Page 41 of Lovely Darkness

“I’m not sure. You’d know better than me.” I’m saying that because Nate and Nick used to work together. Well, together is actually a generous word. Nick barked orders, Nathan was supposed to follow them.

“Not really,” Nate says. “He was always lying to me.”

I sit up and look at my handsome best friend. I call him my husband, but it’s never been official. We need to make it official. Wendy and Nick made it official. How did that happen? How did she make it happen? I really need to quiz her on that stuff. Later, though. Right now, we’ve got other things to think about. Like this lying stuff. “What do you mean?” I ask Nathan.

Nathan shrugs, then flops down on the swing next to me, his hand already sliding between my legs. “He always made it seem like Wendy didn’t want to talk to him. He was always saying shit like… ‘Have you talked to her? Did she mention me?’ Like she was mad at him. Like she hated him. But then they show up here, married? What the fuck?”

“I know, right?”

Nathan pulls me down on top of him, then his hand is caressing the cheek of my ass. “She’s very obedient too. I don’t like it.”

“I’ve noticed that.”

“The whole thing is… creepy.”

My hand migrates too. Right up to the thick outline of his cock underneath his shorts. “It’s all very fuckin’ creepy.”

“You know what we should do?”

I squeeze him and he sucks in a breath as he closes his eyes. But reopens them quickly, like he’s not gonna let me take him off task. “Tell me,” I say.

“We should take a little drive into town.”

“Just us?”

“No. We should invite Wendy and Nick.”

“Are we taking them out to lunch?”

“Nope. We’re taking them to Donovan’s office.”

“Ohhh.” I click my tongue a little. “Nathan St. James, you can be the sneakiest snake when you want to be.”

“I can, can’t I?”

We laugh. And then he flips me over and starts kissing my neck.

“Not here,” I say, pushing him away. “McKay and Adam would have a fit if we fucked on the swing when everyone’s home.”

He backs off, reluctantly, probably envisioning that day four years ago when I tried to kill him. Kill everyone, actually. But I can see him push it away. He doesn’t want to think about it. No one wants to think about it. Then he hops up—still hard under his shorts—and pulls me up to my feet with him. He keeps hold of my hand and leads me onto the path that goes around the lake towards his house. Or where his house used to be. The new house is just getting started. Concrete has been poured and there’s a frame. That’s it.

But since when did Nathan and I ever need a house to be together?

He leads me past the lake, past the work-in-progress house, and into another part of the woods. I call this side of things Nathan’s woods because they are Nathan’s woods.

This is where he would bring me after I came home from the jobs. To the meadow. The summer meadow with all those wild flowers in between the soft grass. He would make me daisy chains and tuck buttercups behind my ears.

And he would make me talk.

He would ask me questions and it was so familiar. It wasn’t like when Adam asked me questions or McKay asked me questions. It was like… when Donovan asked me questions.

I wanted to tell him things.

So I did.

But when we get to the meadow today, we don’t talk. He kneels down, bringing me with him. And then he lays me back. Gently and slowly. His hand is working its way up my inner thigh when his lips touch mine.

I like him soft like this. I like it when he’s careful.