Total pages in book: 176
Estimated words: 167257 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 836(@200wpm)___ 669(@250wpm)___ 558(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 167257 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 836(@200wpm)___ 669(@250wpm)___ 558(@300wpm)
“And when you’re ready to shoot it out, just let me know, but Atlas stays out of it. Don’t come near her. Don’t even speak to her. Just ignore her like you’ve been doing.”
“I didn’t know!” he roared.
“Well, now you do. If you want a second chance, it will be on her terms, when she’s ready. Now go handle your marriage. I’m taking my girl home.”
Not another word was said as I helped Atlas into the car.
The drive home was silent and heavy. Atlas had gone numb, staring blankly out into nothing. In our bathroom, I peeled off her clothes and then mine before carrying her into the shower.
“Talk to me, Dream. Let me know you’re still in there.”
She didn’t so much as blink as I washed her body. I quickly cleaned us both before wrapping a towel around my waist and drying her off with another. Then I grabbed her vanilla-scented body lotion, squirted a dollop in my palm, and massaged it into her skin.
Once that was done, I moved behind her, grabbed one of her hair clips from the counter, and began pinning up her twist-out like I’d seen her do.
“Do you know why I kept those letters?” I asked as I worked. Atlas didn’t respond verbally, but she blinked, and I knew she was listening. “I didn’t really know why myself until you found them. I knew you took the key by the way, so when I finally figured out why I kept them, I left them there for you to read. It was proof, Atlas. Proof that I could be loved beyond reason. I know it’s fucked up, but I’m not an easy man. There’s no trauma or demons that made me this way. I am who I am, and the moment I accepted that, I knew what it would take. Anytime I lost hope that I would find something real, I remembered those letters. Anytime I thought about saving you from me, I remembered those letters. It was never about her. It was about you. I saved them to remind me to wait for you. I kept them as proof that there was a woman out there brave or crazy enough to love a man like me.”
It took me longer than she usually took to pin her hair, but once her curls were secure, I grabbed her silk scarf she always wore to bed and tied it around her head.
“You didn’t give up on me even when reason told you,” I whispered while staring at our reflections in the mirror, “so I’m not giving up on you. Come back to me.”
Atlas released a shuddered exhale as if whatever demon held her had been vanquished for now. “Owen.”
“Let that shit go, baby. There’s no one else here but me. I got you. Where am I standing?”
The reminder that I had her back broke the dam free. The tears she’d held back at Joren and Jada’s now rushed down her supple cheeks. “I never should have come here.” She sobbed.
My chest felt like it had caved in. “Yes, you should have. Do you know why?” She shook her head. “Because you weren’t meant to find them, Dream. You were meant to find me.”
Atlas’s tortured gaze met mine in the mirror. “What if we were fated, Owen, but not meant to be?”
I pressed a kiss to her shoulder while never looking away. “Then I’ll keep you anyway.”
She sucked in a breath but didn’t object this time. I knew she was feeling it too. We were already damned, so what would it matter? The world wouldn’t care if we could have known. They’d judge us from inside their glass homes anyway.
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
We brushed our teeth and got dressed. I threw on a pair of boxers, and she stole another one of my ribbed tanks. I noticed she skipped wearing panties again but didn’t remark on it. Afterward, we climbed into bed even though it was still early.
“Just for a little while,” I told her when she begged me not to go. I searched underneath the covers for the remote because her ass never remembered to put it on the nightstand and always fell asleep with the TV on. Once I found it, she curled around me while I opened the Netflix app. “What do you want to watch?”
“Bridgertons.”
“Man, fuck.” I sucked my teeth and scrolled to find that boring-ass show. After she made me watch a couple of episodes with her last month, before Jada happened, I made it clear if she wanted to finish without me, I was more than cool with that.
“All right, fine,” she said, relenting. “I finished it last week anyway since I was mad at you.” I smirked at her cappin’ ass and continued to browse the app. “Ooh! That one,” she said when I landed on a horror movie.