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Booktree.ngIt-Starts-with-Us-Colleen-Hoover

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Chapter Twenty-One

Atlas

There have been a lot of things in my life that have made me angry, but

nothing filled me with rage like seeing Lily’s tattoo and the faded scars that

circled it in the shape of a bite mark.

How any man can do that to a woman, I’ll never understand. How any

human can do that to a human they’re supposed to love and want to protect,

I will never understand.

But what I do understand is that Lily deserves better. And I get to be the

one to give her better. Starting with this kiss that we can’t seem to stop.

Every time we pause to look at each other, we go right back to kissing like

we have to make up for all the lost time in this one kiss.

I trail kisses down her jaw until I meet her collarbone. I’ve always loved

kissing her there, but until I read her journal, I didn’t know she was aware

of how much I loved kissing her there. I press my lips to her tattoo,

determined to make sure she remembers the good parts of us in all the

future kisses I’m going to give her in this spot. If it takes a million kisses

for her not to think about the scars that surround her heart tattoo, then I’ll

kiss her there a million and one times.

I press kisses up her neck, then her jaw. When I’m looking at her again, I

slide the shoulder strap of her dress back in place because as much as I

could stay right here for hours, I’m supposed to be taking her to a wedding.

“We should go,” I whisper.

She nods, but I kiss her again. I can’t help it. I’ve been waiting for this

moment since I was a teenager.

I can’t really say how the wedding went because I was more focused on

Lily than anything else. I didn’t know anyone there, and after finally kissing

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