John Everson - NightWhere

He moved his hands down one leg, tracing the edges of her toes before moving to the other foot and then working his way back up that leg. When he’d pressed and kneaded and touched every part of her skin, he stood flat against her, chest to chest and tentatively, tenderly kissed her lips. She opened her mouth to him then, and he tasted her tongue for the first time, as it gently probed against his lips.

Mark’s eyes widened as her hand reached around and held him by the nape of the neck, drawing him harder against her mouth. He could see the smile in her eyes at his reaction. He could also feel how close he was to entering her, and he longed to press that point. But…

“Not here…” she said, drawing away from his kiss. She twisted away to turn off the shower and then pushed the curtains away. Mark stepped onto the throw rug that covered the bathroom tile and reached into a closet to get her a clean bath towel. She took it and ruffled it over her head before drawing it across her shoulders and around in front to dry her chest. The pink of the towel was striking against her skin; Mark thought she looked like a lingerie model as she crushed it across the swell of her chest. He pulled his own burgundy towel from the back of the bathroom door and dried himself, hurriedly. He didn’t want to lose the moment. He wasn’t sure if it was already lost.

She finished drying herself before him and then stepped closer, taking his own towel from his hands. “Let me,” she said and bent down to run the towel up the backs of his legs. Then she let it drop and stood up. She took his hand and pulled him into the bedroom.

The bed was still unmade. When Mark had gotten up the last time, he’d not bothered to fix the sheets. She pulled them to one side and pressed Mark down onto the mattress. He put his head back on the pillow and watched as she flipped one leg over his middle and slowly crouched down on his lap.

Part of him was embarrassed to have such pure beauty touch his hairy flesh. He was not built for a model. She should be with someone who…

Mark’s internal dialogue of insecurity was cut off when she reached down to stroke and then ease him inside her. He gasped at the feeling of her lips around him. She was warm and velvet smooth as her sex gradually let him in, sliding up and then down, up a little and down farther, easing him all the way, until their pubic hair was pressed flat, their sex joined tightly. Mark thought it may have been the most gentle, yet intense, start of sex he had ever had. Every nerve in his body sang with desire for her, and the room seemed to spin when she leaned down and her breasts tickled his chest. She took his tongue in her mouth and then pulled back, smiling.

“…here,” she said, at last completing her sentence from the shower.

Mark took a series of sharp, deep breaths as she rocked their hips in a steadily increasing rhythm. He moaned, without meaning to, and then nodded his head quickly in agreement.

“Here,” he echoed.

NeverAfter

The bedroom was grey with the fall of dusk when Mark opened his eyes. He yawned and felt his belly growl. He’d slept the entire afternoon away. Correction. He stared at the ivory skin of Selena’s back next to him. They’d slept the entire afternoon away.

Again he marveled at her body. The moon of her ass peeked out from the sheet as he propped himself up on his elbow. With his hand he touched the warmth of her hip and followed the silk-smooth skin to her waist. Her face was half-obscured by twisted strands of ice-blonde hair, and her breasts were crushed beneath her arm. But Mark could follow the path up her ribs and around the shoulder blades to where her scars were. The only thing about her that was imperfect.

Mark traced the scars. What had happened to her? Part of him knew, but he didn’t want to admit it. He’d begun to suspect before Rae had ever disappeared. NightWhere was more than an extreme sex club. The Watchers were more than human. Or maybe less.

And Selena? What was she?

She stirred and rolled onto her back to see him better. “Hey,” she whispered. She still sounded sleepy.

“Hey,” he answered and bent to kiss her. When he pulled his lips away, he rested there on his elbow, just a foot from her face, watching her for some sign. Some proof. And then finally, he just spoke what had been on his mind for longer than he cared to admit.

“You’re an angel, aren’t you?”

Selena’s eyes flashed, and she frowned.

“Thanks but…”

“No, I mean it,” Mark pressed. He slid his hand around her back and traced the knotty flesh of a scar with his fingertips. “You’re an angel. Apparently a fallen angel, since they cut off your wings. Isn’t that what this is from? When did it happen? Why?”

“I can’t…talk about it.” Selena said. “Please don’t ask me.”

“The whole club,” Mark said. “It’s just a doorway to hell, isn’t it?”

Selena stared at him without answering.

“Isn’t it?” he insisted.

“If that’s your theory, then I can’t really be much of an angel, can I?” she said.

“You said this morning that you try to steer people away from it,” Mark said. “Sounds like the work of an angel. NightWhere is hell, right?”

“It’s a place of ultimate sin,” she acknowledged.

“How did you end up there?” he asked.

“I’m here for you now,” she said. “Let that be enough.”

Selena reached up and put her arms around his back, pulling him down into an embrace. “Let me stay with you,” she whispered. “Leave all that behind and let me take care of you now. My arms, my love can heal you. It’s why I’m here.”

Mark took a deep breath. “Don’t you need to go back to NightWhere? Don’t you belong there somehow?”

“I can never go back,” she said. “Not now.”

“But you have to,” he said.

Selena frowned. “Why?”

“Because I need you to take me. I hurt Rae. I might have killed her. I have to get her out of there.”

Selena shook her head vehemently. “Are you crazy? You can’t go back. They will kill you. And if Rae survived until dawn, then she is healed by now. You saw it happen yourself. Sleep heals all wounds in NightWhere. That way, when the night comes round again, they can start the pain all over again. Fresh.”

“I won’t leave her for them,” Mark said stubbornly. “They did something to her. Brainwashed her. I have to get her out of there before they do kill her.”

“She’s made her choice, Mark,” Selena said. “You can’t force someone to salvation.”

“No, but I can at least give her the chance to choose it. She will never have that chance inside NightWhere.”

“You can’t go there.”

“You’re going to take me.”

Selena sat up and took Mark’s hands in her own. “I cannot go back to NightWhere,” she said.

“Cannot, or will not?” he pressed.

“Will not.”

“So you can find your way back.”

Selena sighed. “NightWhere is like a beacon to those who have spent enough time there. If I look, I can always see it burning in the distance. It’s connected to me. But they can look the other direction. They’ll know that I’m coming. They’ll know if I’m there.”

“I need you to show me the way,” he insisted.

“Listen to me,” Selena pleaded. “If I return to NightWhere… They will torture me forever. You’ve seen the pits of fire. The crosses of the damned.”

“They left you alone before,” he pointed out.

“They couldn’t hurt me before. There was a deal. Now that I’ve helped you…”

“But you’re an angel,” he said. “Use your powers.”

“Stop saying that,” she said. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”