Atonement (The Atonement Duet Book 1)

by Selene Chardou

  He crawled toward me on the bed and forced my legs open before he lay between them. “Don’t worry. We’re not going to get to that part yet. I just wanted to know how it felt to lay between those silky thighs of yours.”

  I smiled. He hovered over me again, and then our lips found one another. The passion between us was so completely palpable, I pulled my head up from the pillow. I didn’t want our lips to stop touching one another’s. I craved his touch as much as he did mine. He undid my racer back bra’s front clasp and explored my breasts with determined and skilled hands. My nipples hardened under his touch, and I sighed with pleasure.

  He kissed my chin, my neck, and my collarbone. Then he kissed my right nipple softly before his wet, warm mouth claimed it. I sunk into the bed as he teased my nipple with his expert tongue while pinching my left nipple, not to the point of the pain but merely to tease. I arched my back toward him as I ran my hands through his silky hair.

  I wanted the pleasure to go on forever as his mouth switched breasts. He devoured my left nipple while he pinched the right nipple with his talented fingers in the same tortuous way as he’d done previously. I wanted him to put his hands lower on my body, between my legs, where my sex ached with need well beyond just wanting to get off.

  Colin kissed his way up my body until his lips found my own. Our mouths became one entity, and our tongues caressed one another. His fingers never left my breasts, and the feel of my nipples pressed between the padding of his thumbs and index fingers almost drove me over the edge. I hadn’t felt desire this strong in a very long time.

  He ended our kiss reluctantly and stared into my eyes with an intensity I’d never seen in his look. “If you aren’t sure, then we don’t have to continue. I haven’t passed that point of no return yet, and we can just cuddle if this isn’t what you want to do.”

  I looked at him as if he’d told me the world was going to end in the next ten minutes. “I will kill you if you don’t stop teasing me and go further. Does that answer your question? Remember, I’m not some vestal virgin. I have done this before, and I very much want you to…make love to me.”

  I almost said “fuck me,” but that would have been too vulgar. Like a good young woman, I’d always thought the first time should be slow and beautiful. We could fuck each other when we knew one another’s bodies better and knew it meant nothing to have rough sex. At that point in our relationship, rough sex would merely be something that allowed us to be aggressive with each other without taking away from any of the emotions we felt for one another.

  Colin smiled at me as he spread my legs and worked his way down my body with kisses that lit every sensual part of my body on fire. He left a trail of pleasure and ecstasy everywhere he touched me, although that didn’t mean he was a complete and utter gentleman. He slid my thong to the side and began to devour my sex. His suckling on the inner lips was absolutely sinful in how good it felt, but when he parted me and his tongue slid over my clit, I thought I would lose it.

  He wasn’t anywhere near being done with his treatment of my pleasure spot as his mouth surrounded it and suckled on my clit gently before he increased the pressure. My hands immediately went to his head as if to keep his mouth right where it was at that moment. I didn’t think it could get any better, but he slid two fingers inside my soaking sex and caressed my g-spot.

  I was beyond all reason and decorum as my hips bucked to meet his thrusts in and out of me. The first orgasm he brought me to was probably easy and effortless on his part, but it didn’t stop me from shuddering beneath his talented mouth and fingers nevertheless.

  My breath came quick and hard as he worked his way up my body and kept my lips spread. “That was absolutely mind-blowing…”

  “You’ll do me later, yeah?” he whispered in my ear. “I need to be inside you. Right. Now.”

  My eyes fluttered open, and I observed the look of need and longing in his eyes. His eyes were magnetic in their intensity. I nodded as he ripped my thong unceremoniously and tossed it on the floor. He slid his boxer-briefs down his legs to free himself.

  I slipped my arms around his neck as he kissed me again and this time, it was a lazy kiss, nothing rushed or urgent about it, but I did taste myself on his tongue and that was an absolute turn on. He held my hips and without any guidance on his part, his hard cock found me and slid all the way to the hilt inside me. The feeling of having him inside me sated my longing and finally quieted every emotion of pain and heartache. I was at peace, and the experience was mind numbing.

  It wasn’t just sex; to have him inside my body felt like a missing piece of a puzzle which had been discovered at that exact moment, and although he’d yet to move inside me, I felt fulfilled and complete all at once.

  We kissed for a long time, each stroke of our tongues an erotic journey of its own as his cock rested inside me, hard as a proverbial rock. When he finally did move inside me, I arched my back and pulled him closer to me. Every thrust felt absolutely delicious and right. Our entwined bodies were tailor made for one another, and every movement he made brought me closer to that place of absolute pleasure and fulfillment all over again.

  I realized he knew exactly what I was thinking, and we made love that first time with the beautiful yet calm intensity of lovers who were destined for one another. It didn’t make any sense how intense my emotions for him were and his for me but somehow, we understood one another.

  Like the perfect gentleman, Colin brought me to orgasm first before he rode on the plateau of my own and came in a shudder moments later. He kissed me all over: my face, my neck, my lips, and then he lay between my legs in a rested position.

  After what felt like an eternity, he moved away and stood. I turned onto my side and watched as he walked to the bathroom. I heard the faucet run, and then he brought back a hand towel.

  He spread my legs and gently cleaned the excess moisture from my sex with the warm, damp towel. His touch was gentle and teasing at the same time as he wiped the insides of my thighs, my sex, and finally his own manhood. He folded the towel, set it on the bedside table, crawled back into bed, and spooned me from behind.

  “Can you please let me know what happened? Because I am still recovering, and I can’t believe this was our first time. It was so perfect and everything I’d imagined it to be yet so much more and then some. I had no idea, and now I feel like a fool because if I had any idea it would be anything like we just experienced, we could have done this ages ago,” I murmured in a post-coital haze.

  “No, we couldn’t have, and I’m glad you made me wait. It made the whole experience that much more fulfilling.” Colin kissed my forehead. “You may not believe me, but that is some of the best sex I have ever experienced in my life, and I know it’s because we have feelings for one another. If you were just another conquest, I wouldn’t have cleaned you up. I’d be asking you to leave, and do you know how that would make me feel? The thought of dismissing you like that would be…awful. I wouldn’t ever do that to you, I promise.”

  I turned to face him and threw him on his back. He winced slightly, and that’s when I remembered the pinched sciatic nerve. I gritted my teeth. “Sorry. Did I just murder your back?”

  He opened his eyes and blinked back tears. “No, I don’t think so, but I am just glad I have an emergency stash of Vicodin because I am going to need one.”

  I helped him sit up, and he walked to his jacket, where he removed a small pill box, grabbed an extra strength Vicodin, and swallowed it with bottled water provided by the hotel.

  I bit my lip and slid out of bed. I strode over to him and wrapped my arms around his waist before I lay my head on his back. “I’m sorry. I forgot all about it. I just wanted to tell you how wonderful this was and how grateful I am that you have come into my life. You make me remember all the wonderful and amazing events that happen in our life. For so long, I have been completely maudlin and focused on the negative, but now…you’ve opened my eyes, and I want to experience the wonderful and beautiful with you.
After what I did to your back, you don’t hate me and wished you had traveled to Europe all by yourself…?”

  Colin turned toward me and bent to kiss my lips. “Nope. I think we have seen enough of Norway. It’s cold, and I am ready to go somewhere that is nice and warm. I know you have your shopping excursion with Clarissa but afterward, can we just say our goodbyes to my grandparents and head down to the south of France? It should be a lot warmer there than it is here.”

  I nodded my head. “So, what’s the plan?”

  He slipped his arms around my waist and pulled me closer to him. “How about this? We fly into Nice’s airport, spend a few days exploring the city, and then rent a car and tour all of the south of France. We can go to Marseille, Monte Carlo, Cannes, and everywhere in between. We can stay in gite d’hôtes and have the time of our life.”

  Colin paused and pulled me closer. “If you’re really adventurous, we can drive to Italy and explore Tuscany together. I love Florence. It’s one of my favorite cities besides every major city in France and Germany. There is just something about it that is so…amazing. Then we can go to Venice, climb onto a gondola, and buy too much cheap glass jewelry. Let’s just play the rest of the trip by ear. No plan, no itinerary—just whatever we want to do?”

  I couldn’t hide the enthusiasm which suddenly filled my bones and made my skin tingle all over. Not having an itinerary sounded dangerous, but at the same time, it was daring and we only lived once.

  When we got back to Seattle, grown-up responsibilities would be facing us. I would start a position at uConnect as HR manager, and Colin would be swamped with starting his own business. It sounded like quite the plan to just blow everything to the side and have the trip of our lives. It never hurt that money would never be an issue, and as Colin knew how to drive a manual vehicle and understood how to read a map and navigate all the major routes throughout Western Europe, we should be all right.

  I nodded and stood on my tip toes to kiss his sensual lips again. “It sounds like an adventure that I would definitely love to go on with you in particular. How did you get so irresistible anyway?”

  Colin smiled as he backed us toward the bed. “I’ve always had a certain je ne sais quoi most women don’t discover until they fall into bed with me. Looks like I have you completely and irrevocably under my skin so I don’t plan to let go, not now and certainly no time in the near future.”

  “Good,” I began softly, “because I have an idea this will be an exciting and breathless ride.”

  “You can say that again,” he murmured.

  We collapsed on the bed and Colin kissed me again, making me feel like I truly was the only girl in the world.

  Chapter Thirteen

  I glanced over the balcony of our swanky apartment we’d rented from Airbnb in Nice and smiled because it was an expression that came much too easily to me in the short time since Colin and I had consummated our relationship.

  The day after we’d made love for the first time, I went out with Clarissa, who was even more fun than I could have guessed. I bought several pairs of designer clothes before we had lunch together and she filled me in on what had happened at university between her and Colin.

  While she’d been in love with Colin during their college days, she’d gotten over the heartbreak. When she found the man she’d married, she let bygones be bygones and held no ill will toward Colin over what they had gone through. In fact, she chalked it up to them being young and reckless.

  Clarissa was easy to talk to and to shop with. After our excursion, we said our goodbyes and promised to keep in touch.

  After our vigorous shopping, I took public transportation back to Colin’s grandparents’ house. We all had dinner that evening, and the following morning, Colin and I boarded a flight from Oslo to Nice.

  We had been in Nice, a beautiful southern French city, for a little over a day and I’d loved every second of it. If Oslo had been lovely, then Nice was mind-blowing. There was so much to see and yet so little time to do it.

  Colin grabbed me from behind and kissed my neck. “Good morning, sweetie. It looks like it is going to be another beautiful day.”

  I leaned into him and inhaled his manly scent. He’d just recently taken a shower. I had showered before him, and I was dressed in a scarlet, short-sleeved baby doll dress, a matching scarlet bikini underneath. My hair was flat ironed and styled in a high ponytail because it was much warmer than the city we’d just visited and damp hair against my neck was not an ideal way to spend the day.

  “Morning, honey. You better put some clothes on so we can head over to the Promenade des Anglais. If the weather gets any warmer, I’m wearing my bikini, so we are free to hang out on the beach for a while,” I replied.

  “That sounds lovely.” Colin paused. “By the way, Caitlyn is on the phone for you.”

  I turned around and hit his bare chest playfully. “You are such a jerk. I don’t exactly relish sharing my love life with my younger sister.”

  He kissed my lips quickly before he handed my Android phone to me. “Well, you just did,” he said.

  “Go back inside before I rip your towel away and reveal the family jewels to every passing French person and tourist walking by!” I admonished playfully.

  Colin merely smiled as he lustfully looked at me, turned around, and strode back inside our apartment.

  I watched him walk away and could barely disguise the look of lust on my face before I heard Caitlyn clear her throat loudly through the phone. “Okay, what the hell is going on, and why is Colin suddenly calling you ‘sweetie’?”

  “Oh, hello, Cait. How are you and what the hell are you doing calling us? It’s two in the morning in Seattle. Why are you still up? Don’t you have to work today or something?” I said in a rather snippy voice.

  “I took today off so I can stay up as late as I want. Actually, I just spent the most amazing time with Liam at the Last Supper Club. He and the other two co-owners of uConnect are celebrating. There is a major tech corporation interested in buying their company. They’ll all continue to run it, but it would be under the tech corporation’s umbrella. They’d rather sell outright than take the company public. They are determined not to be another Facebook and make a major mistake, if you know what I mean,” Caitlyn explained.

  My sister was very good at hiding her drunkenness, and although she was careful not to slur her words, I knew she was well past the legal limit. “Where are you now?”

  “I’m at Liam’s. His condo is absolutely amazing! I am so jealous, and I completely understand why you didn’t mind staying with Colin for that week Aubrey was staying at your townhouse. The view, the indoor patio…I’m in love!” she said.

  “That’s great. Is Aubrey still staying with Drew?

  “As far as I know, yeah, she’s still there and not annoying the hell out of him. He says she’s not such a bad roomie, though not as good as you of course,” my sister said with a sarcastic bite in her tone.

  I had to quell my own feelings so as not to say anything facetious in return. I knew what the inside of Liam’s condo looked like because I’d been there. I’d slept in his bed and had sex with him multiple times that night. I had so much to be ashamed about, and my sister brought all this back to the forefront merely by mentioning what a great condo Liam possessed.

  “So, you know I have to ask…have you slept with Colin? He sounded way too familiar when he picked up your phone. It’s extremely intimate when you think about it. I mean, he had no idea it was me. I could have been another man, for all he knew.”

  I chuckled. “Um, honey, just because we are out of the country doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with my caller ID. Your ringtone and shiny, happy face tipped him off it wasn’t my secret lover in the States named Bob.”

  “I’m just saying…what’s going on between you two? Because if this is a strictly vacation-type deal, then I would seriously reconsider it. I’m dating Liam, and that means you are going to be seeing Colin quite often too. If nothing
serious is going on, then you shouldn’t make him believe something you have no intention of following through with—”

  “It’s not just a holiday thing, so you can save yourself a coronary,” I interrupted before I switched ears and walked further out onto the balcony. “We’ve really bonded and discovered we have more in common than we thought. I seriously like the guy, and I am just in love with his body. And the sex…well, I don’t kiss and tell, but I will give you a one word answer: amazing!”

  “Whoa. Can I just say I am a bit jealous? It’s been forever for me, and Liam wants to take it slow because he has a serious feeling I might be the one. Can you imagine? Not that I don’t find that cool and all, but women need sex too and I think men sometimes forget that.” She paused before she asked, “Did your affair start before you left Seattle?”

  “No, it didn’t. Just because I was borrowing a bedroom in his condo doesn’t mean I was paying for it every night with pussy. He asked me to stay and I happily obliged, but nothing was going on between us physically at the time.”

  “Jeez, Deirdre, do you have to be so crass? You know how much I hate the ‘p’ word—it’s vulgar and unladylike,” Caitlyn responded haughtily.

  “Listen, Mom, sorry if I resent your attitude that what you and Liam have is so deep when he has the reputation of being a player to end all players yet what Colin and I have is just some sort of vacation fling that could possibly mean nothing. It’s outrageous, presumptuous, and downright rude!” I explained in a no-nonsense voice while managing to keep my anger in check.

  Caitlyn sighed. “I really do think you are taking this way too seriously. I didn’t mean the statement the way it came out and no, I am not trying to act like our mother, or did you suddenly forget I’m younger than you?”

  “Well then, stop acting like I have to justify my actions to you. To be perfectly honest, you have no right to question what kind of relationship I have with Colin because to be perfectly honest, it’s none of your business. It’s serious, we care about one another, and this isn’t a vacation fling, you get me?”