Five brothers, p.1
Five Brothers, page 1
PRAISE FOR THE NOVELS OF PENELOPE DOUGLAS
“Penelope Douglas showcases [their] knack for creating compelling central characters and thus reversing all our expectations about them. [They] deliver a multilayered love story that strikes every emotional chord along the way—a story that is beautifully complicated, infinitely angsty, and completely impossible to put down.”
—Natasha Is a Book Junkie
“Beyond addictive! Visceral and cuttingly edgy, Punk 57 will own you from the first page to long after you turn over the last. Penelope Douglas slays it!”
—Katy Evans
“Douglas launched this series and held nothing back. They delivered a medley of emotions I never thought I could feel at once. I was afraid, intrigued, anxious, and enamored. A must-read!
—B.B. Reid
“Credence consumed me with its sinfully unique taboo story and gorgeous imagery. Truly a one-of-a-kind book that I can’t recommend enough.”
—Carian Cole
“The seductive tug highlighted by the character-driven storyline held me in its grasp until the very end. Douglas’s ability to draw such powerful emotions from the reader is truly fascinating.”
—Abbi Glines
“Misha and Ryen’s fiery romance will have your heartstrings twisted in knots and have you wanting a pen pal of your own. They’re fire and ice, and I couldn’t get enough.”
—H. D. Carlton
“Penelope Douglas does many things very well. One of the best of those things is their ability to make something taboo seem irresistibly satisfying. With Birthday Girl, they twist the older man / younger woman taboo and make it compelling, sensual, and a wonderful treat.”
—Eden Butler
TITLES BY PENELOPE DOUGLAS
The Fall Away Series
Bully
Until You
Rival
Falling Away
The Next Flame
(includes novellas Aflame and Next to Never)
Stand-Alones
Misconduct
Birthday Girl
Punk 57
Credence
Tryst Six Venom
Five Brothers
The Devil’s Night Series
Corrupt
Hideaway
Kill Switch
Conclave
(novella)
Nightfall
Fire Night
(novella)
BERKLEY ROMANCE
Published by Berkley
An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
penguinrandomhouse.com
Copyright © 2024 by Penelope Douglas LLC
Excerpt from Tryst Six Venom copyright © 2021 by Penelope Douglas LLC
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BERKLEY and the BERKLEY & B colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Douglas, Penelope, 1977- author.
Title: Five brothers / Penelope Douglas.
Other titles: 5 brothers
Description: First edition. | New York : Berkley Romance, 2024.
Identifiers: LCCN 2023052707 (print) | LCCN 2023052708 (ebook) | ISBN 9780593816578 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9780593816585 (e-book)
Subjects: LCGFT: Romance fiction. | Erotic fiction. | Novels.
Classification: LCC PS3604.O93236 F58 2024 (print) | LCC PS3604.O93236 (ebook) | DDC 813/.6—dc23/eng/20231120
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023052707
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023052708
Ebook ISBN 9780593816585
Cover design by Ashlee O’Brien / Ashes & Vellichor
Book design by George Towne, adapted for ebook by Molly Jeszke
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
pid_prh_7.0_147679593_c0_r0
CONTENTS
Dedication
Author’s Note
Dear Reader
Playlist
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Bonus Scene
Excerpt from Tryst Six Venom
About the Author
_147679593_
For 1438 Garfield Avenue
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Five Brothers is a stand-alone romance that takes place in the same world as one of my other books, Tryst Six Venom. Reading Tryst Six Venom isn’t necessary, but it would be helpful. The Jaeger brothers are featured a lot in that book.
DEAR READER,
This book deals with emotionally difficult topics, including dubious consent, mentions of domestic abuse, sexual assault, and discussions of suicide. Anyone who believes such content may upset them is encouraged to consider their well-being when choosing whether to continue reading.
PLAYLIST
“Afterlife” by Avenged Sevenfold
“Blood in the Water” by Ayron Jones
“Careless Whisper” by Seether
“Coming Down” by Five Finger Death Punch
“Happy Together” by Filter
“Heron Blue” by Sun Kil Moon
“High Enough” by Damn Yankees
“In the Woods Somewhere” by Hozier
“Raise Hell” by Brandi Carlile
“Shout” by Tears for Fears
“Shout 2000” by Disturbed
“Something in the Way” by MXMS
“Take the World” by She Wants Revenge
“Twist of Fate” by Olivia Newton-John
“Waking Up Beside You” by Stabbing Westward
“Where the River Flows” by Collective Soul
“Whispers in the Hall” by Chromatics
“Your Woman” by GYM
1
Krisjen
Don’t walk alone at night.
I grip the hem of my plaid skirt and glance behind me. The dark empty road disappears into the black void, like a tunnel under the canopy of trees. The midnight moon reflects only enough light to make the leaves look blue, while the mid-October breeze blows my hair across my cheek.
I face forward, continuing to walk. My heart pumps hard in my chest.
Don’t walk alone at night.
I don’t think my parents ever told me that, but I learned it well enough. The world is full of things that want to hurt us because they can. Because we make it easy.
Women shouldn’t have too much muscle on our bodies. We shouldn’t be too smart or learn how to manage money. We don’t need to know how to navigate a crowd, lead the way through a city or an airport, or choose the car we want to buy. Let the man drive if there’s one in the vehicle with you, and the dinner reservation should always be in his name.
Those are things my parents did tell me.
Everything in life is about power, and it wasn’t that I was taught that I didn’t have any. I learned that men would like me better if I didn’t show it.
The forest closes in on both sides of the road, and I feel figures that aren’t there. Hidden in the trees. Watching me. As if danger can tell when we’re unprotected and show up at that exact time and place. Summer camp serial killers always know when a girl has traipsed off away from her group, don’t they? No matter where the summer camp is. Even if he’s in a different one.
But instead of being afraid, I look up, the semi-clear night offering a spray of stars so bright that I’m glad I’m out alone, after all. Deep on this dark road, away from the lights of town.
I clench my school skirt in my fists as the soft fabric of my shirt sticks to my damp skin. My breasts chafe against the cloth.
Jupiter will be visible in a few months. I forget what’s visible this time of year, but it’s nice to see anything. Coastal Florida towns in hurricane season aren’t a joke. The clouds always roll in.
I don’t hear the engine behind me.
“Need a ride?” someone calls out.
I jerk my head, my heart skipping a beat. I look over, meeting green eyes that peer at me from the driver’s side of his truck. I move off the road, to the gravel, as his vehicle crawls up next to me.
His arm drapes over the door, and he’s not wearing a shirt, every inch of skin that’s bared on his chest, neck, and muscles tan.
He works outside. And often shirtless from the looks of it, because there are no lines.
A boy from across the tracks.
His black hair is pushed back under a backward baseball cap, and his eyes gleam in that way that I know by now. Men have been looking at me like that since long before they should have.
I swallow. “No, thank you.”
I continue walking, waiting for him to press the gas and keep going, but he doesn’t. The muscles in my thighs tense, ready to run. I move farther and farther away, feeling his eyes on my back.
“You know what you need?” he says, and I see his truck come up again out of the corner of my eye. “A girl like you should have a boyfriend.”
A lock of my chestnut hair floats on the wind and then falls back against my face. I squeeze my skirt again, the tails of my white shirt hanging almost as low as my hem.
“Someone to take care of you and drive you,” he says. “Would you like a man?”
His words climb my skin. I look ahead of me, down the road. More dark. More empty. No one knows I’m out here.
“Come here,” he says, almost a whisper.
My mouth goes dry.
He’s not asking.
I hear his door creak open, and I stop, slowly turning and watching him jump out of the cab.
Run.
Leaving his door open, he drops his chin, slowly approaching me as if I were a dog he needs to leash before I get away.
Run, I tell myself.
I take a step back, but he reaches out and catches the lock of hair hanging down my cheek.
He doesn’t look at it, though. He looks in my eyes.
He’s young. Not much older than me, but definitely taller. Broader.
Too close.
I spin around, but before I can take the first step away, he’s grabbing me and hauling me back against his chest. I gasp, feeling one of his hands cover my breast and the other one slide down between my legs.
He exhales in my ear, stroking the slit beneath my underwear. “Oh God, you got something good, don’t you?”
He moans.
I squirm, whimpering, “No…”
He reaches inside my panties, stroking me as he sucks in air between his teeth. “Get in the truck.” He spins me around and releases me, but he pushes me toward his car before I can run. “I’m your man now, honey,” he growls.
I look side to side as he shoves me, his open door blocking my escape to my left and him blocking me on my right. I scramble into the truck, flipping over and crawling backward as far as possible to the other side until my back hits the door.
I grab the handle behind me, but the locks click just before I yank. I pull up and down, trying to get out, but his eyes are on me as he climbs in and slams the door. I can’t move. I clench my thighs.
His gaze travels down my body to my legs and everything he can see with my skirt hiked up. I pull it down.
“Goddamn,” he murmurs, his tongue moving inside his mouth.
He kicks the truck into Drive and hits the gas.
“Where are you taking me?”
“Somewhere I can pay my new girlfriend a little attention,” he replies.
His eyes dance as he watches the road, a trickle of sweat streaming down his chest. I watch it glide over every ripple in his abs.
His dark hair is blacker near his ear where the sweat has matted it, and I watch him bite his bottom lip as he stares ahead. Smooth, young neck. Every muscle flexed as he holds his arm out straight and fists the steering wheel. No tattoos. Just a scar on his eyebrow—a small slit where the hair no longer grows.
I dig my nails into the seat behind me.
I should try harder to get away. Hit him. Kick him.
He pulls off the road, down a gravel path, and then takes a sharp left into a small lot surrounded by woods. It’s where people come to play with their ATVs. The woods are filled with trails.
But the lot is abandoned at night.
It’s just us.
He parks and shuts off the engine, the cab turning nearly pitch black.
I feel hands grip my ankles, and I’m yanked down the seat as he kneels between my legs and hovers over me.
“I want to go home,” I say.
He doesn’t reply.
Reaching under my skirt, he peels my panties down my legs and over my shoes, staring at my naked skin. “Oh God, you are a pretty little bitch.”
Pushing up my shirt, he comes down, sucking one of my nipples into his mouth as he strokes me between the legs with one of his hands.
“Mmm,” he groans.
I grip his wrist under my skirt with both hands, trying to take his hand out from between my legs, but his muscles flex underneath my fingers, holding tight. Flicking my nipple with his tongue, he moves to the other breast, and I shove at his chest, whimpering, but he pays me no mind as he takes his pleasure.
Like he doesn’t see me.
Like I’m just here for fun.
He pinches my nipple between his teeth, and a shock shoots through my stomach to down between my thighs. I release him and drag my fingers up my stomach to the waist of my skirt.
“Yeah, your wet little cunt is ready for me, isn’t it?” he coos.
Yeah, baby.
I clutch the hilt of the knife hidden in my skirt and raise my arm, pressing the blade to his neck.
He stops.
I feel my smile in my fucking throat.
His hot breath hits faster against my skin as he hovers over my breast, and I lift my head, feeling like I’m floating as I get into his face.
“Get off me.”
God, how he just stopped. That was awesome.
I could do whatever I wanted to him right now.
Slowly, he sits back in his seat, and I follow, keeping the blade at his neck as I slide my leg over his thighs.
Straddling him, I settle in his lap. “Put your hands on the roof,” I order.
He raises his arms, still barely breathing as he places his palms above his head.
The steering wheel presses into my back, and I lean into him, the hard flesh of my nipples pressing through my shirt, against his warm chest.
He holds his breath as I slip my free hand down, digging in his pocket. I pull out a few folded bills and hold them up, smiling a little before dropping them inside my shirt pocket.
I press the blade harder. “Hands behind your head.”
He pierces me with his stare but does what he’s told.
I could probably escape right now. He might not grab for me. Or try to take away my weapon. A guy like him—good-looking and used to having whoever he wants—probably thinks I’m not worth any more trouble.
I could leave.
But I don’t.
I shift, rolling so slowly over the bulge in his jeans and sliding my hand up his chest.
“On second thought,” I taunt, rising to my knees so the breast poking through my shirt is level with his mouth. “You are built for fun, aren’t you?”
I press myself into his mouth, and he seizes the invitation, nuzzling my collared shirt off my shoulder, baring a breast. He sucks it into his mouth. His hot tongue nibbles and teases so soft, and I grip the back of his neck, holding him to me to make sure he doesn’t stop.
I come down, kissing his mouth and whispering against his lips, “Open your jeans and take it out.”
I roll my hips into him, panting and groaning as he rips at his belt and unfastens his fly.
He tries to take my hips, but I dig the blade into his neck. “Don’t touch me.”
He pulls away, and I attack his mouth, feeling the hard, hot flesh of his cock brush against my clit.
