2. Atlas

C rimson & Son’s Mortuary is a family-owned business. One that has been running within my family lineage since the 1700s and passed down from generation to generation. When my father passed away ten years ago, it was left to me and since then, I have kept this place running impeccably. I don’t talk about it because it’s not important. I own it sure, but it’s not at all what defines me as a man in this day and age.

Astrid runs her delicate fingers along the cold steel of the cadaver table in the centre of the room, her eyes darting around to look at all the medical tools neatly displayed on the walls. Those of which are passed down from my family history and have been hung there beautifully.

“Wow.” She smiles. “I’ve never been in a place like this before.”

“Of course not, you’re alive.” I wink in her direction and a light blush creeps up her skin. I’m so close I can almost hear the audible sound of her beating heart as it pounds against her chest. Not in fear but excitement. “Are you ready?”

She nods, sucking the cover of her bottom lip between her teeth and chewing it. She’s nervous now. Most are when they’re about to see something morbid for the first time. Viewing a dead body isn’t at the top of everyone’s list, and most of the time, when it happens, you don’t get a say in the matter.

I wander to the back wall where all the bodies that pass through here are stored, wrapping my hand around the middle handle of the second row and turning it down. Pulling it open, a cold rush of air bleeds out into the room, giving the illusion of smoke when it does. Astrid moves to stand next to me, just as I drag the cadaver tray out into the open.

“It’s cold.” She states matter-of-factly.

What is it the teens say now? ‘Duh’ because obviously, it will be cold. First of all, the fucking body is dead. Secondly, it needs to be kept that way.

“It has to be to stop the body from decomposing while, let’s say… a criminal investigation is ongoing or to keep the body cold in preparation for the funeral. Otherwise, they would rot.”

Leaning forward, I wrap my fingers over the ice-cold sheet that covers the body. “This one came in yesterday.”

“Fresh then?” she asks, chewing on her nail.

“As fresh as he can be. Now, you cannot touch the body… ok?”

Astrid faces me then, lifting a single elegant finger from that unforgettable right hand and draws a cross over her chest.

“Cross my heart.” Her gaze filled with something unrecognisable.

“And hope to die?”

“And hope to die,” she repeats with a small smile.

If I was what society would class as a normal man, I would have easily fallen for Astrid within the first five minutes of meeting her, but I’m not. I’m a different creature altogether. Snatching back the sheet, I reveal the body to her in its entirety, and she gasps. Both hands come up to cup her mouth as it hangs open.

“Holy shit!” she exclaims, stepping a little closer and leaning over the body a little more to get a better look. “It’s so… grey and…” she frowns.

“What?” I step closer to her.

She looks at me, her brows pinched together. “Why does the skin look like glitter?”

“To preserve the body, we need to maintain the correct temperature environment which is for the integrity of the deceased. Temperature must be kept between 36 to 40 Fahrenheit. Roughly the same as a fridge. Decomposition starts from the moment of death, so my job is to slow that down as much as possible.” I point towards the face of the body. “So that ‘glitter’ you mentioned is just crystallisation from how cold the body is. It’s a very natural process that happens to anyone, dead or alive.”

“Huh.” She nods.

“And with the way that medical science has come along, we can keep the bodies supple and delay the speed of rigor mortis.”

“Rigor what?”

The corner of my mouth curves, remembering that she’s young. Almost twenty years my junior, and at forty-five, I tend to forget that most people wouldn’t know what it is.

“Rigor mortis used to be a thing where the body would seize up naturally after a certain amount of time, restricting mine and other medical experts’ work. Since The Sinclair Foundation funded the drug Ambutrol, all that is a thing of the past.”

“Well, you’re definitely different from most men I’ve been on dates with. None of them have ever shown me a dead body before. So—” Turning her entire body to face me, she sidesteps, placing her body directly between me and the frozen corpse.

“So?”

“Ever fucked anyone in here before?”

Her question doesn’t catch me off guard in the slightest, because I have, many times. But she doesn’t need to know that, all she needs to believe is that I’m exactly what she thinks I am. Just a nice, well-rounded guy.

“No. It’s never really led to something like that.”

“It’s never really come up in a situation like this?”

Her fingers graze the black belt wrapped around my waist, keeping her eyes on me as they travel to the buckle, and she pops it open, snatching it from the loops of my black suit trousers.

“There’s a first time for everything,” she croons, yanking the zip of my pants down and reaching inside for my cock. It’s rock hard, and when she wraps my favourite hand around it, I release a heavy groan. One that I can’t control because I knew–just by looking at it—that her hand would feel just like this.

When I chose her on the site, I’d hoped that she wasn’t like the others and up until she agreed to come here, she was already more than they ever measured up to. My eyelids flutter closed as her warm hand begins pumping the length of my cock slowly.

“Fuck,” I groan breathlessly.

Astrid pushes me against the wall abruptly, and my eyes spring open just as she drops to her knees in front of me, pulling my cock from the warmth of my slacks and without wasting time further, she engulfs it with her mouth. I watch as her plump lips glide up and down my veiny shaft as it disappears into the back of her throat. Her lust-filled moans vibrate against my cock while her hand strokes and twists it.

I thread my hands into her long hair and grip it tightly, almost enough to pull the roots from her scalp. I didn’t think her hair would be this soft. I was always a man who loved blonde, but the older I’ve become, the better my tastes have grown.

Pulling her head back, her lips glide off the end of my cock with a wet pop. “Tell me, Astrid, how long have you been waiting to choke on my cock?”

“Since you walked into the restaurant,” she responds, poking her tongue out invitingly and flicking it against the tip.

“Then keep your whore mouth wide open for me. While you’re here, each of your holes belong to me. Do you understand?”

She simply nods, but that’s not what I want. I want her to say it because Astrid may have ignored my profile on the dating app, but I read all of hers. I know what she likes, what she wants from a man, and how she wants to be treated, so I give her exactly that.

The sound of my palm cracking against her cheek echoes within the room. “Use your words.”

She’s going to cry, you know it.

I ignore the voice in my head. I need to concentrate and listening to it won’t help me in the slightest. I don’t care if she cries. Astrid is the last piece of my puzzle and when I get what I want, everything will be glorious… perfect, even.

“I understand, yes! That’s what I’m talking about!” Astrid cries out with desire. “Fuck me up, Atlas.”

“I plan to, but first… stay.” I point down at her, tearing open the shirt from my body, the buttons scattering across the cold tiled floor, and she doesn’t take her eyes off of me for a single second. The situation that she is about to find herself in is… sad really, because what I’m about to do to her is unlike anything she thinks is about to happen. Astrid’s mouth may have felt good around my cock, but it’s nothing compared to Shelly’s.

I place my arms under her armpits and lift her to stand, pulling her close to my body and giving her a devouring kiss. Carval, forceful, what I know she wants. As she concentrates on the kiss I don’t want to give her but have to, she doesn’t realise my eyes are open or that I’m leading her into a position she will never get out of.

That’s why my cock is rock hard.

That’s why I’m filled with lust.

Because I’m finally going to get the woman I always dreamed of. Sure, she might have come later in my life but that doesn’t matter, and it never will.

When her back hits the steel table, she yelps on a giggle. “Fuck, that’s cold.”

I rub my hands over her breasts, squeezing them tightly. “Turn around and bend over. You’re going to fucking love this.” Turning her around, she doesn’t even pay attention to her surroundings or what she’s even bending over onto… they never do. It’s always the same thing and every time I always find humour in the fact. Caging her body against the T-Shaped steel table, I bring my lips to her mouth. “Don’t move.”

I lift the hem of her red velvet dress and expose her peachy little ass, tearing the white thong from her lower body and exposing her already dripping cunt. It’s nothing like Shelly’s, but it will do. I can’t let her know what I’m doing in here–she wouldn’t be happy that I was doing this without her, but… it’s our anniversary, and I wanted to surprise her. Give her something I know she has wanted for such a long time. I had to wait for the perfect find and low and behold… Astrid crossed my computer screen.

“Stretch out both your arms,” I demand, my tone controlling and dominant, and Astrid follows those orders perfectly, which makes me think, it’s a shame this has to happen. I think she would’ve been a good wife to someone one day.

There are three thick rubber restraints attached to the underside of the table. Taking her left arm, I secure her bicep, then wrap the next one just below her elbow. The final one sits just above the joint on her wrist, and when I’m finished there, I do the exact same thing with her right arm. Making sure to fasten that a one a little tighter than the other.

“Ouch!” she exclaims, “that’s a little tight… calm down there, big guy.” She giggles.

“Do you realise how beautiful you look right now?”

Astrid turns her head to the right, her cheek resting on the cold metal, and she smiles. Her eyes follow me the best they can as I walk behind her, kicking her feet wider and watching her push her ass out a little further for me.

“Please, Atlas,” she pleads breathlessly, “fuck me.”

Lining my cock up with her entrance, I run the crown and shaft through her dripping wet pussy, coating my cock in her juices before I finally give her what she wants and slam the entire length of myself inside her. Her reaction is less of a scream of pain and more a shriek of desire, as though she’s been waiting for longer than the few hours we have known each other.

I don’t want her like this, but what I’m going to take from her needs to be done in a moment of pure sexual hunger because otherwise, it won’t mean anything. She is a gift I never expected to find. I’d been waiting weeks for the perfect girl, and here she is, tied up on the slab like the piece of meat she is. They mean nothing to me anymore. What I wanted, I couldn’t have. What I dreamed of didn’t exist. So, instead of waiting any longer, I decided to make it.

“You feel so good inside me,” Astrid mewls as I move my cock in and out of her tight cunt.

The warmth of her body is nothing new to me and not at all what I’m thinking about this moment. The thoughts that run through my head are filled with Shelly and how she will react when she opens her gift. I thrust faster, gripping her hips and pulling her into me with every sickening thrust I give her.

Beads of sweat begin to form on my brow from the hard work that I am putting in just to stay hard , because in all honesty, this feels like nothing more than my punishment. The end result, though, is my atonement for my current and previous behaviour.

“Look at you, such a desperate little cock whore aren’t you, Astrid.”

“Yes!” The word bounces off the morgue walls. “Oh my fucking God, yes, I am! Please don’t stop.”

Lifting my hand from her waist, I spank her so hard that the imprint of my palm reddens instantly on her alabaster skin. She doesn’t even have the skin tone I need, but once I saw her hand and her hair, everything else fell away, and none of that mattered anymore.

I pile drive into her with unwanted ferocity, giving her exactly what she has been begging for this whole time. They usually come a lot quicker than this, but… as my mother always said, “All good things come to those who wait.” And if it means I can finally give the love of my life what she wants… I’d wait as long as it took.

This needs to go faster, I need her release before I can get my own. “You’re going to come for me, you fucking slut!” I spank her even harder before relocating my hands to her shoulders. Thrusting in and out of her so recklessly I could slip a fucking disk. I’m old, and I don’t need this kind of hard work. At least when I fuck Shelly, she gives me the pleasure of coming inside her sweet core, legs so wide I can watch the cum drip from her hole.

“Yes! Oh my God… right there!” Astrid cries out so loud. I’m glad this building is far away from anyone living or still working nearby. “Just like that! I’m… I’m so close!”

A manic smile spreads across my face, and I reach over to the medical tray, wrapping my fingers around the wooden handle and raising it above my head. With my free hand I grip her thick auburn hair into my hand and draw her head back.

“Come for me, bitch,” I demand of her through gritted teeth. “Come all over this fucking cock!” My desperation bleeding through every pore of my sweat covered skin.

Astrid pants furiously, and her walls begin to tighten around me. Her screams mirror that of a woman about to reach ecstasy at any given moment. And that moment… is now. She comes so hard that her pussy forces my cock from her hole, her release splattering on the white tiles below and as always, I thank God above for this moment.

Angling the meat cleaver high above my head, I grip her forearm to steady her shaking body and slice through the air. The stainless steel carves through her wrist bone in one swift action, severing her hand from the wrist with a flawless finish.

Everything in the room goes quiet, almost as though I’ve gone deaf. I can only hear the thick beating of my heart as it beats ruthlessly against my ribcage. I watch the blood as it begins pulsing from the end of her limb, turning my once clean room a beautiful shade of crimson that I know my beautiful girl would love to see but can’t. Holding the cleaver up to my face, I run my tongue along the side, collecting the blood on my tongue and groaning with pleasure.

This is the best money I’ve ever spent.