Darkness Loves Company: A Tides of Darkness Prequel

by Sarah Blair

  “Oh, Jesus, God.” He groaned, even though he wasn’t totally sure he believed in either entity. But gazing down at Sidney, right now, the existence of a higher power had never felt more likely.

  He grabbed a fistful of her hair and his knees went slack. “I think I need to sit down.”

  “Sorry.” She wiped the back of her hand over her mouth, and his vision flickered black for a second.

  “Don’t be.” He staggered over to the couch and collapsed. His cock was harder than it had been in ages.

  The cushion sank beside him. Her soft, supple body melded into his, but she didn’t take hold of him again.

  “You okay?” She stroked the bare part of his head with her palm, and it was glorious to feel taken care of. He opened his eyes and touched her cheek.

  “I’m good.” He smiled.

  “Want me to keep going?” she asked. He grabbed a handful of her breast and enjoyed the weight and bounce of it.

  “Please. If you want to.” He circled her nipple with his thumb and it hardened into a pink nub. He brought it into his mouth, and copied the swirling motion she’d just done to his cock with her own tongue.

  Her hand shafted him again. He sucked hard. Harder. Smoothing his hand across the curve of her waist, down to squeeze her ass.

  “How do you feel about prostate massage?” she asked.

  Her nipple left his mouth with a wet pop. “What, like bend over and cough?”

  “Not exam. Massage.” She grinned and hitched a shoulder. “Some guys like it.”

  “I can’t say anyone’s ever offered. Besides my doctor, and he didn’t exactly take his time about it.” He combed his fingers through her hair.

  “I will. If you want.” Her mischievous grin sent a thrill up his spine.

  “Never let it be said this old dog won’t try new tricks.”

  She hopped off the couch and kneeled between his knees. “Put your feet up on the table, and scoot towards me.”

  His cock had started to droop a little at the thought of his doctor’s office. Fluid leaked out onto his stomach, but she didn’t seem to notice or care. When she took his shaft in her hand again, he felt a new rush and he twitched back to life. She responded with a gentle squeeze in return.

  Then, she stuck the middle finger of her other hand all the way in her mouth. His cock jumped again. When she pulled her finger out, her saliva dripped down to her knuckle and he thought maybe he wasn’t going to make it to the rest.

  “Don’t forget to breathe,” she instructed.

  “Right.” His head fell back and his eyes shut. His answer had been a little sarcastic, because he hadn’t thought she was really serious about it until she eased her slender finger inside.

  It burned for a second, and he inhaled sharply. The pad of her finger found its target and he hissed through his teeth. Gentle pressure built up behind his balls and it felt like the best part of coming, except that he wasn’t yet. It just kept going, and then he forgot how to do anything at all, let alone breathe.

  “Is that okay?” She stopped.

  “Don’t stop.” He dug his fingers into the leather cushion, and arched his back.

  Sidney grinned and circled her finger inside him again. Then she put her mouth down on his cock. She bobbed up and down on his shaft in rhythm with what she was doing inside, squeezing his base with one hand, cupping his balls in the palm of the other, until he thought his eyeballs would fall straight out of his head.

  “I have to—”

  He couldn’t even finish the sentence. But she knew. And she lowered her head and took all of him. He shouted, maybe, or it could have all been inside his head, he wasn’t even sure. He just knew he probably didn’t have a body anymore because he was floating somewhere, and maybe he was dead?

  That had to be it. There were a million stars and nothing else. Not even oxygen. Slowly, he floated back down. He started to feel things and hear things again. Like the soft flow of her hair blanketing his chest. The gentle tumble of the logs as the fire consumed them.

  He lifted a weak hand, brushed the back of his finger across her shoulder. Opened his eyes and shut them immediately.

  “Are you for real?” he asked. “Because, I think maybe you’re something else.”

  She snorted. “Like what?”

  “Not even human. Some kind of deity.” He didn’t even know what he was saying anymore. What were words? “A goddess.”

  Sidney pressed a grin to his cheek. His stomach fluttered at the lightness of her touch.

  “I don’t know. Maybe.”

  Twenty-Four

  Sidney opened her eyes to utter darkness.

  She searched for the familiar night light of the Chrysler building up in the corner of her window and it wasn’t there. Nothing but pitch black.

  A hot and heavy weight rested on her chest. It covered her body. She was trapped. Her lungs froze. No air would come.

  “It’s not real.” She tried to wake herself up from the familiar nightmare. This was the part where she always woke up. Except, her eyes were open, but she still couldn’t see.

  A low rumble cut through the darkness.

  She shoved. Writhed. Kicked. Scratched.

  “Hey.” Hands clamped down on her wrists. “Hey!”

  Sidney stilled. The cabin. It all finally came back to her.

  “Mitch?”

  “A dream.” The grip on her wrists went slack. He sighed. “You were dreaming.”

  “No.” She blinked hard, trying to find his face in the pitch. She felt the outline of his head, shoulders, chest. “It happened.”

  “You’re safe, sweetheart.” Fingers combed through her hair. The pillow sank next to her face and his heavy arm draped across her waist. “Go back to sleep.”

  The sharp scrape of his scruff felt good against her palm. It let her know that as bizarre as it was to be here in a cabin in the middle of nowhere with Mitch, it was real. And they were both still naked.

  It was all a little hazy how they’d even made it into bed, but there was definitely a lot of wine to blame for that. She had no regrets.

  The perpetual sounds and motion of the city were gone, replaced with a deep, dark stillness that unraveled her nerves completely. Sidney’s hand moved with the gentle rise and fall of Mitch’s chest while his heart tapped a steady rhythm against her palm. A breeze rustled the dry leaves, knocking them off the branches to clatter against the window. Chilled air circulated through the fine cracks. The heavy split logs creaked and settled around them.

  She scooted in closer to Mitch while his soft breathing deepened into the pull of a gentle snore. In her own apartment, she always slept with a light on. If she woke alone in the dark, every small sound turned into a monster, pacing at the foot of her bed, snarling, ready to devour her limb from limb.

  It might be dark, but she wasn’t alone. She had to remind herself of that. Shit. She wasn’t alone. She fucked around, sure, but she’d never actually slept with anyone’s body next to hers. It was a level of intimacy she hadn’t been looking for, but with Mitch, everything about it felt right. Her body eased against him. Eyes drifted shut.

  A long, screaming howl cut through the darkness.

  Sidney tensed. Eyes wide open again in the dark.

  The wind settled and silence rang loud in the stillness.

  A second howl picked up the call. It was closer. Right outside the window. More joined in. Sidney plastered herself against Mitch, burying her face against his neck. His arms closed around her.

  “Coyotes,” he mumbled.

  The howls devolved into a chorus of high-pitched yips and screams. It felt like it would never end. Sidney whimpered.

  “Give it a minute. They’ll settle down.” Mitch held her. Kissed her forehead. Rubbed his thumb across her waist. “It’s okay. You’re safe.”

  The howls and yips died down just as easily as they’d started. It left her heart thumping, and her ears ringing.

  “Sidney.” Mitch soothed her back in slow circ
les. “What happened to your parents isn’t going to happen to you.”

  The darkness made it easier to say the one thought she’d felt deep down inside but never dared to speak out loud before. “Sometimes, I wish it had.”

  His hand paused on her shoulder.

  “They were scared for a few seconds, maybe a minute. Then it was over.” She tucked her face deep into the crook of his neck. “I haven’t been able to sleep with the lights off for nine years.”

  He pressed a kiss to her forehead, squeezing her tight. Then he extricated himself from her carefully. A knot of panic stuck heavy in her chest, just behind her breastbone. He disappeared into the dark for a second, before the bathroom light flicked on. The soft yellow light illuminated the muscles of his chest and the long, tight sweep of his thighs and calf muscles. He left the door cracked and padded back to the bed.

  “You don’t have to.” She curled her palm around the oval of his face.

  “If it makes you feel better.” He kissed her forehead. His eyes roamed over her. “And it’s kind of nice, being able to watch you sleep.”

  “Oh, God.” Sidney turned her face into the pillow. “Don’t get weird.”

  “What? You do this little smiling thing with your mouth.” He touched the edge of her lip. “It’s cute.”

  “Don’t even. I am not cute.” She rolled away from him, throwing the covers up over her head. “Ugh! Can we just not make this a thing?”

  A note of gravity slipped into his tone and he dragged her hips back against him. His leg curled around hers. Mouth moved across her shoulder. “What do you want it to be.”

  “I don’t know.” She peeked out from under the heavy duvet. “I just want to have fun and feel good with someone I trust.”

  “Fuck buddies?”

  She snorted out a laugh. “I’m not going to be your twenty-one year-old booty call. You filthy old man.”

  “Good, because I’m not going to be your silver fox, piece of ass, little princess.”

  She laughed loud and real, rolling over onto her back. “Something else then?”

  “It doesn’t have to be a thing,” he agreed. Long fingers traced up the inside of her thigh. She inhaled sharply. “Okay?”

  “Okay.” Sidney brought him down to her, enjoying the way she could kiss him whenever she wanted now. Easy. Simple. Like it had never not been this way.

  Her body reacted immediately to his touch. Greedy and wanting. He dipped his long, thick fingers inside her.

  It was so much better than how she’d envisioned in the tub. She opened her mouth to his tongue, and her hips to his hand. Wide, wider, taking him in.

  Breasts swelled heavy and full with desire. She ached in places she’d never paid attention to before. Fucking had always been a means to an end. A distraction. A way to clear her head. This was different.

  His touch was slow and intimate. Intentional.

  “God,” she groaned. Smoothing her hands over his back, memorizing the way his muscles rolled across hers. He added more fingers. A challenge she accepted and relished. They worked together, drawing out her pleasure as long as she could stand it. He was attentive, easing back when she tensed, pushing her to the edge when she rolled her hips in a plea for more.

  “Let go, sweetheart.” He whispered into the darkness. “I’ve got you.”

  Sidney screamed and shattered into pieces and Mitch was right there, filling the empty space between. Holding her together.

  Her glue.

  “You got this okay?” Mitch rested his arms on the roof of the Jeep over the door and peeked through the open window.

  “No problem.” Sidney soaked up one last glimpse of the trees and the flawless blue sky. It was too soon for this to be over yet. Except that it wasn’t over. It was just beginning. “We can come back here, right?”

  “Any time you want.”

  She arched an eyebrow.

  “It’s a drive. Maybe not anytime.” A smile quirked his lips. “Sometimes.”

  “Christmas? I can tell Williams I’m going to St. Kitts and you can go visit your aunt in Poughkeepsie.”

  “I’ve got an aunt in Poughkeepsie?”

  “Maybe.” She shrugged. “How would he know?”

  He shook his head and glanced out over the vista. “You’re something else, Lake, you know that?”

  The glasses were back on and she wanted to kiss him again. This was something new. She’d never been smitten before. It was scary, but not in the way she’d always thought it would be. “Dinner?”

  “I’ll bring something over to your place,” he offered. She didn’t even bother trying to protest. The idea of having him in her bed, of waking up to his face again was way too thrilling. “I need to wrap up a few things, first. I’ll be right behind you. Be careful.”

  “I’m fine,” she said.

  “I know.”

  “Don’t shave.” She raked her short fingernails across his stubbled jaw.

  He leaned into her touch. “I’ll see you later.”

  He stepped away and tucked his thumbs in his pockets. He kept his eyes on her while she turned around and she was determined not to glance in the rearview to see if he was still watching as she eased up the gravel drive.

  They’d fooled around in a big way, but on a technical level they hadn’t even had sex yet. So why did her body feel so different? She was sore in places she didn’t even know existed. Full and satisfied in others. Heavy, but floating.

  Thinking about his hands made her bra tight. The idea of all the things his tongue could do sent electric waves straight to her core. And her face hurt from this big stupid grin that just wouldn’t quit. Daydreaming about all the places she had left to explore on his body made the return drive feel infinitely shorter than the fearful trip she’d made less than twenty-four hours earlier.

  Before she knew it, the city rose up, gleaming on the horizon and she was weaving her way through Manhattan again. She pulled into the assigned spot in the garage where Williams paid to park and headed up W 71st Street to the townhouse that had once belonged to his wife’s’s great-aunt, a famous concert pianist.

  “Hello, sister wife.” Megan greeted her with a hug and a kiss on the cheek, wafting an air of something light and floral. She navigated her pregnant belly back into the living room. “Come on in.”

  “Sister wife?” Sidney shut the door behind her and returned the keys to the dish on the small table by the door. Megan splayed out on the couch next to an explosion of baby clothes and put her feet up on the coffee table.

  “We’re in a throuple, apparently. Welcome to the family.” She showed Sidney her laptop. A gossip website splashed a photo of Sidney and Williams outside the zoo with their arms wrapped around each other in a seemingly intimate embrace. In reality, Sidney was only trying not to face-plant in her heels.

  “Haunting revelation?” Sidney winced and read aloud. “Former Ghosts Gone Wild star searches for Peyton Remington’s spirit at Zoo gala, finds love instead. Oh, for fuck’s sake.”

  “Was it at least open bar? God, I can’t wait until I can drink again. Oh, check this one out.” Megan held up a tiny one piece outfit that had My mommy’s a genius! written across the front.

  “Well, it’s true.”

  “Keeper.” Megan tossed it to a pile on her other side. “How are things? What’s going on with you?”

  “Not much. Just trying to exonerate a former classmate from murder, unintentionally turning my friend and retired Sports Illustrated swimsuit model into a cuckquean, and oh, right, punching hexed koalas in the face.” Sidney shrugged. “You know, basic weekend.”

  “What the fuck is a cuckquean?”

  “Same as a cuckold, except you’re a wife instead of a husband.” Sidney shook her head. “I have no idea how I know that.”

  “Please. I married the King of Useless Knowledge, you two can have each other.” Megan kept sorting. “You sure that’s it?”

  “Um.” Sidney rubbed her hands on her jeans, worried that Megan
could see the afterglow from her night with Mitch. “Yep. That’s it. That is all that happened this weekend.”

  “Sidney McLiarface Lake! How dare you play coy with me.” Megan grabbed her hands and her eyes went soft. “You’re practically still glowing. I swear it’s like magic, right? Everything completely changes and you feel amazing inside and out. How could you not tell me? I thought we were friends.”

  Sidney’s face flushed. “Is it that obvious?”

  “Do you even know me? My first ever walk at Fashion Week was in her show. It changed my life.” Megan waved wildly at the laptop. “Sophie James! How’d you even get your hands on that gown? It’s stunning. Do you still have it? Can I hold it? Her Winter collection isn’t out for twelve more days, and that piece was not in the preview. Don’t even tell me it was an exclusive. I will shit the floor and die right this second.”

  A loud roar echoed down the stairs accompanied by stomping that made the chandelier flicker over their heads. High-pitched squeals followed with tiny giggles and more screaming.

  “Dino hide-and-seek.” Megan didn’t even blink. She tossed three miniature dresses in a pile on the floor. “Ugh. More pink. It’s like a bottle of Pepto spilled in here. Everything okay with the chief?”

  “Mm, hmm. Great. Fine.” Sidney nodded again. Megan examined another tiny t-shirt. Sidney changed the subject. “How much longer do you have?”

  “Ten days, but my OB is out of town until Wednesday, and I have like eleventy-thousand things to do, so she’ll probably decide to come tomorrow. Not to mention, all these stupid Braxton Hicks contractions are going to end me. Holy shit.” She turned the shirt around. It had a cartoon taco with a smiley face. “Let’s taco ‘bout it.”

  “Keep.” Sidney approved.

  Williams came down the stairs roaring with a wiggling mass of bright orange and glitter wings waving a magic wand. He set his daughter down. “Hey, I found this T-Rex upstairs.”

  “I’m not a T-Rex! I’m a Fairydactyl!” Rachel yelled from inside a mouth full of triangle teeth. “Hi, Sidney! You like my Halloween costume?”