Page 30

Atlas

I could see it in her eyes—she was right there on the edge. Teetering. I just had to tip her. I needed to reminded her, how good I could make her feel.

I moved beside her, close enough to feel her breath catch. Her eyes met mine. The defiance was there like always, but there was something else. Something soft. Something open. She was losing control, and she knew it.

I took her wrist and tugged her into my lap. She didn’t resist. Not really. Her body fell into mine. If she knew how many nights I’d pictured her just like this, she’d laugh in my face.

My hand slid into her robe. She shivered. Her thighs shifted.

“Baby, Kairi,” I murmured at her ear, and her pulse jumped beneath my lips. I guided her hand to her chest, pressed it flat against her heart.

“You feel that? How your heart sped up?” I asked. “You want this. You want my babies. My love. Your stories told me.”

I traced my hand down her body, slid my fingers between her legs. Applied just enough pressure to her panty covered pussy to make her body jolt. Her breath stuttered. Head dropped to my shoulder. Lips parted like she might say something but didn’t.

I could’ve laid her out, claimed what was already mine, fucked the breath from her throat. She would’ve let me. Might have begged for it.

I didn’t, though. Even though my dick was throbbing and every fiber of my being wanted to.

Because I needed her to feel what I felt. Not just the want—but the absence of the person you crave.

So I pulled back. I wanted her to sit in the quiet of rejection.

I watched her eyes fly open—confused, needy, wrecked. I stood with her in my arms, kissed her long enough to make her knees weak, then set her down gently on the sofa.

“What are you doing?” she asked, voice thick, wrecked.

“Next time you want to use your body as a weapon, don’t let it beg for me in the middle of the war. Goodnight, Kairi.”

I walked out before she could recover. I’d be back. I had no intention of letting her go back to pretending she didn’t want me.

I’d warned her. I’d burn it all down. Rebuild us in my image if I had to. This was just the start.