“You deserved it,” Lil snapped. “Put me down.”
“I’m gonna take you somewhere you can’t cause trouble for the next decade, d’ya hear me?”
“You won’t let him take me, will you?” Lilliane cried to her sisters.
Val suppressed her smile. “You’re in good hands, Lil.”
“Seriously? Traitor!” Lilliane continued to shout until Atlas walked her to his truck.
“I’ve got a feeling about those two,” Nero chuckled.
Val joined in on the laugh. “Same.”
Atlas pretended he didn’t hear them.
There was no way either Nero or Reece…or their mates…knew what Lilliane was to him. He would take that information to the grave, and even then, he might give the afterlife a serious talking-to for putting his perfect wet dream in his path.
Lilliane Longborn was all curves with long, brown hair and coffee-brown eyes. He would forever be haunted by the feel of her wiggling in his arms and the shape of her ass stuck in the air right by his face. Even her teeth clamped on his backside would give him something to jerk off to for decades to come.
Yup. Atlas was going to keep Lilliane under lock and key until she learned to not cause trouble. What kind of woman sacrificed herself to a shitty life of vampire matrimony? She had to be insane. Lilliane…and everyone else, including him…would be much safer if she cooled down.
You know why you’re taking her to your place?his wolf purred.You want her for yourself. Admit it. Bite her ass right now. She did it to you first. Reciprocating is only fair.
He ground his jaw down as he carefully set Lilliane in the passenger seat of his truck. That was a dangerous thought. Atlas had to keep his hands…and especially his fangs…away from Lilliane Longborn.
He ran the risk of accidentally mating her, and that was the last thing either one of them wanted.
TWO
LILLIANE
Lilliane’s body was on fire.
Atlas was a big man. All tall and muscled with enough power to drape her over his shoulder as if she weighed nothing. His large palms didn’t touch anything untoward, but that only made her angrier. At least if he was rough with her instead of oddly careful, she could hate him.
But Atlas smelled good, and his body felt like the safest place she’d been in days.
Weeks, even. Shit, if she was honest, being in Atlas’s arms was the safest she’d felt in years.
This is what I get for being raised by a man who doesn’t give a crap about me and sisters who see me as nothing but a burden.
Atlas was manhandling her, and she was halfway in love with him for caring in a really weird way. Did she want to marry a member of the vampire council? No. Fuck no. Did she want to marry Victor? Abso-fucking-lutely not. Did she have a choice? No.
Atlas was choosing to put himself in danger, even if he didn’t fully understand that just yet. She would make him understand by being as annoying as she could be. She was the youngest of three girls. She knew how to be annoying, just like her sisters.
Lilliane crossed her arms and didn’t say a word as Atlas drove. She hated him and needed out of the truck, but she didn’t want to crash the vehicle. When he pulled in front of a massive and beautiful log home, she regretted her choice.
It would be impossible to run from such a wooden fortress. Atlas killed the engine and glared over at her. “Will you get in the house, or am I gonna have to carry you again?”
She crossed her arms to hide her body’s reaction at the thought of Atlas touching her. “I’m not gonna make this easier for you.”
“Fine by me,” he said.
Before she could even formulate a plan, Atlas was out of the truck, opening her door and swinging her over his shoulder again.
“I hate you,” she said, wiggling like a worm in his arms. She stopped when she realized she was actually enjoying herself.
Atlas took a flight of stairs three steps at a time with his powerful legs. He opened a bedroom door and gently placed her on the floor. “Stay,” he said, backing away from her likeshewas the captor and not the other way around.
