Page 20 of Owned

I’d seen them do it with my mother. All those boyfriends of hers who didn’t care, who only wanted sex from her, and she was just so desperate for someone to love her that she’d put up with being treated like shit.

Nope, that wasn’t going to be my future. I was better off without men in my life, a thousand times better off, which meant I had zero interest in taking Atlas’s money.

At least with Charlotte the strings were obvious and agreed on beforehand. And she’d said there would be a contract to sign, so why not?

Money equaled power and that’s what I wanted. Power to help my mother, to create the kind of life for her where she was always cared for, where she wouldn’t have to worry about anything. Where I could go to college like I wanted and finally get out of this endless cycle of crappy jobs.

Naturally I had doubts about Charlotte’s offer, but I couldn’t afford to refuse it, no matter what the man sitting beside me said, powerful and golden, and every shade of beautiful.

He wasn’t smiling his usual lazy smile now. His face was hard, his wolf’s eyes sharp. He hadn’t liked me refusing him, that was clear.

Too bad. He could suck it up.

“Excellent,” Charlotte said, smiling at me. “I knew you’d do it. I’ll have my lawyers draw something up to send to you. There will be a few health checks required, but nothing drastic.”

“So,” Atlas murmured, an edge in his deep, rich voice. “You’d rather marry me and have my baby than take my money. Good to know.”

The words ‘marry me’ and ‘have my baby’ made my skin tighten. Made my cheeks get hot, which was pretty much the same response I’d had when Charlotte had playfully mentioned me not having to have sex with him.

God, I’d wanted to sink through the floor, because then all I’d been able to think about were the dirty fantasies I had about him in my bed every night. Where he gripped the back of my neck and bent me over, and pushed into me from behind… God. No one needed to know about those fantasies. Absolutely no one.

I didn’t need to look at him to know he was angry. I could feel the force of it beating against me from where I sat. Was it me and my refusal that annoyed him? Or did it go beyond that? He was certainly angry with Charlotte, I picked up on that loud and clear. But again, was it because she hadn’t told me he was part of this? Or was it with this whole situation? Charlotte had said he’d volunteered but was there more to it than that? Something to do with the other men Charlotte had mentioned, maybe?

“What does it matter to you?” I finally glanced at him. “I thought you didn’t care about anything.” At least, that’s what it always seemed like to me. Easy-going, chill Atlas. Always with that slow-burn of a smile and nothing any trouble. “Or perhaps you’re compensating for something,” I added, unable to resist the dig.

That smile was nowhere in evidence now, the smoky gold of his eyes burning as he studied me. “You’re still pissed about me leaving, kid? Is that what this is about?”

My cheeks reddened even as I opened my mouth to deny it. “Of course not,” I said, far too defensively.

“Uh huh.” A whole universe of skepticism lurked in his voice. “So you know I’m not the enemy, right?”

His gaze held mine and all of a sudden the physical impact of him caught me like a gut punch. He was sitting close, his big, long body stretched out in his seat, his delicious scent filling my head, and he was just…staring at me. As if he’d never seen me before, but was seeing me now and I…interested him in some way.

A delicious sort of shiver went down my spine, a kind of breathless excitement, as if a part of me wanted him to see me. Not the kid I once was, the step daughter he felt sorry for, but me, the woman I was now, strong and able and in charge of her life.

I held his gaze, lifting my chin, knowing that I was challenging him yet not caring. I didn’t want him to see me as the kid he felt sorry for, the kid he had to save, but someone else. Someone powerful.

He didn’t look away so I saw the moment something deep in the relentless gold of his eyes ignited, like embers from a banked fire bursting into flame. I had no idea what it meant, but it made my mouth go dry.

Silence fell, but I didn’t notice, mesmerized by Atlas’s stare.

He asked you a question, fool.

Oh, God. So he had. About me knowing he wasn’t the enemy.

“Yes,” I forced out, my cheeks blazing as I became conscious that not only was Atlas looking at me, but Charlotte was too. “I do know that actually.”

“Do you?” He tilted his head, scanning my face. “Then maybe stop snapping at me like a little dog, hmm?”

A thread of anger, fueled by his patronizing tone and the embarrassment of both of them seeing me staring at him, sat in my gut. “A dog?” I shot back. “Is that how you see me? Really?”

Something I didn’t understand suddenly glittered in the hot, smoky depths of his eyes. “No,” he murmured. “You’re something else entirely.”

The strange heat inside me climbed, the tension in the air seething, and quite suddenly I was sick of it. Sick of Charlotte and her games, and sick of Atlas and my inability to be anything around him other than a blushing, stammering kid or a snappy, angry idiot. I needed to get out. I needed some air.

Shoving back my chair and muttering something about the bathroom, I got up and tried not to storm like a sulky teenager as I headed for the safety of expensive white tile and chrome taps.

Mercifully there was no one else in the ladies’, so I was able to have a mini breakdown in peace.

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