Chapter 5

The morning was off to a terrible start.

How could it not be? I was going to be stuck in the same space with an arrogant asshole of a man.

I groaned, wanting to smother the pillow on my face.

“Miss, the young master is growing impatient. He swears to march up here and get you by—“ I pulled the door open finally.

“Thank you, Martha. I’ll join him,” I said with a tight smile. Perhaps, I had purposefully kept the darling young master waiting for five minutes? I didn’t care.

I walked outside the house where a sleek black Audi was waiting. Atlas leaned against the driver’s door like he had nowhere better to be, one arm resting lazily on the roof of the car. Sunglasses hid his eyes, but somehow, even from across the driveway, I could feel his gaze slide over me the moment I stepped out.

“Do you make it a habit to be deceptively late, or is that a newly acquired skill?” He said, his voice deep and smooth.

I shrugged, “Who is to say?” Suddenly feeling much more aware of what I was wearing as Atlas's gaze flickered over my body, I cleared my throat.

“Well?”

“Keeping me waiting for ten minutes isn’t very good behavior, Princess,” and my irritation was back tenfold.

“Good thing I don’t care,” I huffed out.

Atlas pushed himself off the car slowly, like he had all the patience in the world. Up close, the man was even more annoyingly put together.

Dark hair, slightly tousled like he’d run a hand through it once and decided that was enough effort for the day. His jaw was sharp, the faint stubble making him look like he belonged on the cover of one of those magazines Ivy forced me to flip through.

Unfair.

It was completely unfair.

He pulled off his sunglasses and hooked them into the collar of his shirt. His eyes—dark and irritatingly observant—settled on my face.

“Get in the car, Princess,” he said calmly. “We have a long day ahead.”

“Stop calling me that.”

He opened the driver’s door. “Then stop acting like one.”

I rolled my eyes so hard it almost hurt but slid into the passenger seat anyway.

The car smelled expensive. Leather seats, a spotless dashboard, not a single crumb in sight. Of course, Atlas Aldridge would drive something that looked like it had never experienced a single inconvenience in its life.

For a few minutes, there was some peace. I leaned my head against the window, watching the houses blur past. The Hamptons looked like someone had taken every rich person's fantasy and shoved it into one place.

Eventually, my eyes drifted back to him.

Atlas drove with one hand on the wheel, his sleeves rolled up just enough to show the veins along his forearm.

Annoyingly attractive.

As if sensing my stare, he glanced at me briefly. He smirked faintly, “If you’re going to stare,” he said casually, “at least take a picture. It’ll last longer.”

I scoffed, rolling my eyes. “God, you’re so full of yourself.”

“I’m practical.”

“You’re insufferable,” I shot back.

“Yet you keep looking.”

I snapped my gaze back to the window, trying to hide the redness on my cheeks. “I wasn’t looking.”

“Hmm, sure you weren’t.”

I chose to stay silent. God really didn’t make a mistake. There was no way a man could be as attractive and wealthy as Atlas was and not have one single flaw. Atlas's was his ability to irritate the living life out of me.

Ten minutes later, he pulled the car into a parking lot beside a café. Before I could ask why we were stopping, Atlas stepped out of the car.

“Wait here.”

“As if I was planning to follow you.” At this point, I didn’t even have to think about my retorts.

He ignored that and walked inside. I watched through the window as he approached a man. They shook hands and spoke briefly. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but the other man leaned closer at one point.

I shook my head, already feeling bored. I chose to strain my eyes and listen to them if I could. “…how are you handling your old man’s wedding?” the man asked, just loud enough that the words carried through the slightly open window.

I straightened a little.

Atlas didn’t react immediately. He simply took a sip from the coffee cup the barista handed him.

“Same way I handle everything,” he said flatly.

The man laughed awkwardly. “Still… must be strange. A new wife. A new family.”

Atlas’s expression didn’t change. No, in fact, his jaw tightened slightly.

Interesting.

For a brief moment, I wondered if he had reservations about this wedding. Perhaps, if he hated the wedding just like I did.

But before I could think too deeply about it, Atlas turned and headed back to the car.

He slid into the driver’s seat and handed me a cup of coffee. I looked at it and him, puzzled.

“How do you know I don’t drink coffee?” I asked.

“With those eye bags you wear, you must be running on one hell of caffeine,” he replied casually without looking at me.

Annoying!

“You don’t even know what I like?” I said.

“Let me guess, three cubes of sugar, creamy,” he finished lazily as he pulled the car back onto the road.

I paused halfway through opening the lid and stared at him.

“…You’re joking.”

Atlas shrugged slightly, “Am I?”

I took a sip suspiciously. My eyebrows shot up. Three sugars. Extra cream.

Exactly how I liked it. I turned toward him. “Did you stalk me?”

“That word gets thrown around too easily these days.”

“You just guessed my coffee order perfectly.”

“Lucky guess.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You’re lying.”

He smirked faintly, clearly enjoying my confusion.

God, this man was insufferable.

“Do you have a wedding gift?” he said suddenly.

I blinked, taken aback. “…A what?”

“A gift,” he repeated patiently. “For the wedding.”

I wanted to ruin the wedding, not give them a gift and wish them happiness. “No,” I replied.

Atlas hummed thoughtfully, tapping his fingers once on the steering wheel before making a sudden turn.

“Where are we going?” I asked suspiciously.

“You need one.”

“Atlas—”

But he had already pulled into a parking space. I looked up at the building in front of us.

Then I looked again.

My mouth fell open. “You cannot be serious.”

Atlas calmly unbuckled his seatbelt. “We’re here.”

I gawked at the neon sign above the door.

It was a freaking adult shop.

“You brought me to a sex store?”