Jessica pushed back from the table, standing and towering over us like something primal and powerful. The very room seemed to darken in her presence, as she turned her wrath on me.

“You want this to happen then fine,” she said, “You want me to be with him then fine. You want him to fuck me and degrade me and make me into his slutty little whore then fine. That’s what I want to. I want it more than I want you.”

Her fists were balled at her sides, and Will just sat back in his chair with a dark grin, taking in all of this.

“But I want you to ask for it,” she demanded, “I want you to ask me to do this. I want to hear you beg.”

The silence in the room was enormous, so big that it encompassed the space and more. So big that it weighed on me, making it difficult for me to look anyone in the eye.

These people. These two people. These two goddamn assholes who I had let in closer than anyone else and who meant more to me in this world than anyone I’d ever known before and they were doing this.

They were doing this to me.

They were going to make me fucking say it.

They were supposed to care for me. They were supposed to value me. They were supposed to give two goddamns about my needs and my desires and they had taken it this far.

This hurt more than the affair. It hurt more than the lying and the sneaking around.

This was a betrayal of me, of who I was. This was vengeance, and vengeance was theirs.

I found the courage, that little seed of courage left in me. The little spark of a fire that was burning out, the ember that was warming me and making me do all of this, that had kept me going.

I spoke.

“I want it,” I whispered, admitting to myself for the first time a truth long denied, “I want it.”

“I can’t fucking hear you,” she snapped, and gripped me by the chin and turned my face up to look at hers.

And she stared down at me with scorn and disdain, but still even with her face contorted into that ugly expression I couldn’t help but see her as anything but beautiful.

“I want it,” I said louder, “I need it. Please.”

“That will have to do,” she sneered, “But next time you better learn how to grovel properly.”

I didn’t have long to contemplate those words, to weigh their full meaning. I didn’t have time to fully understand what she meant by that. To know that those words meant this was only the beginning, the beginning of something terrible and irresistible and more powerful than I could ever imagine.

Because in a moment she was on her feet, pressing up from the table and drawing the attention of both Will and me. She moved around it, sashaying her way over to him and gripping him by the collar, pulling him up out of his seat.

She moved him to one side, positioning the both of them so that they were facing each other and I could see straight through what little gap there was between their bodies. Her hands were on his chest, and she turned to look at me once more briefly before casting me out of her mind and out of her consideration as she turned her attention towards him.

Jessica kissed him, leaning into him and kissing him with a passion that was present but almost gentle in comparison to the vigor and force of the lovemaking I had been witness to over the last few months. But breaking that barrier served to wake the sleeping beast inside of Will, and I watched transfixed with fascination as he came to life right in front of me.