Into the Darkness (3 page)

“You can see my dilemma.”

I shook my head slowly. Then started babbling. “I didn’t know that was you! I couldn’t make out features. Or a shape, even. We aren’t in your territory on purpose! I don’t even
like
your territory. It’s the ghetto. We ran over something. The car hit a tree. Honest! We are trying to get somewhere safe to call for a tow truck. We were just passing through and those guys stopped us. I go to community college—I don’t even have a real job!”

A long moan sounded, followed by another. The guys were completing their foray.

“I sense honesty. Odd.” His expression turned thoughtful. “I’ll watch you. If you come looking again, I’ll kill you.”

My gulp competed with Jared’s loud orgasm.

The Boss turned to the others, now pulling up their pants. “Wipe their memories. Do a thorough job. Deposit them and deal with the car, if indeed there has been a crash.”

“Can I have a crack at the girl before we take them back?” Charles asked hopefully, pausing as he tucked his penis back into his pants. The other guy paused, too, awaiting the answer.

I got an assessing glance. Some decision tugged down the corners of his mouth, his expression mildly confused. Finally, he said, “No. Leave her. I want to see you back within the hour.”

Chapter Three

I awoke with a groggy head sometime in the mid-morning. I lay on top of the covers in Jared’s bed, completely clothed. I even had my shoes on. Jared lay next to me, face down, naked. I blinked for a moment, and then compared our bodies again. Why the hell was he naked when I was clothed?

I labored to sit up, putting a hand to my fuzzy head. I felt like I’d been drinking.

I thought back to the night before. I remembered dinner. We’d each had a glass of wine. We’d walked outside. Something had spooked Jared—

A memory nudged
my brain. I clutched at it, scrabbling on the slippery thing, trying to fit it into place. All I caught was wisps.

Sighing, struggling to remember what day it was, I checked my watch, remembered I didn’t have one on, and looked around for my phone. It was across the room, sticking haphazardly out of my purse.
On the ground.

I never put my purse on the ground. I always put it on a chair or counter top to keep the bottom clean. I’m anal like that.

Anal…

Another memory wobbled just out of reach, feathering my awareness. There were pieces missing from last night—like everything after dinner!

“Sasha?” Jared roused, lifting onto his forearms and looking around the room. His head turned to me, eyes bleary.

“Good morning. I think,” I said as I completed my zigzag to my handbag.

“What time is it?”

“I don’t know. I was just getting up to check. You need to get a clock.”

“Why are you clothed? Because I’m naked. What happened last night? Did we drink? How’d we get home? Why does my…leg hurt? And my…”

I snatched my phone and touched it.
“Nine-oh-five. Huh. Seems later.”

“I wanna fuck.”

I froze, my phone still in front of my face. Jared did not talk like that, all husky and labored. He had never referred to sex as anything other than love-making.

I heard rustling behind me and turned, slowly, incredulous. He
sat in the middle of the bed, his erection in his hand. “Come over here baby, I wanna screw you.”

My mouth dropped open.
Wide eyed, I walked on wooden legs, a smile not far from my lips wondering if this was a joke.

“No, stop there,” he said, hunger burning in his eyes.

I halted, as instructed, with baited breath, allowing his eyes to rake over my body. My arousal spiked, this new spice kind of exciting. Like role playing. Dirty talk had been on my list of “To Try’s” but Jared always got embarrassed immediately.

He wasn’t embarrassed now.

“Strip. Slowly.”

Feeling a thrill of anticipation, I slowly worked my buttons on my blouse, feeling air raise bumps on my skin as the fabric shimmied down my body. I let my bra fall a moment later, exposing my B-cup
boobies.

“Yes, that’s right. Beautiful,” Jared praised.

With a growing smile I slowly worked my skirt down my legs, then my panties.

“Th
at’s right,” Jared murmured in that stranger’s voice, full of need. “Spread your legs. Yeah, that’s it. Now touch yourself. Good. How does that feel?”

“Good,” I answered in a breathy voice.

“Do it faster. I want to hear it.”

I let my head fall back, working my body into a fever pitch.

“Good girl. Now climb up onto the bed.”

I wasted no time
, giddy. I lay on my back in front of him. His eyes scanned my body, illuminated with a manic urgency. Suddenly Jared had turned into a sex starved creature.

That damn fluttering kissed my brain again, nudgi
ng me to remember something I was forgetting. Then Jared dove between my legs, blacking out thought all together.

He licked up the center of my sex slowly, taking his time. Heat started to worm deep within me, his ministrations at the top of my slit sparking
, lighting my body on fire. He worked his fingers inside me, delicately at first, hitting the good spots in just the right way. Soon I was squirming, my face flushed, my body winding up.

“
Mmmm, Jared…” I breathed, pushing my pelvis into his eager mouth.

He worked faster, sucking me in, his fingers working, building a fervor my body couldn’t contain. I started to pant, thrusting upwards, tightening up. “Almost…”

An explosion went off, ripping a long moan from my throat. “
Yes,
Jared!”

He didn’t wait for me to come down. He worked his mouth up my body, lingering on my budded nipples before climbing higher,
and licking up my neck. His tip prodded my wetness. With one hard thrust, he plunged into me, filling my body in a slick glide.

“Oh!” I uttered, arching back, already building again.

He pulled out, almost completely, before he pushed back in. He labored, hard and fast, pushing past his sexual boundaries and working at mine, the sensations exquisite! Almost too soon he exploded me into an orgasm I’d never reached with him before. It was crazy and reckless and exciting and fun. I hollered like a porn star!

After
we came down, holding each other in shaking limbs, he flopped onto the bed. I rolled over next to him. “What’s gotten into you? Not that I mind, obviously,” I panted with a smile, trying to regain my breath.

“I don’t know. I feel all powerful. It’s weird. But I have no control over it. I wanna…you know…fuck you again.”

My body zinged. Where had this guy come from? Jared had never shown an ounce of the dominating gene in all the time we’d been together. He usually just deferred to me. This new spice was strangely exciting!

As if hearing my thoughts, he rolled over on top of me and held me firmly to the mattress. “And I am going to fuck you again.
Right now.”

I screamed in elation as he thrust into me.

I closed my eyes as my foot hit the pavement, the chill of the night reaching out to greet me. The sun was just tucking behind the horizon. Shadows reached, long arms spreading wide, covering the earth in a welcoming blanket.

Jared stepped out around me. “Do you want to just walk through the park?”
He turned the corner of his apartment building toward his car. “Maybe just get some fresh air?”

“Yeah, sure
.”

“What the
…?” Jared’s voice cut off around the corner.

I hurried in his direction, only to slow with an absurd amount of blinking as I stared at the lime green station wagon parked in his spot. Jared
was holding a note in one hand and a business card in the other.

“What did we
do
last night?” he asked with a trembling voice.

Fear
tingled my scalp as I stepped up next to him, peering over his shoulder at the shaking note in his hand.

Dear Self,

I wrecked my car last night. It is in David’s Body Shop.  Here is his card. Insurance was notified. This is a loaner. Be more careful next time.

Signed,

Disappointed Me

Memories fluttered, battering against my brain. There was something there.
Something to do with the car. It was just out of reach. I couldn’t quite grasp the memory.

“I remember dinner.” He shook his head. “I remember walking out. That’s it. Walking down the steps holding your hand. Then…nothing.” His eyes probed mine searchingly. “You didn’t spike my drink to shake things up, did you? Slip me Ecstasy or something?”

I took a step back
. All I could manage was, “What?”

“I just… I don’t know. I mean, why else wouldn’t I remember…
And all the sex…”

Forcing my breath in deep, eve
n puffs, I used a calm tone. “I don’t remember anything, either. You think I like waking up with dirt all over my back, as if I was scraped against the ground? You think that’s a good situation for a girl? How the hell would I even navigate you? You weigh fifty pounds more than I do! Think about what the hell you’re saying before you start throwing verbal stones, basically saying I’m a shady, untrustworthy creep! Comments like that will get you dumped, quick!”

So, not as calmly as I would’ve liked, but I made my point.

The breath went out of Jared’s lungs. “Yeah.” He glanced back at the note. “Well, I’ll call this number. See if this is a prank or what.” Shaking his head in defeat, he stepped away as he dug out his phone.

“I’ll wait at the bench,” I muttered, still taken aback by Jared’s mistrust. I had no idea he thought of me that way. That he would suspect I’d do something so disgusting in a strange pursuit of this supposed reckless lifestyle. As a person
who always followed the rules so as not to be noticed, I found the allegation as absurd as it was offensive.

I meandered to my familiar waiting spot
in the park, a stone bench in the middle of a large copse of trees at the edge of his apartment complex. It was lush and secluded, rarely visited by anyone besides those looking for a place their dog could poop. I could partially see the evening sky, a couple stars fighting twilight before full night fell. A soft breeze tickled my nose, pleasing me with a spring floral bouquet.

It was then that I felt the disquiet.
Something nudging my senses. It was like a weird tug on my chest. I peered into the shadows between two large trees, following the feeling.

Nothing moved. There wasn’t even a flicker. But I could feel it. I could feel the pull of it, whatever it was. I could feel its presence sucking me in.

Another item for the secret box, probably. Imaginary people. I would end up in a padded cell one of these days.

“Sasha.”

I jumped so high I nearly fell off the stone seat. “Jesus, Jared! I didn’t hear you.”

I stood to greet him.
“What’d you find out?” I brushed myself off. It was a futile effort. I was still wearing the clothes from the night before, which had dirt smears ground in. “What did we do? Play flag football or something?”

Jared’s gaze caught on my cleavage. He
extended a hand slowly, reaching under my skirt.

“What are you…
?”

“Just real quick,” he muttered, his voice back to heavy and husky, the need overriding his logic.

Stunned mute, I stayed still; a strange fantasy of doing this outside competing with the fact that…well, we were
outside!
Where people could see!

Was that me giggling? What the hell had gotten into me?

“C’mon, baby.” Jared wrapped his body around mine, one hand running down my back and cupping my butt, the other working at his zipper.

“Oh my god!”
With a wicked smile I peered out through the heavy bushes, seeing no one around. I couldn’t stop giggling! It was so
naughty!

“Hmmm, you’re hot.”

I squeezed my eyes shut with a wide smile.
I can’t believe I’m doing this!

“Okay, but…hurry!” I said excitedly.

I giggled
again as my lust sparked, clutching onto him. As he readied himself, suddenly a strange feeling came over me. Intense guilt. Like I was harming someone. Adulterous.

My thoughts shifted to s
omething about this being so
wrong
. Not naughty and exciting, like two first loves doing something defiant and crazy, but…
damaging. 

With a weight on my chest
tugging sideways, impeding breath, my eyes swung of their own accord. The shadows moved, dim light flickering off a giant form. Luminescent eyes caught the light, and reflected. A face so handsome it hardly looked real, staring at me…
seething.

Bat’s wings now, flapping at my memories. I knew that man
, felt connected with him somehow. I knew that unbelievably handsome, earth shattering face. Those deep, dark, penetrating eyes. It was right there. It was right at the edges of my awareness.

Why did it feel like knowing him was the m
ost important thing in my life?

As Jared kissed my neck
, guilt unlike I’d ever felt settled down on me like snowflakes, melting into my skin. The stranger took one step closer. To claim me. To claim what was his.

But that was just crazy.
This was all just too fucking crazy!

My mind warped, unable to handle what was happening.
Unable to handle the burning of my body and intense confusion of my mind.

I broke away from Jared
and ran. Sprinted away. Unable to handle this strange new facet to my life. Unable to understand the confusing surety and absolute conviction that I belonged to a perfect stranger. Unable to fathom even considering the words ‘belonged to’ and ‘man’ in the same sentence.

My secret box had lit on fire and was burning my life down around me
.