Page 39 of The Oath We Take

He kisses my knuckles one at a time. It’s hard to make out the expression on his face.

Contrition.

Wonder.

Gently, he pulls me to him. My brain screams that I know better than to agree. But it can’t beat my heart, which is foolishly willing to risk the fall.

When his lips meet mine, I’m lost to the wonder of it.

When Rocco kissed me, it was sweet. Soft. Safe, maybe. But everything about the way Atom touches me is dark and dangerous.

Maybe it’s the fact it’s forbidden that makes it all the more delicious. That it’s something we aren’t supposed to do, but we’re doing it anyway. The rebellion makes everything taste sweeter.

He lifts me with strong arms like I’ve always dreamed of him doing. And I wrap my legs around him. I’m not a small woman, but he makes me feel like I am. He holds me with such strength and certainty as he pushes me back against the wall, his cock nudging against my pussy through his thick denim and my shorts.

Everything in me tightens and shivers.

“Ember,” he groans. “Tell me to stop.”

I think about my love life for the last five years. Being set up by friends. Dating apps, coming home to ridiculous messages.

Hey, sugar tits.

You look like you need a good dicking.

Jerking to your pics was so good. Can’t imagine what the real thing is gonna feel like.

They would go from bad to worse, leaving me feeling so dirty, I needed a shower. Debatable consent in a dating-app world. Because I sure as fuck didn’t give any of these men the consent to approach me sexually.

I’m breathless. “You know I can’t.”

I don’t want to go back to that. Not when I can have this in whatever form it takes. Not when his hands stroke my body, learning my every curve.

There’s a reason I’m single, and it’s because I’ve been waiting for Atom to come to his senses and see me.

No, not see me. If I believe what he said earlier, he always has.

What I’ve been waiting for is for him to want me so badly, he’s willing to overrule every other control mechanism he put in place to keep the two of us apart.

I’ve been unable to find a real connection with anyone else because of him.

Our eyes lock, and I swear our hearts must be racing to the same beat.

“Fuck it,” he says, before kissing me like it’s the last thing either of us will ever do.

And now, as my heart races as he squeezes the cheeks of my ass, I lose myself in the taste of him when his tongue brushes mine.

“Atom,” I mutter against his lips.

A lifetime of daydreams about how it would feel with this man hardly prepared me for the reality. As he drops the pretense of indifference, I allow myself to believe for a heartbeat that it could be real.

For a decade, there’s been an Atom-shaped hole in my life that no one has been able to fill.

His lips brush kisses along my jaw, and I tilt my neck to allow him room to work his magic. He kisses behind my ear and nibbles on the lobe as I run fingers through his hair.

His cock feels so good pressed up between my legs, I have to bite down on the urge to grind against him. Denim rubs against denim, causing a friction and warmth that edges me closer to an orgasm.

He groans against my neck as his fingers dig into the cheeks of my ass and squeeze.

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