Page 18 of Atonement

“I welcome death, Magnolia,” I hiss, as I lean in, and the blade presses further into my throat. “Every fucking day. I live to die. To be put out of my misery. To not feel any more pain. But, do you want to know the sickest truth of all, Sweetheart? Even if I felt all the suffering in the world as you slowly pulled that knife across my neck, it wouldn’t even come close to the torment I’m forced to walk through daily knowing, yes, I could’ve stopped it. Fuck, Magnolia, I could’ve saved them.”

Fresh tears fall down her face as she presses the cold metal harder into my throat. “You’re already in hell, Declan,” she hisses, finally understanding what I’ve been trying to show her. “Glad I could be the one to put you there.”

She backs away as her hand lowers, defeated by the memories we both try so hard to suppress. I grab the knife quickly, spinning her around and capturing her tightly around the waist. Her gasp mixes with her tears as I raise her knife to her delicate skin, right below her ear and the curve of her chin, then slowly press in.

“Hell, Sweetheart?” I taunt, a sinister laugh escaping my lips. “Hell is too kind a word for how I feel having to look at you every single day, and not have you like I did before.”

“You never had me, Ace.”

I run the tip of the knife slowly down and then back up her neck, pressing in only when I feel her defiance grow. She stills in my arms, her breaths quickening.

“Keep fucking with my head, Magnolia, like I want to fuck your body, and you’ll see just how much I’ll have you,” I growl in her ear. “Any way I’d like. I’ll fucking have you.”

“I thought you wanted willing,” she anxiously whispers. “Holding a knife to my neck should prove I’ll never consent.”

A normal man might take her at her words, but I’ve been trained to always stay alert to my surroundings. I’m skilled in the art of deception, and I notice her betrayal as her hips subconsciously grind back into my crotch. Her desire’s evident in that small gesture, her hidden consent, suddenly given to me, making me only want to push us further. Make us finally fall over our damned edge.

“Agree to disagree,” my menacing chuckle feathers softly across her neck as I press against her ass and my grip on her waist tightens. Her skin prickles, a small shiver runs deliciously down her spine, only proving as more silent evidence of her permission, and fuck, I plan on wasting no time claiming it.

I hook her hands behind her back and clasp them together as she tries to break free. Dropping the knife to the floor in the process, I kick it under the desk quickly and then focus back on Magnolia. Her head thrashes from side to side in protest as her lips spew insults and she pushes back against my frame, but I’m finally game to call her on all her fucking bullshit as I sink my mouth down against her neck, and attempt to stop her defiance. I smile when she grows silent and stills in my arms. Her addictive moan of pleasure fills the room a second later as my mouth works with heated purpose, sucking its way up to her ear in earnest, deliberate force. Feeling around on the desk behind me, I grab a pair of handcuffs and secure her while she’s perfectly distracted.

“Restraining the victim only proves my point,” she moans louder as I tighten the metal around her wrist and press my hardening cock into her ass.

“What point is that exactly, Sweetheart,” I growl as I prove my point by grinding my hardening length against her, groaning out in pleasure myself as I feel it slip between her firm ass cheeks. “How you like to fuck with me? Or the consent you’re failing to hide when we both know you’re more than willing?”

Swinging her around, her mouth falls open in shock and I lean in swiftly, taking her bottom lip between my teeth. My hands skate down the sides of her frame, pulling her closer and securing her against my chest as I slowly lick her lips, coaxing them open as her breaths come in short lust-filled pants against my own. Lifting my right hand, I push her hair off the side of her neck, only releasing her soft lips when I feel her body finally start to submit, and then stare deeply into her eyes.

“Don’t do this,” she begs, but her eyes tell me a different story. One she’s been hiding. One she’s pleading with me to see through now, and hell, as I stand there with her in my arms, I wonder why it’s taken me this long to notice.

Crushing my mouth against hers, I step forward, pushing her back into the next room. She attempts to fight me with her kiss. She’s angry. Together we’re unhinged. The way her mouth moves against mine in harsh desire makes turning back now definitely not an option. It only fuels me. Our teeth clash, tongues deliriously tangle, as I fist her hair in my hand and force her to continue stepping backward until her thighs hit the bed.

“Keep going, Ace, I dare you,” she purrs as our mouths break apart and I plunge the top of her dress down around her small waist, quickly taking her right perk nipple in between my lips. She moans, eagerly waiting for me to do the same with her other tit. “I warned you once, remember?” she breathlessly whispers, as I oblige and take her left nipple in my hot mouth. “I’d still enjoy every second of destroying your manhood. Bit. By little bit.”

I grab her hips and pull them against mine so she can feel just how hard I am, how little I’m not, as my tongue flicks against her nipple. I smile against her breasts when her shocked gasp fills my ears and then attempt to pull her even closer against me, because damn it, I can’t get her close enough.

“Are you going to shut that disrespectful mouth, Sweetheart?” I groan, as my hands roam her body with greed. “Or am I going to have to shut it for you?”

Raising her skirt, I feel my way around to her perfect ass. Forcing her center against my throbbing length, my fingers dip lower, under the fabric of her panties and I groan when I find her dripping with her consent. She complies perfectly, bending to my demands after seven damn years, as her hips grind against my straining cock.

God, I’ve missed this.

Fuck kryptonite, Magnolia is both my life and my impending death. A hurricane filled with the power to destroy me. She’s right about one thing. I’m a damn fool who’ll always walk through her relentless hell if it meant getting a taste of her breathtaking heaven.

“Contempt is the only thing you’ll ever hear from me,” she whispers, but we both know it’s a lie. A lie I’m determined to break, starting with her hot mouth that has constantly proved it needs to be disciplined.

Tracing my fingers along the seam of her panties, our needy moans escalate, filling the room when I feel her drenched need coating her velvet lips. Pressing into her soft opening, her wetness grows and drips down my fingers as I pull her panties to the side and pull one finger across her seam.

“So eager,” I whisper, as I reluctantly release her body and give her a push against the mattress. I raise my hand to my lips, sucking her consent from my fingertips before starting to untie my tie. “In your contempt, you neglect to hide your enjoyment, Sweetheart,” I smile as I nod down at her drenched thighs. “Your soaking wet pussy is begging for me to touch it. Not that I can blame her. It’s been a long time since she’s been ravaged, fucking possessed, claimed, only the way I know how.”

She looks up at me with hatred for the way her body betrays her, and fuck, it just makes my dick harder. Pulling my tie from my neck, I climb up her frame, wrapping my left arm around her waist and hoisting her up towards the headboard. She lets down her guard and gives herself to me a little more as she sighs with satisfaction. Another sure giveaway that she wants, fuck that, needs, what she’s been denying us both for far too long.

Looking down, I admire my handiwork. Arms clasped behind her back. Breasts exposed, nipples hard. Her dress pulled up around her waist and her panties torn to the side exposing her wet, velvet lips. My gaze drifts across every inch of skin I’ve missed touching. Every freckle. Every blemish that makes her so much more perfect in my eyes and my heart breaks inside. But it’s when my gaze lifts and locks with her own that my damned heart bursts. It hits me. It’s in this moment I can finally see what I’ve been searching forreflected in her eyes. The words that I’ve been begging to hear her say for seven years.

That it wasn’t my fault. That she forgives me. That she’ll never be anyone else's but mine.

Grabbing the top of her dress, I rip it down the middle in one swift motion causing her back to arch and her head to fall back in need as a thrilling cry escapes her lips. Anxiously finding the buckle of my belt, I start to unclasp it from my waist when her head falls forward and her eyes cloud over. What I saw moments ago was a minor slip in her otherwise impenetrable armor, and she’s not done running that mouth of hers yet tonight.

“You think I enjoy this?” She breathes heavily. “Watching you take the part of me that’s easiest to covet? My body. Your aim’s gotten sloppy over the years, Ace. Maybe if you tried a little harder next time, you’d actually get what you really wanted. My mind. My heart. And not just what’s easiest for you to take.”

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