The library door was thick and none of the ordinary sounds that might have reminded them, might have held them back, could reach them. They were beyond the present, outside time, with no memories and no future. There was nothing but obliterating sensation, thrilling and swelling… (Atonement, p. 136)
What if that library door wasn’t so thick? What if you could see us through the glass, fucking against the shelves? My hands on her waist as she clings to the librarian’s ladder, in a desperate attempt to keep herself upright. Calves straining, thighs braced and taut; a study in controlled kineticism.