Murder By Space Part 3 J2 NC17

[candygramme]

I paused the playback and turned to Jared. “What?”

He shook his head. “You think she’s got something to do with it?” he asked.

“We need to look at Chris’s records. I want to see how often she’s been over from Minor. That’s going to tell us more.” I was shaken, I’ll admit it. Danni had been my friend and confidante for several years, and I couldn’t believe that somehow she had become someone else, someone different, feral. I couldn’t see how she’d managed to keep that kind of change from me. Her thoughts had been utterly calm and typically her. I was more than shaken; I was shocked.

Jared had run the auto-server’s vidwire through the player and was now threading Chris’s logs into it. Together, the two of us began to sift through the lists of people who had ported to and from Minor. The first thing I spotted was that Matt, the cute guy whose number I’d gotten, had left the station about 5 minutes after Genevieve Cortese had bitten the dust. Shit!

It was Jared who first spotted the arrival of Genevieve and her entourage, and straight after their arrival I noted that the twins had appeared. Both had ported through to Bel Aire straight away, but their traveling companion had not. Her name was Elta, Elta Graul, but her photograph was that of Danni, my longtime friend, and she was listed as coming from the planet Xenobia. It seemed that everything I thought I knew about her was a lie.

“I’m sorry,” muttered Jared, sotto voce. “I can tell you’re upset.”

“Yeah. Sorry. Guess you’ve got every right to be upset too. Looks like my best friend killed your wife.” I hung my head. Best in the business I may be, but I’d failed. Not only that, I’d fucked up so spectacularly that there were now two people dead, and at least one of them had been dear to my client.

I don’t know what I was expecting - maybe verbal abuse or even the withdrawal of his custom. What I wasn’t expecting was for him to grab a hold of me by the back of the neck and pull me in for a kiss.

His lips were soft, but his kiss was not. It was hot -super hot. There was no request for comfort in it; it was all sex, and I felt small in his embrace. The boy was built like one of the American Gladiators they send around during the Games each year, and I have no shame when I say that I couldn’t have broken his hold on me even if I’d wanted to. I didn’t.

He kissed me, and I couldn’t resist him, couldn't hold back. I opened my mouth to him like a pleasure slave, and he delved inside, his tongue exploring as he reeled me in to envelop me in his arms. His thoughts overwhelmed me, despite the Antipathy. His emotion seeped into my pores, through my skin and ignited a craving in me that found fertile ground. He wanted me. That was good, because I sure as hell wanted him, and that made things tidy.

It felt strange in a way. I’m not a small man, but he was built on much more generous lines than I, and for once I felt cradled, helpless and needy. Spikes of lust resonated between us, and his hand slid down to cup my ass and press my body up against his. I could feel his pulse under my fingers as I clung to him, and I think I moaned - one of us certainly did.

“Oh, fuck,” I whispered.

“Yeah,” he said, his voice a growl. He was hard against me. I was hard too, desire urgent in me as I bathed in his excitement and provided my own counterpoint. He bit my ear, and I shivered, feeling my cock spurt sticky inside my jeans. I felt him shudder in my arms as he tapped into my excitement, and this was going to be incredible. I could feel what he felt, and knew he was feeding on my mounting pleasure. I wanted...

“We need...” I don’t know what he was going to say, because just at that moment there was a yell from outside.

“That’s Chad,” I froze, and he let go of me, stepped back to let me move. I frowned, concentrated, sent. What’s going on, Chad?

Get him out of there! These bitches are gonna kill him. I could feel Chad’s urgency. He was fighting, and, unusually for him, he wasn’t sure that he was going to win.

You need me to come help? I was useful in a tight corner and could hold my own, but I wasn’t like Chad. I thought Chad was the best - or I had until now.

There was a faintly amused tone in Chad’s response that stung a little. You’d only get in the way, boss. Just get him out of there and take him somewhere safe.

I focused back on where Jared was standing. He looked like every sinful thought I’d ever had, made into one, gigantic package, and I wondered how I could possibly keep him safe. I wondered how I could possibly keep him.

“We need to get out of here, now,” I said, wondering whether that was even possible given his size.

“How? You got a portable hole stashed somewhere I don’t know about?” He didn’t look scared, but I could feel his unease like an annoying hum behind his thoughts. I wanted to cuddle him close and tell him it would be okay, but to tell the truth I wasn’t sure it would be, and way back when, my momma taught me that it was bad form to lie to people you l... wait! What?

Goddammit! The last thing I needed in my situation was to fall in love. I ground my teeth. It didn’t help.

“Kinda. You’ll see.” I beckoned him to follow me into the holy of holies, aka the broom closet I’d fitted out as a bedroom. Reaching up, I yanked on the cord that hung from the light fixture and it pulled a rectangle out of the ceiling to reveal a closet ladder that unfolded as it descended. “Behold my portable hole,” I announced, beginning to ascend it. “Come on. Let me introduce you to the fascinating world of the service tubes of Bel Air.”

I’d worried about whether or not Jared would fit, and in truth it was a squeeze. Once he was up, he couldn’t stand straight, but then neither could I. There was a reason why the maintenance workers on Bel Air were all under 5’6” in height.

“Wow,” muttered Jared as he stepped up behind me and past to give me the room to draw up the ladder and close the hatchway. Hopefully, anyone entering the offices would think that we hadn’t come back tonight. I sent a quick message to Chad to let them through and get out of there himself, then turned and led Jared along the service tube to where I knew there was an unmanned portpad I could use.

“I’m sorry,” I muttered to Jared as I peered out of the service hatch to make sure there was nobody around who would see us. “You and I are going to spend the night in a service pod. I’m hoping that nobody will suspect that’s where we are. It’ll be a little uncomfortable, but I think we’ll be safer there than anywhere in the complex.”

I thought he turned pale, but I could’ve been wrong. He didn’t feel scared, and his expression was placid enough. I knew enough to get us into one of the pods, but I was going to have to trust someone to get us out again, and I didn’t want him to sense my own apprehension. Taking a deep breath, I led him over to the portpad.

I reached for Chad, but I couldn’t find him. I hoped that meant he was out of my range, and not that he’d been overcome by his assailants. Sighing, I reached for my comm unit and called Chris to tell him what we were about to do, then I programmed in the location of maintenance pod 3, and without further ado we ported ourselves aboard.

Maintenance pods are not built for comfort; they are set up strictly for functionality. The maintenance drones use them for external checks to the shielding, and they are tethered to the surface of the station rather like roaches that scuttle around on its skin, scavenging. There are a couple of viewports, one facing down onto the surface, and one looking over towards Beta, and beyond it into the starry void. I’ve never felt all that comfortable with the starry void. It’s just way too full of nothingness for me. I like the confines of the corridors and the knowledge that there are walls around me, enclosing me. I turned my back on space and very decisively sat down facing away from it.

Jared, on the other hand, was fascinated. “Oh, cool,” he murmured, stepping closer to the window that looked out into the emptiness that so affected me. “It’s like we’re the only ones. You and I, together, with nobody else in the universe.”

I didn’t actually like the sound of that at all. I could feel my head swimming as the idea settled, and the back of my neck pricked with heat as I gasped for breath. Jared sensed my distress and with a muttered curse turned back to sit behind me, sliding his arms around me.

“Hey! What’s all this?” I could feel his breath on my cheek, cutting through the dizziness of panic. “I thought you were unflappable.”

“Well, now you know my dreadful secret,” I mumbled, leaning back against his chest and letting his warmth seep through into my bones. “I don’t do too well with emptiness. It freaks me out.”

“Guess you should suit up then, just to be on the safe side.” He reached around me for one of the pressure suits with which the pod was equipped and began to help me into it. I complied mindlessly, putting it on as he prompted first my legs and then my arms. Once I was zipped in tight, he kissed me, long and sweet, then began to pull on one of his own.

“So tell me, Jared,” I began. “Why do you think that a pack of Xenobians would be after you? What is it about you and the Cortese family that’s aroused their interest?” Never let it be said that I shied away from any opportunity to derail any chance at a relationship I might possibly have.

“Gen’s dad is the one that was dealing with Xenobia. I don’t know much about it, except that Gen didn’t approve. It was something to do with the way that they can temporarily override a personality when they indenture themselves.” He spread his hands as he spoke, a gesture that conveyed his helplessness and frustration. “It involves drugs, I know that much, and Gen said that it would be a bad thing.for the human race...”

“About that,” I murmured. Like I said, I was good at picking at sores. “I can’t help noticing that your wife was just murdered...”

“She was.” Jared’s thoughts echoed in melancholy. “She was my friend. I’ll miss her.”

“But you didn’t love her?”

“Not the way you mean,” he said. “I married her because she needed a friend. She was lonely. Her father was always wheeling and dealing, and she was hedged around with minions, but nobody that actually saw her as more than a chore. She always hoped we’d grow to be lovers, even though she knew I didn’t bat for her team.”

“You’d argued?” I was attempting to piece together what had gone on between them. I sensed regret from Jared, but no great desolation. There was sadness, but it was more for things that he wished for than for things he’d lost, and there was that attraction - damped down but still strong, He wanted me.

That was okay though. I wanted him, so it was tidy. I didn’t know if it was possible to have sex in a pressure suit. It probably wasn’t, but heavy petting was a distinct probability, and once I’d caught his mouth against my own it swiftly became an absolute certainty.

We kissed until our lips were numb, bodies tight against each other despite the constraints of the p-suits. We had nothing to do but wait, and this was the most amazing way of waiting I’ve ever experienced. Jared was in my arms, warm and real, and I was going to make sure he’d stay that way. He moaned as our tongues entwined, sending tingles down my spine. His heart pulsed against my chest, and he made a growling sound in his throat, the kind that caused my insides to melt as I kissed him, and kissed him. He gave in to me briefly, and then he pulled away, panting.

“I want to...” I knew what he wanted, and I wanted it too, but like I said, fucking and pressure suits just don’t mix.

“As soon as we can,” I murmured, rolling my hips against him just so I could feel his dick twitch against me inside his p suit. Mine twitched right along with it, and we both felt our bodies tighten. We lost ourselves in the pressure and tingling sweetness. I could see his need for release like a star glowing somewhere inside him, and sparks leapt between us trailing along our limbs and twisting down our spines as we made out like horny teens.

It had been years since I’d come in my pants like a schoolkid, but I could tell it wasn’t far from happening then. There was sweat dripping inside my suit, and I could taste it on Jared’s skin. He was breathing hard and his eyes were blown, lids heavy as he tried to get closer despite the impediments.

It was inevitable that we’d do serious damage to the interior of the p suits, given the pleasure feedback loop that was going on between us. I could feel him starting to get there, and the idea of it tightened things in my groin, sent impossible tingles along my nerve endings. I could feel my cock pulse and ooze, sticking up the inside of my underwear. He stiffened in my arms, breath strident as his hips swung. He was coming, face contorted and gorgeous, and I could only follow him, body shuddering with the feel of it as my orgasm slammed through me.

As the aftershocks flickered along my blissed-out veins, my comm unit decided to prod me. It was Chris, and he sounded anxious. “Jen, get out of there,” he said.

“I can’t.” There were no portpad controls on Pod 3. “Can you grab us?”

The moment of disorientation as we ported left me nauseous, and we both tumbled to the floor in the portpad bay on Minor to look on in horror as a runabout armed with a laser gun fried Pod 3. Chris was at the controls, headset flashing as he communicated with someone, and for the first time since I’d met him, Jared panicked, clinging to me and trembling.

“Get off the pad,” yelled Chris, setting the port mechanism up for another transfer as he spoke. I rolled us both down onto the ground beside it, unable to find the strength to get up, and in another second I saw Chad materialize, crumple, and fall beside us.

He looked very much the worse for wear, bruised and bleeding from wounds that were a testament to how hard he’d fought. He looked at me out of the one eye that wasn’t swollen shut and mumbled “Pocket. Left leg. Hurry.”

I fumbled, but it was Jared that found what Chad wanted in the leg pocket of his cargo pants. He tossed it to me, and I inspected it. It was a hypospray of Quicken. I gritted my teeth,

“Chad, you really need this?” Quicken would speed up his metabolic rate, make him super fast, but there was a terrible price to pay for the temporary super speed. Sure, he’d be fast for a couple of hours, but it would take years off his life, and in the kind of state he was in it could kill him.

“Just do it, Jen.” He was slurring, blood coating his teeth. I wasn’t sure I should give it to him. It seemed too much as though I was sentencing him to death, but he fixed me with that one good eye and said again, “Just do it; they’re coming, and we don’t have time.

Biting my lip, I pressed the hypospray to his neck and depressed the activator. The change in Chad was instant and shocking. I could see him healing before my eyes. Cuts scabbed over and then faded, bruises vanished and his eyes cleared. He rose to his feet and flickered across the room, pausing beside the door, just as it burst open.

They’d traded their trendy gowns for serviceable black lycra, but the make-up was the same, and so was the vacant look in their eyes. One of them - I’d never been able to tell the difference - it might have been Mary Kate, stepped in, glancing around and smirking. Ashley was close behind and both walked straight past where Chad had been visible just seconds ago. The one in the lead strolled over to where Christian was standing and ran her fingers through his hair while he stood gaping. “Hello, little fishy,” she said, her voice a purr.

“Fish?”

Chris’s brow creased in bafflement, and she laughed, leaned in close and snapped her teeth at him. The other one stepped up behind him and began to play with his controls, flicking switches at random, while exclaiming, “Ooh, I wonder what this one will do.”

“Don’t touch that!” Chris was starting to freak out. One of the sisters slid her arm around him, pulling him back as the other brought out a slender metal probe and stuck it into the panel she’d been playing with, sending a cascade of sparks down to the floor and causing an acrid smell of burning insulation.

“Oops,” she murmured. “I broke it.”

“Are you fucking insane?” Chris’s face had turned red, and he cried out as his tormentor yanked his hair back so that his throat was bared. The other raised the metal probe she’d used on the control panel to stroke across his larynx.

“Shall I do it now?” she asked her sister, raising the probe and giggling.

“Of course.” The second girl was still holding him so that he couldn’t move, and both Jared and I rushed forward to try and stop what was apparently going to happen.

We never made it. There was a flicker of movement and the one with the probe - I’ll call her Ashley even though I don’t have a clue if that’s who she was - gave a gurgle and crumpled to the floor, her neck at a very unusual angle.

“No!” The other blonde let go of Christian and dropped to her knees beside her fallen sister, who lay like a discarded doll. She turned on Jared, her teeth bared. “This wasn’t supposed to happen,” she screamed.

“I didn’t do it.” Jared was wide eyed, his face displaying his complete astonishment. “Why are you blaming me?”

“You’re just supposed to die. Why don’t you just do it?” She fumbled for her belt, pulling out a slender silver tube and raising it in Jared’s direction.

There was a rushing sound and suddenly the metal probe that the other girl had been using bloomed between her shoulder blades, flowers of red welling up around it as she convulsed and followed her sister down.

We stood looking down at the two of them, aghast, and Chad morphed into view. He was somewhat fuzzy around the edges, but at least we could see where he was. I guess, in hindsight, that wasn’t such a great idea. We hadn’t heard anyone approach, and Chris’s instrument panel was still fizzing and crackling although the internal fire retardant spray had been triggered. A halo of blue energy suddenly crackled around Chad, and he bit the dust like it was something he’d always intended to do. Jared, Chris and I swiveled round together and gaped anew as we saw Danneel lounging in the doorway. She was holding a mean looking energy gun, and I stepped in front of Jared without even having to be asked.

“Step away from him, Jen. I have no quarrel with you.” Her words were cold steel, and her eyes glittered in an unnerving way.

“Not a chance, Dan. You want him; you go through me.” Yeah, that’s the kind of rash fool I am. Just call me Mighty Mouse, all right?

“I can do that,” she said, a grim smile twisting her features. She raised her weapon to take aim, and Jared pushed me.

“Get out of the way, Jen,” he growled. I sighed. He was ruining a perfectly good death scene for me, and I kind of forgot Danni for a moment as I turned to remonstrate with him.

“What the fuck, Jared?” I snapped. “You want her to kill you? Are you insane?”

“Of course I don’t want her to kill me!” He seemed a little overwrought to me, and I stepped in close to him, making sure that I remained between him and Danneel’s gun. “I only just found you. I’m not ready to die just yet.”

“If I might interrupt for just a moment?” Danneel’s voice cut through Jared’s declaration.

“Shut up!” The order came from both of us at once, and she stepped closer making incoherent sounds of protest.

“I don’t think you appreciate the gravity of your situation,” she said, prodding at me with her funky designer weapon. I ignored her in favor of getting in a last kiss while the getting was good. As kisses went, it left a lot to be desired, but I was going to hang onto it until I had to let it go. Because of my valiant efforts to have one last make-out session with my object of desire, I missed what happened next. Chris and Chad both described it to me in glorious technicolor later, but both of them ran screaming when I reciprocated by describing the kiss Jared and I were sharing while everything went down.

Chad was still enjoying the hyped up state that Quicken had induced, which as I’d already seen accelerated his healing as well as his metabolism. Whatever strength of beam Danni had shot him with had stunned him, but his body had shaken it off. As Danneel stepped closer to make sure she got Jared with her shot, Chad came to and rose to his feet. He still wasn’t at full speed, but he rose up behind her like an avenging angel - according to him at any rate. Within a second, he’d disarmed her and had her down on the ground while Jay and I were still busy sucking face.

He waited for what he said was ages, but I know personally was only a matter of a few seconds and then coughed accusingly. “Listen up, bitches,” he said, his voice a weird, helium buzz. “If you want to question the girlfriend here, you need to get on it right now.”

Sheepishly peeling myself away from Jared for a moment, I turned to look at Chad, and then Danneel. “Danni?” I said, dropping down to kneel beside her. “Why? Why are you trying to kill my boy?”

“Why else, Jen? Money.” She gave me the grin I knew so well. “A whole shitload of money.” She bit down on something in her mouth. “Old man Cortese is looking to recruit a new army of indentured soldiers.”

“You wanted it to happen?” I asked. “Why the hell would you want that to happen?”

“I follow orders,” she mumbled, and then gave a little sigh, and she died.

We weren’t going to be able to charge Danni with anything, and old man Cortese was down in Old Hollywood, safe from pursuit without all kinds of legal extraditions. It looked as if Jay would be safe for the time being. There was no chance of using the portpad to get back to Bel Air at that particular moment, so I turned to Jay. “You wanna go back to my humble apartment on Beta for the rest of the night?” I asked him.

Chad announced his intention of taking himself to sick bay to get a shot that would bring him down from his Quicken. I nodded, mind whirling as I gazed down at the three dead women now littering the portpad floor. Chris had pulled out his comm unit and was talking to someone, whether it was maintenance or the sheriff I didn’t know. I looked back at Jay, who shot me a mildly anemic smile and reached to clutch my hand. “Humble apartment?” he asked.

I nodded, turned to Chris. “Gonna go sleep for a week. Gimme a call if they want eye witness testimony, right?”

“You know they will,” he said, a lopsided smirk on his lips. “I’ll tell ‘em you’ll talk to ‘em after a sleep.”

“Thanks, man,” I said.

“Yeah, yeah.” Chris’s smile was evil. “You can thank me at the gig we’ve booked next Friday Night. I’ll expect you to be on stage with us, okay.”

I spluttered, but Jay drew me away just then, and I knew that I’d be there. Chris packs a mean wallop when he’s not happy.

~~~

It had been weeks since I’d been to my apartment on Beta. Like I said, I prefer to stay over on Bel Air, but the apartment itself isn’t too shabby. I cracked the door open with great caution. I couldn’t be sure that there wasn’t some whacked out booby trap set for us on the off chance we might pay the old homestead a visit.

There was no explosion, and no tongues of fire shot out when I kicked open the door. I nodded to Jared. “Stay here for a moment.”

Slipping inside and clapping to turn on the lights, I watched a little nervously as the small apartment lit up. “It’s okay to come in, Jay,” I called, and he did, closing the door behind him as I checked the bedroom and the small bath.

Bath! Now there was an idea. I unfastened the closures and seals on the disgusting mess that was the p suit I was wearing and let it drop down my body. Tee and jeans followed it, and my sticky underwear was only a step behind. When I turned, naked, to see if Jared was overcome by my glorious display of nudity, I saw that he was following suit. Wow! That’s all I could say. He’d seen my glorious display of nudity and raised it. He was built to last, as they say. There was miles of him. Acres of tanned skin, taut over ridges of muscle, and, endearingly, his family jewels only needed a pair of glasses to look exactly like Groucho Marx.

I’ve never really studied my own dangly bits, but most men’s look really dumb until they are pressed into action. According to a girl I once knew, they still look dumb even then. I gave a sigh. Danni had been my friend; she had. I was going to miss her so much. I smiled at Jared, but I knew he could tell that I wasn’t really feeling it.

“Where’s your ‘fresher?” he asked.

“Thought you’d never ask,” I murmured, reaching for his hand. “Gonna get these grubby things in the laundry first. It’s through here. Feel free to start without me.”

He nodded and went into my bathroom. I concentrated on gathering up the soiled clothing we’d shed and stuffing them into the laundry facility. Once they were in, I made for the bathroom. I’d heard the ‘fresher turn on, and thought for a moment I’d be too late to join Jay, so imagine my surprise when I got into the room to find that he was filling the tub with honest to God water.

“Dude, I can’t afford that kind of luxury,” I spluttered, watching as the water, steaming and wonderful, poured into the tub.

“Easy, Jen. I can.” He smirked at me. “Might as well exploit me to the fullest. You’ve earned it.”

Speechless, I nodded. I don’t think I’ve ever taken a bath in my life. I’ve always wondered what it would feel like to immerse myself in water, but until now it had never been even a remote possibility. Jared’s smile widened, his arms reached, and I found myself grabbed and pulled into an embrace that ended with me splashing into a tub full of foaming water. He pressed me to take a seat, and then turned off the water, stepping in to hover over me with a gleam in his eye.

“What are you going to do?” I asked, my breath quickening almost as if I’d taken a dose of Chad’s drug.

"Shhh." He reached past me for a bar of soap I didn’t even know I possessed and lathered up a washcloth, stroking it firmly across my chest. I guess he couldn’t help the mischievous grin that spread across his face. "I thought you knew what a bath was, Jen."

"Yeah. Of course I know what a bath is, Jay.” I was off balance, not sure now that we’d finished the case just where I stood. I’d never experienced this level of luxury, and, frankly, I could get used to it; I wanted to get used to it, so much. “I want to know what the relevance of this particular bath might be."

Jared smirked at me just the tiniest bit, and I felt that tightening in my groin again that would turn it from a muppet to a mean torpedo of love. “Let me pamper you, just a little bit, Jen,” he said, bending to kiss my ear. “I really, really want you to stay with me.”

“I can deal with being pampered,” I laughed. “Pamper away! It’s a given that any pampering had just better not involve blowing raspberries on my wet flesh."

“You spoil all my fun,” Jay pouted, kneeling down over me and doing things with the soap that ought to be illegal. I was fully hard now. I felt clean and relaxed and roused and ready. Jared’s eyes surveyed me with wicked intent, and I reached up to drag him to me, nipping on his lower lip and then pulling him closer.

“I’m kind of afraid,” I confessed. “I could fall very hard if I didn’t take really good care of myself.”

He cupped my face in hands that were way too big to resist. “I want you to,” he said. “It can’t just be me.”

I didn’t know how to reply to that. I could feel the sincerity in his words, but I wasn’t sure just how permanent Jared might view a relationship. “When I love, I love forever,” I said. “Better run now if all you’re looking for is temporary.” I closed my eyes, but I could feel him searching, trying to get into me, trying to tell if what I’d said was the truth or just a bunch of bullshit. I reached to slide my fingers through his unruly mop of hair. “Don’t hurt me. I’m just not ready for that kind of pain,” Who knew that I could be such a wuss? But I was telling it like it is. I really didn’t think I could do casual with Jared.

“Hey.” His voice was gentle, and he cupped my cheek, turning my face up to make me meet his eyes. “I’m in this for the duration,” he said, and kissed the tip of my nose. That gesture, corny and silly as it was, melted me. I nodded and reached my arms around him.

Soap appears to be an excellent lubricant. I don’t think there was a single part of my body he didn’t soap up, and although the feeling was a novel one for someone who is used to the water-free cleansing by sonic vibrations that a ‘fresher affords, after the initial strangeness I found it very relaxing.

What wasn’t very relaxing was the way his fingers found every sensitive spot on my body. It was as if he had studied me like a map, not the back of my neck, just so, and watch me start to shake myself apart; lick along the inside of my elbow and see how my cock begins to drool pre-come like one of Pavlov’s dogs at dinner time.

I gave as good as I got, I think. His breathing accelerated, and his eyes darkened, and I nodded to myself. I love it when a plan comes together, and my plan was most definitely to make him fall for me. I took hold of his dick, and he gasped. “Gonna suck you down and drink whatever you can give me, I mumbled, and hard the little sound he made in answer with great satisfaction.

We clambered out of the tub, and he wrapped me in a towel to dry me. It was a whole new sensation, being wet all over like this, and an entirely different feeling from a cleansing in the ‘resher. I reached to hit the recycle button and send the water back into the system to be repurposed, and put in the order for it to be returned to my apartment. I wasn’t going to give up that much water. Jared had given it to me, and I would treasure it. Now I knew what bathing felt like, I wanted to do it again. With Jared. He grinned at me.

“You liked it,” he said, and it was a statement rather than a question.

“I loved it,” I agreed, wrapping my arms around his neck and pulling him down so I could kiss him again. Together we stumbled through to my bedroom, and a single, croaked command I brought the bed down ready for us.

Everything about this felt new, unreal, like I was being given a prize for being a good boy, although lord knows I was not a good boy.I think that the dose of Antipathy was wearing off, because I could hear the beginning of the hubbub that would eventually drown out my concentration and make me nuts, but above it, crystal clear and precise, were Jared’s thoughts. He wanted me, and that very thought resonated in me, driving my own desire up until I thought I might burst.

This was a situation I’d never been in. Usually I was half snockered on Old Beaver, just to keep the voices at bay, but here and now, with this incredibly beautiful man wrapped around me like his favorite teddy bear. I licked along his chin and ground my dick against his thigh, and the sound of his husky voice catching in his throat made my insides pool liquid, low down where it counts.

He was leaking, sticky against my newly washed belly, and I slid one hand down to capture his cock. “Well lookie here,” I murmured. “You appear to be armed and dangerous.” I squeezed its fat girth just to be friendly and then pumped it to spread its juices along his shaft. He moaned then, a full throated sound that sparked more tingles in me.

I laid him down on the bed and he spread for me, opening up his body with a grin. I spent a moment looking, drinking in the beauty of him, all taut muscle an smooth brown skin. All mine.

I could hear him echo that ‘all mine’ inside my head as he reached for me. “Come on, Jen. What are you waiting for? An engraved invitation?”

“Pushy, pushy,” I growled, bending to taste that gorgeously sticky cock of his, and he bucked into me, eager, so eager, that I laughed. Then I knelt between his legs and began to open him up.

Sliding into him was heat and musk and deliciously piercing sweetness. It felt like home. He held me tight, sucked me into him and wrapped his long legs around my hips as if he wanted to merge with me. I felt myself going, knew that it wasn’t going to take much to tip me over, counted backwards furiously from 1,000 and tried to stop myself from coming. He was close, those slanted eyes half-lidded and white teeth bared in a grimace of ecstasy. My head swam as I watched, and mumbled filthy words to make him tighten and whimper. He felt like oiled silk against my desperate thrusts, and we shared a rough, wet caress that was more mouthing than actual kissing. He was rock hard, his cock pressing between us as though making room for itself, and I reached to stroke him, pulling and twisting , drawing those sweet, guttural sounds of pleasure from him. It gave me heat and chills, and made me feel as if somehow my stomach had migrated to another dimension.

He was close; I could feel it. I followed behind him, because I couldn’t help it.

When he came, it was like the bursting of a dam. Sparks of prickling pleasure shot through me, twisted along my spine to tighten my balls and empty me inside him. I thought I was going to die - or maybe that I had already died and this was my heaven. Collapsing against him, I let the aftershocks shake through me, and listened to him purr softly as he came down from his climax,

It took me a while, but eventually my breathing returned to normal, and I was able to roll myself onto my back. “I was so clean and nice,” I lamented.

“Need another bath?” Jared snickered. “Can be arranged, you know.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever have enough baths,” I said, sliding my head onto his shoulder.

“You need to come down to Old Earth with me,” he said, turning his head so he could press a kiss to my eyebrow. “I’ll take you swimming in the ocean.”

“You gonna keep me then?” I hadn’t been going to say that; I knew it sounded needy, but somehow the words slipped past my censor and made it out through my mouth before I could stop them. It made him chuckle.

“Oh, yeah,” he said, snuggling up against me. “You’re a lot more fun than a Lazoon.”

I gave him a smile that was possibly more genuine than ever I ever offered anyone since I left the crèche. It certainly wasn’t studied or categorized in any way. “I’d like that,” I said as we closed our eyes.

We were going to have to go after Matt, I knew, but that would keep for another day. Tonight, it was just us, and it was enough.