Chapter 32
Eve
A stern look from Atlas sends the others walking over to Wylder’s for the night, leaving me and him alone to walk through my front door.
The adrenaline from the race still burns through my bloodstream just enough for the ties of my secrets to loosen, allowing me to breathe for the first time in weeks.
If it wasn’t for the small high, I wouldn’t be able to handle the look in Atlas’s eyes as he shuts the door behind him, turning toward me with as much grace as a mountain lion stalking its prey through the forest. If it wasn’t for the high, guilt would be eating me alive instead of this…this need.
God, I fucking need him right now.
Atlas chuckles, leaning back against the doorframe to watch me panting in front of him, my breasts aching for his touch, my cunt weeping for his approval.
The shadows in his eyes get washed away by his inner darkness, reminding me that he is the original misfit.
He’s the one I broke for, the one I mended myself back together for, the one that I love so much that I can hardly see when that love blurs the lines between hate.
He licks his lips, and I watch the movement with rapt attention, wishing that he was licking me instead. “Do you know what my reward is, Eve?”
Reward? What the hell – Oh.
His head gives a subtle shake as he begins a slow ascent towards me, his footsteps thundering on the ground like my heart pounding in my chest. “Don’t look like that, love. I didn’t need a reward for talking to my son. The guys just gave me a little…motivation.”
“What kind of motivation?” The words are barely a whisper as Atlas comes to a stop in front of me.
He reaches up, grabbing my neck in his hands and giving it a firm squeeze. My mind flashes back to ten years ago, when he first took my neck in his hands and squeezed until I came for him.
“I wasn’t allowed to join in on the bet until my son talked to me.” He reaches out with his free hand to slide my shirt up until the cool air caresses my stomach. “I didn’t care what they thought, but I wanted to get things on the right track with Abel first, so I went along with it.”
His grip around my throat loosens just enough for me to say, “What fucking bet, Atlas?”
His hand tightens against my throat once more and I gasp in surprise as his other hand tears my shirt straight from my body, leaving me in only a skirt and a thin bra.
“Watch the way you fucking talk to me, Evangeline. Ten years I’ve been dreaming of you, missing the feeling of your tight cunt strangling my cock…
I’m feeling a little feral at the moment. ”
The panties that were drenched at the racetrack become effectively ruined and my lace bra feels rough on my nipples, nipples he reaches down to tweak before continuing.
“We’re going to see who puts their baby in you first, Reginetta, and I plan to fuck you so hard your womb gets an imprint of my cock.
It's going to know it belongs to me even when the others are having you scream their names.”
He lets me go, immediately stripping me out of the rest of my clothes and tossing them over his shoulder in his frenzy to get me naked. A boot hits the door, one knocks over a vase, my bra hangs over my lamp – and none of it stops him in his mission.
He doesn’t bother stripping down before he’s tossing me over his shoulder and rushing up the stairs, giving my ass a firm smack as he walks us through my bedroom door.
I let out a grunt as he tosses me on the bed, crawling up on his hands and knees as he toes off his shoes. “I hear you like toys, little ghost.” He leans down and takes a nipple in his mouth, biting it hard before licking away the hurt. “I don’t think I need toys to make you scream, though.”
And he didn’t. I don’t even realize he’s naked until his cock is brushing up against me, soaking him in my juices just enough for him to slam inside me.
His moans and my screams mix together in a lust infused symphony, our souls intertwining until I can’t tell his breathing from mine, his heartbeat from the pounding in my ears.
The same love and obsession I felt for him ten years ago rears its beautiful head, biting him as her own.
I lean forward, latching onto his shoulder with my teeth as he pounds into me, my bed shaking with the force of his thrusts. His fist wraps in my hair, pulling it down my back until I’m releasing his arm and tilting my head back with a loud moan.
His teeth latch on my neck, biting me until I feel the blood beginning to drip down my chest. You’d think we were monsters with the sounds coming from us, the possessive growls and claims of ownership spilling from our lips.
How did I ever expect to live without knowing this level of obsession again? Kor is my safety, Roman my joy, Wyld is pure in his love, while Atlas is my darkness. The selfishness in my heart won’t allow him to live without me, and maybe that’s how the line between love and hate blurred so easily.
It’s unhealthy. It’s savage. It’s the love of misfits.
He flips us over, my back immediately arching and allowing him to get a grip on my hips before he slams back inside. My orgasm rushes through me and I bury my head in the pillows, screaming out as he makes good on his promise to make me feel him.
His hand tangles in my hair once more as he brings my head up, “Don’t hide those pretty little screams, my ghost. Haunt me.”
I let him hear every little tremor, every hoarse cry as he slams in a final time and releases himself inside me. My body shakes as I feel him slide out, his cum beginning to slide down my thighs as he pulls me back against him.
His fingers wrap around the chain I keep around my neck, the diamond ring glinting off the dim light in my bedroom. Our bodies are slick with sweat, tears, blood – the mixture of our special love.
He pulls the chain, dragging my neck around until our lips crash together in a passionate kiss, his tongue sliding across mine as my nails leave indents in his arms. No one could blame me for holding on so tightly when he so easily slipped from my grasp before.
I’ve grown claws in the last decade, though – talons I plan to use to hook into him and the others to make sure they never stray far. It’s what a queen does.
Our breath mingles between our bodies as he pulls away, his eyes searching mine as the chain begins to dig into my neck from his grip. “Marry me, Evangeline.”
Just as it did ten years ago, my breath stops in my lungs as my heart skips a beat, his question echoing through my ears. I’m overwhelmed by his words, the same way I was the first time he asked, except this time it’s for a completely different reason.
I shake my head, a small smile growing on my face as I try to downplay his proposal. “You can’t possibly ask me to marry you after every time we have sex.”
He shrugs, his broad chest flexing with the movement. “I will until you say yes. I’ll ask you every single day until I hear that little word come from your
lips if that’s what it takes.”
He sees the war in my eyes and presses a gentle kiss to my lips, wrapping his arms around me and bringing me closer to him. “One day, Eve, you will be my wife. If the others want to give you a ring, then so be it, but my name is the last one you’ll ever take.”
Someone is in my house.
It’s nearly four in the morning and Atlas is passed out beside me, his arm hanging limply over my body and his lips muttering words I can’t understand, but I’m wide awake.
It isn’t unusual for me to wake up in the middle of the night.
I had horrible dreams while I was pregnant and for some reason, those dreams never quit after I had my son.
Instead, they got worse. It wasn’t just dreams anymore.
The nightmares of our house catching fire turned into me smelling the smoke and seeing the flames lick underneath my door.
The fears of someone breaking into my house to harm my baby transformed into hearing the door break open and footsteps coming up the stairs.
Most of the time, I’m able to realize that it’s all in my head. Not tonight, though.
Because tonight, someone really was in my house.
I never heard my door break open or a window shatter, but the footsteps downstairs are as real as I am. Men’s, by the sound of it, and a big man if the echoing thud is anything to go by.
Maybe it is another nightmare, Evie. Just go check and then go back to sleep.
There it is – my little voice of reason.
Then, there’s something besides footsteps. Breaking glass.
I take a quick look at Atlas’s sleeping form and then shake my head. He’s sleeping, and I’ve never needed a man to check my house before this. Grabbing my pistol from the hidden strap beneath my nightstand, I creep around the bedroom and open my door, peaking through the crack.
After making sure the top floor hall was clear, I use my toe to open my bedroom door just enough for me to slip through. Paying attention to where I place my feet on the stairs, making sure to miss the few places where they creak, I make my way to the bottom floor.
A soft curse comes from my kitchen, and I see the stove light come on, a tall shadow moving around on the wall as I tiptoe my way forward. Double checking my gun to make sure the safety is off, I work my way through the dining room and into the edge of the kitchen.
There, getting the fucking trash bag out of the can, is Kortez.
“Kor, what the fuck?” My scream makes him drop the bag, bits of trash and glass from the vase Atlas broke earlier scattering over the ground.
He looks up, his eyes wide as he takes in the sight of me with a gun leveled at him. “Evangeline. You’re…naked.”
My eyes drop down to realize that in my anxiety heightened state, I never put clothes on. I click the safety back on the gun and wrap my arms around myself, my body heating at his stare. “Yeah, um – “
“Eve!” I turn to see Atlas rushing down the stairs, his dark hair sticking up at wild angles as he clutches his own gun in his hand.
“I heard you scream and – Jesus, here.” He shoots Kor a look before taking his shirt off and slipping it over my head, grabbing my gun from me as he does. “What the hell is going on?”
I turn to see Kortez watching us with a curious expression on his face – one I want to kiss off him.
“I thought I heard something, so I came downstairs to see Kor…taking out the trash?” I hear the confusion in my own voice, but the randomness of the whole situation makes me start to giggle. “Again, what the fuck?”
He looks sheepishly down at the floor and the glass around his feet. “I let myself in. I saw the glass on the floor and didn’t want you hurting yourself.” He looks down at his hand and for the first time, I see the blood dripping down his fingers.
I nod slowly, watching his eyes track the blood dripping from his hand down to the floor. He licks his lips with the same hunger I saw in him that day in the forest.
“Come on, Kor, let’s go to bed.”