Between Commitment and Betrayal (Hardy Billionaire Brothers, #1)

by Shain Rose

For my lovers and friends… because even though they’re as bad as me, they take my shit like the good girls they are.

“I don’t even like you,” she breathed. I chuckled. “Oh, but your pussy loves me.” She gasped at my words, but I kept going. “It’s begging for me, babe. And you don’t really know me. I could make you like me.”

“Why worry about a past you can’t change?

“Rainwater can be dangerous. It can flood … take a life, wash away cars, it can move mountains. A raindrop is small but together, with others, they’re a force.”

Give me every one of those screams and come for me. The world is going to know you’re my wife even if you don’t want them to.”

“Changes can save you, but they can also destroy you.”

“You can miss the idea of him, baby girl. You have to give yourself grace to miss and to hurt, even though you didn’t know what the future held. Maybe you miss your hopes. That’s real and you shouldn’t discount it, okay?”

People are vulnerable when they’re tired.

“Everly, my wife gets what she wants, and if I don’t know what that is, I just get everything.”

And I saw why athletes throughout my gym gravitated toward her. She didn’t care about their job nor their status, just about helping them move forward and heal.

Mourning someone even when they weren’t the best human on the planet was confusing. You mourned them for what they could have been, not what they were.

My whole body careened over the edge, spiraling down into my first orgasm as I screamed his name, all my self-control completely lost. I was losing everything when it came to him. Losing my mind, for sure. And then his praise came next. That’s when I knew I was about to lose my heart to him too.

“Love when you beg, baby.” I worked her pussy faster and brushed my thumb over her clit. “It won’t get you what you want, but I still have to tell you.”

it was a new type of sanctuary. I’d found a new religion, a new mantra. Everly Belafonte, my raindrop, restrained in gym equipment. I’d kneel and praise her any way I knew how.

Submitting was her kink and telling her what to do was mine. Everly thought she liked control and hated change, but I was about to turn that upside down.

I needed her to want me just as much as I wanted her. I hadn’t wanted anything so bad in a long damn time. It made her dangerous and a challenge, but that made her mine all the same. I’d never backed away from that. Even if I wasn’t sure how to keep her yet.

“Why would I? People pay millions to have masterpieces in their homes, to stare at them displayed for their eyes only. You naked in front of me is a masterpiece, and I don’t intend to ever miss an opportunity to stare, babe.”

When someone cares for you, your pain is their pain.

“I’m still me, Declan,”

“But, baby, you’re so much more. Don’t you get it? You’re the drive to keep going when someone took everything from you. You’re the will to survive when most of us would have given up by now. You’re all the raindrops in a tsunami of courage and strength.”