Between Commitment and Betrayal: An Arranged Marriage Romance

“ARE you out of your fucking mind letting a man touch you that way?” I fumed when I slammed the door to my office upstairs.

“Are you out of your mind calling me a Hardy when I’m not and acting the way you just did over a standard sparring in the ring?” she threw back, and her chastising tone could have brought a weaker man to his death. Truly. She wanted me in hell, and I felt like I was. The fact that I had to tell Anastasia to stop following me on the way to grab my brother off my wife was enough in and of itself to piss me right the fuck off.

Anastasia and her mother were pushing me way too far for the damn studio. They knew they were getting something that held a value to me above all else because they knew I loved Everly. Anastasia and Melinda had both sneered at me, asking if I really would do all this for a woman, if she was really worth it. I’d answered yes without hesitation, and Anastasia smiled like she had me by the balls. They agreed to me buying the studio that Everly held dear for an extravagant amount as long as Anastasia was seen a few times with the cameras following us around. She wanted to go to dinner a few times to discuss it. She wanted this, she wanted that.

I wanted to rage, though, seeing Everly’s face.

I couldn’t tell her what I was doing. She’d fight me on it, say she’d help figure out a way to do it herself. She didn’t want anything given to her for free, didn’t want anyone to struggle for her. I saw it in how she’d never driven my cars, how she never took money from Carl, how she didn’t ever ask me to get that yoga studio for her.

Yet, it’s the one thing I would do. I didn’t care about the shares of the empire. I’d figure that out later. First, I was appeasing Anastasia so that Everly could have the one thing that meant something to her from the very beginning. I was getting rid of the inheritance hanging over our head, and then I was going to ask her on a damn date for real. I was going to make sure she knew I loved her for real.

We were going to start completely over.

I hated that I had to make her think I didn’t love her, but it was the only way we’d get through it. I couldn’t make her have a baby with me now, not when she’d wanted one in a completely different way.

Seeing her think we wouldn’t be together, that we wouldn’t be trying after this inheritance went through probate, though, was driving me insane, driving me to madness.

Then, I’d actually come to blows with my brother over him wrestling her to the ground like she was a damn rag doll. Hadn’t he read the papers? “Men shouldn’t be putting their hands on you that way.”

“You used to put your hands on me like that all the time, Declan. We sparred in the ring before and, well, we’ve sparred while we screwed too,” she shot back and then proceeded to pace back and forth in front of the window overlooking the oceanside. “Just because we aren’t doing that anymore, doesn’t mean I can’t do it with someone else.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

She stopped and turned to me, her eyes full of blue fury, her body vibrating with a tension I’d never seen from her. “You think I give a shit about a rough-and-tumble? I enjoy it. I enjoy knowing I can hold my own in the ring, that there are people out there I trust enough to step in it with me. And as for you and me, it means I fucking loved screwing around with you.” She closed her eyes like she was in pain before opening them again. “But we won’t have that anymore, just like we won’t have anything anymore. So I’ll have to find it with someone else now.”

Didn’t she understand we couldn’t move on from one another that easily?

I don’t know if she meant to taunt me, to remind me that another man could have her—that another man would have her if I didn’t figure out the will—but it drove me insane. I was already wound tight enough to snap, but it happened to be her that snipped the small thread holding me together.

“What the hell did you just say?” I growled as I stepped toward her.

She didn’t back up. She pointed her finger at me in fury. “You aren’t the man I’ll do it with anymore, but you can bet your ass that I will do it with someone else once I’m out of here.” Then she spun around and went to the computer on my desk. She typed with purpose and then my printer jolted to life. Before my eyes, her letter of resignation appeared. “Here’s your written notice. One month.”

When I didn’t take it right away, she shoved it into my chest and then grabbed my wrist to slam it there too. She was walking out the door before I realized I was losing her. I was losing everything I wanted.

I grabbed her elbow and tapped my watch before swiping it over the FOB area next to the door. With a click of a button, I shut down the room’s cameras and locked the door. Then I spun her to face me. “You’re not done with me.”

“Aren’t I?” She lifted a brow.

Everly wanted a fight. I felt it. She’d embraced her anger and was ready to throw it at me like a fucking fireball. “You don’t get to be done with me for at least another month.” I slammed the contract down on the desk and then shoved her in front of it. “See, you just typed out one month.”

“Working for you means nothing.”

“It means everything because I can’t live without you. I’m so far in love with you that I can’t see straight. You know I go to bed touching this?” I held up my hand and pointed to the string on my ring finger. “And I wake up, still touching it like it can bring me closer to you. I’ve suffered days with seeing the hurt in your eyes and wanting to make it better, with seeing you pulling away, and wanting to pull you back. I. Love. You.” I ground out.

She stood in front of me, her eyes wide with shock first but I saw how her whole body clenched up with my last declaration. “You can’t fucking say that to me,” she whispered, her teeth clenched together like she was trying to hold onto her anger. After another blink, she bellowed, “You don’t get to say that to me!”

She flew up to me, holding nothing back and I felt her emotion unleash in the room, like her heart was shattering as she pounded her fists into my chest furiously. I let her, let her get her hate for me out because I wanted to feel her pain too.

I deserved it.

Then, I pulled her close, hungry for the scent of her coconut shampoo and the feel of her body close to me. “I fucking love you, Raindrop. I do.”

“Well, you can’t. You literally can’t after what you’ve done. You’ve left me for someone else.” She shook her head back and forth, her chin trembling. “I can’t love you now.”

“You don’t mean that,” I shot back. She couldn’t get over me that quickly even if she believed that I was catering to Anastasia, that I was trying to do something more with her. Right? My heart lurched at the thought.

I was appeasing Anastasia by being seen with her only to confirm that I would get the yoga studio, only to confirm Anastasia and her mother would let me buy it out. We’d discussed it over dinners, gone round and round about what they wanted. It was a shit show I knew was going to happen.

I knew Everly would believe it too, knew I’d be slicing at her spirit with a blunt knife.

It wasn’t at all true. I hadn’t even contemplated it. I’d never have a baby with anyone except the woman I loved. Yet, this was the only way to get her mother’s studio, to make sure she wouldn’t intervene, to make it all right even if it felt wrong for a moment.

I needed her to keep her distance for now but I’d lost control. Lost my sanity in that moment. And even still, the sanity was slipping again as she shrugged like I didn’t mean a thing to her.

So I acted out. I stepped forward and yanked them straight down her legs to prove a point. She gasped when I ripped her panties from her too.

Then I shoved her toward the desk and she went, bending over it willingly but she threw out words of hate too. “I might want you to fuck me, Declan. I might need some closure, but I’m still not yours, and we’re still done.”

“No,” I announced loud with conviction. I pointed to the notice she’d given me on the table. “You just typed out I own you for one month until you leave. Reread whatever you wrote, Everly. If you want, I’ll have our divorce papers delivered too. Better yet, here’s my phone.” I threw it on the desk in front of her. “Call the lawyer if you want.”

I started to work her pussy, and she whimpered. It was proof I ruled us here, that I wasn’t letting her go that easily.

I didn’t wait to thrust my cock in this time either. I pulled my gym shorts down and fucked her hard—no restraint, no hesitation. This was me with her the way she wanted it. My grip was bruising, and her nails digging into the wood would leave marks.

I didn’t care. I pulled her dark hair every time I thrust in and out, in and out. “This. Pussy. This Heart. They. Are. Mine. No piece of paper is going to change that. Not after a day. Not after a month.”

“They’re not,” she breathed out. She probably thought I wouldn’t hear, but I saw red.

My thrusts became erratic as my hands flew over her body, touching her everywhere, like I couldn’t get enough of her. I squeezed her tits and smacked her ass. “How many times now haven’t you listened?” I asked her.

She cried out that she didn’t know. Surely she assumed we’d both lost count.

“Twenty-one,” I said. “Twenty-one times you haven’t listened, haven’t let me open the door for you, haven’t let me take care of you.”

“You can’t be seriou—” I smacked her ass hard. And then thrust in.

The loud sound accompanied by her moaning echoed around us again, and I pulled my cock out, letting my piercing ghost over her clit. “Remember your safe word, baby?”

She nodded, biting her lip, but I knew she wouldn’t use it. She wanted this, needed it as much as I did.

Pain. Pleasure. Pain-pleasure.

Like a yo-yo being played with in the most delicious way, she cried out and then moaned every time I slapped her ass cheek and then gave her my cock, getting higher and higher, closer and closer to an orgasm.

“Please,” she murmured, and I laughed but there was no joy in it. It was tortured. I was lost in the hell of wanting to do the right thing and knowing I couldn’t. I couldn’t stop even if I wanted to.

“Use your safe word,” I commanded because, fuck, I had to stop myself.

“No,” she said loudly, full of defiance, knowing it would push me further over the edge.

“Drop, I’ll fuck you so rough you’ll have a hard time sitting comfortably tomorrow. That what you want?”

“It’s what I’m begging you for,” she whispered out. And then she moaned, “Please.”

“Jesus, why do you have to be so damn good? Always my good girl begging me when you know I can’t resist.” I growled and smacked her ass again, her skin turning that pink color I loved just for me. “I can’t fucking quit you even when I try. You’ve broken me like I’ve broken you. I need you. Need you at breakfast, at dinner, here, everywhere. I can’t fucking breathe without you, will never be able to live without you. and I should know how. I have to learn how to let you go. I can’t have you and her.”

Tears streamed down her cheeks as I landed fifteen smacks to her lush ass. I watched how her skin reddened more and more, and how my cock glistened more and more with each thrust too. Her arousal dripped down her thighs, her pussy took every bit of my dick like it was made just for me and her moans became hoarse. One the last smack, I pulled out of her fully just so I could tease her sensitive skin with my fingers. “You’re. My. Wife. Everly. Do you understand?”

“I do. I do. I do,” she whispered again and again, and I knew she was coming. I felt her pussy throbbing, pulsing, and then clenching as I slid a finger in her and curled it into her G-spot.

“Good girl.” I dragged it out, letting her ride my hand through her orgasm before I positioned my cock at her entrance again. “You feel me here, baby?”

“Declan …”

I brushed a thumb over her bundle of nerves and she gasped as I said, “You’re quivering for me right now, Drop. This clit needs me to rub it, huh?”

She didn’t answer even as I pushed the tip of my cock in her and she tried to rock back to take all of it.

“You don’t get my cock until you say it, baby. Tell me you want me to rub that sweet clit. Tell me you want this, that you’re still mine.”

She shook her head and bit her lip, but her hips rolled against me, her tender skin warm against mine even as she said, “I’m not yours anymore.”

Her words made me lose my mind. I wanted to fuck her so hard she’d remember who she belongs to, who I belong to too. “You’re my wife. I’m your husband. You’re mine. I’m yours, Drop. That hasn’t changed.”

I thrust into her hard and fast, wanting her to feel our connection, wanting her to love me like I loved her, wanting her to understand my cock is the only one that belongs in her. When her sex tightens around me, she whines, “I hate how much I miss this, hate that you’re right when you should be wrong.”

“That’s right.” I rear back and push into her again and again ruthlessly, viciously, with no remorse even as I make the desk quake under us. I want her to feel how we made love for days. “This pretty pussy belongs to me.”

She nods and whimpers like she can’t deny it anymore. “I’m yours.”

My grip tightened on her and I knew she’d have bruises later, but I was too scared of this being over and scared of losing her again that I couldn’t control it. “Good fucking girl. You’re mine. You’ll always be mine.”