I Swear I Still Hate Him (Atlas Lawson) novel Chapter 205

Chapter 205

Chapter 205

Emery’s POV

The drive was quiet.

Not the uncomfortable kind… just the kind where neither of you have the right words yet so you don’t reach for the wrong ones. My hand was laced through Atlas’s over the console and I kept stealing glances at him. The way his eyes stayed fixed straight ahead. The little muscle jumping in his jaw. The way he was holding everything in so tight it was almost loud.

He wasn’t angry anymore. Anger would’ve been easier to sit with honestly. This was something heavier. Something that didn’t have a quick fix and we both knew it.

Atlas lifted our joined hands and pressed his lips to my knuckles. Didn’t look away from the road.

“I can feel you staring, Em.”

I let out a long slow breath. “I just…” I turned toward him slightly. “I wish I could take it away. All of it. I’d take every bit of it if I could.”

He was quiet for a moment. His thumb moved back and forth across the back of my hand.

“If anybody’s taking anything it’s me.” His voice came out rougher than usual, worn at the edges. “I can’t stop thinking about it. Keep hearing her words on repeat.” His jaw went tight. “How many times those words played in your head. Making you think nobody would ever…” He stopped. Shook his head once, sharp, like he couldn’t bring himself to finish it.

He didn’t have to.

I lifted our hands and pressed my lips to his knuckles this time. Held them there.

“Hey.” I waited until his eyes cut to me. “I don’t care what she thinks about me. Not even a little bit.” I kept my voice even and sure because I meant every single word. “What matters is I’m right here. With you. That’s it. That’s enough for me.” I squeezed his hand once. “So I don’t want you feeling guilty or sad over what Daisy said. Not for my sake. Okay?”

He looked at me a beat longer than was probably safe for driving then eased the car over to the curb right outside a little corner restaurant. Put it in park. Turned to face me.

His hand came up gentle to my face and he leaned in and kissed me. Soft and unhurried like he was taking his time with it. Like it was the only thing on his agenda.

When he pulled back, he stayed close, eyes on mine.

“Okay,” he said quietly.

I smiled. “Good.”

The corner of his mouth pulled up. “Now let’s go get some food in you before you fall out on me.”

I was already reaching for the door handle. “Please…yes, let’s go!”

Chapter 205

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S vouchers

Breakfast did what it was supposed to do.

Good food, easy conversation, Atlas making me laugh before the plates even hit the table. By the time we were back in the car something had shifted between us…looser, lighter. The morning felt survivable again.

Then Atlas drove us downtown and pulled up outside this boutique and climbed out with his card already in his hand like he’d been planning this the whole drive over.

“Anything you want,” he said holding the door open.

I gave him a look. “Atlas…”

“Anything. Don’t even try it.”

Look, I had my own money. Good money. Years of modeling money that I’d worked hard for and I was not the kind of woman who needed a man buying her things to feel good about herself. But the way he was standing there, door open, card out, looking at me like he would empty the whole store onto the sidewalk if that’s what I wanted?

I walked in without another word.

I walked out an hour later feeling like a brand new person and the way Atlas looked at me when I stepped out, eyes moving over me slow and deliberate, that quiet smile spreading across his face, made every single minute in that fitting room worth it.

“Beautiful.”

I felt my cheeks go warm and waved him off. We got to the car. He said it again opening my door. I gave him a look. He said it again when I was fixing my seatbelt and I turned to him fully.

“You’ve said that five times.”

“And I was right all five times.” He pulled out of the parking spot without a single ounce of shame.

I rolled my eyes but the smile that came with it was completely out of my control and he knew it too from the way that grin stayed on his face the whole way down the block.

He drove.

And kept driving.

I watched the streets change outside the window, downtown thinning out, buildings spreading further apart, and after ten minutes of zero explanation I turned to look at him.

He looked perfectly relaxed. One hand on the wheel, jaw loose, eyes forward like a man with absolutely nothing to hide.

“Atlas”

“Hm.”

“Where are we going.”

Chapter 205

“You’ll see.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Are you kidnapping me right now?”

“Yes,” he said. Completely calm. “But romantically.”

“That is still kidnapping.”

“Romantic kidnapping.” He said it like it was an established and perfectly reasonable category.

“That sounds like something a criminal would say.”

He laughed, low and easy, and did not offer me a single piece of additional information. Just kept driving with that unbothered expression while I sat in the passenger seat watching him like that was somehow going to crack him open.

It did not crack him open.

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