Page 41 of The Oath We Take

“What was that thought?” he asks.

I huff a laugh. “Are you a mind reader now?”

He shakes his head. “Your poker face was never much good around me. You get little wrinkles in the bridge of your nose.”

“You think we could fail.”

“Everything can fail, sweetheart. But that’s not why I’m suggesting this. When we go face your dad, which we will eventually, since I don’t like the idea of lying to him, we need to be one hundred percent certain, because it will be bumpy for a while after. He’ll see straight through us if we’re unsure.”

Okay. I can get my head around that. “You’re right. If I know my father, he’ll interrogate us both. We should be sure. So, I guess I’m agreeing while feeling incredibly nervous because when we stop talking, you’re gonna kiss me again. And then we're going to have to decide one bed or two, and then?—”

Atom’s lips crush mine and cancel the wave of nervous thought and verbal flood that just overwhelmed me. His palms cup my cheeks, his hands so big and fingers so long that they reach into my hair.

Gently, he guides me back to the wall. “You want me to decide what happens next, Ember? Because for once in my life, I’m utterly certain.”

13

ATOM

Ican’t believe I’m making out with Ember Deeks, but for once, it’s not even hard to push down the thought of consequences. Not when her body feels this good beneath my palms or when her lips move against mine in a way that drives my cock to distraction.

Or the way it feels so right to be kissing the person my soul has been entwined with for most of my life.

Any sense of what might happen in the future disappears in her warmth, in the way she kissed me back and came on my cock for the very first time. I loved the plushness of her beneath my palms, I loved the softness of her curves, but most of all, I loved the way she was wholly in the moment with me.

There was no coyness, or insecurity. Just a wholehearted appreciation of what our bodies could create together. And now I know, I want more.

“If I said I wanted to sleep with you, but not have sex with you, would that be okay?” she says suddenly.

My dick shouts no. “We can go at whatever speed you want, sweetheart.”

“It’s just…I guess I still want the romance of it. You know, new guy, cute messages, the buildup, the bases.”

I smile at that, understanding where she’s coming from. She’s not some club girl you fuck, and bang whatever stress is in your system out in her body. I don’t know how I’m gonna make it so, but she’s gonna be my wife one day.

“I’ll do my best to deliver them in order. You say no, that’s cool. But I reserve the right to run a few steps in parallel.”

She smiles at that. “I should probably have a conversation with Rocco too. I know it was only one date, but given the intensity of what happened and what he did for me, I don’t want to be that person who ghosts someone else. Especially after what we went through. It’s probably hypocritical to put the brakes on what we just did now that I’ve…”

“Come?”

She blushes at the word; it’s cute. “I’ll tell him tomorrow that we aren’t going to work out.”

I sigh. “And I should probably be the bigger man here, because the guy did look out for you the other night. I’m grateful that he was there for you when I wasn’t.”

Ember reaches out and touches my jaw with her fingertips. “I’ve always thought you were a good man. When you weren’t being an asshole to me.”

“I feel like you gave as good as you got.”

The heat of what we just did, the kissing and grinding, passes. My balls ache a little, but nothing that will kill me.

I take her hand, and we walk down the corridor toward the bedroom doors on opposite sides of the hallway.

“Just want to confirm, separate or together?” I ask.

“Together,” she says.

“Naked?” I ask with a grin.

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