Page 32

Kairi

A few hours after Davis had gone and Dion was sleeping, the door to my bedroom opened softly. I had my head under the cover. His was pitch black. I felt the bed dip beneath his weight, but I didn’t say anything. I didn’t move. I kept my eyes closed, even though sleep was the last thing on my mind. The anger from earlier still simmered under my skin. He could have let me explain to Davis what was going on. I know I lied, and I wasn’t making excuses for that. I just wanted to be the one who told him.

Atlas lay there beside me, his body heat wafting off him. My heart pounded in my chest. I tried to stay silent, but biting my tongue was easier said than done. He wanted to tell secrets? I had secrets too. I wanted to hurt him. I wanted to see him crumble.

“You know your wife was fucking Mason for years, right? Back in school?” My voice was cold, venomous. “While you were trying to keep him away from me, she was with him. She’s probably with him now.”

He stiffened next to me. For a moment, there was silence, just the sound of our breathing. But then he laughed.

“You think I didn’t know?”

I blinked, turning my head slightly to catch a glimpse of his face in the dim light. He wasn’t angry. He wasn’t even surprised. There was something else in his expression, something I didn’t understand.

Atlas rolled onto his side. He boldly looked directly at me. “I encouraged him to. Left them together enough times. You think I cared what she did?” he asked. “That’s how I kept him from you. I wasn’t the only one who liked you, Kairi.”

I didn’t expect this response. I thought I was throwing a dagger straight at his heart, but he was unfazed.

“And she’s not with Mason,” he added. “I’ve known where she was since she left. And even if she were with him, I wouldn’t care.”

“You’re lying,” I accused him, refusing to let him pretend that knowing his wife was fucking another man didn’t affect him. “You’re just trying to make me feel—”

He cut me off. “I’m not trying to do anything but lay beside you. People like Ashlen and I marry for convenience, for appearances. It’s all bullshit, Kairi. We were both just pretending.”

He leaned closer.

“People like me, we don’t fall apart over affairs. We make arrangements. We compartmentalize. I wasn’t stupid enough to think I’d marry Ashlen and have some fairy-tale ending. I planned to stay married long enough to appease my parents. But then she kept getting pregnant, and I knew those kids were mine. She’s not dumb enough to think I wouldn’t check.”

He held my gaze.

“Who she was fucking, I didn’t care. I never cared. You know what I cared about?” he asked. “It wasn’t Ashlen. It wasn’t the lies or whatever she was doing behind my back. I cared about whether you’d answer the phone when I called. And you did. Every time. That’s all I needed.

And I’m not letting go now that I’ve got you,” he added, his voice firm. “You can be angry. You can pick fights. You might hate me right now, but you answered the phone. You wrote me into your books. That’s why I’m here.”

I didn’t know what to say to that.

“Everything else,” he continued, “was just noise. Ashlen, Mason... none of that was real. What’s real is right here. Between us. Us and Dion.”

He blew out a heavy breath. “Now can I sleep? I wanted us to do something as a family tomorrow. Or do you have something else in mind?” he asked, his voice dipping—serious to filthy. His hand moved, fingers tracing the curve of my waist, settling at the hem of my night shorts.

My breath caught, and I tried to swallow the sound, but it was audible.

He grinned.

My fists clenched beneath the covers.

“All I want to do is sleep,” I whispered, my voice barely steady. I wasn’t sure if I was telling him—or trying to convince myself. I couldn’t understand how I could hate this man and want him at the same time.

Atlas’s hand lingered on my body, hot, before he finally pulled back, rolling onto his back as if the moment hadn’t been anything at all.

“Goodnight, Kairi,” he said, his voice softer than I expected. “We’ll figure it out.”

I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. I couldn’t. Not when I could feel him next to me—his breath slow, his body calm. His peace made everything worse.