Then, when I’m finally finished, I release my cramped hand from his hair and he wipes his mouth, panting for breath.
And then he looks toward the door.
And with a chilling sensation I realize we aren’t alone.
I follow his line of sight.
Marie is standing by the door, staring at us with an open mouth.
She must have walked in and we had been so lost to our lust that we hadn’t even noticed.
For a moment I think maybe I don’t have to leave her.Maybe we don’t have to get divorced.Maybe we can just becomethis, three of us learning to share, taking turns.
But then she screams.
Her eyes ablaze with horror and indignation and disgust.
She marches toward us with boiling anger, arms thrown out, yelling at us, calling us immoral, sinners, devils, heathens, as if she hadn’t committed adultery first, as if all those terms don’t apply to her.
By now Ray is on his feet, my cock quickly tucked away in my trousers, and it seems all her fury is directed at me.Her finger is in my face, her eyes wild like an animal in a cage.
“I knew you were like this,” Marie says, seething, breathing hard.“I knew you were one of them.A defective sinner going straight to hell!”
I throw my hands up, trying to stay calm but failing.“You were cheating on me, Marie!I know you were.You can’t hide it, can’t deny it.”
But I don’t dare tell her how I found out.
“I was cheating on you because you’re a sodomite!”she screeches.“Because I knew your true nature, I saw the evil, the darkness that dwells there.I knew I married a man without scruples and I needed my body to be cleansed of you, my soul freed from the mire that is your own!”
I point at Ray, who remains silent and scared.“By fucking another sodomite?”I exclaim.
“You coerced this man,” Marie says, going to Ray andgrabbing his bicep.“You forced him to do such a foul, immoral deed.Your true nature is no more than an animal’s, Ichabod.But you won’t get away with this, you’ll pay for this.”
“I’m leaving you,” I grind out at her.“That’s how I’ll pay.I’m divorcingyou, you adulteress tramp.”
“You aren’t leaving me!”she screams, and before I know what’s happening, she’s slapping me across the face, the pain like sparks.“You can’t!I won’t allow it!”
I press my palm against my cheek, trying to rein in my temper.I never let it out, I never let it get the best of me, but now she’s provoking me.
Now I’m the animal in the trap.
“I don’t care what you allow,” I tell her, the rage building inside me, my skin feeling too hot, too tight.“I’m divorcing you, and you can’t do a single thing about it.”
“Oh, but I can.”She bares her teeth.“I’m getting you fired!”she yells, and when she sees the horror in my eyes, she grins.“Yes, I’m telling the world what I saw here.Ray will cooperate, won’t you, Ray?The school board will be the first to know, Ichabod.You’re about to lose everything, everything, your job, your house, your wife, all because you’re a sinner, a bloody sinner, I—”
“You will not!”I scream at her, marching forward and shoving her against her shoulders.
Except I push her harder than I meant to.Marie yelps and goes flying backward, her feet twisting and scrambling in an attempt to keep her footing, but she’s falling back toward the ground.
The back of her head smacks the wooden floor with a sickeningcrack, having just missed the rug by inches.The sound of thatcrack shoots right through me, yanks at my heart, at my soul, filling me from top to bottom with ice-cold dread.
Blood starts to pool from under her hair, her eyes are open and focused on the ceiling.
Everything slows down.
I let out a strangled cry.
Run toward her, knees slamming on the floor, pleading for her to be all right.
