Between Commitment and Betrayal: An Arranged Marriage Romance
Between Commitment and Betrayal: Chapter 25

I DIDN’T WAKE with a headache or aches and pains. Instead, I dreamt about his hands on me, the way he talked to me, the way he worked me out in the rain. Then, I woke with his cock between my thighs, hard as a rock, and his arm around me as he snored.

Last night he’d worked my body in a way I’d never let a man, made me beg almost at his complete mercy, and I’d loved every second.

Too much.

My pussy wanted more, wanted him, wanted his cock sheathed in me so I could coat him with my slickness. I was at just the right angle that if I rocked a little and slid my hand between my legs, I’d finish again.

I was so close. So, so, so close.

I rolled my hips and moaned his name, letting my hand glide down my body to between my legs, imagining how he’d made me orgasm the night before.

Suddenly, his hand shot out to grab my wrist. “I thought you weren’t a morning person, Everly. But you’re grinding against my cock like you are. Stealing an orgasm this early?”

I looked over my shoulder at him and confessed with no embarrassment, “I want you, Declan.”

The rumble from deep in his throat rolled through the bedroom, making my pussy clench for him even more.

Then, he thrust his cock right up in me so fast my thoughts and emotions scrambled everywhere immediately. I gasped, “Oh my G—”

“Your husband, Everly. No one else.” He cut me off, wrapping his arm around me pulling me even closer to his bare muscular chest. With only a bit of sunlight peeking into the room, the birds chirping outside, and his rock hard body against me, I was lost in our own moment. His hand slid up to my breast where he rolled the nipple between his fingers. “I’m starting to understand why people get married. I should have went to bed fucking you and should wake up with you riding my cock every damn day, Drop.”

His words made me dizzy with need and lust. I wanted him that much more as my sex clenched when he thrust his length in me again, hitting every wall of my insides. “I’m so close, Declan,” I moaned out his name and he trailed his fingers down to roll them over my clit.

He pinched it hard and then moved it back and forth. My whole body moved with it, his cock impaling me again and I screamed, the pleasure so intense I couldn’t keep myself quiet if I tried.

“That’s it, pretty girl. My wife doesn’t like a damn thing in the morning except her husband’s cock. She’ll wake up for that,” he said against my neck as he let me ride out the aftershocks of my orgasm.

I arched against him, wanting him to feel just as good as me, wanting him to feel the same release I’d just felt. Every time I was with him, I felt more and more bold, like he’d keep me safe even while I put myself at his mercy. Looking over my shoulder, I caught his gaze and blurted out exactly what I was fantasizing about. “Let me take your cock in my mouth.”

His pupils dilated, the green becoming more vivid, as his grip on my hips tightened. His hips bucked so that he buried his length even deeper as he groaned out a fuck. Then, he pulled out of me, shaking his head. “Not today, baby. Today, I’m making you love waking up early in the morning.”

With that, he dragged a finger over my slit and I shivered, my body ultra sensitive to his touch at this point. “Declan, I enjoyed waking up already. I want you to enjoy it now too.”

“You think I don’t enjoy playing with this pussy?” He smirked and then he turned me onto my stomach, lifted my hips and slid a pillow under them. “Hold the headboard baby.”

When I glanced at it, I saw the dark sleek posts were solid wood. Then I looked back at him, “Why?”

He positioned himself between my legs. “Baby, you need something to hold onto when you ride my face.”

I bit my lip at his words but saw how the tip of his dick now had precum there, how it jumped at his words too like he wanted this as bad as I did. So, I did as I was told.

And right when my hands wrapped around those posts, he yanked my hips back, so my arms were stretched, my back was straight, and my ass and pussy were on display just for him.

“Such a pretty, pretty good girl. Look at that pink pussy, dripping just for me.”

I whimpered when his hand slid up the back of my thigh slowly, like he wanted to explore every inch of me before he got to my sex. He massaged my upper thighs and then worked his way up to my ass, squeezing both cheeks and rolling them in his hands. “Declan, please.”

“Shhh, baby. Let me take care of you,” He said it like he knew what was best for me and I started to wonder if he did as he finally dragged his tongue over my clit and then my cunt, slow and deliberate, just one time before he pulled back and blew on it. It was a sensation I’d never felt before.

I gasped at the cold air hitting my wet sex, my whole body quivering with need.

He hummed. “Yes, look at that. That pussy’s dripping for me now, baby.”

After that, I heard him growl and suddenly his tongue thrust into my folds, lapping at me ravenously. Holding onto that headboard became necessary as I rolled my hips into his face, my body unhinged with need for another orgasm from him. His hands continued to massage my ass and just when I thought I couldn’t take more pleasure, he slid his thumb to my puckered hole and pushed in. I was filled with his tongue in my pussy, his thumb in my ass, and thoughts of him as more than just a contractual husband as I screamed out again, the white hot pleasure coursing through my veins.

He let me ride out the aftershocks, lapping leisurely at my arousal as he praised me here and there with, “Such a good girl, holding onto that headboard the whole time. I love the way my wife screams my name.”

I shouldn’t have enjoyed him calling me his wife, but I also shouldn’t have had him between my legs. And even still, when he hummed into my pussy and kept licking it like he wanted to work me up again, I shivered in pure animalistic need. Although I was exhausted from hitting my high, I craved his length inside me. “Declan, please. Enough. I just want you now. Please.”

I felt his lips smile against my sex as he murmured, “Don’t let go of that headboard, baby. I told you I was going to make you beg me to stop.”

I started to sit up but he pressed a hand to my lower back, holding me down and then he slid two fingers into me quick, curling them into my g-spot and pumping them up and down fast on it. Every part of me was so sensitive at this point that I cried out immediately and started riding his hand fast, my body chasing it’s own pleasure now.

“Please, please, please.” I said over and over, not sure if I was begging him to continue or to stop and fuck me.

“You begging me to stop already, Everly?” He slowed his pacing like he loved hearing me beg, like he was taunting me to beg him more. “I’m just warming you up, baby, getting you ready for cock.”

He said it as he dragged one hand to my thigh and spread them further apart as his fingers pumped inside me. I couldn’t help bouncing my hips and ass up and down to get my orgasm even as I chanted please the whole time, giving him exactly what he wanted.

He got me to unravel again and it felt like every worry at that point melted away too. I was floating in a cloud of bliss where I couldn’t be concerned about how our relationship was becoming messier and messier. Even when I felt him shift behind me and felt the cool metal of his cock piercing at my entrance, I didn’t worry one bit that I practically wanted to cry out in ecstasy at feeling my arranged husband’s length there. I just moaned, “Declan…”

He chuckled. “Ready to see how deep your pussy can take my cock?”

“Yes.” I didn’t even hesitate. “Fuck me, Declan. I want it rough,” I told him, because I was lost to him at this point, and I wanted every part of him, wanted him to be lost and want me too.

We didn’t know what was to come, but I knew I wanted to leave this memory and mark on him now.

“I tell you how rough we’re playing, Everly. Not the other way around,” he ground out as he nudged just the tip of his cock into my pussy.

“Do you though? Fuck me rough, Declan. Or can my husband not do that?” It was me using the title now, me taunting him with it.

His hands were already at my hips as he lost it, roaring out as he thrust in me so hard the headboard banged against the wall. He entered me so deep that I saw stars in another galaxy. White blazing stars that exploded in and around me all at the same time as he thrust in over and over again with a bruising grip. We both screamed as we hit our last peak, and then Declan slumped over me, breathing rapidly with his eyes closed.

“Fuck. This bedroom is never going to be the same,” he murmured as he rolled to the side of me. “Never, ever going to be the same.”

I couldn’t help but smile at that. I wanted this memory, would bottle it up for the future.

He pulled me close and kissed my neck before getting up. “What do you want for breakfast?”

His casual question, the way he smiled down at me, shattered the moment, reminding me of the day before and of how none of this actually worked. Knots tightened in my stomach. “We should probably iron out how the public is going to take our news for the next—’

My phone went off on the nightstand, and I saw that Declan had also left a glass of water for me along with my stack of folded clothing.

I mouthed a thank you as I grabbed my cell and stared at the number.

She never called. She didn’t want to communicate.

“Hello?” My voice trembled as I answered.

Declan tilted his head in question and mouthed, “Who is that?”

I waved him off and grabbed the stack of clothing to pull on. Yet, he yanked it out of my hands suddenly as if he had a second thought and walked back to his closet to throw them in there completely buck naked.

“I’m only calling because of the article. It says you’re married, Evie,” Tonya murmured, her raspy voice accusing over the phone. She had lived down the street from me growing up and had taken probably every yoga class my mom would allow her to, along with learning dance on the side with me after she’d found out I was homeschooled.

She’d been my best friend and my shadow for as long as I could remember until that night.

Now, she only called when big news came to her doorstep about me, figuratively and this time literally.

“It’s just a marriage of convenience,” I explained as Declan stared at me, leaning against the closet doorframe, every inch of him on display for me to see as he crossed his arms.

“Right. But it has pictures of movers, of him ushering you past paparazzi. Of you both driving to the gym together.”

“To be fair, I work at the gym, Tonya. It’s just us going to work at the same time.” Declan mouthed her name back to me, and I waved him away. He pursed his lips but seemed to figure out I needed space as he pushed off the doorframe and walked out of the room. “Carl wanted us married but it isn’t real.”

Even saying those words now felt wrong because I couldn’t see what was real or fake anymore between Declan and me.

“But why?” she whispered. It was something no one had really asked me, like they all thought they knew why I was doing it. Declan Hardy was the most eligible bachelor after all. I’d snagged him.

The press yesterday suggested it was for the will, but Declan and Carl’s lawyers had done a good enough job hiding the private information. Still, speculation had fallen largely on me wanting shares of the company and Declan holding onto those shares.

“It doesn’t matter.” My heart hurt telling her that because it did. It mattered that she’d asked, it mattered that she knew in her soul that I wouldn’t just sign over my life for one of luxury.

It mattered.

“It won’t take them long to figure out about us, Evie. Does everyone know why you’re there?”

I sighed and picked at the soft down comforter that practically could swallow me whole with how plush it was. “Carl did. Now, nobody does.”

“Evie, I’m sorry about you losing your father.” She hesitated over her apology. Once upon a time, she would have been there. She would have held my hand and cried through it with me, felt my pain, shared it, would have tried to take it away. Now, she skirted around it. “I know you tried to escape by leaving here, but—”

“I get it. I can’t escape it anywhere I go. I know that. Yet, my father didn’t want anyone to know. I think it was his way of giving me a fresh start.”

“And now he’s gone, leaving stipulations in his will so you don’t have a fresh start?” she questioned, prying for the information I promised Declan I wouldn’t share.

“It’s just a year, Ton.”

She sighed. “You shouldn’t have done this. You shouldn’t even have moved. You did it for me. I know you did.”

“That’s not true. I—”

“You would have never left your mom’s studio, Evie.” She cut me off. “You loved teaching there. And you never cared what they said about you. This town has always been a shit show.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose and felt the headache coming on now. “It doesn’t matter.”

“It does!” she screamed into the phone, and then she breathed in deep. “I’m fine. Just stop whatever you’re doing and come home. I don’t care if I see you here anymore, but you can’t just be there, unhappy, because you think the town will forgive me without you here. I’ll be okay.”

“Will you be though?” I asked because my friend hadn’t looked at me for a year. She’d actively avoided me, and then I avoided her when the press went after either of us.

“I’m getting better,” she admitted quietly. “It’s a lot, but I’m getting better.”

“Mom said you stopped by. I called, but you didn’t answer.”

I heard the sniffle in her voice. “Right.” She cleared her throat. These silences. I used to love them between us. The space between always felt so comfortable. Now, though, it was pained, full of guilt, remorse, and distress. “He’s going to get out soon. Have you considered calling him?”

“No.” I dropped the word with hate, with loathing, with frustration. “I told you I won’t.”

“You should. You can’t let him take that too. If you call him and work everything out, it will be better. What if he’s still mad at you when he’s released? Andy already took so much from you.”

“Like our friendship?”

She waited. More silence. “Yes.” She sighed. “If that guy means anything to you, you need to tell him our secret. Because it’s not about to be a secret anymore.”

She hung up without a goodbye.

And not two minutes later, Declan was standing at his bedroom door, his blue jersey in hand. But it dropped to the floor as he read what was on his phone. My HEAT watch beeped from the nightstand, and I didn’t have to glance at it to know what he was reading.

The press had done their job.

The look on his face said it all.

“Is this true?” He held up his phone. My face was all over it.

And the headline read, “Everly Belafonte: One Scam After Another.”