Between Commitment and Betrayal (Hardy Billionaire Brothers, #1)(58)

My throat was closing, tears sprang to my eyes, and my heart felt like it wanted to leap out of my chest into Declan’s hands. I’d have to hope he’d hold it carefully, and I hated that I’d started to believe it too.

Yet, I’d be opening myself up to everyone and it wasn’t something I was willing to do.

“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, “Go and frustrate your PR manager so she doesn’t want to help us at all?”

A guttural sound came from deep within his throat, and I saw his turmoil as he dragged a hand over his face. “I should just fire her and get somebody new.”

“I don’t think we have time for that. Plus, you said she’s good at her job. She just has to keep the story the same. We’re married,” I said but air quoted the word married.

He narrowed his eyes. It only took him walking past me to grab a towel and press a button on his watch that dimmed the door’s window for me to remember all the things we’d done in the walls of this gym mere nights before. When he turned and grasped the back of my neck to pull me close and drag the towel across my collarbone, I bit my lip to keep from moaning. “Yes, we’re married. Completely committed to one another right?”

“Well,” I hesitated, feeling the fire in his eyes. “We’re committed to a marriage of convenience.”

He leaned in close so that I felt the scruff of his five-o’clock shadow against my cheek. “We may be committed to a certain timeline with this marriage, but I’m also committed to punching my clients in the face after they stare at you doing yoga in front of them. Should we add that in, Everly?”

No answer was needed from me as his grip tightened and he rubbed more sweat from my chest, then my cleavage. We both knew the answer, and yet my breathing became rapid, and my nipples pebbled as I stood in front of him. Hoping. Wanting. Aching for him.

A shift in his hold on the back of my neck and his hand was threading through the waves of my hair, urging me to arch into him so he could tilt my face up and descend on my lips. Declan’s kiss was possessive, animalistic, and full of control.

He wanted it all now, and I was seeing what made him a world-class athlete and thriving businessman. He dominated and plowed through all my reservations and boundaries. He obliterated my hesitation with the pleasure he delivered with how his hands held my hair tightly, his tongue roved around in my mouth, his lips owned mine.

I folded into him, whimpering and clinging. I took because I knew we wouldn’t be able to soon, that this marriage and our secret was about to become a colossal misstep. With that thought, I pushed him away and held my mouth, breathing hard as I closed my eyes, trying my best not to indulge any further. It wasn’t realistic, I told myself. “We can’t do this. You’re having a pissing contest with these men because you slept with me, Declan. And for what? Nothing between us would ever actually work.” He glared at me. “Declan, get real. I’m the girl who you thought was a burden without any experience a few months ago. You essentially told my father you didn’t want to babysit me and that I was ruining your sanctuary.”

“And you were.” He nodded, still letting his gaze run up and down my body like he might be picturing me naked.

“Exactly. And my past can ruin your reputation in the press.”

“I don’t care about the press.”

“Well, I do.” I tried to keep going. “And we’re from different lifestyles. We’d never be compatible.”

“You feel pretty compatible when you’re screaming my name.”

“You’re on another level right now, you know that?” I shook my head at him. “Let’s just focus on the original plan. We’re together and married if the press asks. For those close to us, we can tell them it’s a marriage of convenience.”

He stared at me as I paused. I wasn’t sure why I did. Maybe I wanted him to demand that this marriage was more than that, that we could be more than that. But he only asked, “Is that what you want?”

I took a deep breath, trying to hold onto my logic rather than following a silly little hope dancing around in my head. “Yes, it’s the smart thing to do. You can talk with Anastasia and Piper and see how they want to run with it. I’ll let Wes know.”

“So, he’s that close to you?”

“He deserves an explanation, Declan. I trust he’ll be discreet with the information. And as for the public, I don’t think they need to know anything else.”

He hummed, those eyes searching me for answers he wouldn’t find. I was closing the box and locking it before the media came looking for bread crumbs.

I moved toward the door and opened it. “It’ll be good for us, Declan. This is the plan.”

For another ten seconds, he stood there, a pillar of vibrating emotion, and I wasn’t sure what would erupt. “Be home at a reasonable time, Everly, or I’m coming to find you.” Then, he walked past me out the door and held up three fingers. “Three times now you’ve opened the door instead of me.”

Why did him counting like that send shivers down my spine?