where I’d first begged him for more.
Where I’d first stolen his kiss.
His love.
He dipped his head to the crook of my shoulder, trailing his nose up and down in a mindless, lust-crazed way that made me go cross-eyed and weak-kneed.
“Why aren’t you wearing your locket?”
My eyes flickered down. “He took it.”
Something flashed in his eyes, but he said nothing. His palm stayed on my belly, pressing the empire waist back to feel and expose my bump. Something buzzed and burned his blue eyes. Something I couldn’t read, something deep and hollow.
What happened in the two weeks that I was away to make my Atlas look so weathered? Prisoner. Prisoner. Prisoner.
“What happened?” I asked. “What did they do?”
He pressed his forehead to mine, palm flat on my stomach, closing his eyes.
“How is she doing?” His voice was rough and jagged, like he was holding himself back to ask the question. He parted my thighs with his knee, and I forgot what he’d asked.
Focused only on the perfect pressure his knee applied to that deep, aching part of me. On the primal possession radiating from that grip on my stomach, like he wanted to sear it into my belly, into us.
“Snitch,” he grated.
“She’s perfect,” I breathed the answer on a shivery breath.
His strong fingers came to my face and his touch turned fevered. Desperate. He dragged my lips closer until we shared one breath. Questions in my head died on my lips at the look in his eyes.
Why did a servant give me that letter? What’s going on? Have you found the coin? Are we safe yet? Is this over yet?
The world melted away, the silence amplified by the crashing of the waves and our breathing like one, magical spell. It was just me and Grayson, in the room that had always been our secret from fate.
“How are you doing, Snitch?” His lips were so close to mine I couldn’t think past the heat of them or the growl hitching his voice. The curling in my stomach and the pounding of my heart. I leaned on my tiptoes—
“Snitch.” He growled, his breath heating my lips.
“Perfect,” I whispered.
Because in this crystalline second, I was.
He dragged me closer, our lips nearly one—then one blinding question stopped me in my tracks.
“How are you doing, Atlas?”
“I’m perfect.” He crushed his lips against mine. “Now.”
Fourteen
STORY
We both let out the same needy, aching groan as our mouths collided. Yet, Grayson pulled back, barely giving me the kiss I needed.
The relief I needed.
Tormenting me.
I clung to his neck, his shoulders, but mostly, I clung to the way he watched me. The utter lust and possession combined with such complete defeat in his blue eyes made my throat dry. It was like he was an old sailor drawn to the rocks, as if I was the enthralling one in the room.
I got high off it.
I remember thinking Grayson Crowne would never look at me, and now it was like he can’t stop looking at me.
“Tell me what you’re thinking,” I begged.
He breathed his next words against my lips, a hot, arrogant promise. “I’d rather show you, little wife.”
With two hands, he ripped my dress. The tear echoed with crashing waves and I arched into him on a gasp. I couldn’t think beyond his fingers, his sugary sweet lips whispering dirty words, his cock an iron bar on my hip.
I looked down at my torn dress, at my cleavage lifting toward his mouth with my heavy breaths.
A few more inches torn and I’d be entirely bare.
“Your bruises have faded, little wife…” he trailed off, nostrils flared, blue eyes disappearing into black pupils. The grit in his voice slid into my chest, into my lungs. “You should be painted in them.” He crushed his lips against my cleavage, teeth closing on my flesh.
I arched off the wall on a cry as his hand secured me in the arch, captive against his wicked mouth.
Grayson was ruthless, dragging his teeth across my chest. Goose bumps rose with his teeth, and I melted into the possession of his growl on my flesh—the ownership.
I groaned his name like a prayer, twining my fingers into his unruly, silky hair.
Distantly, like the soft crash of waves, a thought tried to push into the forefront. We should be using this time to talk—but now I was nothing save sensation—nothing but deep, throbbing need. Grayson was everywhere at once. Lips hot on my flesh, teeth scraping over the hills and valleys of my breasts.
I could only groan.
He smiled against my