Reaching up, I traced a touch over his jaw, and his eyes fluttered closed. “You’re not a total stranger. And I don’t mean that in the creepy way fans say it.”
He laughed softly and shook his head. “I know. You don’t have to keep explaining yourself.”
“I just need you to know that I see you,” I told him.
His eyes widened a fraction. “How? How do you see me?”
“I might not know all the details about who you are,” I murmured, “but I know what kind of man you are in the face of your worst possible moment. That tells me a lot about you.”
He opened his eyes again. “Like what?”
“That you aren’t ashamed to say when you’re scared. That you’re determined. You seem like the kind of guy who would fight off full anesthesia just to prove he could.”
He collapsed down on me as he burst into laughter. “That is so specific.”
I shrugged as I held him, the weight of his body the best thing I had ever felt in my life. My erection started to flag just a little—the way I wanted—because I wasn’t ready for this night to be over. “I’ve seen it before. But it’s not just that. You promised me you weren’t going to give up on yourself, and I believed you. And you proved me right.”
The moment sobered a little, and he pulled back to look down at me. “It was a hard promise to keep. At least for a little while. But the fact that some man who I most definitely did not deserve wanted me to keep going…it was a good motivator.”
“You’re giving me way too much credit,” I said quietly. “And you’re way too hard on yourself.”
He shook his head, then stole another little kiss. “Trust me when I say I’m not. I’m not as bad as my ex, but I was not as good of a person as I could have been. I was an arrogant shithead on my best days. And I wasn’t always kind.”
“Just because you were shitty sometimes doesn’t mean that’s who you are,” I reminded him.
He kissed me again. “Like I said, a man way too good for me. But I’m glad it was you that found me. If it had been anyone else, I’m not sure I would have made it. You kept me grounded. You made me want to fight.” He closed his eyes for a long moment. “Does that sound creepy?
“No.” I couldn’t help a laugh. “Maybe it should though. We spent, what, nearly an hour together in that ambulance?”
“Don’t ask me. I was unconscious for a lot of it.”
“We were stuck in the snow,” I told him, carding fingers through his hair. It was roughly textured—like it wanted to be curly but never fell in more than asymmetrical waves. “There were cars everywhere from your concert, and they boxed in the ambulance?—”
“I wasn’t supposed to go like that. It was meant to be a private concert. Someone tipped off social media,” Atlas said, his voice a little bitter. “I knew people were going to post on their socials, but I thought the storm would keep people away.”
“Ah, the power of your sexy-as-fuck voice,” I told him, feeling oddly brave.
He snorted and shook his head. “I won’t pretend to be humble in that regard. I spent years and a fuckload of money making sure I had good vocal training.”
“In your garage band years?” I asked.
He blinked, then laughed again, shoving the sound into my neck. “Oh my god, no. And please tell me you haven’t found our old videos. I was working at some pizza parlor that was always on the verge of being shut down by the health inspector. I spent my college years living in my parents’ half-finished attic, trying to sing like I wasn’t tone-deaf. No, I got training after, realized that I was good, but I’d hit a wall with what I could do naturally. I wanted to be…” He pulled back and looked at me, shrugging. “I wanted to be better than what people expected from me.”
Reaching up, I drew a fingertip around his lips. They were a little dry, but I loved the shape of them. Full and lush with a perfect cupid’s bow. “I think you tried harder than you needed to.”
His cheeks went a little rosy. “You should write song lyrics.”
I rolled my eyes and wrapped my arms around him, rocking my half-hard dick against his hip. “I’ll stick to teaching disinterested kids about historical events.”
He blinked. “Is that what you do now?”
“Yeah. It’s probably not my forever, but it feels a lot more like me than med school. And that’s because of you.”
He swallowed, and then he leaned in and kissed me again. His tongue was wet and warm, dominating and almost frantic.He moved his body on top of mine, hips rolling, his erection heavy as it slipped against the cut of my hip.
My hands coasted down his spine, fingers digging into his ass cheeks, which were very round and very soft. He groaned and pulled back. “I might be sharing your problem.”
“My—oh. Yeah.”
