destroying some of his precious paintings and photographs he’d bought from an unknown, talented artist he admired. The second night, they refused to let him stay home to finish his work and dragged him out drinking until the early hours of the morning. Their argument was, “It’s Saturday!” The third night, they told him to get packing because they were leaving for St. Joseph Island three days early for their cousin Mary’s wedding to surprise the bride-to-be—and their mom and dad, of course.
Sebastian knew instantly it was that damn Tristan’s idea, who only wanted to annoy the hell out of him, and naturally, Logan went along. Then Hayden arrived on his motorbike, crashing on Sebastian’s king-size bed without an invitation, informing them he was now homeless and girlfriendless. His girlfriend had kicked him out after she’d seen him hugging another guy and had wrongly assumed him to be gay and cheating on her. The guy, of course, turned out to be Darcy.
Tristan burst out laughing until his stomach hurt when Hayden explained that he’d been comforting Darcy by patting Darcy’s shoulder—not hugging him—who’d had a bad breakdown because his girlfriend dumped him for another guy. Then Darcy arrived—all wounded and heartbroken like a little pup—as Tristan kept telling everyone, including Darcy himself, who in fact didn’t give a shit whether this new ex-girlfriend of his dumped him or not and was indeed very glad the stagnated relationship was over.
Tristan insisted they had no choice but to comfort Darcy by taking him out drinking until early dawn, which in due course led to a house full of men with hangovers the next morning accompanied by lots of moaning, groaning, and of course, very colorful cursing from Darcy, who naturally wanted to also throttle Tristan for his distasteful tricks. They all knew Darcy couldn’t handle much alcohol, and they forced him to have shots after shots.
By that evening, they were completely sober except for Darcy, who was still nursing his headache. Sebastian, on the other hand, had had enough and swore if this ever happened again, he’d throttle his brothers for sure.
The next day, Sebastian was on a warpath once again. It was entirely their fault that he was now as wet and cold as a drowned kitten and his laptop stuffed up. If Tristan and Logan hadn’t been fooling around near the railing on the lower deck of their two-million-dollar, brand-spanking-new luxury yacht, trying to get a peek at his new apartment plan, then he and his laptop wouldn’t have gotten thrown off board into the ocean. Furthermore, if he wasn’t such an excellent swimmer since he’d been one of the best professional athlete swimmers during his late teens, he could have buried himself and his laptop deep under the ocean.
“I’m sure Hayden can fix it,” Tristan said coolly, throwing him a dry towel.
Sebastian glared at his brother as the towel landed on his head, partially covering his face and eyes that were glinting with fire.
“Nope. Can’t fix it,” Hayden said matter-of-factly. “It’s totally stuffed, bro. Better get a new one.”
“Jesus! My work!” Sebastian muttered, looking heavenward as he pulled down the towel. “It’s not the laptop! It’s my work!” he growled.
“Surely you have a backup, right?” Conrad, the youngest of the brothers, put in calmly from the other side of the pool.
“Of course, but—”
“Ah.” Logan butted in, putting down his martini. “Girlfriends.”
“What?” Sebastian snapped. He was at his limit and was ready to throw at least one of them into the ocean, and that person was preferably Tristan who was smiling cheekily on the other side of the pool a good distance away.
Tristan knew he was in trouble, and it was best for him to keep out of reach since Sebastian had very powerful fists. After all, Tristan had seen too many times to count when perfectly good-looking faces got restructured into very distorted ones with a few of Sebastian’s mighty punches. Of course, Tristan didn’t want his gorgeous face to be ruined, and what would he do without his handsome face and flirty smile? The girls wouldn’t bed him, that was for sure, and Tristan would be very devastated indeed.
“He’s pissed because all his girlfriends’ photos are ruined,” Logan said matter-of-factly, emphasizing the word girlfriends as plural.
“Don’t be ridiculous!” Sebastian replied. Though he had to admit it was losing the photos that really pissed him off since he hadn’t backed up some of the most recent ones on his hard drive.
“I didn’t know you had a girlfriend, Sebastian,” Tara said, sitting across from him, her slender body posing elegantly on the poolside lounge. She tossed her hair over her shoulder and leaned toward Sebastian—the brother she’d always wanted. Only, so far, she’d never been able to grab his attention let alone his interest in her as a woman. In fact, all the brothers had always treated her like a sister, like they treated Alaina, which annoyed the hell out of her.
“He doesn’t,” Alaina butted in, pulling herself out of the water. She grabbed a towel resting on the side of the pool, wrapped it around her, and sat down beside Tara. “My poor brothers,” she said. “When will you all get a nice girl and settle down? Aside from you, of course, Conrad, since you’re still too young.”
Conrad snorted at his sister to show her his annoyance and returned his attention to his tablet, playing the new, not-yet-released zombie game Hayden and Darcy had given him as a trial from their video game company, HD Game, Inc., which they had built themselves from scratch a year ago.
“Don’t feel sorry for me, Alaina. I’m not ready to get tied down yet.” Nicolas chuckled. “I like my freedom.” He took a sip of his cocktail and then relaxed back on the poolside divan, gazing up at the sky above. “Twenty-eight is still too young to settle down,” he murmured to himself.
“What about Dad’s offer?” Darcy asked.
Nicolas raised his brows.
“Didn’t he want you to take over Princeton Group?” Sebastian queried. “He’s ready to retire.”
Nicolas sighed. Of course, all the brothers knew their dad had been asking him to take over the business, but Nicolas didn’t feel he was ready to take on such a big job as CEO of their family empire, the Princeton Group—aside from the fact that he had three of his own businesses to take care of, even though they were mostly online and his employees were outsourced.“I’ve been thinking about it for a while now,” he said. “I’ll take a look at it this spring and decide then.”“Aside from that,” Alaina said, “none of you are bringing any girls home to meet Mom and Dad?” She turned to Hayden. “Where’s your girlfriend? What’s her name? Judith or Julie or something?”“We broke up,” Hayden snapped.“He got dumped.” Tristan gladly offered. This of course welcomed a death-ray glare from Hayden.“And you, Darcy?” Tara asked. “What about Kate?”Darcy frowned at Tara, telling her to piss off and mind her own business.Tara thought Darcy’s dislike of her had grown even more in these past few years.
Sakura knew she had a fifty-fifty chance of living or dying once she saw the car heading straight at her. Before she had time to react, she felt herself crazing against hard metal and falling back, landing on the road. She had a moment of sheer panic, wondering if she’d live when Toby ran to her and started barking at her and licking her hand with concern. Laying there motionless, she stared dazedly up at the sky through her hair covering her face, wondering if she was dead already.She closed her eyes and concentrated on her breathing. Toby was still barking at her to get her attention, but she had no strength to respond. She needed to clear her head and get her bearing back first.Before her, the brothers rushed out of the car, their stomachs flipping in dread as they wondered what the heck had just happened. Sebastian, being the one responsible, had assumed the worst and wondered if he had just killed the girl even though he knew in his gut he’d stopped the car just in time. If he
Once she stood, Sakura finally looked at them, fully. First, there was Sebastian with the typical Princeton looks that dated back for generations and had caused many hearts to flutter recklessly and perhaps even swoon with longing. He was tall, broad at the shoulders, and too handsome for her liking.Then there was Nicolas, so much like his father, James, who looked as though he could take on the world and would still come out on top with his leader-like demeanor.Next was Tristan with his ridiculously handsome smile, the Prince of Flirt in the family. Sakura wondered how many females he had bedded already and how many hearts he had broken along the way.The same went for Logan with his very charming smile and devil-may-care manner. Sakura wouldn’t be surprised if he had bedded at least a dozen women within the past few months.Hayden, the handsome Prince of Rebel, had that rogue look about him that any good girl found hard to resist. This was enhanced by the fact that he had one gold
Sebastian was forced to eat his own words when they stared wide-eyed in disbelief at the sight before them. The Princeton Estate was in full bloom with cherry blossoms. Clouds of pink flowers stretched endlessly beyond them, and the road leading to the manor was carpeted with pink petals. “We don’t have to go to Japan to see cherry blossoms in full season,” Conrad said, smiling. “It’s nice,” Nicolas remarked. A gust of wind swirled past, releasing a myriad of flowers from the trees, petals raining down on the car, some landing on the windscreen. Sebastian was too stunned to turn on the wiper and continued driving until they reached the front courtyard of the two-hundred-year-old stately manor, which most foreigners liked to call the Grand Castle of St. Joseph Island, made of massive gray stone that had stood up against many winters. The estate was immaculately maintained with lush, green lawn and neat, pretty flowerbeds their father loved. The water feature of cupids and fairies, t
Sakura decided it was the brothers’ fault she that was so sore, and not just about the legs either, but all over now. Tired, thirsty, and her body aching, she still had to walk through this tiny, treacherous pathway that wasn’t really a pathway via the woods to get to Princeton Estate. Normally she didn’t mind, but this time she really did mind. She grumbled to herself and cursed them again. Oh, yes, she was sure they’d be very comfortable indeed right now, sitting in the lounge and drinking that horrible coffee Beth would have prepared for them. Not to mention the mini-sandwiches, scones, muffins, and slices she had made this morning. Once she reached Princeton Manor some half an hour later, she was sweating like a pig, her face was covered with dirt, and her hair was a mess. She sneaked into the kitchen—hoping like hell she wouldn’t bump into any of the brothers—when she was greeted with a, “Where have you been? Mr. Princeton was looking all over for you.” She jumped in fright, h
The brothers loved it. They absolutely loved the roast pork—and of course, none of them choked. Tristan, Logan, and Hayden couldn’t help chomping down the delicious, soft morsel and then grabbed for more. “There’s still dessert,” Mary said from across the table, smiling. “You’ll have to visit home more often to get a proper feed, boys,” Molly, their grandmother, said. Hayden nodded his head in agreement with that. “Or we could just take Beth with us,” Darcy suggested. James and Brenda glanced at each other, and Dale, the brothers’ grandfather, chuckled. Beth cleared her throat and said, “Unfortunately, Master Darcy, I still wouldn’t be able to cook you such a nice roast because I wasn’t the one who prepared that roast. Although, I sort of did since the person responsible happened to be sick all of a sudden. But that was only via specific instructions.” “New chef, then?” Conrad put in. “Finally, we have decent food to eat. Not that yours isn’t that good, Beth. Your baking is the
Darce! Darce! Laughter. Darcy could hear laughter singing and echoing all around him, calling out to him. The voice was soft and musical, and it sent a warm sensation through his body. In his state of haziness, he could see long, dark hair dancing in the wind, the strands brushing gently on his face. He could feel warm hands within his grasp, tightening as if the owner of that lovely hand was afraid he’d disappear.He was in a dream, Darcy realized, and he was lying on the ground, his body across and his head resting on someone’s lap. It was a very comfortable lap. Above him, he could see cherry blossom petals raining down on him from a tree of pink cloud. Some landed on his face. They were feathery soft and cool on his skin. He could smell the light, beautiful scent, and it reminded him of spring. Oddly enough, he felt at peace. He felt happy. And there was something else, too. He felt loved. So much love.He turned to look at the girl who was now stroking his hair. He frowned, for h
Sebastian hadn’t had such a wonderful sleep for a while. There hadn’t been any noise like in New York at all, just what he’d always wanted. Quiet. Peaceful. And he wondered why he had left home in the first place. When he woke up this morning, it had been to the sound of birds chirping outside his window and then soon after that the voices of girls talking. He was sure it wasn’t Alaina or Tara. The maids perhaps?Now fully awake and refreshed after his shower, he sighed in content. It couldn’t get any better than this, sitting here with his brothers in the morning sun in their courtyard with cherry and magnolia trees in full bloom surrounding them.The sound of a dog barking came their way.“Holy smokes!” Conrad said, perching up in his chair. “Is that?”“Toby,” Darcy supplied, more interested than he wanted himself to be.The dog appeared from the direction of the pond and dashed straight at them. Toby stopped by Tristan and greeted him by jumping around the man’s leg with delight. T