Not he’dhadnothing, butI was nothing.“Not true.”
His stare glittered.
“You’ve never been nothing, Atlas.”
“Ah, sweets, you didn’t see the way I was thrown away as a child.”
Tears burned in her eyes.“You were nevernothing.”
The blue of his gaze just electrified all the more.“I came back that last night, back to my college dorm, just to pick up some books I’d forgotten, and the bastard roommate I’d always hated was on top of a terrified redhead.He had his hand clamped over her mouth so she couldn’t scream.Tears were pouring down her face.”His right hand fisted, then released.“I yanked him off her.Told her to run the hell out of there.He was furious with me.Saying he was going to end me.The prick grabbed his fucking needle, and he came at me with it.I just took it from him.Snatched it right out of his damn hand, and, without even thinking about it, I shoved it into his neck.”
“Atlas…”
“I had no idea what was in the needle.Didn’t know how strong it was.I also didn’t go get any help for him.I watched him fall.Then I got my books, and I walked out.By the time anyone found him, I was long gone from the campus.Always knew the girl wasn’t going to tell anyone she saw me.She was far too glad that Bryan was dead.”
He’d just confessed to two murders.After giving her the best orgasm of her life, he’d casually confessed to twomurders.No, no.She shook her head.Not murder.Self-defense.He’d been attacked first in each instance.
He’d struck back.
“Doesn’t make it better, though, does it?”He leaned down, putting his forehead against hers.“Oh, my Lily, I can practically see the wheels spinning in that beautiful mind of yours.Are you trying to excuse what I did?Justify it?I do that, you see.Justify it to myself so I can say I’m not like him.If they strike first, then I am fighting back.Maybe that way, if I am ever caught, Theodora can have a defense ready for me.Justifiable homicide.”His head rose.His lips feathered over her brow.“I always let them have the first strike.”
Is that why you were taken in the parking lot?You were letting that perp strike first?
“And then I end them,” Atlas told her.
A shudder worked over her body.
His mouth moved—he pressed his lips to hers.“Is that revulsion?”Atlas asked her.
No, it wasn’t.Should it have been?Because no part of her felt revulsion for Atlas.You were never nothing.
Another soft kiss.“This is why you have forty-eight hours.So you will know me completely.So you choose, understanding what you will get from me.What I am.”Then he let her go.Paced away from her.He turned and positioned himself at the foot of the bed.“This is the part where you can grab the phone on that nightstand and call your annoying ex.You can tell Gage Emerick that I confessed all to you.You can take me down.”
She did not reach for the phone.
“Or you can climb back in bed.You can pull the covers up over your head.You can pretend I gave you a great orgasm and that I said nothing after that amazing event.You can sleep, and this can be a dream.”
She kept her stare on him.Amazing, huh?Yes, though, it had been.She still quivered.
“Or…” Atlas’s deep voice rumbled, “you can accept me and all the dark parts that I have.Parts that Iswearwill never hurt you.Because I will not be like him, Lily.I will never be like my father.I have the urges inside me, the ones that you talked about before, the ones that rise and want to consume you, but I don’t hurt the helpless.Not ever.I go after those who are coming for me.Those bastards?They’d hurt others.They’d given pain to women.Kids.They have killed.They are the ones who deserve the hell I bring.”A slow exhale.“Does that make it all right?Probably not.But I don’t really give a shit.It’s who I am.What I do.”He brought his hand to his lips.“Just so you know, you tasted delicious.”
Her heart was drumming too hard, the sound echoing too loudly in her ears.
“Good night, Lily.”He turned away.Walked for the door.Just dropped his bombshell and gave her a body-shaking orgasm and let the door shut softly behind him.
She stayed in place for all of five seconds.Then she was grabbing her discarded pants.Yanking them on.Toeing into her flats and tearing off after him.When she opened her door, he was already halfway down the stairs.“Atlas!”She raced to the top of the stairs.
He turned to look back at her.Upat her.
“Where are you going?”Lily asked him.Why hadn’t he just gone into the bedroom right beside hers?He was fully dressed.He always intended to leave the house.
“You don’t want to know.”
“I do.”He’d given her three choices.Turn him over to the Feds.Pull the cover over her head and pretend she hadn’t heard his confession.Or accept him.
“Fine.Since I’ve decided to refuse you nothing…”
“Whendid you decide that?”
