Ch 6
Jack hadn’t wanted to leave Shazza and Riddick, but she would be right next door. Shazza made a point to leave the door between their rooms unlocked. Didn’t want to leave the door wide open, not after she had watched the both of them in the shuttle, she had seen more than enough of that. She felt better when Shazza checked the room for her though; it was such a simple thing, but it made her grin right down to her toes. Followed right behind Shazza and almost walked into her as she stopped at the doorway to the bathroom. Shazza had looked over her shoulder and smiled back before stepping out of the way. A bathtub! Shazza had grinned at her and squeezed her shoulders before she left her alone to finish her exploration.
For a moment she stood in the middle of the quarters. It felt a little weird, because clearly someone else had lived here not that long ago, the place was lived in. Then curiosity took over and she looked through drawers and closets, and pulled out t-shirts and other things that she could find. Sniffed her shirt; her own clothes were a little ripe. There was a real bed, with pillows, and it was soft. Jack bit the inside of her lip and insisted she would not cry, it was such a silly thing to cry about, it was just a bed. But it wasn’t just a bed; it was a safe bed, a soft, clean bed. A bed that was one unlocked door away from Shazza and Riddick, two people that she knew, if she needed them, they would be there.
It felt strange to get undressed; she hadn’t felt safe for a long time, but she left her dirty clothes in the corner and went to run a bath. Jack ran her hand over her shaved head as she looked at all the bottles of shampoo. She guessed she wouldn’t need shampoo any time soon, not for her hair anyway. Her hand flew up to her mouth to hide her giggles as she dumped half the bottle of shampoo into the bath water and watched as the bubbles began to fill up the tub. It was a lot more than she expected. She had never had a bubble bath before, what did she know?
Fighting down the bubbles before she got into the tub, she then cleared a space; even then the bubbles were over her head in some spots. The water was wonderful, and hot. Like Riddick it had been a very long time since she had been able to have a hot shower, never mind an actual bath, in a bathtub no less. She swirled the water around and was amazed at the dirt. She was filthy. She scrubbed clean and drained the water and did it all over again, until she was nearly asleep in the tub and her skin was all wrinkly.
Checked the door locks; the one to the outside hall was locked, and the one to Shazza and Riddick’s room wasn’t. She was safe, she was finally safe. Maybe it wasn’t her own room, but it was a room of her own, for the moment. She had never had her own room either. Jack stood over the bed in the now darkened room and looked out of the port hole near the bed. She curled up in her soft safe bed and looked out that port hole at the stars outside until she fell asleep.
Shazza closed her eyes and tilted her head up; she didn’t need to look for Riddick, he was right here, right in front of her. He touched her hair and let his fingertips trace over her cheeks, down past her lips. She smiled at him, a soft sort of sexy smile and it dawned on him that she trusted him. Completely. It wasn’t just something on the planet; it wasn’t just because she had no other choice or she needed him to protect her. She wasn’t afraid of him and she trusted him.
A low growl through his chest, as her hand pressed against his heart. He nuzzled over her wet hair and she kept her eyes closed and listened to him breathe her in. It wasn’t the action of an animal, as he sniffed her; it was as if he needed to fill himself with the smell of her; his heart pounded in his chest as he inhaled. He exhaled her name, a whisper that insisted, that demanded. “Look at me, Shazza.” His nose brushed against hers as he said it, his voice rich and deep as he continued to move softly against her skin. ‘He’s beautiful.’ She thought it so loudly that she expected him to hear her. Shazza could see nothing but the strange silver blue of his eyes in the darkness, the rest of him she saw with her hands.
Riddick ran his hands through her hair as his lips moved over her; he kissed her lashes and her cheeks, her ears before he settled on her mouth. Her body pressed to his and her arms wrapped around his neck as his tongue swept over hers. His hands followed the curve of her spine and cupped her ass before he pulled her up to his waist and walked back into the bedroom. He waited for her to struggle but she didn’t, and he laid her back on the bed and followed her as she moved up. He looked down at her, her dark hair fanned out on the bed around her, and realized she was willing. Not willing because he paid her, or because she had too much to drink or because she didn’t care what happened to her either way; she was willing because she wanted him. She wanted him; he wasn’t just a fuck to her either. It felt strange to get so far and suddenly not know what he was to do; he had never felt like this, that he wanted it to matter.
Feeling him hesitate she reached for him, her fingertips traced across his jaw and played over the sensitive skin under his ears. She watched him blink in the dark once more and closed her eyes and arched her neck in invitation. He liked the way her hands felt on his neck, it tickled in a way that hit him low in the belly; he didn’t think it was possible to feel like that unless a woman had his cock in her hands, or elsewhere and even then it was nowhere near the same. Shazza just had to touch him. His hips pressed deeper against hers, as he balanced on his elbow over her. He was hard enough to hurt but for the moment it wasn’t the foremost thing in his mind. He watched her face as he traced the back of a nail against the skin under her ear, where she had touched him. Her skin turned to gooseflesh and her whole body arched slightly up to his, her hips pressed up last. It did the same to her; he had made her feel that way; he had never really thought too much about how he made the woman feel. It was enough to make them scream, he wondered now how much of that was real, when Shazza could touch him so lightly and make him feel like that.
Cupped his jaw again and pulled him down for another deep kiss. He knew she felt the same flutter in the belly that he did and that made it more, he wanted to make her feel more, to feel everything. He pulled back and rested against her slick entrance and he looked at her again before he spoke quietly. “Lights, fifteen percent.” It was still dark enough that the light didn’t hurt his eyes, but she could see him too.
Hips arched up against him to take him in and he watched her as her lips parted silently. His whole body was strained above hers as he tried to go slow; it was Shazza that wasn’t willing. Her hips rose to meet his and drove him faster; she knew how much the tortuous pace killed him, she could feel it in the quiver of his body above hers. Cool hands played over the burning heat of his skin and he tipped senselessly over the edge into oblivion when she whispered in his ear, ‘fuck me harder, Riddick’, and he lost himself in her. She didn’t scream until he had flipped her over to her knees and pinned her beneath him; even then her scream wasn’t loud, it was just real, a hard cry of passion as her body bucked and clenched beneath his. Her name was ripped from him as he came, until all he could think of was her, she filled everything in him and if it was something he could ever define, something he had ever really known, he would have roared that he loved her, but he didn’t have the words.
Easing from her he pulled her tight into the curve of his body; his nose buried in her hair, and wondered what the hell had just happened to him. Everything in him trembled and he was afraid to speak for fear that his voice would break. He had had good, but this was better than good; it was more than just the ease of a physical need, Shazza had touched something deep within him and he didn’t know what else to do but hold her. Ringlets of her dark hair fell over her neck and shoulders and he tucked them behind her ear; he watched her smile in her half sleep state when his fingers tickled lightly over her ear. He still didn’t move, just ordered the lights off and listened to her heartbeat slow as he held her in the dark.
He couldn’t sleep, his hand traced over her body as she slept next to him. She had a nightmare not long ago, a small one that eased when he whispered in her ear that he was here, and wouldn’t let anything happen to her, that he would protect her. He laid in the dark and thought of Imam, who had known, despite everything he had been told, that he would protect them both. He didn’t know how Imam knew, how he saw something in him that he could barely glimpse himself, something he would never have even acknowledged before this. But Imam had known, the man had looked at him, and just known. Riddick slid from the bed carefully, so he wouldn’t wake her up, the blanket pulled in close as he left the bed and found his pants.
Dirty for days, like all of them, Jack lay curled up on her side in a tight little ball with the blankets pulled around her, under the pale spill of starlight that glimmered through the port hole window beside her bed. Riddick stood by the open door to her room and just listened to her snore softly, peacefully. Safe. He made room for Shazza as she padded up silently behind him, and held her to his chest, his nose buried in her hair again. He had kept them both safe, and for the first time in his life he felt safe himself, around someone else. They stood there for a little longer and listened to Jack sleep, before they went back to bed. They left the door between the two rooms open.
Copyright © august 2006 xxxevilgrinxxx