Page 134 of The Reaping Rose

Yet when he dips his mouth to mine, I grip his shirt and pull him closer. Needing that hit of ego when everything has been an uphill battle. Clinging to this rush that has my heart thundering. Letting it erase the defeat that has been endless lately.

Atlas bends, gripping the backs of my thighs and wrapping my legs around him. My back strikes the stone wall, and the cave shudders.

Or maybe that’s my breath.

Stuttering as he caresses his tongue over my lower lip, daring me to let him in. For a moment, I pretend I can resist this need cresting in my core. My nails bite into the back of his neck, and I fight this desperation swelling inside me.

He grins against my mouth, rocking his hips against mine, forcing out a moan. “You want me to stop, Greer? You want me to set you down and walk away?”

Our eyes connect. His glinting. And I say the truest thing to cross my lips in weeks.

“No.”

When Atlas kisses me again, there’s no more restraint. His tongue dances with mine, and I’m a lightning bolt crashing to the sand. Untethered. Relentless.

“Take off your pants,” I demand, shoving my hand down and cupping his steel length.

The growl rattling his chest is feral. It echoes through the cave.

Atlas sets me down, and I don’t take my eyes off him as he unlaces his pants and shoves them down. Not the least bit ashamed as he strips before me, no doubt enjoying that there’s blood rushing to my cheeks. His magic makes it too easy for him to sense the heat building between my legs as he fists his hard cock in front of me.

Gods, he’s carved from solid stone. I’m far from inexperienced, but even I’m left speechless at the thickness that swells.

He reaches his free hand to my throat, gripping it firmly and pulling me to him.

This kiss is the one that decimates. It tears through me as if his lips were flames spreading fire across my skin. Down my throat and into my belly.

Atlas releases himself to undo the laces of my pants and shoves them down as he drops to his knees at my feet. The second he frees one of my ankles. He grabs the backs of my thighs again.

“Hold on, beautiful.”

My hands barely have time to grip his hair before he’s tossing my legs over his shoulders and diving between them. His tongue is hot and needy as he feasts. Flicking my sensitive bud and then sucking on it until I’m screaming as I writhe against the cave wall.

Sound is trapped by the shell he’s cast around us, and it holds in all heat. A bubble that is just us. A night that is just ours, no matter what the morning brings.

His tongue laps down, drawing circles, until my thighs are so tight around his face I might suffocate him. But Atlas doesn’t pull back. He doesn’t stop until the first spots start to sparkle at the corners of my eyes. It’s not fire that tears me apart; it’s an electric storm rushing through me. Striking through the realm again and again as I shake against him.

When I finally catch my breath, Atlas grins up at me. “Sure you don’t like me, Greer? You didn’t seem to mind that.”

“Shut up.” I shove him down onto the cave floor, climbing over him, erasing his grin as I sink onto his shaft.

“Damn it all to Sarrow.” His fingers dig into my thighs as he groans. His teeth grit in pleasure as I start to rock.

He’s so large, stretching me so deep I see stars. But I latch onto that bite of pain as I move over him. Aching with need as it slowly starts to churn into pleasure.

Atlas reaches up, grabbing the front of my leathers, and rips them down the front.

“You’re lucky I have another pair.” I narrow my eyes.

He sits up, grinning. “Stop trying to pick a fight and ride me.”

With an arm at my waist, he nips at my neck, teasing my nipple between his fingertips. And I can’t help but follow his command. I rock harder, meeting his rhythm as he angles his hips and forces me to take him deeper.

I hate him and I need him and I want him.

It’s a messy cluster of emotions warring in my chest, my mind, my soul. Atlas flips us, pinning me to the cave floor as he pounds into me until I can’t think. He wraps my wrists in one hand and holds them overhead, trapping me with his body—with his kiss.

I never allow this. I’m always on top. Always in control.