Summer
Atlas’s scent engulfs me, awakening my senses before my eyes even open. When they do, I realize I’m clinging to him like he’s my lifeline.
This won’t end well.
For either of us.
The corner of my eye catches his phone sitting on the nightstand. I need to know if he’ll be visiting Mason soon. I need intel to keep my head in the game, because right now, it’s anything but.
I’ve been trying to figure out how Atlas got into my device, and I don’t think Link had anything to do with it. My guess is he used a certain feature I hadn’t disabled. Maybe the same trick would work on his phone?
I ease up carefully, reaching over him to grab it. A beat of hesitation makes it feel like it’s glued to the nightstand.
God, this is so wrong!
I point it at his face . . . with those lethally sharp cheekbones and dangerously tempting lips relaxed in sleep, as I move a strand of his pitch-black hair away from his forehead.
The quiet click of the unlock hits like a rib snapping in my chest, one of the ones guarding my heart.
I glance at Atlas, then open his messages, searching for the latest from his father.
Mason
Gabriel’s off to Malta. If the deal goes through, I’ll let him handle the rest of Europe for the next year. I’ll need you more present here.
Malta. Germany. Poland. Switzerland. Those documents I got my hands on . . .
No!
I need them in the same place, not on different continents.
This ruins everything.
Maybe if I create a problem for Mason’s business here, Gabriel will come running back home? I stash that idea for later and keep reading.
Mason
I’ve got a job for you. Bring the boys.
This is from a bit more than three weeks ago.
Can’t. Busy with the expansion.
A curt reply. He doesn’t want to go?
Things can’t get any worse. How the hell am I supposed to get Atlas to take me to Mason when he doesn’t want to visit his father in the first place?
Mason
Always the disappointment.
I’ll fucking kill him!
The phone starts vibrating with Link’s name popping on the screen, and I almost drop it before setting it back on the nightstand in a blink.
Atlas’s sleepy groan comes from beside me, while I try my best to calm my pulse so it doesn’t catapult my heart out, and feign sleep.
He shifts, and a second later the vibrations stop.
“So freaking beautiful,” Atlas whispers, fingers tracing my lips, and I’m a breath away from smiling.
Maybe he’ll kiss me. Touch more of me. Instead, the sound of ripping cloth makes my eyes shoot open, only to find Atlas tearing down my T-shirt, a boob already peeking through.
“What the—”
“Morning, love! New rule. You sleep naked next to me.” His mouth covers my nipple, greedily sucking on it and mumbling, “Always!” against my skin.
His phone starts vibrating again.
“Aren’t you gonna answer it?”
“My hands are busy.” The squeeze on my waist, and his tongue on my nipple gets my back arching off the mattress. “And so is my mouth.” I think that’s what he says, mouthful of boob.
“I want you.” I breathe out the truth I can’t hide anymore. A truth I didn’t factor into my game.
“Your pussy already told me. But I was waiting for your mouth to catch up.”
My phone ringing from the bathroom takes both my mind and eyes off Atlas, a full-blown panic mode kicking in.
If that’s Trent, I’m screwed.
“Who the fuck is calling you?”
An FBI agent along with my shitty luck to bite me in the ass—my luck, not the man, although I think the former wants that too.
“I have no idea.”
He doesn’t ask anything else before striding for the bathroom to take my phone, and I follow him, my mind racing through ways to stop this from blowing up.
Atlas doesn’t hesitate to pick up, unbothered by the fact I’m fighting to get it from him.
I’m sure he thinks that’s Eli, and the jealousy is eating him on the inside, but my ex gave up trying to reach me months ago.
Only Trent could be calling me now, and for the first time in I don’t know how long, I have no idea how to handle a situation.
“Yes?” Atlas answers with a single word as loaded as a gun.
That long, drawn-out pause before he says anything else is nerve-wracking.
“Link? How the hell did you get her number? Can’t this wait?
” Silence. “Fuck!” Atlas pinches the bridge of his nose.
“We have plenty of time. We’ll fix this by tomorrow.
Each of us will take a warehouse to comb through, and we’ll get what we need.
Text in the group chat which ones you’ll be handling.
” Another beat of silence. “Yeah, sure.”
He sets the phone down hard and curses again.
“What is it?”
“An inventory mix-up with the warehouses. And we need certain pieces for the gallery exhibit tomorrow.” He grips the counter and roars out another curse.
“Can I help?” I offer, though I’m not sure he would trust me with his business yet.
“I don’t wanna go.” Atlas’s tortured stance makes it painfully clear how much he doesn’t want to leave. He pushes himself off the counter and pulls me into his arms.
“But you have to. Take care of the problem, and I’ll see you later.”
“The event is tomorrow night. Do you have something to wear to that?” He cups my cheeks.
“Are you asking me on a date?”
He’s fucking asking me on a date!
“I don’t like the word ask. It implies you have the option to say no, when in reality, you don’t.”
“Your manners have not improved much.”
“Part of my charm.”
“Let’s agree to disagree on that.”
“If you don’t have anything to wear, I can leave you a card, and you can get yourself whatever you like.”
“I’ll borrow a dress.”
“Is ‘borrow’ a code for ‘steal’?”
“Borrow, steal . . . tomato, tomahto. Sounds the same to me.” He cackles. I love it when I make him laugh. “You have more important stuff to worry about than this. I can handle myself.”
“That’s the thing . . . I know you can. Better than anyone, for that matter. Still, anything concerning you is my priority.”
“Leave before I kiss you with unbrushed teeth!”
“I love it when you threaten me. No one does it like you do.”
He plasters another kiss on my lips, luring me into relinquishing power, feeling like gelato on a hot day in his arms. When he pulls away, he cups my face once more.
“Breakfast?”
“What?” Isn’t he supposed to handle the problem with the gallery as soon as possible?
“What do you want for breakfast, love? The gallery will have to wait.”
I’m biting my lip, but I won’t hold back my response.
“You.”
I smile.
He growls.
“I don’t do quickies. And once I’m inside you, I’m not stopping until you beg me to or my dick falls off.”
“Iced caramel latte,” I blurt out, before I’ve spread my legs like a quarter to three so I could tempt him to reconsider.
“Do you want me to make it a salted caramel for you?” He spins me and slaps my ass to get me out of the bathroom along with him. “Something sweet or salty with the latte?”
“Surprise me.”
He heads for the bed, takes his jeans from the floor, and puts them on.
“Any allergies other than peanuts?”
“Are you planning on poisoning me?” I tease, and he halts the buckling of his belt in favor of fixing his eyes on me.
“Honey, you’re a fuckin’ demon. I don’t think there’s a poison that would work on you. Hell, neither would venom. If a snake ever bit you, it would probably choke and die.”
A laugh bursts past my lips. It’s so easy with him.
I haven’t laughed like this in such a long time.
Like I’d lost that ability. But he brought it back into my life.
And all I plan on bringing into his is hurt and deception.
The thought alone kills my laughter as I watch him stride back to me, steal another kiss, and then head for the door.
“No other allergies.”
“I’ll be right back,” he says before the door closes behind him, and my chest contracts in a way I don’t recognize.
I try to draw in air, but a sharp pain coils around me, choking me with the realization of how far over my head I am. I don’t know what’s burning for Atlas, but it’s a fire I shouldn’t give any more oxygen to.
Taking off the mostly ripped T-shirt which has my boob sticking out of it, I head for the shower, hoping I’ll have time to clear my head with a cold one, before he’s back with breakfast.
I don’t know how much time I spent under the icy water, obviously long enough for my fingertips to prune, but I’m startled by a double tap on the shower screen.
“See you tonight, love!”
I get out of the shower and into the room, finding my latte and a salted caramel donut, along with a fucking Black Amex card, on my desk. But it’s the note that grabs my attention.
PIN: 7062 ->
My wolf acts more and more like a tamed puppy when he offers kind gestures like this. Still, I’m borrowing a dress from Raven and not using his card.
The arrow means flip, right?
Fucking freak!
I’m drinking it anyway.