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

by Shain Rose

My body never reacted in fear the way it should have with him, it got stupid butterflies in my gut instead. I figured everyone got those, though.

My off-limits boss I hated and wanted all at the same time.

She held my gaze now with a mix of determination and what I think mirrored my lust. I was hooked. Trapped. Captured by the way she bit her bottom lip waiting for my answer.

“It feels like I have my business partner’s daughter sitting in front of me, riling me up, driving me near madness, and still my adrenaline is pumping, my cock is rock solid, and I’m scrambling to find any reason I shouldn’t be tasting those lips. Why I shouldn’t demand that you come sit on my lap for a minute.”

“I’m starting to think you’d like me taking control, Everly. There’s a reason I’m the boss, right? A reason you got in the car willingly?”

“I think we could both enjoy me controlling you for a night.”

She finally says my name … But the question is whether you’re using it to get me to stop or keep going.”

This was a woman I didn’t want to fuck and duck nor would it be a good business decision. My mind swirled with the consequences. I needed to make it right.

I was asking her to hand over control. Asking for permission before I took.

“I’m doing this one time.” She said it like we needed a damn reminder. “Take over, Declan. And don’t make me regret it.” “She commands before she hands over control.”

“I think I’m going to have a hard time only wanting you this once, Everly.”

Her losing control for me the way I’d been fantasizing about since the first time I met her had me murmuring my next command, “Come back to my place.”

I’d appreciate bending her over my knee and spanking her ass for defying me every chance she got.

“We’re at work. My father’s gym. Your gym. I’m barely a part of this community. I don’t want to make waves by sleeping with the king of it. Especially when the king is friends with my father.”

It was just a matter of time before I figured out if we could ignore the pull of being wrong.

“So fucking beautiful when you let go and let me give you what you really want.”

“You don’t hesitate when I tell you to do something, Everly. Now, open.”

How would I stop enjoying my wife, enjoying this? I wouldn’t, and it was about to make this arrangement very messy.

Because I wanted a next time. I was going to die trying for a next time.

“Sort of shocking you know that considering you never used to say hi to me or notice me the mornings I work.” He leaned against the doorframe, “I’ve always noticed you, Drop, no matter how damn hard I try not to.”

“You know in a marriage, the spouse comes first. Technically, my wife comes first. You have something you need to discuss, I’ll push a meeting.”

“I wasn’t joking. You are my wife.” She was also the person I wanted to talk to in that moment more than anyone else. I was going to give her my attention whether she wanted it or not.

Finding that I wanted to make my fake wife happy was a damn problem. Because the rest of the day, I walked around like a dumbass with a bright smile on my face.

I was going to pry one day, step over the boundaries and break the rules where I could with her. I already knew it.

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.

I couldn’t stop praising her, couldn’t get a grip on myself tumbling off the cliff into wanting her for myself.

“Good girl … good fucking girl. So good. See how you ride out that orgasm like you can’t live without it,” I breathed out, lips against her ear, and she bit her lip. I rubbed a hand over her breast, across her pebbled nipple, to watch how her skin quivered. “Look in that mirror. My wife looks beautiful after I play with her pussy, doesn’t she?”

“Do you make the rules here?” She knew better. I’d smacked her ass for that very reason last time. “Or is it that you want me to punish you tonight too, Drop?”

Everly Belafonte, my raindrop, restrained in gym equipment. I’d kneel and praise her any way I knew how.

“I think I’m going to want to own and control every part of you, babe.”

I don’t like change or losing control.” “You love losing it with me. I’ll teach you how much you can love letting go with me, baby.”

“Drop, you know better than to question the man who controls you. Now, open your mouth.”

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.

“And my job is to remind you that I own this gym, that I see everything in it, and that I know when men are eyeing up my wife.”

“It’s not convenient to watch men stare at your ass when all I want to do is redden it, Drop. It’s not convenient to picture fucking you on the bench press all day either. Yet, here we are.” I pushed her chest further onto the bench, then grabbed her hair to pull her close as I leaned in. “Is this convenient for you?” I wanted her composure gone again, her reasoning out the window.

Didn’t she realize I was learning her limits here? That I was going to be the one to make the rules, tell her what boundaries she could cross, and what ones she couldn’t. She was going to learn to let go of that control from now on. I was taking over. “I know your safe word, and you haven’t used it. That means I tell you the line, baby. You’ll take another orgasm. And you’ll enjoy it.”

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.

He didn’t stop soaping me up though. He was meticulous and thorough with his hands and fingers as he made sure to rub every single part of my body clean, even kneeling in front of me to rub my feet and calves. “I’m taking care of you now, Everly. It’s what I’m going to do when we’re together, always.”

“Give me one more, baby.” He wrapped my thigh around his shoulder. “Just one more. I love hearing you panting in the locker room.”

“You did so good tonight, babe,” he murmured. “So fucking good. You know that, right?” I took his praise like a fiend who’d never heard nice things before.

Declan spent obsessive amounts of time drying me off before rubbing lotion he’d retrieved from his locker on me, making sure to knead my cheeks with care.

“We’re going to be more than a friendly commitment, Everly. You can’t avoid that now. This relationship is changing.”

Business Declan was hot, but Casual Declan was divine.

“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.”

He demanded, but he also offered praise, a safe word, and a way out if I wanted it.

“Just let me take care of you today. Let me handle the anxiety, Drop. Let me praise or punish you for listening or not today, huh?” My throat moved under his grip. “I think maybe someone broke your trust. I’m earning it back now, though. I get my chance. So, today, I’m taking control, and you’re not going to think about it at all. You’re going to listen. Got it?”

<3

“I’m taking care of you now. I told you not to worry.”

“You realize that for the past couple days, I haven’t had a thought without you in it. My mind doesn’t work without you in it. My dreams, my nightmares, my subconscious, my conscious … none of them operate lately without you.”

“Is it bad that every day I’m with you, every part of me is learning that it doesn’t want to be without you either?” I took a shaky breath. “It is bad because we’ll have to be without one another soon enough, Declan. You know this. And what would you have me do?” I whispered,

“Hold the headboard baby.”