Page 85 of Atone

Like he senses my desperation, he lifts with me in his arms and flips us so he’s on his back and I’m straddling him. Clawing at him. Sinking my teeth into his lower lipwhile he digs his fingers into my thighs. The growl that rips from his chest is wild, encouraging my every movement. I ride his cock, swiveling, demanding he feel as out of control as his touch makes me.

I drag him to the edge with teeth and nails. My hands roam, my lips wander. Kissing his jaw, his neck. Whispers of touch as his teeth sink so deep into my shoulder, he nearly breaks skin.

We’re hanging by a thin thread, one tug away from free-falling. And when he drags his tongue up the center of my throat, that’s it.

I shatter.

My back arches, and my nails dig into his chest. He watches me ride him, clenching his teeth so hard the veins in his neck pop. Each time I lift, he shoves me harshly back down over his cock.

And when my head tips back and my insides splinter, Alex is the one grabbing for more. He shoots to sitting so he can wrap his arms around me. He shoves me down on him, and we’re whole.

We’re infinite.

We’re the Earth splitting. The mountains climbing. Lava erupting.

Breaking apart until we forge into one.

27

YOU’VE GOT POTENTIAL

MILA

My body achesas I peel my eyes open. For a moment, I forget I’m not in my bedroom. I squint at the pitch-black surroundings. It takes my eyes a moment to adjust, but even when they do, Alex’s curtains smother out what time of day it is.

Rolling onto my side, I stretch my arm to find the other side of the bed empty. The sheets are cold, like Alex has been gone for a while. When I fell asleep, he was curled around me, but it must not have lasted long.

The first time Alex disappeared from the bed, I blamed it on myself, thinking I wasn’t a good enough reason to stay. This time, I have a deeper understanding. After everything he told me last night, I can’t fathom what haunts him when he closes his eyes. My ribs tighten thinking about what he said. How he felt himself dying. Worse, the pain as the doctors tried to put him back together.

I lift his sheet to my nose. Holding what’s left of him in the darkness and wishing it was enough to soothe his soul.Alex hangs in every molecule of air. He saturates his bed. He’s becoming my compulsion. My need.

To feel him. Taste him. Have him.

And now that he’s told me his story, I fear there’s no turning back.

I might not understand him, but Iseehim. I accept who he is. The good and bad. I accept all of him.

When I finally find the strength to sit, the soreness between my legs becomes even more prominent. Alex isn’t gentle when he fucks me, and last night, after he let me touch him, we were untethered. He punished me for every graze of my fingertips, and all that did was make me hold on tighter. I pulled him close, and he devoured me whole. He fucked me like there was no other way to survive.

Maybe there isn’t.

There hasn’t been a way out of this since his lips first touched mine in the study. That kiss was an answer to a question I’d been asking myself since he first looked at me at Montgomery.

Why had no one else made sense?

Because they weren’thim.

It takes every bit of strength to drag myself out of Alex’s bed. My tank top, shorts, and knife are scattered in the darkness, so I peel open the curtains, surprised to be met with daylight. Tapping my phone, I see I slept until almost ten.

Alex isn’t anywhere to be seen, so I get dressed and help myself to his toothpaste, using a finger to run it over my teeth. His hairbrush rips through my hair with every brush, tugging at the knots.

By the time I’m done, I’m still barely presentable.

At least with Alex having his own bathroom, no one can see the mess of mascara on my cheeks before I wash it off.

Once I’m somewhat put together, I adjust my tank top and take a final deep breath. I have no idea where Alex disappeared to, but I’m not wandering Sigma House to search for him. And I’m not staying in his room alone when my obsession with this man is reaching uncontainable levels.

Knowing him, he’ll text me when he realizes I’m gone. Or he’ll even show up at my dorm room later today. I scribble a note letting him know to find me later and slip out of his room.