Page 31 of His Atonement

I nod, and give her my most sardonic grin. "Think nothing of it, my darling girl. Consider it athank you. A gift for a gift, if you will."

Understanding passes over her gorgeous face and Frankie smirks. "I see." Then she smiles, almost knocking me on my ass from the beauty of it. "I should expect more of thesegiftsthen, I suppose?"

“Absolutely." I lift the apple to my lips, and take a very loud bite. "I'm a giver, what can I say?"

With a nod and grin too devious to be as beautiful as it is, Frankie bites into her own apple, a little bit of its juice running down her chin and that stupid muscle in my chest swells—along with my dick—at the sight of her acceptance, her enjoyment of what I provided her.

Then the she-devil makes everything a thousand times worse as her pink,piercedtongue darts out to lick the juice from the corner of her perfect mouth.

"Well, thank you, Zan, for making me feel so welcome. I'm sure I'll enjoy my time here that much more because of yourgivingnature.” Her eyes slowly peruse my body, dance with joy as they take in the way I look in her absurd form of payback, but I don't miss the way her pupils dilate ever so slightly, the way she then bites her lip as she leans back in her seat. "I have a feeling I'm going to enjoy my time here very, very much, actually."

And there goes my cock again, getting all kinds of crazy ideas about plowing into this infuriating woman and pounding her sweet cunt until she comes all over him.

Crazy, crazy ideas that I need to put a stop to completely.

Which actually gives way to another kind of idea, one that shall surely suffice my desire to pay Frankie back for her assault on my limited wardrobe.

"Breakfast has arrived!" Milos bellows as he joins us, then his eyes light up as he looks at Frankie. "Can I hit that?"

She nods and leans forward, hands Milos her joint, and I immediately want to strangle him for putting his mouth on anything my Frankie's lips have previously touched.

And I want to paddle her biteable ass for allowing him to do so, for sharing what is rightfully mine with him because it is hers and she is mine.

Mine.

The word echoes in my head briefly but I ignore it, push it down and bury it with the more crazy possessive thoughts I'm having about this woman and move to light my own herbs.

"Before you do that,” Cora says as she swings her short legs over the side of her chaise. "Help me get up so I don’t pee all over."

And because she is where my focus should be directed, I do as she asks with a smile on my face. "Would you like me to carry you as well?"

"Maybe later when my ankles swell.” She grins up at me. "I'd hate to ruin your outfit by making you bust a seam somewhere.” Then my gem dissolves into another fit of laughter that is highly contagious until she stops abruptly and blurts, "Uh oh."

"Uh oh? Uh oh, what? What is it?" I begin to panic as Havok launches himself from the pool and rushes us.

"What is it, angel? Are you in pain? Is it the twins?"

Cora holds her enormous belly and squeezes her thighs together. "Nope, but if I don't get to a bathroom pronto, someone is going to be cleaning piss up off the stone floor."

With that, Havok and I each grab under her arms and behind her knees, hoist my gem into the air and start running toward the pool house before Cora does in fact pee her bathing suit bottoms.

And just before we get inside, I hear,

"Ok, Frank, what the fuck is going on with you and Zan?"

I grin when Frankie doesn't respond to Allie, when she ignores her questions and gives Milos his own joint.

I have to give her credit, Frankie may just be the first worthy opponent I've had in ages.

Now if I could only stop fantasizing about her long enough to destroy her, I'd be one very satisfied male.

Game on, Frankie, my darling girl.

Game fucking on.

Packages Galore

Nine days later. Sunday.