Chapter 3
Eve
Thunderous engines cover the sound of my laughter, but Atlas seems to hear it all the same. He turns toward me, the bottom half of his face turned up into a smile as he grabs my hand and pulls me through the thick crowd of cheering people.
Modified cars sit at different spots all over the abandoned query, their drivers facing the makeshift track directly in the middle. There are still a few puddles from last night’s rain, and my feet instinctively find them to splash water up on my bare legs as we run across the concrete.
Nothing can ruin my high tonight.
It’s my birthday, I graduate tomorrow, I finally found the confidence to wear a skirt, and Atlas is going to let me drive his car.
I hear the last car on the track race past us right as we get to Atlas’ black Maserati. He turns to me, the adrenaline shining in his eyes just as surely as it’s shining in mine. “You remember what I taught you?”
I shove him backwards and open the driver’s side door, immediately sliding into the leather seat. “This is where the student becomes the master, love. Get in if you don’t want to be left behind.”
He shakes his head, but I see the small smirk on his face. He loves this. He loves showing me his world.
I haven’t been able to get a lot out of Atlas when it comes to his childhood or his family.
All he’s really told me is that his mother is a saint, but his father is the shit on the bottom of the devil’s hoof.
I’m not stupid, though. No twenty-year-old owns cars like this, knows about races like this and has at least four guns hidden in his vehicle.
The man I love is into something dark, something criminal. I haven’t decided if it’s bad that I don’t mind.
No, the only thing I don’t like about Atlas is the tension between him and my best friend.
Even today, on my birthday, I had to split the day between time with Kortez and time with Atlas.
Kor took me to the museum in the next town over, followed by lunch and a trip to my favorite art supply store.
Atlas brought me to the illegal street races where it costs ten grand to even start your car.
I don’t understand why they hate each other.
I mean…in theory, they’re complete opposites – but they’re more alike than either of them realizes.
They both carry the weight of the world on their shoulders, and they feel like they have something to prove to themselves.
Both of them are too generous for their own good.
Both of them love with their whole heart.
Kor may love me a little differently than Atlas…
but he loves me all the same. I used to think Kortez was the man who I would spend the rest of my life with, God knows I’ve been in love with him for longer than I thought possible, but he never even hinted at the possibility of reciprocating those feelings.
Atlas never made me question his intentions. From the first night, he showed me he was interested with his eyes and claimed me with his words. It’s been like that for the last two months.
The thought of them never getting along bugs me more and more the longer I think about it and my eyes shooting over to Atlas as I pull up to the starting line. “Why don’t you like Kortez?”
I hate how fragile my voice sounds right now. I don’t know what I’ll do if they never get over this hatred for each other. I need them both. Maybe that makes me selfish.
Atlas sighs, his eyes looking out over the track clearing for my race. I know who my opponent is, and I’ve seen him race a few times. I’m not worried.
“It’s not that I don’t like him. Actually, I think he’s a good guy. He works hard and he’s loyal to you, that’s all I could want for the woman I love.”
His words don’t make any sense, and I tell him that.
His bottom lip is pulled between his teeth and bit before he sighs and releases it. I’m transfixed by the small dot of blood pooling to the surface, but before I can lean over and kiss the hurt away, he’s talking again.
“He’s everything you need, and everything I’m not. He’s safe, Reginetta. He sees you kissing me and he loves you anyway. The only reason I’m angry with him is that he’s never told you how he felt and he let you go on this entire time thinking he didn’t want you as his.”
His words send my heart beating through my chest and my head shaking. “Kor doesn’t want me like that, Atty. He doesn’t love me like that. He would have told me if he did.”
Atlas turns to look at me; his eyes shielded with pain. “Would he, though?”
I nod, my hands tightening on the wheel. “Yes. We don’t keep secrets from each other.”
Atlas grunts and motions toward the track. “Get ready, Reginetta.”
I turn my eyes to the track in front of me, one hand on the shifter and one on the wheel as I wait for the girl in front of us to wave her red bandana. I can’t drop the conversation, though. “Kortez doesn’t love me.”
The girl in between my car and my opponent smiles, her crop top rising up her waist as she raises the bandana.
“Do you love him?”
The bandana drops to the ground, and I slam the car into gear, the car roaring with power as I push the accelerator and immediately jump a few feet ahead. “It doesn’t matter.”
Atlas whoops in the seat beside me and I can’t help but to smile as his car continues to speed up, losing the red Porshe behind us. Tires squeal on concrete as I turn the wheel to go around a post somehow still standing in the middle of the illegal racetrack.
“You’ve got him, Eve! Keep going!”
I do as he says, pushing the petal down to the floor and screaming with excitement as the car crosses the finish line. I spin the car around, smoke coming in through the windows as I look out the windshield to see the Porshe just now crossing into the end zone.
“Holy shit! That was incredible!” Atlas grabs my chin and leads my face over to his, our lips immediately colliding in a violent kiss.
His teeth nibble on my bottom lip and I taste blood from where he broke the skin, but I savor the flavor – It means I’m alive.
I’m alive and free enough to bleed in the throes of passion with the man I love.
We break apart, our breath wild as our eyes meet.
“Do you want to go to the loft?”
His loft. The place he’s spoken about but never let me visit.
“Hell yes.”
His smile is beautiful enough to make angels cry, but I don’t have enough time to focus on the beauty of it before he’s giving me directions to his home.
It’s closer than I thought, located in the warehouse district of town just a few blocks over from the races, and only a few more miles until we reach Saint Mary’s. So close, this whole time.
He presses a button on the console of his car and the entire wall of the warehouse in front of us begins to lift. He motions for me to continue in, and I creep the car forward, looking at every detail of the renovated warehouse.
From the outside, it looks like an old building.
As soon as I drove in, though, I can see it’s far from normal.
A lot of money has gone into making this place a magazine worthy home.
The bottom floor is completely cleared out with only a few toolboxes and car parts lying around and a spiral metal staircase leading to the second floor.
We get out of the car and Atlas leads me up the staircase where I can see a kitchen and laundry room off to the left. A bedroom sits to the right, lights only bright enough to show the king size bed lying in the center.
Without waiting for him to follow, I let go of his hand and walk to the right, immediately finding the switch and turning on the light to his bedroom.
It’s massive, but I shouldn’t be surprised considering it’s in a big ass warehouse.
His bed is made up of black silk sheets and a large matching comforter laid out on an industrial style bedframe.
The industrial look is followed throughout the room in metal and stained wood stools, lamps, and bedtables.
I feel him come up behind me, his arms wrapping tight around my waist. “What do you think?”
Laughing, I spin around in his arms. “Not too shabby for a bachelor pad. Here I was expecting bare walls and an air mattress.”
He leans in, his lips barely skimming mine. “Oh no, Reginetta. I wanted you to be as comfortable as possible when I made love to you for the first time.”
My breath hitches in my throat. We’ve spoken about it once where I told him I was ready and he told me he wanted my first time to be special. I’ve been waiting for a month.
Was he getting this place ready for me?
He begins to back us up toward the bed, “Tell me now if this isn’t what you want, Evangeline. I don’t plan to stop once I claim you as mine and I don’t give a fuck who else loves you.”
I ignore the jab toward Kortez and our earlier conversation. I refuse to believe he’s loved me this whole time and has stayed silent. “I hear a whole lot of talk and no actions to back it up. Don’t tell me you’re one of those men whose bark is worse than his bite.”
He laughs, grabbing my hips so tight there’s no doubt I’ll have his fingerprints bruised into my skin tomorrow. “Oh, you’ve done it now.”
He tosses me up on the bed and immediately crawls after me, his lips slamming down on my own with a force that rocks through me so hard I feel it down to my clit.
Our shoes hit the carpet as a ripping sound fills the air.
Atlas tears my shirt in half instead of letting his lips leave mine, filling me with the power of knowing that this god of a man finds me so irresistible that he doesn’t want to split from me for even half a second.
A button pops off from his shirt at my uncoordinated movements but eventually, I get it off of him and tossed to the floor leaving us both naked and grinding against each other.