Page 86 of Between Commitment and Betrayal

I repeated it as I hit my own high.

I repeated it, knowing it wasn’t true.

28

EVERLY

The whole next week,Declan was careful, gentle, loving.

We went to work like nothing was wrong, like the news of my life hadn’t dropped around the nation. Yet, the paparazzi were handled. Piper wasn’t just good at her job, she was the best.

It should have been perfect.

Yet, it wasn’t. Declan tiptoed around me, made me meals, catered to me without commanding me, without feasting on me, without doing what he’d always done.

Every night after dinner, he kissed my forehead as I announced I was going home. Then, he let me walk off. Sometimes, I saw him go back into his house, but a few times that week, he got in his car and drove away.

I’d watched for his headlights every night.

I didn’t see them until much later, and my heart crumbled at the thought of him with other women, women who probably didn’t come with the baggage I did.

I didn’t ask. I didn’t have the right to.

Maybe that last weekend had been our goodbye, maybe that was all it took. I’d been zoned as a victim to him now. I felt caged by it, tortured by his kindness, my desires neglected by his soft touch.

We both were quiet on the way to the will reading. He typed away on his cell as his driver turned into the parking lot. But tension vibrated through us both. We hadn’t had each other the way we wanted for weeks, and we’d already blurred the lines of the marriage more than once.

“Declan, I—”

He started too. “Everly, we—”

“You go.” I waved a hand at him.

Glancing at my left hand, he grabbed it and held it in front of him. “You don’t wear a ring to show we’re married,” he said more to himself than her.

“I don’t think you’d want that when you go out, nor would I.”

“Why not?”

“If a woman wants to indulge in a relationship with you—”

“They’d have to take my attention off you first, which is near impossible at this point,” he growled, then clenched his mouth shut, his jaw moving. Leaning to the side, he grabbed a small velvet box from his pocket, a deep red and with gold etching on it. He didn’t take his eyes off me as he opened it. Beautiful large diamonds lined the gold wedding band. “I want you to wear this.”

I opened my mouth to object, to respond negatively in some way, to tell him this wasn’t right but he slid his hand to my jaw and placed a thumb on my lips to quiet me.

“Let me finish. I know you’re not supposed to be my wife, but to the world, you’re mine, and a man should think twice before fucking with what’s mine for the next nine months.”

“And what about you?” I countered.

He smiled and leaned close, “I’d like a ring made of that string like the one on my wrist. Black seems to be our color, right?” He tapped the bracelet I’d already made him. “I can give you ring measurements.”

I bit my cheek as I tried not to feel his answer in my heart where it could settle and bloom into something like love. Instead, I gave him a jerky nod as he slid the ring on.

“The stipulations might be crazy, and I’ve tried my best this past month to get more information, but Mrs. Johnson had it locked down.”

“We can figure it out together.” I shrugged but felt the anxiety of the reading building, felt my world starting to shift again, and felt my breath becoming shallow because of it.

When we exited the SUV, he rounded the vehicle, hooked his arm in mine, and grumbled, “You didn’t wait for me to open your door.”