6. Atlas
I stare at Eric,willing my heart rate to go back to normal. After what happened between us—the way I shamelessly pushed myself against his lips—I was thinking it’s a good thing that I’m a stranger to him.
But he just confirmed it.
Eric knows I’m Miss Karma.
He reaches out and gently removes my mask. “I’d know that beautiful blue gaze anywhere.”
I fist the material of my skirt into my hands. “How long before you realized it?”
Was he laughing at me? Was this all some ploy to get back at me? Why didn’t he tell me the moment he knew who I was?
He shrugs and leans against the roof wall, next to me. He stares at the skyline. “You know this is fucked up, right?”
“I like it. I like you.” Tears well in my eyes. I got so close to getting Eric to see me in a new light. “Why do you always have to push me away?”
He turns, giving me a pained look. “Don’t cry, baby.” He reaches for me.
I step away from his touch. “Why do we always have to push and pull at each other? Why can’t you just say you want me and be with me?”
“I do want you. Don’t doubt that for a minute. Being together—have you really thought this through? Sure, we have amazing chemistry. But what happens when it’s the holidays? Are you going to introduce me to your dad on Thanksgiving?”
I understand what he’s saying. We’ll have to be careful. “So, we sneak around him and—”
He holds up a hand. “I won’t do that to you. You can’t be some dirty secret I’m ashamed of. But I can’t look my best friend in the eye and tell him I was just eating his daughter out either.”
I cross my arms around myself and shiver in the night air as his words sink in. I’d never considered how awkward it must be for him. “I guess it puts you in a really weird spot.”
He takes a deep breath. “I took a job in New York. I’m gone in two weeks.”
I nod, feeling my heart break in two. “Then this is goodbye?” Something tells me I’ll never see Eric against after this. He’s not just walking away from his job or my father’s company. He’s walking away from me.
He steps forward and brushes his lips gently across my forehead.
When he moves to step around me, I put a hand on his arm, catching the material of his suitcoat. “If you’re leaving, we should sleep together.”
“Atlas—”
I say the words out that I’ve been scared to admit. “I want you to be my first.”
He swallows hard. “You deserve a good first time. Not a sad one.”
I tighten my hold. “I’ve wanted you since Mexico. Don’t make me lose it to some stranger in a seedy dive bar bathroom.”
He closes his eyes. “You can’t say shit like that to me.”
I can push him over the edge, make him crumble and do this. “He probably won’t even make it good. Not the way you would.”
When he opens his eyes, I can see the control that’s snapped. “Give me five minutes. I’ll get us a room.”
* * *
Eric
You’re a selfish bastard.
I meant to challenge her, so she would back down. But then I tasted her and now I can’t walk away. The thought of getting to be with Atlas is too tempting.
Instead, I get the VIP room by calling in a favor with the hotel manager. Then I text Atlas to let her know which room we’re in.
Her knock at the door is soft and light.
“It’s me,” she calls. Her voice is so quiet that it makes me smile. Her innocence and shyness only make me more aroused.
When I let her into the room, she stands in the center of it for a long moment. She’s looking around, taking it all in.
She clutches her backpack tighter, the one that’s filled with her clothes from earlier tonight when she wasn’t pretending to be Miss Karma. She glances over her shoulder to make sure we’re alone.
Then she asks in a quiet voice. “Do we have condoms? They sell some down at the gift shop, but I didn’t know what kind or well, anything.”
“We have condoms,” I reassure her. “I’m clean and I wouldn’t do anything that would jeopardize your health.”
I take the backpack from her and set it in the floor. Then I pull her into my arms and hug her. It’s something I’ve never done with the women I’ve slept with. But it seems like Atlas needs comfort and hell if I don’t want to be the man that provides it.
She relaxes against me. “Thanks for being cool about this.” Her words are muffled by my dress shirt.
I rub her back in a soothing circle. “We don’t have to do this tonight. We could stream a movie instead.”
She runs her fingernails down my dress shirt. “You’re not getting out of this that easily.”
I chuckle and move my hands from her back, letting them drift along the curve of her ass. I squeeze lightly and groan. “One day, I want to spank this ass.”
She leans back and searches my face, but I don’t miss the interest in her gaze or the way her breathing hitched as soon as I mentioned the word spank.
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Fuck if she’s not perfect for me. There are a hundred things I want to do to her, a million ways I long to explore her. One night won’t be enough for all of it.
She nods only for a sad smile to cross her face. “One day.”
Since I don’t want her thinking about that, I drop my head and kiss her roughly. “Turn around,” I command when I finally part from her lips long enough to give both of us time to breathe.
She instantly does as I instructed, and it fills me with pride.
I pull her back against my front, grinding my cock into her soft curves. I haven’t even gotten Atlas naked yet and I’m already hard as steel.
“You’re mine tonight,” I growl. “Say it.”
She shivers. “I’m yours tonight.”
“That’s my good girl.” I reach for the zipper of her dress and drag it down as slowly as I can. I watch the material pool at her feet, mesmerized by her perfect round globes. I’ve never been an ass man before but with Atlas, that’s quickly changing.
“Face me.”
She turns toward me, hunching and trying to hide her body by crossing her arms over her black lace bra and putting her legs together.
I pull out her hairband, letting her soft blonde waves cascade down her shoulders. She’s so damn beautiful that it makes me ache. “I want to see what’s mine.”
She hesitates. “You’ve seen this already and besides, you’re still dressed.”
“Good girls get rewarded,” I remind her.
The way her face lights up and how quickly she stops hunching makes me realize that Atlas is eager to please me.
I reach for the front clasp of her bra, baring her breasts to my view. I help her shrug out of the thin material and groan. “You have amazing tits.”
They’re the full, firm kind that were made to be sucked on.
“Stand at ease.”
She frowns, so I show her how to assume the correct stance. I teach her how to put her arms behind her back, loving the way the posture forces her breasts out.
“This is your reward,” I explain, dropping to my knees. I take her in my mouth and suckle her as deeply as possible, running my tongue over her sensitive nipple repeatedly.
When she’s tugging on my hair and begging for me to stop, I do. “Back at ease.”
She shifts from foot to foot. “Please. It aches.”
“I’ll get to that when I’m finished.” It kills me that she’s aching even if it’s in a good way. Everything in me longs to soothe it for her. But I need her to be soaked for this.
“Eric.” The single word is a plea. I want to hear her say my name with that desperation every night for years.
“Who do you belong to tonight?”
“You,” she practically sobs the word.
“So, who gets to decide when and how you receive your pleasure?”
“You do.”
“That’s right.” I smack her ass lightly then resume my slow torment. This time I take her other breast and suckle it for several long moments.
Finally, I let my fingers drift lower to explore her folds. She’s so drenched I can smell her aroma.
Even though I tasted her earlier, I can’t help wanting her that way again. “You’re going to stand very still and you’re going to let me taste your sweet cream.”
Her blue gaze is frenzied. “Please. Just make it better.”
I drink her sweet juices, making her come twice. After the second time, I can’t hold back anymore. The primal urge to claim her is overpowering me.
“On the bed,” I grind out as I rip out of my clothes and roll on a condom.
I don’t have to tell her twice. She’s on the bed within seconds.
I grab her knees and pull her to the edge of the mattress.
“These thighs spread only for me.” I’m too far gone to realize what I’m saying or even care that I’m asking for promises that we both know will never be kept.
“Only for you,” she repeats as I thrust inside of her tight channel.
I watch the pain flicker across her face and instantly still. “You’re doing good, baby. Breathe for me.”
Her first two breaths are shallow but the third is deeper.
“Keep going,” she insists as sweat breaks out on her forehead.
I force myself to stay frozen, fighting every instinct that demands I move. Being inside her body is like finding the one thing I’ve always wanted my whole life. Home.
When her breathing returns to normal, I experiment with a small thrust and she gives me a grin. “I like it.”
“That makes two of us,” I answer as I increase the pace, thrusting deeper and deeper. I use my fingers to play with her clit and watch her come again before I follow her with my own release.
She slumps against my chest and buries her head in my neck.
I love you.The knowledge slams into me with the force of a hurricane as I realize that I’m truly fucked.