Between Commitment and Betrayal (Hardy Billionaire Brothers, #1)(39)

I tensed every muscle to raise my chin to the metal. Slowly. Efficiently.

“One,” he counted. Or taunted. I wasn’t sure which. Every time I hit another, he said it without praise, without encouragement.

I pushed harder.

“Eight, Everly.” My body weight was getting the best of me as my arms shook halfway through this one. He stepped close and murmured in my ear, “Can you commit, Drop?”

I glared at him as his sea-green eyes narrowed before he raised one arm up and suddenly, I felt the inside of his fist wrap around the bar against the outside of mine.

Then his chest was against my back, his other palm gripping the bar next to mine as he hopped up, caging me in.

Our bodies pressed against one another’s as he crisscrossed his calves under my shins and lifted.

My body weight was gone.

The shake in my muscle gone.

The strain of hitting number nine in my reps gone.

“Nine, Drop,” he whispered against my neck, and my whole body shook for another reason.

I watched as he pulled me up and then lowered me down again. “Ten.”

I bit my lip as his tongue dragged across my neck, then his teeth latched onto to my ear, and I gasped at the same time I felt his cock hardening against my ass.

“Should we keep going?” he questioned. “Or did we commit well enough for you?”

Commitment.

That stupid word. The way we flirted with disaster and how I knew my heart couldn’t handle it had me dropping off the bar fast. He dropped with me, like his body knew mine already, like they worked in sync together even if our minds didn’t.

“There’s no commitment in cheating the system,” I murmured to him, breathless. “I don’t even need a spot for pull-ups. You shouldn’t have helped.”

“Haven’t you been cheating your whole workout?” He lifted a brow at me in the mirror, my back still against his chest. When he pulled me closer and wrapped his arm around me, my hands immediately went to his forearm to hold on as he said into my neck, “Men everywhere spotting you at every turn.”

“They’re being nice, Declan.”

“They can’t take their eyes off you.” His hand curled around my waist and slipped lower and lower as he shook his head. “I know I can’t. I’ve fucked you and called you my wife.”

His skin against my skin, the way he murmured the words, how his voice vibrated down into my bones had me dizzy. I wasn’t in control.

“I’m not … I’m not wife material, Declan. I wasn’t kidding when I told Wes I can’t be exclusive, that I can’t even imagine being in a relationship.” How could I tell him Andy had broken me?

“We’re already married.” He said it decisively, like there was no room for argument, like I shouldn’t be even questioning it. Then, he walked us both backward until he reached the lat pull-down machine. Each side had a bar that was just within my reach, and he wasted no time grabbing the band we’d been using for his rehab to wrap my wrists tight before threading the elastic right next to the bracelets I had on like an Eagle Scout demonstrating how to tie knots. Before I even realized that he’d restrained me, my hands were above my head, attached to the bar, and every time I pulled, the weight from the machine restrained me.

Declan smiled at his handiwork. “What can you pull, babe?”

“Seriously?”

“Fine.” He shrugged and pulled the peg out only to shove it into the three-hundred-pound weight.

Shit. The adrenaline running through my veins should have been an indicator to stop but with him, my body didn’t want to.

“Safe word, Drop?” He asked before he took, asked before he pushed the boundary.

It was the reason I didn’t even hesitate, that I knew I could trust him more than I had others before. “Gardenia.”

“Why?”

“I hate the smell of them.”

He halted his motion for a second. “They’re all around the guesthouse.”

I shrugged. “I know. I understand the appeal. They used to be a favorite.” I didn’t elaborate. The smell of them haunted my soul. They were what Andy had gotten for me once.

“Okay,” Declan murmured and dragged a finger across my jaw, soft, soothing, and as light as a single drop of rain on my skin. “Trust me?”

It was just two words, but my whole heart wanted to desperately, and as the air left my lungs, I gave in to whatever this was between us for the moment. I nodded once, and he moved like he always did, without hesitation and without restraint.

He stepped back, the green in his eyes more vivid, full of life, hunger, and control. He knew he had the power now, every part of me hanging there at his will. He walked around me once. “I shouldn’t want to punish you for the attention they all give you, Drop. But I really do.”

I shivered at his confession. “Do it,” I whispered out.

“She commands me like she has a say. Don’t you know you’re at my mercy, Drop? And I have one goal here tonight.”

“What?” I couldn’t stop myself from asking. I tried my best to keep my eyes on him as he circled me again, his stride long, his muscles moving fluidly as he tilted his head to crack his neck as if readying himself for whatever he was about to do.

“Next time you step inside my gym, you’re going to remember most everything in it belongs to me …” He stood behind me, so we looked at each other in the reflection of the mirror again. “Including you.”