Page 24 of Duress (Birch Falls #3)

EVERLY

W hen Dane finally relented to letting me go back home, an idea he was reluctant to go along with, I had him drop me off at Brewed Awakening before I ordered an Uber to go home.

I had turned my phone off when I left the party and didn’t want Bryce to connect my whereabouts to Dane.

While waiting for my Uber and drinking the coffee I ordered, I scroll through the messages Bryce left overnight.

Bryce

Everly, where are you?

You embarrassed me in front of Shane with your tantrum.

Answer my call.

Where are you???

This isn’t funny. Call me. Now.

Why is your phone off?

Everly, come home.

I swear to god, if you don’t call me back right now, you’re going to regret it.

A queasy feeling rolls through my stomach at his last message.

It’s a threat. Not even a thinly veiled one at that.

There are also at least a dozen missed calls and voicemails from Bryce.

There is even a message from Ana, my friend and roommate from college.

She doesn’t live in Birch Falls, but she’s only an hour away.

Bryce must have assumed I called her for a place to stay or someone to talk to when I stormed off.

I ignore the messages left by my husband but listen to Ana’s.

“Hey, is everything okay? Bryce just called me at damn near midnight asking if you were here. He sounded frantic. Did you guys have a fight? Do you need me to come pick you up? I told him I hadn’t heard from you, and I won’t say a word if he calls me back. Just let me know you’re okay. Love you.”

A feeling of relief settles over me as I listen to her message.

Ana has been my closest friend since our freshman year of college, and she knows I’ve been unhappy lately with Bryce.

We don’t get to see each other much with her job keeping her busy with travel, but we keep up with sporadic texts and phone conversations.

Every time we talk, it’s like no time has passed, and I know if I needed her she would drop everything to help.

My ride is almost here, so I shoot her a quick text to let her know I’m okay.

Me

Hey, can’t talk right now, but I’m fine. It’s a long story. I’ll call you when I can. XO

Walking into the house feels like walking into a tomb.

It’s deathly silent. I know Bryce is here.

His car is out front. I considered my options on how to play this on the ride over.

Do I come in meek and apologetic and ask for his forgiveness?

Or do I come in, head held high, completely unbothered with zero fucks to give?

I know which option I want to choose, but for my plan to work, Bryce can’t suspect that I’m thinking of leaving him or planning on betraying him.

I need him to still feel like we are on the same team.

That I’m still letting our dark secret shackle me to him.

I need him to trust me, or at least be willing to be careless around me.

I don’t know what kind of evidence of wrongdoing I will find or how long it will take me to find it. I could be playing a long game here.

Slipping off my heels, I take quiet, measured steps through the house. I keep my head down and my steps quiet, like I’m a teenager again, sneaking in from a party. Only this time it’s not my dad I’m worried about catching me. It’s my husband.

Bryce isn’t in the living room or the kitchen.

I don’t find him in his office either. Maybe he really isn’t here.

Maybe he’s with someone and that’s why his car is here.

Some of the tension in my shoulders eases at the idea of getting a small reprieve from seeing him.

Having more time to formulate a game plan would be amazing.

I also want to shower again to make sure I don’t smell like Dane.

When I enter the bedroom, I begin to unzip my dress.

I’m tired of wearing the uncomfortable cocktail number and am dying to slip into some leggings and a T-shirt.

My mind is already planning the conversation I’m going to have with Bryce when he gets home.

Just as my dress hits the floor, a large hand wraps around my neck and squeezes, cutting off my oxygen.

With a firm tug, I am yanked backward into a rigid, muscular chest. Bryce’s signature cedar, tobacco, and leather cologne infiltrates my senses.

Fuck, I must’ve been so lost in thought that I didn’t hear him.

My heart rate skyrockets, and I don’t even have to pretend to be afraid or remorseful.

He’s never grabbed me like this before. I can feel the anger radiating from him, and it is terrifying.

My hands reach up on reflex, trying to loosen his grip.

I can feel my face turning red as my lungs scream for air.

“Where. The. Fuck. Have. You. Been?” Bryce punctuates each word by squeezing harder and harder. My vision gets hazy as I dig my nails into the back of his hand.

“Everly, I swear to fucking god, you are going to regret pulling that little stunt.” My eyes burn, and my cheeks feel damp.

I realize I’m crying. I don’t know if it’s from the lack of oxygen or the terror from his anger.

I’ve never seen him like this. I don’t know who this man is.

Just as my vision begins to go completely black, Bryce releases his hold.

I stumble forward, landing on all fours on the bed, gasping for air. My whole body trembles in shock.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry! I just needed space.” I gasp out my apology between sobs as snot and tears run down my face, dampening the duvet.

“Space from your husband?” Bryce’s voice is low and menacing.

I shake my head, clenching my eyes shut, trying to calm the terror cascading through my limbic system. I need to make him believe me. I need him to forgive me.

“Yes!” I turn around, and scoot backward on the bed, putting space between us. He’s looming over me, dark circles under his eyes, his pupils the color of pitch. His jaw clenched; his face a mask of cold fury.

“I needed space from you. The way you spoke about that girl…the victim, it made me think of the night we met. When Brody wouldn’t leave me alone and I thought he would do to me what happened to that poor girl.

You saved me from that. How can you be so cruel and heartless about it now?

It hurt hearing my husband be so dismissive.

That’s why I needed space.” The tears don’t stop streaming down my face.

I bite my lower lip to keep it from trembling, waiting to see if there is a shadow of the man I married still lurking in the monster in front of me.

I watch as Bryce’s face softens a minuscule amount.

He tilts his head to the side, as if he’s considering my words.

“Bryce, I love you. But that man last night? The one showing me off like I’m a piece of meat?

The one willing to let a woman suffer while her rapist goes free because of who he’s related to?

I don’t know that man. I got overwhelmed and needed time to think.

” Even though the idea thoroughly repulses me, I crawl toward him and place a tentative hand on his chest, trying to calm the raging beast.

“I’m sorry.”

“Where did you go?” His voice is cold and laced with suspicion, but he doesn’t move to touch me again. I consider my options. He can check our credit card statements, so he will know I didn’t get a hotel room. Telling him I was with Dane, having my guts rearranged, is most definitely not an option.

“I stayed with a friend.”

“What friend? I called Ana. She said she hadn’t seen you.

” It’s depressing to realize that Ana is likely the only friend I have that I could turn to in a situation like this.

How did my life become so isolated? I consider using Serena as an alibi, but then I remember how he’s trying to get Dane to help get her ex-fiancé out of jail.

That won’t help rebuild my trust with Bryce.

“It was Ana. I told her not to tell you I was with her. She happened to be in town visiting her mom, so she picked me up and took me to her place for the night.” I hold my breath, hoping he buys the lie.

I’m not used to lying to my husband. I’ve never had to before.

Will he see through me the same way he sees through a witness on the stand?

Or will all the lying I’ve done for him work in my favor?

I decide to push my luck. “She talked me into coming home. She said whatever you were doing was probably just posturing to get Shane to make a deal and that I needed to remember who the man is that I married. She reminded me that everything you do is for our benefit. To make our life better. I’m sorry I overreacted. ”

Ana has always had more in common with Bryce than I have when it comes to ambition.

He’s always liked that about her, and it’s probably the reason why he didn’t mind our friendship.

He probably hoped her cutthroat business sense would rub off on me, helping me understand why he works the way he does.

“Forgive me?” Leaning forward, I brush my lips against his in a tentative ghost of a kiss. I watch as the stony expression on his face melts away. My body feels like it’s ready to collapse as the adrenaline that has been racing through me fades away, relief replacing it.

“You scared me, Everly. I can’t lose you. We share too much now. It’s you for me, always. Don’t ever do that to me again. Understand?”

I nod and bury my face into his chest as he wraps his arms around me. My throat hurts, my head is throbbing, and I feel like I could throw up from guilt. Still, I can’t help but feel like I just scored a victory in the war to absolve my soul for the lies I’ve been carrying for so long.

Just when I feel like I have bought myself a reprieve from Bryce, I feel his lips graze my neck as his hand slips down my back until he’s cupping my ass.

The feeling of his fingers trailing down my bare skin reminds me that I’m only wearing my bra and panties.

I had been so caught up in diffusing the situation, I forgot I was nearly naked.

Bryce snakes his hand under the lace of my panties and grips my ass, pulling me firmly against his body.

I let out a gasp as the rigid length of his erection presses into my stomach.

Shit, shit, shit … My mind begins to panic for a new reason as Bryce trails hot kisses along my neck, down my shoulder, and to my breast.

“Bryce… Wait… I was going to shower.” I push against his chest, but he ignores my protests and captures my wrists in one of his large hands, then holds them down behind my back as he continues to kiss across my sternum to my other breast.

“Shh, baby. Let’s just forget about this fight and start over. Let me remind you why you never have to doubt me. Let me in. Fuck, I need to be in you.”

“Bryce, n—” He silences my protest with his tongue, capturing my mouth with his.

He shifts the hand cupping my ass to my pussy, letting his fingers tease at my entrance and apply pressure to my clit.

My body responds to his touch even as my mind recoils in horror.

Bryce has always known how to touch me. To make my body thrum with pleasure. I try to pull back again.

“Plea—” I gasp, trying to slow things down, but Bryce just continues his assault on my senses, his tongue sweeping in, stealing my words as his fingers deftly slip between my folds, pushing into me until he’s pressing against my G-spot.

My thighs clench involuntarily as he begins to stroke my G-spot mercilessly.

“Come for me, Everly. Come on my hand baby. I want you soaked before I fuck you.” Bryce growls in my ear as his thumb circles my clit.

I can feel the pleasure building in my core and fresh tears make my eyes burn.

I can’t get out of this. Not without triggering his anger again.

He adds a third finger and lifts, pressing firmly into my G-spot, triggering my orgasm.

“Fuck! Oh god…Bryce!” I collapse against his chest, panting.

My body trembles from the aftershock of the orgasm but also from the realization that I’m going to have to give up a bigger part of my soul than I expected if I want this plan to work.

I may have to go all the way to hell to absolve my soul for the sins of my husband.