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CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

SUTTON

It turned out the mountain of a man who’d been immovable in so many ways could surprise me after all.

Between the library he’d built for me, the future he’d given me with those keys, and, most importantly, his words, Atlas had crashed through every defense I had.

The way he held me to him, his mouth soft but urgent against mine, reminded me of exactly what we’d almost lost. Exactly what I was so desperate to reclaim.

And he was right there with me.

He didn’t break the kiss as he strode with purpose toward his bedroom— our bedroom—clearly feeling this need just as intensely as I was.

“I broke my promise to you,” he murmured against my lips.

I tightened my arms and legs around him, loving having him this close after being without for too damn long.

“What promise?”

He set me down on the bed and braced his hands on either side of my hips.

“I’ve spent more than a day without being inside you. I’ve spent more than a week .”

“Try two.”

“You don’t have to remind me, trouble. I’ve been thinking about it every goddamn day, barking orders at Ford to move fucking faster.”

“So that’s why Quinn was grumbling about her husband never being home this week?”

“I’m not sorry about that,” Atlas said without an ounce of fucks to give.

“He’s going to be able to take her on a monthlong vacation to a private island with how much I paid him to make this happen.”

I cupped his face, making sure he saw the sincerity in my eyes.

“I didn’t need the library, Atlas. I just needed the words. Needed to know you were in this with me. As deeply as I’ve been.”

“I am. And you may not have needed the library, but you deserved it. Hell, you deserve a library in a dozen houses across the world if that’s what you want.”

“What I want is you ,” I said, tugging his shirt from his body.

Needing to feel him, skin to skin.

“And what I deserve is a partner who’s going to fight for me. Who’s going to open up, even when it’s scary. Who’s in this with me until the end.”

“For the rest of my life,” he swore, his words feeling like a promise.

An oath.

The weight of his declaration hung in the air between us, the raw emotion in his voice giving way to pure need.

He moved with deliberate purpose then, stripping away my clothes with the same intensity he’d stripped away my doubts.

There weren’t any more words as he sank to his knees at the side of the bed, yanked me toward the edge, and tossed my legs over his shoulders.

He groaned against me at the first swipe of his tongue through my pussy, and I was a boneless pile of limbs at his mercy.

How I’d gone the vast majority of my life without knowing the pleasure of Atlas’s mouth was a travesty.

But he reminded me exactly how talented he was with that tongue as he licked me to my first two orgasms without even breaking a sweat.

As the last aftershocks quaked through me, I gripped his hair and tugged, pulling him up until he braced himself above me, his mouth wet from my pussy.

“While I always appreciate your dedication to the number of orgasms I have, I need you inside me. Now .”

Thankfully, we were on the same page, because Atlas shed the rest of his clothes with focused efficiency before climbing into bed and pulling me astride his hips.

Tipping his head back to rest against the headboard, he breathed out a long groan as I settled myself over him.

“Come on, trouble. Don’t make me wait another second. Put me out of my misery and put my cock inside your sweet little cunt. I’ve been fucking lost without it. Lost without you.”

His words lit me up from the inside out, his sincerity ringing true.

I rocked against him, sliding his cock through my slit, the pleasure he’d coaxed out of me easing the way.

Atlas gripped my hips, holding me up as I guided him to my entrance, a breath leaving me at that first delicious stretch.

It didn’t matter how well he’d prepped me or how hard I’d come on his fingers and tongue, that first slide of him inside was always a challenge.

I braced my hands on his shoulders as I sank down, taking him inch by impossibly thick inch.

With our foreheads pressed together, we both stared down between us, watching as my pussy swallowed him whole.

“Christ, you feel so fucking good, baby. Dreamed about this. Dreamed about you. Every goddamn night.”

“Tell me about them.”

He darted his gaze all over my body, drinking me in, his grip on my hips firm and solid.

Unrelenting. As if he were afraid I’d disappear.

“I could’ve fantasized about having you anywhere in the world. But do you know where I always, always fucked you in my dreams?”

“Where?” I asked, riding him with slow, languid rolls of my hips.

Taking him deep enough to steal my breath.

“Here in my bed— our bed—right where you belong. I thought about you in every position imaginable, but you were always here. On these sheets. And no matter how dirty or hard I fucked you, I always ended the same way.”

“How?” I asked, my breaths growing ragged, my pussy tightening the closer I got to my peak.

He slipped one hand between us, swirling his thumb around my clit.

With his other hand, he cupped the back of my neck and tugged me forward until our breaths mingled in the space between us.

“I filled this sweet little cunt that was made just for me. And I did it while telling you over and over how much I love you.”

At his words, my breath caught in my throat, the last remnant of the wall surrounding my heart completely obliterated.

“Atlas…”

“That was what I hated most about waiting for your library to be done,” he said, his thumb guiding me toward my peak with unerring precision.

“And I couldn’t do it anymore. Needed to say it to your face instead of just in my dreams.”

“Tell me,” I begged, even as my legs began to quake.

He played my body as if he’d been born to do just that, everything inside me tightening…

tightening, so desperate to fall.

“I love you so fucking much, trouble. And I’m going to tell you that every day for the rest of my life. Every day. You hear me?”

“ Yes .” I nodded, my movements growing erratic, my orgasm so close I could taste it.

“I love you too, Atlas. So fucking much.”

A growl of pure, male satisfaction rumbled in his chest before he captured my lips with a kiss, his thumb speeding against my clit.

“That’s what I wanted to hear. Now, be a good girl and come on my cock so I can give you what we both need.”

He kissed across my jaw, down my neck, and scraped his teeth against the juncture where it met my shoulder.

That, combined with his attention to my clit, the feel of him so deep inside me, and I was flying.

I cried out his name as pleasure crashed through me, each pulse more intense than the last.

“There she is,” he said with a groan.

“There’s my good girl. Such a good fucking girl for me. Gonna make me come so hard.”

He tightened his grip on my hip, his fingers digging into my flesh as he held me to him.

He thrust deep, his cock pulsing with his release as he groaned my name.

I didn’t know how long we sat like that, with Atlas’s forehead pressed between my breasts, his heavy breaths ghosting over my skin, but I wasn’t in a hurry to move.

In fact, I couldn’t think of anywhere else in the world I’d rather be than right here, wrapped in his arms. Knowing, with complete certainty, that this feeling of belonging, of connection, was worth fighting for.

And now that I had it, I was never letting it go.

ATLAS

I’d spent my entire adult life building a playbook for every situation.

Every minute had been about strategy and control.

About protecting myself.

And then Sutton Sinclair had stumbled into my life, dropping her book at my feet, and blown my best intentions to hell.

Baring everything to her last night had felt like throwing a Hail Mary pass in the last seconds of a game.

There was no guarantee it would work—in fact, the odds were stacked against me.

But somehow, beyond all hope, it had.

The woman who’d stormed her way into my world and dismantled every defense I’d built over the past forty years had chosen to stay.

She’d chosen me .

By the time Laurel made it home the next morning, Sutton and I were lounging on the couch.

She was tucked into my side while she focused on a book, and I focused on her.

Or focused as much as I could with Pandora curled up on my chest, demanding attention.

Laurel walked in the back door, set the car keys on the counter, and split a gaze between Sutton and me.

“I see we’ve finally gotten over this bullshit between you two. Can we agree to no more fights?”

Sutton laughed and glanced up at me before turning her attention back to her daughter.

“You know that’s going to be impossible, Lolo. Just this morning, Atlas and I fought about whether pineapple belongs on pizza.”

Yeah, and she may have thought she’d won that one, but I’d spread her out on the island and feasted on her for breakfast just to put an end to the argument.

So who was the real winner here?

“Fine,” Laurel said with a sigh.

“Fighting is okay. Moving in to a place without real walls or floors when you’re mad at each other is not.”

Sutton dipped her chin in a nod.

“I promise I won’t storm off in a huff and move in to another residence, temporary or not.”

I tugged Sutton into my side and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

“And I promise I won’t make her.”

“Good. Maybe now things can get back to normal around here.” Laurel headed toward her bedroom before turning back to us, her eyes narrowed.

“Unless this means there will be little rug rats running around.”

Sutton tipped her head back, glancing up at me, and I met her gaze with a raised brow.

“Your call, trouble. I want what you want.” I lowered my voice so only she could hear.

“I’ll take you upstairs right now and start practicing, or I’ll call on Monday and schedule a vasectomy.”

“I’ve already gone through the terrible twos and the tyrant threes. I don’t need to do it again.”

“Second option, it is,” I said.

Sutton rested her hand on my stomach, heat flaring in her eyes as she caught her bottom lip with her teeth.

“I’m definitely not opposed to the practicing part, though.”

With a groan, Laurel tossed up her hands.

“Control yourselves for five minutes, please.”

“Sorry, kid,” I said.

“No, you’re not.”

“You’re right. I’m not.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and leveled her stare on me.

“Since there won’t be any children running around, I would like to negotiate something else.”

“What’s that?” I asked warily, already sensing I was in trouble.

Laurel’s chin tipped up the slightest bit, and she stared down her nose at me like the confident little shit she was.

“I want another cat.”

“Absolutely not,” I said without hesitation.

“I hate cats.”

“Clearly.” She rolled her eyes, gesturing to where Pandora was curled up on my chest. “Come on, Daddy Grump, I’ll even let you name the next one.”

“The next one? I named this one!”

Her laughter rang out as she walked away, tossing over her shoulder, “Sure you did.”

As I watched her head toward the bedroom she’d made her own, something unfamiliar settled in my chest. A warmth that had absolutely nothing to do with the tiny menace purring against my sternum.

My house had always been just a space to escape to when I needed solitude and privacy.

Now, it was a home. Filled with the absolute chaos of two strong-willed women, both of whom had somehow become essential to my existence.

That should have terrified me.

Instead, it felt like I’d finally found the missing pieces to a life I hadn’t realized was incomplete.

“I love that little hustler,” I murmured, brushing a kiss against Sutton’s temple.

She tipped her head back, smiling up at me.

“She loves you too.”

Not long ago, the knowledge of that would’ve shaken me to my core, worried I’d fuck it up.

But now, with Sutton in my arms and Laurel making this house her home, I finally felt like everything had clicked into place.

I pressed my mouth to Sutton’s, grateful I had the privilege of doing so.

That she’d let me back in.

That she wanted me to be hers.

The kiss was gentle, unhurried.

Just a slow meeting of lips and tongues, the rest of the world fading out as we enjoyed each other without the urgency that had weighed on so many of our encounters before.

Because, it turned out, we had all the time in the world.