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13

ATOM

I can’t believe I’m making out with Ember Deeks, but for once, it’s not even hard to push down the thought of consequences. Not when her body feels this good beneath my palms or when her lips move against mine in a way that drives my cock to distraction.

Or the way it feels so right to be kissing the person my soul has been entwined with for most of my life.

Any sense of what might happen in the future disappears in her warmth, in the way she kissed me back and came on my cock for the very first time. I loved the plushness of her beneath my palms, I loved the softness of her curves, but most of all, I loved the way she was wholly in the moment with me.

There was no coyness, or insecurity. Just a wholehearted appreciation of what our bodies could create together. And now I know, I want more.

“If I said I wanted to sleep with you, but not have sex with you, would that be okay?” she says suddenly.

My dick shouts no. “We can go at whatever speed you want, sweetheart.”

“It’s just…I guess I still want the romance of it. You know, new guy, cute messages, the buildup, the bases.”

I smile at that, understanding where she’s coming from. She’s not some club girl you fuck, and bang whatever stress is in your system out in her body. I don’t know how I’m gonna make it so, but she’s gonna be my wife one day.

“I’ll do my best to deliver them in order. You say no, that’s cool. But I reserve the right to run a few steps in parallel.”

She smiles at that. “I should probably have a conversation with Rocco too. I know it was only one date, but given the intensity of what happened and what he did for me, I don’t want to be that person who ghosts someone else. Especially after what we went through. It’s probably hypocritical to put the brakes on what we just did now that I’ve…”

“Come?”

She blushes at the word; it’s cute. “I’ll tell him tomorrow that we aren’t going to work out.”

I sigh. “And I should probably be the bigger man here, because the guy did look out for you the other night. I’m grateful that he was there for you when I wasn’t.”

Ember reaches out and touches my jaw with her fingertips. “I’ve always thought you were a good man. When you weren’t being an asshole to me.”

“I feel like you gave as good as you got.”

The heat of what we just did, the kissing and grinding, passes. My balls ache a little, but nothing that will kill me.

I take her hand, and we walk down the corridor toward the bedroom doors on opposite sides of the hallway.

“Just want to confirm, separate or together?” I ask.

“Together,” she says.

“Naked?” I ask with a grin.

“This is already testing my self-control,” she says. “I feel like the naked version of you might be impossible to keep my hands off. T-shirt and shorts?”

“I can do something along those lines. Go get ready for bed, then come find me in your guest room.”

She doesn’t ask why not her room, and I don’t tell her. But the idea of sleeping with her in a bed a different guy slept in last night makes me feel uneasy. It’s not judgement. I mean, I’ve had my fair share of women in my bed, some in the same night. I trust Ember when she tells me nothing happened between the two of them. And I wouldn’t judge her if anything had , because if I’d been less of an idiot and more of a thinker, I might have been able to find a way around this and she wouldn’t be in this situation today.

It takes me only a few minutes to strip out of my boots, jeans, and socks. My T-shirt was clean when I put it on after my shower, so I leave it on. I find my toothbrush and toothpaste and brush my teeth in her kitchen sink, seeing as she’s taking forever in the bathroom.

Hope she isn’t doing any of the shit girls sometimes worry about. Like shaving her bits or something. It’s gonna be hard enough to sleep next to her and keep my hands off her. If she comes into the room in some sexy sleep clothes with smooth, glistening skin and a fresh face, it’s gonna be hard not to react.

But I can’t help but smile when she finally returns because she’s utterly perfect. Sure, it’s a shorts and boxy short-sleeved shirt combo, but it’s got wild palm trees and flamingos all over it. Her hair is in a braid, and while she’s fresh-faced, she looks exhausted.

She climbs on the bed from the bottom, and I’m treated to a delicious view of the roundness of her breasts through the V-neck of the shirt. When she finally reaches the pillows, she flops forward and groans. “I love climbing into bed at night,” she mumbles against the pillow.

I turn onto my side and rub circles on her back. “Especially tonight?”

She turns her head to face me. “ Especially tonight.”

“Come here,” I say, gesturing for her to come curl up alongside me.

It takes a minute for her to move, crawl up the bed enough that she can slip beneath the blanket, and wriggle up alongside me.

When she finally gets there, we both sigh at the perfection of it. It’s like my whole physique was created just so she’d fit perfectly against my side. While there’s a foot difference between us when we’re standing, everything matches up as it’s meant to when we’re lying down.

Her head rests on my chest, her ear pressed in the dip between my pec and my collarbone. The warmth of her arm heats my ribs. I reach for her leg and hook it over my hip, before wrapping my arms tight around her.

I’m in bed with Ember Deeks. And it all feels worth it. The risk. Butcher. The club. Because sometimes the only moments that matter are the ones like this. The ones where you’re with the most important person in your life. The person you’re gonna grow old with.

For all I said we needed time to prove to ourselves this is everything we thought it was going to be, I already know it is. I knew five years ago in that fucking field.

This is for her. So I can prove to her what she means to me. To make up for the moment when I broke her heart.

And to buy some time.

I’m gonna be strategic. Maybe work to get Wraith and Catfish on my side. Introduce the idea of Ember and me as a unit to the two men I know for sure will help defend me from Butcher’s wrath.

I’m gonna need my brothers to vote against kicking me out of the club and forcing me to burn off my ink.

But all those plans can wait for tomorrow, because tonight, I have Ember in my arms. And while I need sleep, I don’t want to miss a minute of it.

I reach over to the lamp and switch it off, settling the room into darkness.

“If at any point you don’t feel like you can do this, please tell me as gently as you can,” Ember says quietly. I feel every little puff of breath against my skin.

I pull her a little closer. “I can’t offer promises about where we go from here, Em. But I promise I’ll be kind.”

She nods. “I understand. It’s just…this feels slippery. Like, if we squeeze it too hard, it’ll fall out of our fingers.”

I know what she means. I feel it too. “Then let’s promise to keep our hold tender. I don’t want to break us again, Em.”

“I suppose this is part of it, right? The leap. Trusting the other person. You don’t owe me anything more than you did back in that field, except…”

She shakes her head. I can’t see it in the darkness, but I can feel her hair brush against my skin. “Except what?”

“This time, could you be honest? Even if it’s hard to admit or something you don’t want to say. Just think of the gentlest way to say it and tell me.”

“What do you mean?”

“You liked me back then, didn’t you? It’s just, you loved the club more.”

Like already feels like too weak a word. “I think you’ve always stirred up bigger feelings than like within me, Em. And, yes, I liked you back then. You took my fucking heart with you that day. Yes, I promise I’ll be honest.” I stroke a hand over her head. “I’m sorry. You deserved better.”

Her knee slides up my leg a little. Any higher and it will nudge my cock, which has finally decided to chill the fuck out.

“Thank you, for the apology. It’s weird, demanding honesty from each other when we’re going to lie to everyone else. It feels hypocritical.”

“It’s more like lifesaving.”

Ember laughs. “Maybe. Good night, Atom.”

“Night, Ember.”

I close my eyes and focus on the rise and fall of her breath. She twitches as she finally drifts off against me, and that’s the last thing I remember as I fall fast asleep.

When morning comes around, I curse the decision to not close the blinds to keep the early-morning sun out. But once I’ve got my eyes adjusted, I realize it’s the best fucking thing.

Because it means I can look at Ember’s sleeping face for as long as I want to.

Some of her hair has escaped her braid, but she’s still wrapped around me. Neither of us has moved much in the night beyond her shifting a little down my bicep instead of my chest. My arm is tucked under her neck, but I wiggle my fingers to get some feeling back into them.

I’m usually a morning guy. The alarm goes off, and it’s a quick splash of water to my face and on with my jeans to start the day.

But it feels nice to simply lie here with Ember and rouse slowly.

Thankfully, I thought to message Dad about Butcher’s request that I stay here with Ember. As a biker, he understands the mission. As a rancher, he’s probably pissed I’m back home but not working, and he’ll have to continue to do his own work for a change.

A glance at the clock on Ember’s wall tells me it’s a little after eight in the morning, and my stomach rumbles, as I’ve usually had breakfast by now. I wonder what Ember has in the fridge that I could rustle up for the two of us.

I’m just sliding my arm gently from beneath Ember, taking care not to wake her, when there is a loud hammering at the door.

“Em.” I’d know Butcher’s voice anywhere. “Atom.”

“Fuck me,” I curse. “Em, sweetheart. Wake up. Your dad’s here.”

Ember opens her eyes slowly, then bolts upright when she makes sense of what I said. “Shit.” She glances around the bedroom. “From the window next to the door, he can see straight down the hallway. If he’s peering in, he’ll see me come out of the guest room.”

“Let me go first from here. I’ll take him over to the kitchen to make him coffee and make up some bullshit, okay? When you hear me banging around, you know it’s safe to come out.”

“Em!”

“Go,” she says.

I tug on some jeans and step out into the hallway. Acting was never my forte. I sucked at it when I was at school and played one of the three wise men at Christmas. Forgot my lines and I only had two of them.

But I do my best to look grumpy. A little pissed at being woken. I rub my hand over my face and yawn dramatically before opening the door.

“What the fuck are you doing banging so hard? You’re gonna break the glass,” I say.

Butcher steps inside and looks down the hallway. “It’s the only way to wake Ember. Where is she?”

I gesture toward the kitchen, and thankfully, Butcher follows. “She yelled she was just getting out of bed and to give her a minute. Coffee?”

Without thinking, I roll my shoulder back and forth, trying to stretch it out.

“You hurt?” Butcher asks.

“Nah. Just got a crick in my shoulder. Different bed. All that shit. Ember needs a better mattress for that spare bed, though. It’s like sleeping on a plank.”

I turn my back on him to grab the mugs out of the cupboard.

“Dad,” Ember says as she joins us, tugging a hoodie over her pajamas. Was hoping she’d put a few more clothes on. It does nothing to hide those deliciously long legs of hers that were wrapped around me not ten feet from where Butcher is standing. My cock twitches at the thought. “Why are you here so early?”

Butcher shrugs. “Shit to do. Wondered if you could come to the clubhouse and look over a couple of financial things for me.”

Ember glances my way. It’s so small a movement that Butcher clearly misses it. “Sure. Gimme five to get dressed?”

Butcher laughs. “Take half an hour. I’m gonna persuade Atom to make me breakfast.”

I shake my head. “I’m your enforcer, not your fucking chef. If you’ve got Ember, I’m gonna go see Sheriff Radcliffe.”

Butcher raises an eyebrow. “You think he’s gonna tell you shit?”

“More likely to tell me than anyone else.”

I pick my moment and perfectly time it to when Radcliffe comes out of the station by himself to get into his vehicle.

“Radcliffe,” I say.

The pleasure I get from seeing the color drain from his face is impossible to describe. “There’s somewhere I need to be.” He only glances in my direction.

“I’m sure there is, but you’re not leaving this parking lot until you tell me what you’ve learned about the assault at Ember Deeks’s bar.”

He glances up at me. “What do you want to know?”

“All of it. Did you trace any licenses, find any suspects, properly report Ember’s gun missing so she doesn’t get into trouble if it’s used the way it isn’t supposed to be?”

Radcliffe huffs. “This is an ongoing investigation, I can’t just?—”

I reach out and put my hand around his throat.

His face immediately begins to go red. Some might say I’m reckless to assault a sheriff, but he’s crossed me three times in his life, and he’s lost each time.

My mom once said I have shoulders bigger than Atlas, the man who carried the heavens on his. I pull them back, using my size to full effect.

“Remember how this always ends, Radcliffe.”

He grabs at my wrist, grappling for the air I’m perfectly happy to deny him.

I’ll give the fucker some credit—he looks straight into my eyes the whole time. Even as his own eyes water.

When he tried to blame Wraith for the death of his wife and child, I snuck into his house, drugged him, lifted the floorboards, laid him beneath them, and nailed the floorboards back on top of him.

There was intense pleasure with every slam of the hammer.

It was a day before they noticed he was missing. Two, before someone from the sheriff’s office broke into his home and heard him banging on the floorboards.

“Stop,” he gasps finally. I didn’t realize I’d lifted him to his toes. “I’ll tell you.”