Page 49 of Claiming Atlas

I’m definitely not ready to acknowledge the mistakes she made.

I made.

Atlas trails his hand up and down my side, following the curve of my hip and sending goosebumps out across my skin.

Does he know I’m awake?

The blackout curtains do a fantastic job of keeping the light out, but I have no way of knowing what time it is. How long did we sleep?

He leans forward and brushes a kiss on my shoulder, then climbs out of bed. I do my best impression of someone who’s sound asleep until he closes the bathroom door and turns on the shower.

I sit up quickly as shame floods my chest, suffocating my heart with a thickening ache. I didn’t make him wear a condom. How could I have been so stupid? My stomach twists and I don’t know if it’s from all the champagne I drank or from admitting to the fact that I made a really,reallystupid decision.

Twice.

What was I thinking?

I wasn’t.

But I am now. I have to get tested. Immediately. Not that a test will do anything if I already caught something from Atlas, but it still must be done.

“Holy shit.” I run my hands over my face—

The water turns off and I freeze. I have less than a minute or two to get out of here before he comes out of the bathroom and we’re forced to have some weird, uncomfortable goodbye.

I quickly get up from the bed and search for my clothes. Tucking my panties into my purse, I pull on my jeans and sweater, then search for my shoes. One of them is under the bed, and the other is by the door of the bathroom. I don’t even know how that happened.

I pick them up and tiptoe to the door of the suite.

“I hope you at least left the money on the nightstand.”

My eyes close and I freeze, then I take a deep breath, straighten, and slowly turn around. “Hey, good morning, sorry, I—”

He’s naked and still dripping wet.

I close my eyes and inhale a deep breath through my nose to compose myself before looking at him again. “Do you have an aversion to clothing?”

“Do you have an aversion to goodbye?”

My heart pinches a little, and I’m not sure why. This was a one-night stand, nothing more. Right? I mean, does he want this to be something more? Of course not. That’s silly. “I didn’t want to disturb you.”

His eyes narrow, but he nods. “All right, well, I guess I’ll see you around?”

“Yeah.” I shrug. “I guess so. Thanks for...” My eyes have a mind of their own, and as my gaze travels down his lean frame, I struggle with what to thank him for.A good time?

“Thanks for teaching me new ways to appreciate champagne.”

I look back up at his eyes and he grins.

He’s too damn sexy for his own good.

“You’re welcome,” I say, unable to keep a straight face. “I don’t think I’ll ever look at champagne the same way again.” I do this sort of pathetic half-wave, then turn to go—

“I’m clean, you know.”

My hand freezes at the doorknob. I frown. “What?”

“I know you’re worried about that. But I’m clean.”

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