Page 74 of Temptation

“They're huge fans of his music.” Quinn grinned as Bishop and Quill came back in, Quill still looking vaguely annoyed but much calmer. “Do you want to invite Chrissy, Quill?”

“Yeah, why not? She could probably use a night out full of drama.” He dropped into his seat with a shrug.

“Anyone else?” Quinn added Chrissy to the list.

“Deedee.” Tenn reminded her. “That brings the total to twenty-five, and it's just supposed to be a small gathering of our close friends and family to celebrate the lecture series.”

“True.” Quinn nodded. “We have to put together a slide show of all the pictures Ron got of them together.”

“I scanned them and saved them to my online storage,” Tenn said as he stood up and stretched. “Quinn has access to them; it's a shared folder. Breakfast was incredible, thank you.” Quinn turned her cheek up so he could kiss it with a grin.

“You’re very welcome.”

“Bring me a laptop.” Rilla cracked her knuckles. “And let me and Q get to work. You boys go amuse yourselves for a little while.”

Tenn, Quill, and Bishop looked at each other. “We could set up in the basement and introduce Tenn to DragonQuest,” Quill suggested as Quinn got up and went to get her laptop.

“After you've cleaned the kitchen, of course.” She called over her shoulder.

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Calling in Reinforcements

Quill and Bishop had to run back to their houses to get their laptops, so Tenn cleaned up the kitchen while he waited for them to get back. Quinn and Rilla were choosing pictures and screenshots of texts. They had decided the video of Joel and Viki falling out the window would be the last slide and arranged everything else chronologically. Rilla suggested they add music, and they had a blast looking up songs about cheating before deciding on “I'm Not The Only One” by Sam Smith, “Irreplaceable” by Beyonce, “Cry Me A River” by Justin Timberlake, and “Take A Bow” by Rihanna.

Quinn played “I'm Not the Only One,” and she and Rilla began singing along, getting into it, dancing in the chairs, and making dramatic gestures. Tenn leaned on the counter and watched them with a smile. He really enjoyed the dynamic of the friend group, and much like Quill, he didn’t have a large friend circle, and he was very happy they were so willing to include him. There was no weirdness or awkwardness, they just accepted he would be there going forward and included him as part of their little family. Feeling his phone buzz in his pocket, he pulled it out and saw it was Ron calling. Leaving the girls to their fun, he went to the living room to answer.

“Hey Ron, how's Atlanta?”

“Bloody humid.” Ron chuckled. “And running the gamut between really sad and really funny.”

“What's going on?” Tenn sat on his recliner and leaned back as he watched for Quill and Bishop. He was honestly not that interested in what was going on with Joel and Viki anymore and just wanted to get through this week.

“Well, first, there was no training. This hotel is on the other end of the city from One Porsche Plaza, and by a lucky coincidence, the desk clerk who checked me in is a former client of mine. When I explained why I was here, she looked them up and got me the room next door, which was great because they haven't left it yet.”

“Really?” Tenn was honestly surprised; as far as he knew, they had never taken a weekend trip for the sole purpose of a sex getaway before.

“Yeah. They order room service or food delivery. Your soon-to-be ex was bitching about it earlier, but he shut her down by saying he wasn't funding her trip, and she should have thought of it before she tried to get drunk on his wife's dime.”

“So, what are they doing?” Tenn almost yawned. He said before that he expected them to get together and end up cheating on one another, but now that he had more insight into their relationship and witnessed Viki’s meltdowns, he didn’t expect them to come back to Boston still together.

“Arguing with lots of yelling mostly. I'm kind of shocked other guests haven't been complaining about them. Viki is sure you're planning to divorce her, and she's doing her damnedest to get Joel to commit to her. Joel keeps telling her that's her problem; he told her from the start he wasn't leaving Quinn.” Ron reported cheerfully. He was clearly enjoying witnessing the downfall of Joel and Viki’s relationship. Tenn hadn’t been lying when he said Ron hated cheaters. His wife cheating on him was what made him become a PI. “They get mad at each other; he tells her to get out; she convinces him to let her stay by calling him Daddy and begging him to teach her a lesson for stepping out of line. Then I hear slaps, and he calls her a slut, whore, bitch, cum dumpster, and all kinds of other terms of endearment. He tells her she means nothing to him beyond what she lets him do to her, and she's begging him for more. Like I've heard some sick and twisted things, and this is up there, easily in the top three.”

“Yeah, we've seen some of the things he says to her texts. It's pretty much the exact opposite of how he treats Quinn or how she behaves with me.”

“You'd be surprised how often this is a thing. One spouse has a kink or fetish they know the other won't be open to, so they go outside their marriage and justify it by saying they only love their wife or husband, but they have needs the spouse can't fulfil. I think the worst part is how much she begs him to tell her he loves her and wants to be with her.”

“What does he say?” Tenn had lost all respect for Viki at this point. She clearly desperately needed therapy, but she refused every time he brought it up. She clearly had no desire to change, not even for her own well-being.

“He loves her, but it's because she lets him do what he wants. He keeps telling her she will never be an official girlfriend or wife, only a side piece because he doesn't have official relationships with “little whores.” Ron’s voice was contemptuous, but Tenn didn’t know if it was because of Joel or Viki.

“Yeah, basically the same narrative he's been telling her all week. Go to the bar and get a strong drink on me.” He watched through the window as Bishop and Quill pulled into the driveway and came in with book bags over their shoulders.

“Thanks, I'm going to take you up on that.” They said their goodbyes, and Tenn led the way down into the basement, where they spread out across the oversized couch. He quickly summarised the conversation with Ron, and Bishop shook his head when he was done while Quill looked very disconcerted.

“You're sure he's never done anything like that to Quinn?” Quill glanced up the stairs as he spoke, and Tenn got a glimpse of the man who was arrested for beating Joel up for the second time that day.

“Apparently he tried to spit in her face when they first started dating, and she slapped him. It took a month of begging and apologizing for her to give him another chance, and he's been very vanilla with her ever since.” Tenn assured him. “She said she thinks he has a Madonna/Whore Complex.”

“Oooooh, now everything makes sense.” Bishop leaned back as he nodded his head. “Yeah, he would see Quinn as too good and pure to do what Viki does with him. I'd say he should have asked her for an open relationship, but she would've told him to go fuck himself.”

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