The Stars Over Bittergate Bay

Chapter 20

20

J onas woke later to a window-rattling roll of thunder. Rain slammed against the balcony doors and the bedside lamp flickered, as Jonas pushed himself up onto an elbow, trying to get his bearings. Sidney sat beside Jonas on the mattress. His back propped against a pile of pillows, a burgundy cardigan open over his bare chest. Sidney had a tome spread across his lap, pencil loose in his fingers as he glanced over at Jonas.

“There you are,” Sidney smirked. “I was getting worried when the last couple of rumbles didn’t wake you.”

“What are you reading?” Jonas mumbled, half asleep and trying not to be too pleased by Sidney’s continued presence in his bed.

“A book I found in your library yesterday about shifting climate patterns,” Sidney said. “It’s likely too broad a study to be useful to me, but it’s still interesting. Cookie?” He gestured toward a plate on the nightstand. Jonas should have been irritated by Sidney eating in his bed, but he was also hungry, and he didn’t actually care, he just felt like he ought to. He nodded. Sidney handed him a cookie.

Cinnamon sugar melted against his tongue as Jonas laid back against the pillows and listened to the rain. Weirdly, his first thought was that he’d missed waking up with someone beside him. Was it possible to miss something you’d never really had? Empirical evidence said yes. He rolled onto his hip and looked down at the book.

“Tidal data would be easier to find.”

“But are tidal shifts already accounted for by lunar orbits?”

“Deviations from the norm in tidal charts could possibly sync up with the shifts in other celestial bodies,” Jonas offered. Sidney hummed and leaned back against the pillows. He rolled his bottom lip between his teeth, and Jonas thought about kissing him.

“So, you’re suggesting we observe the effects of the moon on the tides to get a baseline, and then examine the tides for any anomalies and see if the anomalies can be explained by the movements I’ve charted.”

“Yes.” Jonas admired the way Sidney’s brow furrowed when he was thinking hard. “Can I have another cookie?” Sidney handed him a cookie with one hand and began scribbling in his notebook with the other. “The harbormaster should have some record of the tide charts for the bay, if you want to start around the Bittergate. A limited area might be a good first step.”

“You said it’s thinner here. Between the realms, I mean.” Jonas made an affirmative sound, his mouth full of cookie. “If that’s true, then it’s possible we’d see more evidence of unusual shifts here than in other places. Good proof of concept. If the data backs it up, of course.”

“Of course,” Jonas agreed, noticing a mug behind the cookies on the bedside table. “What’s that?”

“Coffee.” Sidney handed Jonas the coffee, without looking up, hair falling down over his face as he made copious notes.

Jonas sipped the lukewarm coffee and tried not to think about tucking that errant hair behind Sidney’s ear. Or closing the book on Sidney’s lap so that Jonas could lay on top of him and kiss him.

As it turned out, the clarity a nap had afforded him was not the clarity he’d been expecting. He’d thought he was going to wake up to an empty bed and know that what happened between he and Sidney earlier was an outlier. Instead, he’d woken up in a fantasy, where he could have someone who would stay. Who would have interesting conversations with him and bring him cookies in bed. It didn’t seem possible. But then, it was actively happening; the evidence was all right in front of him.

Jonas took another drink of coffee. Lightning flashed outside the drawn curtains, thunder roared. Sidney jumped as the lights went out. The bedroom turned dim, everything suddenly in shades of grey.

“I guess that settles that.” Sidney closed the book and his notebook, pencil still inside.

“We’re not going down to the harbor in this weather,” Jonas said. Sidney took the coffee mug from Jonas and set back on the nightstand.

“I really wasn’t going to suggest it.” Sidney stretched back across his pile of pillows. “Truly, I’ve had enough of being soaked to the skin to last me for several months.”

“Your aquatic adventures have been rather dangerous as of late.”

“It’s not a problem I had until I met you,” Sidney smiled.

“I hardly think you can blame me,” Jonas defended, fighting the temptation to slide his hands over Sidney’s bare ribs.

“Should we find candles or a flashlight, or something?”

“Are you afraid of the dark, Quince?” Jonas teased. Sidney rolled his eyes, and Jonas couldn’t hold out any longer. It was a bad idea. It was self-indulgent and mildly dishonest. But the storm wouldn’t last forever.

Jonas pushed himself up, tucking his nose next to Sidney’s chin. Sidney hummed, as though Jonas had made a salient point worth considering. When Sidney tilted Jonas’s jaw up Jonas sighed in pleasure. He was too weak for Sidney, but he was going to let himself be. Just this one last time.

Jonas crowded Sidney against the pillows. Their kisses lingered. They touched each other gently, unhurried, and Jonas couldn’t remember the last time he’d done this slow. It felt indulgent. Luxurious, even.

Jonas’s hand grazed the smooth skin of Sidney’s chest, and Sidney arched closer, pulling Jonas down on top of him, shifting beneath him. Jonas wanted Sidney. He wanted Sidney in ways he wasn’t going to let himself think about.

When Sydney nudged Jonas onto his back, Jonas went willingly, ignoring the fact that he shouldn’t. He moaned when Sidney slid his hands over Jonas’s ribs. Sidney’s soft teasing kisses turned into hot sucking bites over sensitive places on his skin. The pounding pulse of the rain began to sync up with Jonas’s heartbeat as he lost himself to Sidney’s touch.

Sidney mouthed against Jonas’s hip crease. His eyes fixed on Jonas. Their gazes met as Jonas reached down for him, sweeping that beautiful dark hair out of Sidney’s face.

Sidney tilted his head down, watching Jonas through thick, dark lashes as he licked the length of Jonas’s shaft with the flat of his tongue. When Sidney took the tip of Jonas’s cock into his mouth and sucked, Jonas’s whole body shuddered, alarm bells in his brain desperate to be heard over the thick arousal that fogged his senses. Sidney moaned around Jonas’s cock, and Jonas closed his eyes, carding his hand through Sidney’s hair at his temple, before pushing him gently off.

“No,” Jonas breathed. He couldn’t. They couldn’t. The mark.

Stillness fell and Jonas closed his eyes, not wanting to watch the tenuous thing they were building between them fall apart.

“No?” Sidney’s voice was quiet, but because Jonas couldn’t sense any emotion behind it, Jonas looked. Sidney had a hand on Jonas’s thigh, one lip tucked under his teeth, biting pensively as he studied Jonas’s face. It was Jonas’s turn to respond. He had to say something. ‘I want you to suck my cock, but you can’t because I’ll mark you because I’m a demon.’ It would be a thorough destruction, at least.

But Jonas couldn’t. He wanted Sidney too much. Wanted to press the wrinkle from between Sidney’s brows, kiss his throat, push him against the mattress and make him know how perfect he was. How much Jonas wanted to hear him talk. Wanted to wake up with Sidney in his bed.

“Let me.” Jonas pushed himself up onto one elbow.

“If you want to stop, I’m perfectly?—”

“I won’t last,” Jonas said. That was true at least. “I just want… I’m enjoying this.” Sidney’s expression softened slightly. He ran his fingertips over Jonas’s thigh and Jonas tried not to arch into his touch.

“We don’t have to,” Sidney said again, firmly. Jonas’s chest ached from the kindness of it.

“I know that,” Jonas said. “I do. But I want you.”

Now that he’d said it, it felt ridiculous that he hadn’t before. Sidney’s eyes widened, his head cocked to the side like he was trying to understand words in a language he’d never heard before. Perhaps he hadn’t, and that… that wouldn’t do at all.

Jonas reached out and tugged Sidney closer. He smoothed his hands over Sidney’s skin as they kissed, and tried to say with his body the things he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to say ever.

When he pulled back, they were both breathless. Sidney’s eyes were still wide, his mouth flushed and wet.

“I want you, Sidney.” Jonas said again. Sidney climbed on top of Jonas, so close that Jonas had to tilt his head back into the pillows, as Sidney slid his tongue slowly, deeply into Jonas’s mouth.

Jonas pushed Sidney’s cardigan off Sidney’s shoulders. He wanted to feel Sidney’s skin under his tongue. He wanted to memorize the angles of him. He wanted Sidney desperately. It wouldn’t be right. He should have explained, but he wasn’t sure he could.

And then Sidney’s hands were on him, lower and perfect. Jonas moaned, his fingers digging into Sidney’s hips, desperation shifting as Sidney drew their bodies together. Jonas gave into the sensation of it, lost in Sidney’s movements. He wrapped an arm around the small of Sidney’s back, pulling him close enough that Jonas could taste the sweat on Sidney’s skin. Sidney swore beautifully, his gaze fixed on the places where Jonas was teasing, biting, his hand working furiously between them. When Jonas sucked a love bite onto the pale skin of Sidney’s ribs, Sidney moaned, and Jonas tipped over the edge. He could feel Sidney follow, his hips shuddering as he came against Jonas’s stomach.

Sidney stared at the small space between them, mouth open, panting; the small reddish bruises on his chest were a shade darker than the flush on his skin.

“You’re the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen,” Jonas said, because it was true, and he was desperate to tell Sidney the truth.

“You want me.” It was a statement, but it sounded painfully like a question. Sidney looked up at Jonas, his brown eyes searching, again. Always asking questions, but never the right ones.

“I want you,” Jonas confirmed. It was a bad idea to want Sidney. Dangerous and foolish. He’d said ‘no humans’ for a reason, but then he hadn’t known there would ever be a human like Sidney Quince. “It’s my indulgence,” Jonas admitted, and Sidney laughed, as Jonas pulled him down into another kiss.

Sidney slid off Jonas, thighs protesting. It was a good ache, made all the better by the euphoria of knowing Jonas wanted him. For all Sidney knew, he might have floated to and from the bathroom.

Sex wasn’t usually like that for Sidney. There was a line between wanting sex and wanting a person, and Sidney had told himself, especially as things had begun to fall apart with Mark, that one was as good as the other. But to hear it during sex was not the same as hearing it after.

Sidney returned to the bedside, still trying to parse out what he was supposed to do with this new feeling, when Jonas tried to take the damp washcloth out of his hands. Sidney batted his fingers away.

“No. My turn.”

“I’m perfectly capable?—”

“I know you cleaned me up earlier.” Sidney was a little embarrassed that he’d fully expected to wake up sticky, and instead found that Jonas had been so sweet to him. And that Sidney, like an idiot, slept through it. “Let me take care of you, please.” Jonas frowned and Sidney gave him a coy smile. “Consider it another indulgence for your ever growing list.”

“I can take care of myself.”

“Can you?” Sidney asked as he swiped his spend off Jonas’s stomach, and then climbed back onto the mattress. He crawled onto Jonas’s lap again, and leaned down to kiss Jonas’s chest, as he pretended there was more cum to clean up. Sidney liked Jonas’s chest. He liked everything about Jonas, and he wasn’t inclined to deny himself any indulgences the way that Jonas was.

“I’ve been taking care of myself quite efficiently for a very long time.”

“Have you?” Sidney snorted, looking up and brushing a stray hair off Jonas’s forehead. “You’d never had spice loaf before I got here.”

“I’m sure I must have.”

“Says a man truly enjoying the opulence of life!” Sidney exclaimed. Jonas rolled his eyes.

“What about you?” Jonas attempted a counter. “Scotch and a block of cheese, wasn’t it?”

“ I cannot live on fish stew alone,” Sidney grinned. Jonas pushed Sidney off him, and Sidney landed with an exaggerated grunt, more than a little pleased that Jonas was over him in moments. Jonas nipped at Sidney’s neck, and Sidney squirmed away from him. “No. Don’t start that again. We need food.” Sidney’s breath caught in his chest as Jonas hummed against his throat.

“The power’s still out,” Jonas said. Sidney laughed and pushed him off.

“Cold sandwiches it is.”

The power came back halfway through their sandwiches, the hum of electricity filling in the cracks of comfortable silence that had fallen as they ate.

“No stars tonight,” Sidney sighed, glancing out into the rain.

“Likely not. Storms always linger over the bay for longer than they do anywhere else. That might be—” Delilah materialized in the seat beside Sidney, startling him so severely that he nearly fell out of his chair.

“Hello you two,” she cooed, grin very wide and of the shit-eating variety. Jonas grimaced. “Welcome to ‘out of bed.’”

“We were out of bed,” Sidney replied more sharply than he would have if he hadn’t just nearly been scared to death. “Then we went back to bed.”

“Oh, believe me, I’m very aware.” Delilah winked at him. “I’ve been listening.”

“You could have left,” Jonas said. Delilah crossed her arms over her chest and huffed.

“It’s raining!”

“You’re incorporeal,” Jonas retorted. Delilah rolled her eyes.

“You owe me a favor.”

“Do we?” Jonas sniffed.

“What is it?” Sidney asked, intrigued in spite of himself. What sort of favor could a ghost need? Jonas rolled his eyes.

“You’re too nice, Sidney.”

“You’re exactly the right amount of nice, Sidney,” Delilah returned. “Plus it sounds like you have a very nice?—”

“What do you want, Delilah?” Jonas interrupted. Sidney didn’t know whether he was blushing at the implication or at Jonas’s defense of him. Maybe both.

“I can’t find my copies of Vogue. The old ones. I think they’re in the attic and the boxes are too heavy for me to move. Be a pair of sweet lambs and fetch them for me?” Jonas glanced at Sidney, who shrugged. He hadn’t realized the house had an attic, and he was immediately intrigued. It must have shown on his face, because Jonas sighed and shook his head.

“Fine,” Jonas grumbled. “Give us a few minutes.”