by TylerRose.
Jerome shut the door before Shestna ported away and returned to bed. She was still sound asleep. He liked the way she moved toward him when he slid back in under the sheet beside her. He knew now that he was to have been with her all this time. They were supposed to have been together since that snowy March night in 1992. Almost a year and a half ago.
A lifetime ago.
He didn’t go for his jog in the morning, preferring to stay in the silence with her and read a book. He reread a certain journal he’d written to himself from another lifetime. It was was nine in the morning when he left her side.
Gable wandered into the kitchen to see Jerome contemplating an empty coffee mug. Reaching for a glass, he saw the sugar bowl open and creamer powder nearby.
“The woman has lived in your home for how long and you still don’t know how she takes her coffee?”
“Not a word,” Jerome replied, pointing with the spoon.
“Okay, then I won’t tell you.”
“Those words I’ll happily hear.”
“What’s it worth to you?”
“Come on man, how many sugars?” Jerome asked.
Gable cracked a grin. “You are just no fun anymore. She must really get to you.”
“Like you don’t know, bro.”
“More than Mon?” Gable asked.
Jerome released a long, low sigh and looked Gable in the eye. “I love Tyler more than I ever loved Monica. A hundred times more. A thousand. I hardly care about anything else anymore, only being with her.”
The two shared a moment remembering how much he’d loved Monica.
“That’s a big cup. Three cubes and two moderate spoons of creamer. It should look like medium colored caramel,” Gable said, and socked him a hard one in the arm.
Jerome measured and mixed, poured one for himself and went in to get her up. With one of his clean shirts and the promise of hot coffee waiting, he lured her out onto the back deck. They enjoyed the morning warmth in quiet conversation and long silences. When her right hand twitched, he held it and kissed the back of it.
“Want more coffee?”
“Please.”
He took their cups inside. Glancing up from the maker, he saw Shestna appear. Containing his anger for the moment, Jerome made their cups and headed out.
“You can’t wait for nothin’ can you?” he accused, putting the cups down.
“I have important news. After you left, Sanctuary returned Earnol’s body along with a complete list of all his crimes. Both Guardians have resigned rather than be removed from office. Supporters of Earnol are suddenly going very quiet.”
“Of course they are. They’ll distance themselves from him as fast as they can and deny knowledge of anything they might have known about,” Tyler said, and sipped from the hot cup. “I don’t see why we need the post of Guardian at all. There’s no point to it. I also think all time travel interference needs to stop.”
“As do most of us. Baener has already put forth the motion and it passed last night. All operatives are recalled effective immediately. It will no longer be an administration for space and time travel and will solely be the Celestial Congress. A diplomatic body, not an investigative one.”
“Good. That’s what it should have been from the start.”
“Thus we will have a nine member Council advising the President of the Congress. I am intending to talk Julian into running for the office.”
“He won’t want it.”
“No, but I think he is the best man for the job. Also, the Council is discussing reparations to you.”
“Reparations?” Jerome echoed.
“Baener made a motion after Earnol’s body was returned,” Shestna said.
“What kind of reparations?” Tyler asked, already dreading the answer.
“A payment of Ruds and a promise that you are free to live and act as you see fit without interference from the Congress.”
“I’ll take the promise. They can keep the money,” she said.
“Whatever they decide, it will be there when you want or need it,” Shestna told her. “Have you discussed a date to bring our forces?”
“Today is July 7th. I can be packed in a couple hours but you’ve not started yet. You know what you’re bringing?” she asked Jerome.
“Yes. The rest will sit here and wait,” he replied.
“Okay, we’ll have a meeting later and decide a specific date. I’ll let you know soon as I have it.”
“Very well. I am pleased you finally have your justice, Femina.”
“Is it common for a male on your planet to call a spoken for woman by such a familiar term?” Jerome asked. “Given that your women are property, I think you’d be offended if Tyler was yours and I continually called her my beloved.”
Shestna chose to smile. “You are correct. Please forgive me. I will refrain in the future.”
“While we are on the subject of refraining,” Jerome continued. “We need to have some ground rules for visitation. You are welcome in my home, but you have to keep it to sensible hours. After 11am and before 11pm. Tyler is not at your beck and call.”
“No. She is at yours.”
“Try nobody’s,” she spat angrily and stomped into the kitchen with her cup. “Never fucking again!”
The door slammed behind her. Cup in the sink, she ported to her room to pack a bag. Before she had the first items in, Jerome was knocking on the door.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to upset you, babe.”
“You didn’t. You were right to lay down the law with him. Voranians need precise rules or they get away with anything they can. I just don’t like being talked about like I’m a piece of meat or not there. We’re playing Droghers all day. You should come to the clubhouse.”
“Maybe I will,” he smiled, the thought of watching her onstage again perking his brain up.
Bag packed, she gave him a kiss and left.
He went down to change and headed for the clubhouse himself.
He couldn’t walk up to the building without someone grasping his forearm in a solid arm shake. He’d known these people since he was seventeen. He wasn’t one of them, had never had an interest in earning a patch, was one of the few who was not a member but was allowed inside. The booze man, the food man, and the band were about the only others. Until Tyler brought in the Iron Knaves. Several dozen were present, the self-imposed truce having become permanent through the bond of saving their little shit backwater planet.
For the first time in nine years, Jerome came to see the band.
“Hey, Tiberius! How you doin’, man?” Dicer said, beer in left hand and right arm leaving the shoulders of his current squeeze to offer the hand.
“Doin’, man. All sorts of things I probably shouldn’t.”
Dicer laughed. “What brings you here today? Business or pleasure?”
“Little bit of business. Lots of pleasure.”
“Business first. Muh girl’s gonna be onstage soon. Don’t nothin interrupt me then.”
“You mean Tyler?” Jerome asked. “Yeah, well now she’s my girl. Lock, stock and thighs wrapped around my cock.”
“How the hell did you manage to bag the biggest cock tease in Toledo?”
“I teased back.”
“Here she comes for her drink. Won’t be long before their first set.”
She didn’t walk up to the bar, she went behind it. She was wearing a long tank top that fell low in the front and down the sides under her arms and only halfway down her thighs. As she bent over, he nearly got an eyeful.
“Uhh, Tyler?”
“Yes, Jerome?”
“Your goodies are almost hanging out there.”
She stood, bottle of red liqueur he’d never seen before in her hand, and grabbed the Jack Daniels as well. Both bottles on the bar, poured into a shaker, ice added and the whole thing shaken up, she poured it all into the biggest glass in the place. A 24oz mug with a handle.
“It’s bottomless night, in case y
ou hadn’t noticed,” she said.
He had but didn’t say anything.
“If I wanna sing, I gotta follow the rule. Being your girlfriend does not change the rule unless you talk to the man,” she said with a nod to Dicer. “Last time I tried not to follow the rule, he gave me three across the ass with that pointer he keeps in his pocket. I think he bent it.”
“You gonna do my song tonight?” Dicer asked her.
Her gaze levelled on him. “Which one would that be? The one where I’m a bitch or the one where I get pissy?”
“Keep that mouth going, little girl and I’ll give you a spanking you’ll never forget.”
She scoffed at him. “Yeah, if you think you can manage one harder than he’s already given me, you just let me know.”
Glass in hand, she walked away to the stage.
“Damn I love that woman,” Jerome said, watching her walk the entire way.
“I take it back,” Dicer said. “She used to be the biggest cock tease. Now she’s just ice cold.”
“When you’ve known as many bad men as she has, it’s not surprising.”
“So what did you do different from any of us?” Dicer asked.
“I respect the fuck outta her. I worship her, mind and body, in a way she deserves and as an equal, without being sycophantic. She hates that shit. I let her be her and don’t act like I’m her father.”
“Worship her, huh?”
“Absolutely. She’s a fuckin’ goddess, man, and I mean that literally. She’s gonna grow up to make a planet, at least. She can do any fucking thing she wants as far as I’m concerned. I’m not going to tell her she can’t. Not my job to tell her she can’t. It’s my job to have her back,” Jerome said.
Applause rose all around the clubhouse, the place packed like he’d never seen before. Of course he knew why. His woman was singing. He and Dicer sat at Dicer’s table smack dab center stage but back twenty feet. Perfect view of her. He didn’t recognize the song the band started but the audience apparently did, cheering. The most repeated line was “no more tears.” Before the next song, Dicer told him it was an Ozzy Osborne, as was the next. “Mama I’m Comin’ Home.”
Completely different lineup of songs from last week at Giuseppe’s, tailored to the hard rockin’ metal loving club.
“Hey all! Good to see you,” she said while Mickey changed guitars. “Seems it’s bottomless night at the Droghers tonight.”
A hearty cheer went up.
“And no one thought to raise the stage three feet.” She raised her full glass high into the air. “To fellow warriors not able to be with us.”
The house drank down. Mickey was ready when she put her glass down and the concert continued.
Jerome had been to plenty of concerts. He’d never seen a chick rock so hard or sing with as much passion as his woman did. She didn’t just sing. Her mouth and voice made love with the words, mesmerizing the audience. Seeing how much of herself she put into her performance, he found himself falling in love with her again.
Two hours of solid rock, a break of an hour, another two hours of solid rock. She and Mickey shared lead vocals. She sang two or three and then he sang one. The band broke it up after that, having their standing two shows at Giuseppe’s the next night and Saturday, and a party all day at Iron Knaves on Sunday.
After she ported home, Jerome took a moment to talk to Mickey about Sunday and headed home himself. She was waiting for him in his bed, voice hoarse. He told her not to talk, refrained from making love tonight to let her rest from all the exertion. She’d been doing a lot and his instincts told him to make her sleep.
She napped hard for a good two hours and was awake enough to go talk to the group.
“I need decisions,” she said, bringing dessert to the gaming table where Gable, Star and Roc were paying Mouse Trap. “Gable, you staying here on Earth or coming with us?”
“I’m going. Star and I want to marry soon as we can after we free Taverages.”
“How quickly will you be ready to go?” Tyler asked.
“I’m only taking clothes and a few other things. I don’t have all that much anyway. Tell me when we’re going and I’ll pack the night before.”
“Okay. Star?”
“Oh hell, I’m packed and living outta my travel case. Let’s get goin’ already.”
They all had a smile and a chuckle.
“Roc?”
“I have only clothes. I can be packed in half an hour. Say when.”
“Okay, I’ll let you know tomorrow,” Tyler said.
Pie and ice cream and a movie, then she asked Jerome to come to the Command Center. At the end of the counter, the door shut and extra sound proofing measures enacted, she called for Shestna to come down. The four of them discussed the actual assault.
By the end of the discussion, they had their date and Shestna took the plan with him.
Jerome took her to bed to see what new noises he could get her to make.
He went with her to Giuseppe’s for the show, moving to a table in the center of the dance floor just as Dicer had set up at Droghers. He would always have a seat at this distance from her. He would be at every single show he possibly could be, his soul hearing hers in new ways as she poured out her life story, their story, in song. After each show, he had her tell him the names of the songs.
Father Figure
The Real
Enemy
Kingdom Key
Only You
Evening
Weapon & Wound
Nightbird
Wild Heart
Everybody Lay Down
Ties That Bind
True Love – which always made him smile because of the “video store man” line.
Dozens and dozens of different songs. There were hundreds in her entire repertoire but the band generally kept to a group of about a hundred she liked best, she explained.
“What time is Iron Knavestomorrow?” he asked Saturday night.
“It’s an all-day gig. First set is two to three thirty. Second is five to six thirty. Then eight until whenever we stop playing.”
“How much of that are you singing?”
“Three to three thirty. Six to six thirty, eight until whenever we’re done. But it’s a Sunday. People gotta work Monday. Probably not much later than ten or eleven.”
“Okay. You won’t be going with the band.”
“Oh?” she said.
“You’re going with me,” he informed her.
“If I go with the band, you don’t have to share me. If I go with you, you will be expected to share.”
He kissed her, hand stroking between her legs. “I know. You already said you will only consent to Nails. Only fitting that you get to say a proper goodbye to him this time.”
He rolled over to lick and suck until she came a hard one.
“You’re okay with that?” she asked when he stopped.
“I’ve shared more than one woman with him for a couple hours. Together and alternating.”
“Then you know he’s rough.”
“I know. Think you can handle it, little girl?”
“The question is can you handle watching him give me pain? Hearing me scream for him? I will scream,” she said.
“You scream for me,” he said, and made her do just that for the next hour before letting her sleep.
She joined him in the shower in the morning, very much liking the way he soaped up her entire body. After the rinse, he got out his straight razor and she stood still while he shaved the hair from her puss. Razor rinsed and placed on the shelf outside the shower, he lifted her up to hold her against the wall and fuck while standing under the running water.
“You enjoy Nails,” he said during a pause. “You get what you need from him. Whatever that is. You’re coming home with me. You belong to me.”
She nodded.
His open palm smacked hard up under her buttock where it met her thigh, making her give a surprised and remarkably shrill shriek.
<
br /> “Say it.”
“I am yours, Sifu. I’m coming home with you.”
He finished and she left him there so she could start getting ready.
Wet hair combed, she looked over her “performing” drawer, and decided to take several colors of lace chemise. Each had a matching panty and skinny shoulder straps and would be super sexy on the stage. She selected a white, a lilac and a red. Though the cut was the same, each pattern was different. Chemises and makeup packed, she dressed in a short denim skirt with a set of two layered tank tops of different length, and sandals.
“You gotta make it hard for them, don’t you?” Jerome teased when she came down the stairs.
“It’s my job to be hot. Keeps them looking at the stage instead of the television,” she replied, taking his hand.
“We’re gone ‘til late,” he told Landra in passing through the kitchen.
They shared a joint in the car and enjoyed the drive to the southwest of the city. Nails’ place was a good twenty miles out of town, and twenty miles south of where Solomon was encamped. Parked in the long drive, they walked around back to the pool and yard. Jerome was used to hearing Tiberius shouted. He didn’t expect cheers of “Rose!”
“Rose made it.”
“Rose is here!”
She smiled at them, not letting go Jerome’s hand. Nails came over to welcome them, handing Jerome a beer and giving her a full kiss on the lips with an arm around her waist that pulled her pelvis against his.
“I’m surprised you came together,” he said to her.
“I’m only sharing with you,” Jerome said.
“That works for me. The pool house on the left is the band’s dressing room. We put the awning up so you won’t be standing in the sun while you perform. You look more pale than you used to be.”
She said nothing, heading for the dressing room to drop off her bag while they sat under an umbrella to watch the naked women swim in the pool.
“She told me about the Rovan overdose,” Nails said. “Now you tell me. How bad was it?”
“She’s done a great job recovering so far,” Jerome replied. “She won’t let it beat her. Toke of a joint helps take the edge off. I can tell how bad it is by how much she smokes. She almost died. But I have a feeling you already know that.”