Tempting
a
King
King Family Romance
Book One
Isla Drake
Copyright © 2020 Isla Drake
All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-one
Chapter Thirty-two
Chapter Thirty-three
Chapter Thirty-four
Epilogue
Prologue
13 years ago
Finnegan King stood tall and straight, his blue eyes locked on the dark mahogany coffin before him. The minister was still speaking, but Finn heard none of what he said. He couldn’t take his eyes off the elegant wooden box draped in flowers. His eyes lost focus until the scene before him was a blur of colors with no discernible edges.
Inside him, he felt the gaping hole that had opened nine days earlier when he’d gotten the phone call telling him his parents had been in a car accident. The man on the other end of the line had been kind, his voice gentle. It did nothing to soften the blow when he told Finn that his mother had been killed instantly. There was nothing anyone could have done. Abby King had been dead before the ambulance had arrived.
Finn’s father had initially survived the crash, but he’d been in critical condition. Every hour that he remained alive was a miracle. He’d had more than one surgery to repair the damage to his internal organs. There were tests and scans. More surgeries and procedures. More scans. Still, Marcus King had stubbornly clung to life. He was such a large, vibrant man and it seemed impossible that something as common as a car accident could be his downfall. Days passed, and he remained unconscious.
Finn had rushed home from college immediately and been faced with more decisions than anyone should have to make at his age. There was the matter of his mother’s funeral. Should it wait until after his father recovered? If his father recovered, that was. No one could tell him with any sort of certainty. Finn had been relieved when his brother Ronan, three years his junior, had been granted leave from the Marines and come home. He was only 19, but he’d always been good in a crisis. He’d be able to help Finn decide what to do. In the end, the decision had been taken from them both. Their father had suffered a massive stroke before he could wake up from the coma.
Finn’s gaze shifted to the other wooden box only a few feet away. It seemed fitting that his parents would die at the same time. That they’d be buried together, on the same day. They’d always been a single entity in his mind. A team. Abby and Marcus King had been inseparable since the day they’d met. Not even death could change that, apparently. He heard none of the minister’s words as he spoke about the two most important people in Finn’s life. He felt a hand curl into his and looked down to see Claire standing beside him. She’d been quiet since he’d come home to break the news to her. She was the youngest of the King siblings at only 14. Normally, she was too cool for this type of affection, but this wasn’t a normal time. He squeezed her hand and tried to make his lips curl upward into a sad smile. More than anything, he wanted to tell her that everything would be okay. That he would always be there for her, no matter what. At 22, Finn was the oldest of the King children. It was up to him to make sure they were all safe and cared for. The weight of that responsibility sat on his chest, threatening to stop his breath. He watched as the two coffins were lowered into the ground and told himself that no matter what happened, he’d do everything in his power to make sure his brothers and sister were okay. He’d be strong. He’d do whatever it took. He’d sacrifice whatever he needed to. For them.
Chapter One
Present Day
Hannah
“Hurry up, Liam,” I call out as I toss a bag of apple slices into a dinosaur lunch bag. “You’re gonna be late for school.”
Why do I always do this to myself? This destructive behavior is going to catch up to me one day. But I can’t seem to help myself. Every Sunday night, I stay up entirely too late and drink entirely too much wine. This leads to me hitting the snooze button a few too many times on my alarm clock, which leads to my Monday morning insane rush around the kitchen trying to avoid being late. All so I can spend a few hours ogling the devil. Or at least the guy who plays the devil. Look, it’s not my fault Tom Ellis is so hot.
I glance at the clock. Shit! I tell myself I should cancel my Netflix membership. Maybe then I’ll get to sleep at a reasonable hour and these chaotic Monday morning rushes will become a thing of the past. I’ll become a new woman who eats healthy and drinks enough water. One who remembers to take her makeup off every night and washes her hair more than twice a week. It’s a good plan, I think. It could totally work. The clock ticks down another minute and I scramble around the kitchen, grabbing Liam’s backpack, his jacket, my purse.
“Liam!” I call again. “We gotta go!”
We have 15 minutes to make the 12-minute drive to his school, suffer through the interminable drop-off line and for him to make it to his classroom. Worst. Mom. Ever. Liam finally trudges into the kitchen, fresh from brushing his teeth.
“Ready?” I ask with a smile.
He frowns at me. “My tummy hurts,” he says.
I
