Page 74 of Hot Knot Summer
“You’re incorrigible,” I gasp.
“I’m thorough,” he corrects, pressing a kiss to my inner thigh, just above my knee. “And attentive.” Another kiss, higher. “And very, very determined to make you forget every Alpha who came before me.”
His hands slide higher, thumbs tracing circles on my inner thighs, each pass bringing him closer to where I’m aching for his touch. My head falls back, a whimper escaping me as he teases, approaching but never quite reaching where I burn for him the most.
“Atlas,” I plead, beyond pride now. “Please.”
“Please what, Emma?” His breath is hot against my most intimate place, only the thin cotton of my underwear separating us. “Tell me what you need.”
“You,” I gasp, hands fisting in his hair. “Your mouth. Please, I can’t… I need…”
He growls with satisfaction, hooking his fingers into the waistband of my underwear and drawing them down my legs with agonizing slowness. The cool night air against my heated flesh makes me gasp, but it’s nothing compared to the shock of his mouth on me, bare and intimate and devastating in its skill.
“Oh God,” I moan as his tongue pushes betweenmy folds, flicking across my clit. “Atlas, that’s… fuck…” I grip the railing behind me with a death grip, holding on, my knees melting as he pushes my legs wider, pushing himself closer, deeper.
He hums against me, the vibration sending shockwaves of arousal through my body. My thighs tremble, threatening to give out, but his strong hands hold me steady.
“So responsive,” he murmurs, pulling back just enough to look up at me as he bunches up my skirt, pushing it up to my waist and tucking in at the band so he can see me. His lips glisten with evidence of my slickness. “So fucking perfect. You taste like honey and sin.”
Before I can respond, his mouth is on me again, more insistent now. His tongue circles my clit while one thick finger teases my entrance before pushing inside.
The sensation is overwhelming. I bite my lip to keep from crying out, my hips moving of their own accord, seeking more.
“Don’t hold back,” Atlas commands, adding a second finger alongside the first, stretching me deliciously. “Let me hear you. I want to know exactly what you like.”
“Everything,” I gasp, beyond coherent thought now. “Fuck, you’re doing everything right… just don’t stop, please don’t stop.”
He increases his pace, crooking his fingersinside me to hit that spot that makes stars explode behind my eyes while his tongue works relentlessly against my clit. The pressure builds, higher and higher, my body drawing tight as a bowstring.
“That’s it,” he encourages, his voice rough with desire. “Come all over my mouth, coat my hand in your sweet juices, Emma. Let go. Show me how good I make you feel.”
His words, combined with the twist of his fingers and firm press of his tongue, send me hurtling over the edge. I come with a cry that echoes across the night, my body convulsing around his fingers as the most incredible orgasm crashes through me in waves.
Almost immediately, a chorus of wolf howls rises from the distant forest, the wild sound mingling with my gasps as I ride out the aftershocks.
Atlas stays with me through every tremor, gentling his touch but not stopping until I’m a quivering, oversensitive mess above him. Only then does he pull away, pressing one final kiss to my inner thigh before rising to his feet, snatching my underwear in the process, and shoving them into his pocket. His gaze meets mine, glittering in the darkness, pupils so wide there’s only a thin ring of blue around them.
“That,” he murmurs, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear with unexpected tenderness, “was the most magnificent fucking thing I’ve ever seen and tasted.”
I stare at him, still trembling from the force of myrelease, wondering how this man, this Alpha I’ve known for less than a week, has reduced me to my most elemental self with such ease. In his eyes, I see galaxies, universes.
The reality of what we’ve just done crashes over me suddenly, bringing with it a wave of panic. What am I doing? This is exactly how it starts… The intoxication, the feeling of being special, unique. And then inevitably comes the crash, the moment when they decide I’m not enough after all.
I can’t do it again. I can’t survive another rejection, especially not from him. Not from any of them. I push down my skirt.
“Hey,” Atlas says softly, clearly reading the shift in my expression. “Stay with me.”
“I-I can’t,” I stammer, though every cell in my body screams at me to do just that, to see where this could lead.
“Yes, you can,” he counters, his hand cupping my face. “Whatever you’re thinking right now, whatever doubts are creeping in, they’re lying to you.”
For one breathless moment, I consider believing him. Consider letting myself fall into whatever this is, consequences be damned.
But then I remember the hollow feeling in my chest after Chad, after Jason, after all the others. Remember how each rejection chipped away at something fundamental inside me until I barely recognized myself.
“If I stay,” I whisper, the truth of it burning in mythroat. “If I let myself have this, have you... I’ll never recover when it ends.”
“Who says it has to end?” The certainty in his voice is almost enough to convince me.
