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He nods. “Do it anyway. You might surprise yourself—or your opponent, which is the important part. It will buy you time to run, which is why you’ve been doing that every day too. The faster and longer you can run, the better chance you have at—”
“Not having my throat ripped out? Yeah, I got that.”
His grip on my hips tightens as a muscle feathers along his jaw. “That’s not going to happen.”
I tilt my head, searching his face foranything. “Would that upset you?” I ask.
Atlas blinks at me. “What?”
“My death,” I say simply.
He narrows his eyes ever so slightly, barely enough to notice. But I do. “You’re not going to die.”
“First off, that’s incorrect. I’m human—I will die. And second, that’s not what I asked you.”
He pushes me backward, keeping his grip on me, and my back hits the wall. “What would you like to hear me say, Calla?” he says in a low voice.
I swallow hard, forcing myself to hold his intense gaze. “I want you to answer my question. It’s not a hard one.”
His jaw works as his eyes dance across my face. “I don’t wish to see you dead, no.”
I press my lips together against a smile despite the restless beat of my heart in my chest. “Now how hard was that?”
Atlas drags one hand up my side, his fingers skimming over my arm and leaving goose bumps in their wake. He wraps his fingers around the side of my neck, using his thumb under my chin to tilt my head back against the wall. His gaze makes me freeze. Despite what he just said, I can’t tell if he’s about to kiss me or tear into my throat himself.
“Tell me to walk away,” he says gruffly, the space between his brows creased with tension.
I reach for him, sliding my hands up his chest. “No.” My voice is soft, barely above a whisper.
Surprise flickers across his features. “Calla—”
“I don’t want you to leave,” I tell him. “I want you to kiss me.” Things with Atlas are noticeably different than with the others. More intense in a way I couldn’t have expected. But I crave him nonetheless. I could continue denying it, but that hasn’t gotten me anywhere thus far, so what’s the point?
His thumb moves slowly along my jaw. “This is a dangerous path we’re heading down,” he warns, but he doesn’t move away.
“Nothing about my life is safe these days,” I offer. “It never was.”
He shakes his head. “This is different.”
“How?” I push.
“Because ofyou,” he says. “You’re human.”
“And you’re a vampire,” I say plainly. “Now that we’ve cleared that up—”
“I don’t want to rip you apart,” he snaps. “Before when I said you wouldn’t survive the things I want to do to you, that wasn’t a lie, Calla.”
I stand there silently, because what the hell am I supposed to say to that? Should I admit that I’m curious, that an incredibly reckless part of me wants to try it—whateveritis—anyway? Yeah, probably not.
“Don’t,” he warns, clearly seeing something on my face that gave away my thoughts.
I pull his hand away from my face and hold it between both of mine. “You’re not going to break me.”
He laughs darkly on a harsh exhale. “You have no idea what I could do to you.”
“You’re right, I don’t. But you’re not going to scare me away. You’re stuck with me as much as I’m stuck with you, so we may as well make the best of it.”
“You have three other guys walking around this house who are more than willing to see to whatever you need and desire.”
