If I Were Yours

IF I WERE YOURS Not Yours Trilogy Book 2 ELLA JACOBS IF I WERE YOURS Copyright © 2023 by Ella Jacobs. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotations in reviews. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. Edited by Lawrence Editing http://www.ellajacobs.com ISBN 978-87-974182-2-2 SHA-256 hash: eff8c6be56491aeb046e5218c22a6ffdf56fe74f7432cefd2d3c399022fea41b CONTENTS Title page PROLOGUE 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 CHAPTER 35 CHAPTER 36 CHAPTER 37 CHAPTER 38 CHAPTER 39 CHAPTER 40 ABOUT ELLA JACOBS — PROLOGUE — MARKUS “She’s already sleeping,” Grigory says when he returns ten minutes after having carried Clara to bed. “Well, that was quick. It usually takes her half an hour. At least. Even when she’s exhausted.” I badly wanted to tuck her in myself, but Clara needed Grigory. She was crying in his arms when we finished talking, and after she’d just gotten him back, it would be cruel to take her away from him. So I let him do it. Grigory wears a grave expression as he sinks onto the couch. “She must have had many sleepless nights lately.” He sighs as he stares into the distance, then turns his gaze to me. “I’m sorry about that.” It’s a rare thing to hear Grigory apologize, but he also rarely fucks up the way he’s done this summer. I considered breaking off this threesome dynamic several times, but whenever I confronted him, he came back around, giving me hope that it might work after all. And with the way their bond quickly deepened, I wanted to keep hoping. “You’d better not back out all of a sudden this time.” He gives me a sincere expression that conveys his determination. “I won’t.” There’s a small sliver of uncertainty somewhere in the back of my mind—a worry that this is a bad idea. That he’ll hurt her again. But Grigory is not one to change his mind when he has made a decision. He’s committed to a fault, really. Once he’s in, he doesn’t back down until everything crumbles around him. In his professional life, things never get — CHAPTER 1 — CLARA I feel like a zombie when Markus all but drags me out of bed at four in the morning. I barely remember half the things that happened last night. Only the gist of it: Grigory coming to explain his volatile behavior throughout the summer and asking me if I’d like for him to go home with me today. It’s too much to cope with for my sleepy head, so I let it hover in the background and focus on gathering the things I didn’t pack last night and getting dressed. When we’re in the car half an hour later, I’m still barely sentient. I guess that’s what several days of sleep deprivation and weeks of unending emotional turmoil will do. I pull down the visor and slam it back up. Not only do I feel like a zombie, I look the part too. My eyes are red and puffy, my skin pale, and my ponytail looks like the workings of a five-year-old playing dress-up. I could really use some makeup and a brush to fix my hair, but it’s all stuffed away in my luggage, and I’m too tired to truly care. So I lean my head back and close my eyes, forgetting about my weary appearance as the hum of the engine lulls me back to sleep. Once again, Markus rouses me from my much-needed rest too soon as we arrive at the airport and he urges me out of the car. Tucking me under one arm, he takes my suitcase in the other and leads me through the terminal to