Arrival

Annalise >>>

Fucking liar.

At first, I thought it was my imagination. But then it became painfully obvious.

Atlas was avoiding me. And it infuriated me.

I should've been relieved—should've seen it as a good thing. It was all pretend, wasn't it? The touches, the whispered words, the heat that burned between us. It wasn't real. It couldn't be. This was a game of survival, and he was my shield. That's all it was. I'd let myself get swept up, lost in the moment, but now that I had time to think, I needed to be smarter.

And yet…

My skin still tingled where his hands had been. My lips still ached for his.

The memory of that night haunted me like a curse. I'd been restless ever since, turning over every second of it in my mind. How he'd trembled beneath my touch. How his breath had hitched when I pulled him closer. The way his control had snapped—and how quickly he'd forced himself to reel it back in.