Page 55 of Owned

Atlas’s gaze didn’t soften one iota, but his voice when he spoke gentled a little. “You’re what?”

“I’m…not ready.” I tried to breathe through the anxiety that all at once felt as if it was strangling me. “I wasn’t expecting to raise the baby myself, and I…I…” I trailed off helplessly.

“You think I’d leave you to raise the kid on your own?”

“I don’t know, Atlas. You haven’t told me a damn thing about anything.”

He let go of my chin and then that possessive hand was back around my throat, gripping me firmly enough that I caught my breath. “Listen to me,” he murmured. “There’s a small part of you that doesn’t trust me and while I get it, that lack of trust is starting to become a problem. If you think I’d insist on keeping our child and then leave you to raise it on your own, you need a lesson in the kind of man I am.” He eased my head back against his shoulder, golden eyes boring into mine. “I’m not walking away this time, Rowan. You’re my property and I take care of what’s mine, understand? I don’t break it, I don’t use it indiscriminately, and I don’t put it on a shelf for years and forget about it. I use it with care and respect, and I keep it in good working order. I’m careful with my things.” His thumb began that gentle stroke up and down the side of my neck, sending chills racing all over my skin. “And if one of those things happens to be a woman pregnant with my child, then regardless of what I told you before, I am never abandoning that child or that woman.” His mouth curved in a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Call it a road to Damascus moment.”

I sucked in a breath, the pressure of his fingers around my neck, firm, possessive, yet not hurting or stopping me from getting air, unbelievably erotic.

He was right, though. A part of me didn’t trust him, not after he left Mom and me, and even though it had been years, his abandonment had hurt. It had left scars on me that I hadn’t realized were there. And now…

I wanted to believe him. I wanted to believe him so very badly.

“So…you just want the baby? I mean, if there is a baby?” My voice was husky and I couldn’t hide the doubt in it. “Just like that?”

“Yeah, just like that.” His gaze was hypnotic, golden, shimmering. “When I decide what I want, I go out and get it, and I don’t play games.”

My mouth had dried, every thought turning syrupy and difficult to hold onto. His touch made me feel hot everywhere, and tight and restless, but what he was saying was important. I had to pay attention.

“But you walked away from Mom,” I said, swallowing.

“I didn’t want Cait. Not the way I want you.” He seemed to have forgotten about the food, his gaze focused and intent on mine as he slid his other hand beneath the hem of my borrowed T-shirt, moving caressingly over the bare skin of my stomach. “Honestly? I didn’t think I would want any of this, you, a baby, the whole domestic situation, but when I thought about Charlotte taking my kid…” He shook his head. “It’s not going to happen.” His hand slid higher, cupping one of my breasts in his big, hot palm and squeezing gently, making me shudder as sensation rushed like wildfire through me. “Which means you need to make some choices here.” His thumb brushed over my rapidly hardening nipple and I gasped, shivering helplessly. His hand around my throat and the agonizingly light brush of his thumb across the aching tip of my breast was turning me inside out.

“W-What choices?” I managed.

“I’ve laid a claim on you.” He pinched my nipple, making me jerk in his grip. “But if you want to accept that claim, you need to decide. With all the facts.” His hand slipped from my breast and slid down, long, blunt fingers pushing beneath the waistband of my panties, sliding over my sex, finding my clit with unerring accuracy.

I groaned, my hips lifting, but he shook his head as his fingers tightened around my throat. “Uh huh,” he murmured. “Don’t you move.”

Obeying, I trembled as he stroked me, agonizing pleasure beginning to build. It was difficult to think, difficult to understand what he was saying, especially with his burning gaze on mine, but I gritted my teeth, trying to focus. “The f-facts?”

“Facts such as you belonging to me for however long I want.” He shifted, releasing my throat, his hands moving to the waistband of my panties and sliding them down my thighs. “You live with me, sleep with me, and if you’re pregnant, I’ll provide for you, give you anything you need to help with the baby. Regardless of what happens with us, I will be the child’s father and I’m not abandoning it.”

It was becoming even harder to concentrate, because as my panties slipped away, he began to pull up my T-shirt, coaxing me to lift my arms, drawing it up and over my head. A second later I was sitting in his lap entirely naked.

He was hard, I could feel him beneath me, hot and ready, and I was shaking. I wanted him so badly I could hardly breathe, let alone process what he was saying.

“When it’s over between us,” he went on, “I’ll make sure you’re provided for. You’ll want for nothing.” His hands settled on my hips and he pushed me from his lap. I turned to find him pushing back his chair with a certain amount of force and getting to his feet. Then he took a step so he was right up against me, and without looking away, he leaned forward, sweeping away the plates and other things aside with a forceful motion.

My heart rate went through the roof, my breathing fast as he picked me up and sat me on the table in front of him. “And here’s something else,” he went on. “If you choose to be mine, I won’t fuck other women. It’ll be you and only you.” He reached down, flicking the top button of his pants open, drawing the zipper down. I was shivering as he shoved his boxers down, releasing the long, hard length of his cock. He stepped up to the end of the table where I sat, spreading my thighs, then gripping my hips, the head of his cock pressing against my entrance. It wouldn’t take much for him to push inside…

“And one more thing.” He hadn’t taken his gaze from mine the whole time, and I was lost in all that molten gold, like the heart of the sun. “When I fuck you it’s going to be without a condom, so one way or another Charlotte is going to get her heir, which I’m then going to take away from her.”

I put my hands on the table, bracing myself against the wood, barely processing what he was saying, desperate for him.

“Those are the facts, toy.” He rubbed the head of his cock over my clit, teasing me unmercifully as I shivered, my hips moving helplessly. “Now, it’s your turn to choose. You want to be owned by me, yes or no?”

There was only one choice for me in that moment and brought to screaming point by what he was doing to me, I made it.

“Y-yes,” I whispered. “Please, Atlas…please…”

His golden eyes flared like a torch and I groaned as he pushed inside me, going slowly, oh, so slowly. I panted as I felt my sex stretching around him, the press of him painful and yet at the same time unbelievably good.

I couldn’t look away from him. His was an almost gravitational pull that I was caught in, trapped helplessly in an orbit I couldn’t break free from. But I didn’t want to break free. I wanted to stay, Venus to his sun, the surface of me turned molten by his touch.

He paused a moment, letting me feel every inch of his cock, then he began to move, thrusting slow and easy. He pushed me onto my back, the wood of the table cool against my spine as he pulled me so my butt was on the very edge of the table, then he began to fuck me with deep, hard strokes.

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