Page 16 of Atonement

I hear the click of the lock behind her as Magnolia unlocks the door, but Sandy is too far gone to notice and only stares desperately into my eyes.

Game fucking won.

“Why?” she desperately breathes, just as Magnolia slips the key back in my hand before disappearing through the door.

“Because,” I smile, as I back away and close my hand over the key. “Men like me have an appetite you’re not used to. A craving you’ve never seen before.” Her eyes fill slightly with fear as I unlock the door Magnolia just passed through. “Trust me, it’s a hunger that serves only to scare you.” My purpose here served, I toss the key back at her startled expression and wink. “And entirely nothing you’d ever have the skill to handle, little one.”

I make my exit before she can reply and I’m immediately met with the angry eyes of Magnolia as we start to make our way down the hall.

“Appetites, cravings, hunger?” she asks annoyed. “Really, Dec, a schoolgirl would have the skill you’d require with crappy ass lines like that.”

We move quickly, strategically, aware of our surroundings, and ready for anything that might prevent us from getting what we came here for. I sit with her comment a moment, irritated and contemplating how best to respond just as Timmy emerges from the door at the end of the corridor, limping slightly from the wound in his leg and smiling ear to ear like a kid on Christmas morning.

Fucking Timmy, horrible timing as always.

Stopping abruptly, I square off against Magnolia as we wait for our accomplice to get his ass over here and hopefully tell us “mission accomplished.”

“Mm, schoolgirl,” I groan as she stops beside me. “You’re giving me ideas, Mags. Is that an invitation to ‘school’ you on the skills required to quench my thirst? Or is this just the student cock-teasing the professor like usual? Because it’s been a long time, Sweetheart, but I can guarantee you, I’d find the greatest pleasure in being your tutor. Bringing you up to speed quickly. Reminding you what you've been missing over the past seven years.”

“Over my dead body,” she fumes, but I see the lust building in her eyes. Feel the temptation building between us because fucking my wife, good and hard like we both like it, has always been both of our weaknesses.

“Necrophilia isn’t my thing, Magnolia,” I hiss back with irritation, needing her to break so I can claim her and take her back as my own. She’s the damn lifeline I’ve been living too long without. “I prefer my women warm, wet, and willing.”

“Classic,” she retorts, her eyes glancing up and down my body with growing need. “The irony is, I find it hard to believe you’ve ever found a woman who was truly willing.”

“Present company excluded?”

“Fuck off, Dec!”

“Only if you’re the one doing the fucking.”

“I got it!” Timmy shouts as he hobbles over to us and finally meets us in the middle of the hallway. His enthusiasm makes both Magnolia and I glance over our shoulders and hurry him towards the nearest exit. Obviously not the one Sandy monitors. I'm certainly not as irrational as Magnolia seems to think.

“Good work, Timothy,” Magnolia praises him as we make it back out into the black of night. I roll my eyes as the nerd smiles like his mother just patted him on the back. She takes the zip drive from his hand and pockets it quickly. “Now, let’s take it back to the house and make sure it’s got everything we need on it.”

“And if it doesn’t?” Our little friend questions. I take note and watch as he begins to worry with each step that takes him back into his own personal hell.

My hand quickly finds his shoulder and I grip hard, watching as the dork slightly jumps out of his pathetic skin. “Then we’ll deal with it, Tim. The only way we know how.”

His fearful shudder isn’t lost on me as we reach the car and I force him into the back seat. My eyes quickly raise and catch her blue ones over the hood. The look she gives me forces us both to a stop as we finally realize the only way out of the hell we’ve created between us is to force ourselves painfully through it.

Destroy our never ending purgatory. And just pray it doesn’t gut us in the process.

We’ll deal with it alright.

Right after I deal with Magnolia.

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