Page 81 of Oathbreaker

“Too quick?” She nestles deeper against me, pressing kisses on my neck even though she’s still got my finger trapped inside her. “That was…perfect.”

“You’re perfect.” I lower my head and kiss her temple.

“I’m sorry I didn’t do anything for you,” she whispers.

“Uh, did you not feel me making a mess in my boxers? You did plenty.”

There’s a moment of silence that I can’t quite decipher and then she starts to snicker.

“What’s funny?” I ask.

“Us. Lying here on the beach, making out like teenagers. It’s not like, you know, we don’t have a whole house where we can be alone or anything…”

I laugh too. “Come on, admit it—this is more fun.”

“It is.”

She lifts her head, and she’s smiling.

Not just a polite smile, or the one she gives her friends when she sees them. Not even the one reserved for Frankie when she does something sweet. No, this smile is different.

This smile is for me—just like her.

Twenty-Five

Briar

I knock on the door to Atlas’s office and the scowl on his face tells me he knows exactly why I’m here.

Because after several weeks with Colt now being back and after Colt and I had that date, slowly making our way back to an us—one that’s both new because we never truly got to be an us before everything went wrong—and old because it’s been easy to slip into the us we used to be…just with a side portion of kissing.

Lots and lots of kissing.

And his fingers on and in me.

Mine on and around him.

And well?—

“What’s up, Thorny?” Atlas calls grumpily.

I shake my head, dislodging the dreamy thought of Colt and our bedroom adventures, and focus on the problem in front of me.

That being, Atlas still acting grumpy and surly and distant with Colt.

Banks has come around.

Royal too.

Things aren’t easy and perfect and exactly as they were five years ago, but progress has been made and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Dash, on the other hand…

It’s not going to be an easy problem to solve. Even with our talk.

Neither is the man in front of me.

Atlas is doing his grumpy billionaire scowl, but I’ve seen it enough over the years that it doesn’t affect me.