Twice as Hard by Amber Bardan

Author:Amber Bardan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-03-23T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

I almost can’t face him but I must. He’s ready for me. Dean lounges against the dining room windows, his shoulders resting on the wall of glass. Aside from his stubble, he’s out of character and dressed again like my Dean in shirt and pants. His feet bare.

My lungs get tight.

He’s a fucking good-looking man, my husband. I fought him for a while in the beginning. How could someone like him, sexy, smart, successful, be so into me?

But his persistence won out over my resistance.

“Abel is in love with me.” I release a breath. There I said it. Dean’s only family, his stepbrother who he loves, is in love with his wife.

That I might love him back is moot—I’m committed to my husband.

Whatever kinky shit we might do is only done with Dean’s blessing, approval and orchestration.

“I know.”

My heart jolts like it’s been hit with a hundred volts.

“You knew?” I grab on to the back of a chair. “You knew how he feels and you let this go ahead?”

“I let this go ahead because I know how he feels.” He leans off the windows. “Because I know how you feel.”

My vision gets spots. I can’t see right. My fingers go numb. “Are you leaving me?”

Did he think handing me over to his stepbrother would lessen the blow? I suck in air. Nothing can lessen this blow.

I married him forever. For better or worse.

He grabs the back of my hair. I hadn’t even noticed him move. My scalp stings.

He knows how I like that.

“Baby.” He yanks my hair. “When do we part?”

My eyes blur. I remember our wedding day, our vows. I meant every last word in the most literal sense the way others might not. Love. Cherish. Obey. “Death. Until death.”

“That’s right, baby.” He shuffles closer. His heat blasts its familiar comforting reassurance into me. “There’s no leaving. Never leaving.”

He kisses me softly.

Tears clog my throat. I turned down his first proposal because I was too afraid to trust in forever. But he made me believe in forever just like he made me believe in trust.

“I’m going to tell you something you might not like.”

I blink and stare up at him. My pulse pounds, making a whirling sound in my head. Hell, there have been plenty of things I’ve told him I knew he wouldn’t like. The difference is, I put mine in notes. He’s about to deliver his up close.

“I knew he loved you the day I came to your office.”

Those phantom electric paddles hit me again. My whole body jerks.

He squeezes my hair harder. Brings me back to focus. “Abel had told me all about you. But the moment you spoke to me I knew he didn’t see you the way I did.” His grip on me is absolute. I couldn’t get away if I tried, and it’s only this man who understands how safe that makes me feel. “You and me, honey, our secrets are the same.”

My vision flashes with everything we’d ever done together.

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