A Patch of Darkness

by Yolanda Sfetsos

  “No, I’m not. Papan dropped by on his way home. I was alone, so he decided to give me some business information. You know we help each other out with clients.” No lies there. “That’s the truth.”

  He stood his ground. “That didn’t look like business to me.”

  I sighed. “Look, I’m really sorry. I know what it looked like. I don’t know what the hell I was doing.”

  “What do you think would’ve happened if I hadn’t surprised you?” His eyes were hard and darker than usual.

  I shrugged. “Probably nothing. Nothing ever happens with Papan. He likes to keep his distance.”

  Jonathan’s fists were still clenched at his side but he seemed to relax a little. “I don’t even know what that’s supposed to mean, Sierra. I want to know the real reason you cancelled tonight.”

  “I told you, business.”

  “Business alone in your office, until this Papan guy decided to drop in?”

  The tone of his voice rubbed me up the wrong way. “You know what? I don’t have to answer to you about my whereabouts twenty-four hours a day, but if you must know, I had to meet someone at the cemetery,” I said.

  Jonathan took a deep breath before taking a step towards me. “Sierra, I hate fighting. You’re too important to me for us to squabble about nothing. I’m sorry I got so angry with you before, it’s just…there’s so much you shut me out from.”

  I pushed off the desk to close the distance between us. I didn’t want to be apart anymore, so I flung myself into his arms. He stumbled back, almost losing his footing. I stood on tiptoe so I could press my lips against his. The desire mounted up inside was about to spill. There would never be a better time for this.

  Whatever had been piling up inside had been pushed over the edge by Papan. It was now or never.

  I forced my tongue into Jonathan’s mouth, searching until I met his in a rush of ecstasy.

  “Jonathan, let’s—”

  He took my face in his hands, forcing me to look into those gorgeous dark eyes. My body weakened and my stomach knotted. “Are you sure now’s the right time?”

  I smiled, admiring every detail of his gorgeous face—the luscious lips, the bridge of his nose, stubble—everything. The small lamp gave his complexion a dim golden tone, and flecks of his hair shone yellow.

  I wanted him so bad. Thoughts of Papan completely slipped from my mind. Or at least, I forcibly pushed them out.

  “There’s no better time.” My whisper barely made it out of my lips, I felt so choked up.

  He clamped his mouth back over mine, stealing the breath right out of my lungs. I was sure I’d pass out but didn’t care. Jonathan moved his hands from my face, venturing down the sides of my body until they stopped at my hips.

  “I love you, Sierra,” Jonathan whispered, dropping his mouth to the side of my neck. Soft, moist kisses burned my skin at his bare touch, his tongue lapping a line of heat, leaving a stinging sensation in its wake.

  I ignored the brief pain because I wanted to tear my clothes off and end the anticipation. We’d had enough time for the sexual tension to mount between us.

  He responded by moving his lips over my mouth for a full kiss, hands caressing my hips. Jonathan took a step back, pulling the bottom of my T-shirt up very slowly. I met his eyes as the fabric made it up over my stomach and breasts, and eventually over my head as I held my arms up. The T-shirt fell from his grasp, his eager eyes staring at my body. The lust burning in his eyes was contagious. Moisture collected between my legs, but he kept his distance as his fingers traced the lacy part of my bra, down into the cleavage and back over again.

  “Don’t stop, touch me,” I whispered, closing my eyes to the soft caress.

  “All in good time.” Jonathan continued the feathery motions.

  “What?” What the hell was he waiting for?

  “You’re so beautiful, I don’t want to rush this,” he said, kissing me lightly.

  “Oh, okay.” He might be able to hold back, but I couldn’t take this any longer. The distance was making my skin itch. I moved forward but he backed up.

  Jonathan’s fingertips teased my nipples through the fabric of my bra and they puckered instantly. My chest heaved as my heart sped up and he cupped a hand over my heart. I opened my eyes.

  “I want you so much, Sierra. Do I have your heart yet?”

  I nodded.

  He shook his head slowly. “But you’ve never told me you love me.”

  “But I do.”

  “No, you’ve never completed it with my name.” His eyes softened.

  I felt so choked up I was sure I would explode soon. I parted my lips, wanting the words to spill, but nothing came out. My throat felt dry. What was wrong? I did love him…right? So why was it so hard to say it out loud?

  “Sierra?” His hand was burning my skin as he kept it pressed over my heart.

  A few tears slid out the corners of my eyes. I’d never realized how hard I tried to keep my heart safely locked away. After Mace Clamber’s betrayal, it became so easy to keep my heart out of everything. But this was different.

  “I…” I just couldn’t say it.

  He looked down at me for several beats of my heart before he wrapped his arms around me. Jonathan held me against his body until my tears subsided.

  Did he know why I was really crying? Jonathan was wrong. I didn’t have a problem with commitment. I just couldn’t tell him I loved him. Not the way he wanted me to.

  “Oh, Sierra.” He squeezed me against his firm chest and kissed the top of my head. “I don’t ever want to lose you.” Jonathan pulled out of the embrace to hold me at arm’s length. “I don’t think I’ve ever told you, but I want you to know that I think you’re amazing.”

  I didn’t get a chance to respond, his lips moved over mine with hungry kisses I fed with my own lust. We were connected at the lips, breathing into each other with so much ferocity the world around us flickered away.

  I opened my eyes to find pitch-black surrounding us. Where did the office go?

  My heart jumped.

  We were in the dark patch. The same one where I’d faced off with the demon, but why? This couldn’t be happening. Not now.

  I pressed my eyes shut, willing the office to return.

  “What’s wrong?” Jonathan’s voice came out as a tiny whisper at first before solidifying.

  “Nothing,” I lied when I pried my eyes open to find we were back inside the office. What the hell just happened?

  Jonathan was looking at me with a quizzical expression on his face. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

  “I’m just a little dizzy.”

  Jonathan smiled down at me as he unbuttoned my jeans and peeled them off my legs. I was glad I’d been barefoot. I was also glad my pathetic dizzy excuse had served as an explanation. He didn’t seem to have noticed that we’d slipped out of the office for several moments.

  The cool rush of motion on my almost naked body felt divine. One by one, every problem I’d faced disappeared, until all I could see was this gorgeous man gazing lovingly at me.

  Jonathan pulled his T-shirt off to reveal his toned chest. His arms were sculpted and flexed as he moved to shed the remainder of his clothing.

  My breath caught in my throat as I surveyed every inch of his perfect bronzed features. He hadn’t looked this way the first time we’d fooled around, before his trip to Europe.

  I reached out, both hands moving along his chest, down his tight abdomen. He was breathtaking.

  “What about these?” I yanked on the top button of his jeans.

  My arms fell away as Jonathan rushed to push them down. He stood before me in a pair of dark boxers that did nothing to hide his arousal.

  “Come here,” he said.

  I slipped back into his arms, and his erection jabbed into me. “Let me get rid of these.”

  His hold loosened as I pushed my fingers into the top of the soft material against his hips and lowered it with a swift motion, following it all
the way to the floor. I kept my eyes glued to his the whole time, hoping it looked seductive instead of clumsy. He kicked the boxers away from his feet.

  I made a move to straighten, slowly making my way up so I could pause to gaze at every inch of him. Jonathan was long and ready. A dark tattoo that looked like a dragon wrapped around his upper thigh.

  “Ooh, I didn’t know you had a tattoo,” I teased as I ran my fingers up the length of his smooth skin, lingering at the top with small circular movements that caused a reaction of jagged breath out of him. His eyes left mine, closed to the sensations as my fingertips were trailing along his erection.

  I gradually rose to standing, cupping him with one hand, stroking lightly with the other. I pressed my lips up to his and kissed him.

  Jonathan lifted me off the floor and my hand slid from him. He walked us over to my desk, our lips still locked when he placed me onto the desktop. He pulled my underwear and bra off, tossing them so he could lower his mouth to my exposed breasts as my back hovered above the wooden desk. His arms were tight around me while he buried his face in my chest.

  The feel of his mouth and stubble scraping my skin made me want to scream. The desire was burning me up. I wanted him inside me.

  He lowered me back onto the desk, one hand tickling past my hips. My nipples tightened as he nibbled and teased them with his tongue and teeth.

  I encouraged his hand lower, between my legs. I needed to feel his touch. Jonathan parted my legs, his mouth never leaving my nipple. He slid a finger inside and I moaned with pleasure. His finger was suddenly joined by another and pure ecstasy raced beneath my skin.

  “Oh, Jonathan…”

  “It’s okay,” Jonathan whispered in my ear when he withdrew his fingers. “There’s more where that came from, my Sierra.”

  I couldn’t breathe, my chest heaved frantically from the effects of his touch. “Make love to me, Jonathan.”

  He looked at me with a huge smile as I lay back, but when he closed the distance between us, I remembered something. “Wait a second, do you have protection?”

  He frowned. “Sierra, we don’t—”

  “Yes, we do.” I didn’t want to spoil the moment, but I didn’t want to be so caught up with desire that I put myself at risk.

  “I don’t have any…”

  “That’s okay,” I said. “Ebony should have some in her drawer.”

  Jonathan opened his mouth as if he was about to say something, but closed it. Instead, he headed over there and rifled through the drawers. It didn’t take him long to hold up a small square pack.

  “Hurry up,” I whispered.

  When he returned wearing it, he didn’t waste any time.

  A whimper escaped my lips as soon as he entered me. I spread my legs a little further, inviting him closer. With my hips tilted upward and his hands massaging my breasts, I watched Jonathan’s face as he moved in and out of me. He was so beautiful.

  Jonathan kept his eyes on mine, soft moans leaving his mouth with each thrust. I pushed my hips up to meet his every move. Climax was building inside me again. I could feel the warm sensation igniting.

  He increased his rhythm, faster and faster, until the desk beneath me rocked and things tumbled off the sides.

  I didn’t care. If the world was on fire outside this office, it didn’t bother me. All that mattered was Jonathan’s body thrusting, our eyes locked on each other.

  The feeling swept a new storm in the pit of my stomach. I was so close. A primal yell of pleasure raged out through my parted lips. Jonathan’s eyes rolled back as he shuddered inside me, echoing my call.

  He fell forward, pressing our chests together. His heartbeat echoed mine, and I wanted nothing more than to be with him.

  I touched his lush hair, pushing my fingers through it. He didn’t say anything for a long while and closed his eyes. As much as I tried to pretend his overheated skin felt comfortable on mine, or wanted to ignore that we were once again engulfed in total darkness, I couldn’t shake the feeling of unease creeping over my cooling body. Why hadn’t he noticed when we slipped into the dark patch? And why was this happening during our lovemaking?

  As soon as Jonathan opened his eyes and made a move to step away from me, the pitch-black dissipated.

  “See, I told you we should’ve come up to the office this afternoon,” I said later as we picked up our clothing off the floor.

  He laughed, wrapped his arms around me, and pulled me in for another kiss. There weren’t any more words left to share.

  “What in the hell happened here?”

  “What’re you talking about?”

  “Are you sure someone didn’t break in and have a fight on my desk? Things are everywhere. I never leave my desk like this when I go home.” Ebony had been complaining about the state of her desk since she’d gotten in.

  Heat rose to my cheeks. Oops, Jonathan and I hadn’t exactly used her desk, but we’d used mine. “I’m positive nothing happened here last night. Now, why don’t you just fix it up and get on with the day, huh?”

  Ebony looked at me, suspicion in her heavily made-up eyes. The cerulean eye shadow and heavy black eyeliner made the color of her blue-gray eyes stand out more than usual. Too much makeup for my liking, but at least she looked human.

  I picked up my round pen holder, avoiding her eyes.

  “There’s no need to snap, angry girl.”

  “I’m not angry,” I said, sitting down to stick all the pens back into the holder. Far from it.

  Anger was the furthest emotion from my mind. I’d spent the night wrapped in Jonathan’s embrace, enjoying the smell and feel of his crisp sheets on my skin. I eventually stumbled home to shower and change into clean clothes, though I didn’t want to leave his bed. My jeans and T-shirt were so worn yesterday, I was debating whether to wash or burn them. Today I felt fresh in my long black skirt and short-sleeved red shirt.

  Ebony was still watching me. “There’s something different about you today.”

  “Oh really? Maybe it’s the outfit.”

  “No, it’s not the outfit! For one thing it’s nine thirty in the morning and you’re here. Actually, you were in before I was for once,” Ebony said, reshuffling the papers and notebooks on her desk. “And there’s a certain glow about you… Oh my, it can’t be.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Just drop it. We’ve got a whole bunch of work to do today.”

  “Right, work. How did your meeting go anyway?”

  “What meeting?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Uh, hello! The one with the insistent man on the phone?”

  Oren’s pink eyes flashed inside my mind. Damn, I hadn’t thought about him all morning. I still couldn’t believe he was a damn witch. What the hell could my grandmother have been thinking, befriending a witch? Maybe she’d never known what he was. Oren certainly did a great job at appearing human.

  I shook my head, trying to clear him out of my mind.

  Maybe I’d expose him at the next meeting.

  I shrugged. “It went fine. It wasn’t work-related.”

  “Oh, come on! You’re really starting to piss me off. Why aren’t you sharing anything with me anymore, Sierra? I thought you agreed to train me in the spook-catching trade. Don’t you remember? I’ve been your apprentice for ages and still know as much as I did the day I started working for you.”

  I reached for the pile of manila folders between our desks. They’d tumbled into a messy accordion. I’d already pulled out the ones holding my interest. “Today is your lucky day because we’re going to spend the whole day out in the field.”

  Her eyes widened. “Really?”

  “I’ve been busy this morning. I had an early start and contacted several of these people. We’re going to take care of a few things. Oh, and make sure you clear your evening because we’re going over to meet with Carleen Hocking too. She’s expecting us at eight.”

  “We’re going hardcore the entire day, without breaks? Are you serious?”

  “No, th
ere’ll be a few hours between clients. Let’s see.” I glanced at my organizer. “Hopefully from five to eight, we’ll be free. You can do whatever you like until eight. Just make sure you’re there on time, okay?”

  She nodded, eyes suddenly vacant.

  “Is there a problem?”

  “No.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I kinda had something planned for tonight,” she said pushing a long strand of hair away from her face. “It is Australia Day tomorrow…”

  My mind skipped back to Papan’s words about Ebony being involved with the so-called cult who’d captured Roger Hocking’s attention. “Is it a date or something?”

  “Something like that,” she whispered.

  “I’m sure you can reschedule. And like you said, if we can get all of these cases taken care of today, maybe we can have all tomorrow off and you can enjoy the public holiday,” I said. “Though, you better get used to doing quite a bit of cancelling and reshuffling. Welcome to my life.”

  Ebony seemed to be a million miles away when she said, “Great.”

  “Hey, don’t complain. This is what you wanted, right?”

  She nodded. “Of course it is.”

  “Hey, there’s still time for you to sign up for lessons with the Council if that’s—”

  “No fucking way!” Ebony stood and headed towards the filing cabinet. “Don’t worry, I’ll be there.”

  I suddenly had the feeling she was trying to avoid answering any more questions. “Hey listen, I need to talk to you about something.”

  “Hello, Sierra? I hope I got the right office.” Lavie strolled tentatively into the office. I’d left the door open, hoping to make it easier for her to find us.

  “Hey, Lavie, yeah, I’m in here.”

  “Great, I thought I’d gone to the wrong building or something.” Lavie was smiling. She actually looked neat today. Her choppy red hair was combed straight, almost reaching her shoulders, and her burgundy dress was intact but her arms and legs were covered. The suspicious dark backpack was strapped to her back.

  I wondered if it was the same one she’d had when we met, the one with a demon’s head inside. Ugh.