by T Stedman
She nodded weakly as if she wasn’t sure.
“Sometimes Tia … what I feel is so intense …” He was having trouble putting his emotions into words. Fuck. He’d never needed to explain himself before. Never wanted to. He tried again. “The only way I can deal with it … is to close everything down. Does that make sense?”
“Like stuff to do with me and Dante?” she said, rubbing the top of his hand, which was resting on her knee.
“Especially the stuff to do with you and Dante … I’ve said enough”
“Thank you Jay,” she said, solemnly.
He looked back at her surprised. “For what?”
“For opening up … even if it was just a bit.” And she put her index finger and thumb together to emphasise how small.
He pulled her up with him to stand. “I’ll order something for you to eat. You can get ready and then we’ll go. I’ve got a surprise for you once we’re up in the air.” And he rubbed her cheek with his thumb.
Her eyes went wide. “What is it?”
“You’ll have to wait and see.” And he kissed her.
***
As they boarded the Bonaci jet, a young stewardess, smart and cheerful, came and took their bags and jackets. “Your special items have been delivered sir,” she said discretely to Jay as they sat down.
“What special items?” Tia said. Her eyes glittered with excitement.
Jay wasn’t given to shows of romance or grand gestures so she truly had no idea what it could be.
“You’ll have to wait until we are at thirty thousand feet.”
“Should I get pissed or not get pissed?” She joked.
He laughed. “Alcohol won’t hurt. But stop trying to wheedle it out of me because I won’t tell you.”
Tia felt like it took forever for the plane to get up in the air and for the seat belt sign to go off. As soon as it did she crept over to him and sat on the floor between his knees, put her head on her folded arms and looked up at him.
“You’ll be the death of me,” he said, smiling down at her. “Come on, its time.” And he held out his hand for her to take, and led her to the cabin towards the back of the plane. It was seldom used because he was usually working.
He pushed open the door. “After you,” he said, holding out his hand to urge her inside.
When she walked in the air felt chilly. “Air con?”
He nodded, smiling.
Inside was a beautifully made bed. On a small table was a vase of flowers, a bottle of champagne in ice and next to it four huge grey plastic sacks. “What are they?” She said, pointing at them.
He hefted one up on top of the bed, took out his penknife attached to his keys and slashed the sack along the top. He then let the sack fall over, pulled it from the bottom and tipped out the contents all over the bed.
“Ice cubes!” she said, understanding slowly dawning on her.
“We’ve got four bags,” he said, grinning, and walked slowly towards her.
She was surprised but happy. “I’ve never done it on a bed, out of water, or in the air.” She laughed. “The mile high club.”
Jay smiled an almost sad smile. “I thought you might want to see how we mere mortals do it.”
She nodded and tears welled up in her eyes.
“Don’t,” he said, wiping her eyes with the pad of his thumb. “Okay?” he asked, after a moment.
She nodded.
His nimble fingers made quick work of her buttons as a flush had already appeared on her cheeks. He quickly shucked his own clothes and laid her gently on the bed. Then he cupped his hands and moved the cooling ice all around her, sprinkling it gently over her chest and stomach and then lower down.
Her eyes were glued to him throughout the slow erotic process. She breathed heavily, finding it the most sensual thing she’d ever experienced. Watching him go to work all business was foreplay in itself.
He picked up an ice cube and put it in his mouth and bent over her on all fours. He put his mouth over hers and pushed it in and kissed her while he swirled it around, cooling their tongues while the ice got smaller and smaller.
He took another piece, held it in his fingers and ran it along her brow and down to her jaw, oh so slowly, and down to her neck across her hot pulse.
Then he pushed her arms out wide and slowly glided a piece of ice along each side of her arm and watched in fascination as the black rings surfaced and disappeared as the ice went over them.
He put another in his mouth and travelled and kissed down from her neck to her breasts, leaving a tingling coolness wherever his lips touched. A totally attentive lover, he dragged the ice in handfuls, conscious of keeping her cool the entire time.
He gripped one nipple with his lips and allowed the ice cube in his mouth to swirl around the hard pebble with his tongue chasing it, driving her wild. And then repeated the process the other side.
Lower he went with the ice.
He looked at her from between her legs, always keeping eye contact as he gathered ice on her body again and dipped his head, making sure when his tongue touched her delicate folds it was ice cold. He teased and tantalised as he moved ice next to her heat-radiating core with his mouth.
She groaned with want. Never had she felt this aroused.
He put his hands in the ice and touched her gently. Exploring, entering and feeling, he allowed himself this slow prelude for the very first time with her.
She reached down and pushed her fingertips through his hair and then moved them down, digging her nails into his upper arms when the sensations became more intense. “Please, Jay.”
Slowly he replaced his tongue with his fingers and kissed his way back up her body, never rushing, stroking her with cool hands. He was everywhere.
“I want you now,” she whispered, when his ear came next to her mouth. She gently nipped his earlobe.
He turned his mouth to hers and kissed her fully and passionately while he arranged his weight between her legs and pulled more ice between their bodies.
He held his weight on his arms and nudged at her. She bloomed for him, wetness pooling instantly as he gradually pushed further and further, so different from their usual rushed, frantic love-making. As if he’d read her mind, he pushed into her on one hard thrust. She cried out and grabbed him to her and moved with him as he began to rock, gently at first until he built in power and pushed her legs up over his arms to bury himself as hard and as deep as possible. Everything felt more forceful and more overwhelming; she gasped at the sensation.
She was trying not to be noisy but when she caught sight of a new tattoo over his left shoulder she cried out again and her orgasm enveloped her and robbed her of reason.
Emblazoned with a coat of arms was her Atlantean name in bold old-fashioned black lettering.
“Jay,” she cried.
He pounded harder and cleaved to every part of her when he knew she came. It was new; so hot and wonderful. She began to feel herself float again. He throbbed inside her and gasped with his own release.
He sucked her neck and moaned. She stretched out her arms and rested her wrists in the cool pools of ice on the bed. She knew she was dangerously hot.
When he let his sated wet body drop his full weight on top of her, she whispered to him to turn onto his back.
He did as she asked and flopped onto his back and lay there catching his breath. She got up and grabbed another sack, scored it with her teeth and nails while he lay languid and propped up on pillows watching her.
“Which was my present?” she asked, bringing the bag closer. “The ice or the tattoo?”
His face looked serious for a moment. “The ice was for you … the tattoo for me.”
She put her head to one side, not understanding.
“I wanted something to connect you to me.” His eyes were large and soulful. “Something permanent.”
Blown away by his first demonstration of any kind of love, she felt awe and then guilt. When she was with Dante, she left something of
herself inside him forever when she breathed for him, and he did the same for her. Jay didn’t have that.
She made up her mind and crawled slowly up the bed until her lips were mere millimetres away from his. “I want to give you something of me,” she said in a whisper, kissing him gently.
He nodded imperceptibly.
“Did you drink all your Elixir?”
“Yes.” he said, sucking in her lip and nibbling it.
“You understand what it means? It’s forever.”
He nodded and kissed her again harder with his hands gripping her waist hard. “Do it,” he said, pulling her down on him so she could feel how turned on he was again.
She exhaled as she allowed herself to sink down onto him and envelop him. Heat flashed through her like a furnace. “Ice!” she cried.
He pulled the bag nearer, tipping it all over his chest between their bodies, hitching a breath at the shock to his system.
“This will warm you,” she said, putting her mouth to his. “Open for me.” Her tongue parted his lips.
He breathed heavily, his chest moving up and down.
She closed her eyes and delved to the depths of her being – to the heart of her. She felt it rising up and up it came till she felt it tingling on her lips. She let it flow only for a few seconds and watched his face glow red, then orange and his head fall back in ecstasy and his eyes roll back. She leant up and watched it journey down into his heart where he would feel the rush.
She knew the instant he felt it. His hands gripped her waist hard and he shouted, his face in ecstatic pain. He ground his orgasm into her, on and on, wave after wave.
“Ah Tia!” he moaned, into her shoulder, biting her skin as another wave hit him. “Fuck!”
She just lay still and let him hold onto her until the shudders became wider apart and eventually stopped.
She pushed him back gently onto the pillows and sat up. His face was red hot and his eyes bloodshot. “Bloody hell Jay, you look terrible.” She took a pillow out of its case, put a handful of ice in it and held it to his forehead.
He looked at her with glassy eyes.
“You feel my heat. I’m sorry Jay, I shouldn’t have done it.”
“Shhh!” he said, too weak to move. “Tia, it was fucking … I dunno, the best buzz. It was mind-blowing. And I felt you … everything you feel … for me.” He looked at her with awe.
She smiled weakly and dabbed his hot body and face with the ice bag. I love you. She projected straight to his mind and he grinned a heart-wrenching grin.
***
He heard her voice as clear as a bell. He tried his best to reply but it either didn’t work or he was too weak.
“It’s okay Jay, I think it needs to be a two-way thing for you to be able to do it back.” She reassured him and stroked his face.
Yes, that was probably it. But the knowledge the act they just shared gave him was humbling. He could even feel her worry for him now and wished he had the strength to envelope her in his arms. What had started as a present for her, ended up as the most sacred gift to him. She was now a part of him forever. It was a marriage of sorts. He totally got it now.
He wished he didn’t feel so shit. He had hoped he’d feel better as time wore on but the truth was he was feeling worse and worse. In fact, the urge to throw up was getting really strong. “Babe, I’m gonna …” and he held his mouth.
Tia leapt off the bed and grabbed the champagne bucket. He spewed into it and felt wretched. His stomach griped and his head swam.
She tried cooling his wrists and lay him gently back down flat. But his teeth were chattering and his body had begun to shake violently. “Oh Jay, Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! What have I done?”
Everything went fuzzy then black.
Chapter 26
Tia grabbed Jay’s phone and hit Dante. It rang and rang and went to answerphone.
She left a message:
“You probably know what I’ve done, I’m a stupid, stupid cow. He’s burning up, being sick and now he’s unconscious. I don’t know what to do Dante. Please help.”
She looked back at Jay. No change. She tried Cash next. He picked up. She explained roughly what had happened. He cursed and said he would pick them up and try to reach Alfonzo who would probably know the best thing to do. She thanked him and went back over to the bed.
Jay was on fire. She swaddled him with as much ice as she could and sat in misery watching him. “Dante, please help,” she thought, over and over.
***
Cash had taken no chances and had an ambulance meet them at the airport. The paramedics had come from the same small private clinic where Tia had convalesced after the fall from her horse.
He’d primed them that Jay had an exotic virus which recurred from time to time after spending a lot of time in Africa in his childhood. He figured it was a safe fabrication. Plus Human doctors would be treating him as a Human and wouldn’t notice anything untoward; well he hoped they wouldn’t.
The paramedics carried his stretcher and loaded him into the ambulance. Tia wanted to ride with Jay, so Cash, anxious to speak with her, told her they must speak as soon as she had a chance when they got to the hospital. Preoccupied, she agreed and hopped in next to Jay.
Jay was soon settled into his private room. Monitors beeped all around him. He was on a drip and was packed in ice in an effort to bring down his sky-high temperature. He was stable for the time being, so it was a good opportunity for Cash to go out into the corridor with Tia.
“Have you managed to get hold of Dante?” she asked.
Cash shook his head. “I spoke to Alfonzo though, who said he would contact the Guard in New York. They’ll bring a booster supply of Elixir. He said he was confident that it would sort Jay out, and if he lived through this, he should have a much stronger constitution. The next forty-eight hours are crucial.”
“Thank God.” Tia said, closing her eyes.
“There is more Tia … the shit seems to have hit the fan in Ireland.”
“What do you mean?”
Cash sighed deeply, as if mustering the strength. “Dubonnetti has disowned Dante.”
Tia looked at Cash in disbelief.
“Apparently, Marco has found letters proving that Dante isn’t his son. So Marco is now arguing that he is now the oldest son.”
“But not of five. Doesn’t the law clearly say that the king will be one of five, just as the Sirens are one of five?” Tia added.
“That’s what Alfonzo said. He said it was an illegal claim, but Dubonnetti is counting Jay’s adoption to make it five. Oh, and one last thing – a girl has turned up with the Guard, believed to be one of your sisters.”
“Bloody hell. Keenan’s?”
Cash nodded. “Not confirmed yet … And lastly, your uncle sent us a warning. On no account must you go off unescorted. He’s had certain intelligence that a government agency is planning to snatch a Siren.”
“What do they want me for?”
Her naivety was touching, “What’s it ever for, Tia? Because you’re different … Leverage. Power. The important thing is to stick together, okay? The one piece of good news is that Sean and Sarah have had their baby – a little boy – and they are coming on a commercial flight. Should be here later today.”
“You should have told them to take some time together, Cash.”
“I did, but you know what Sean is like. He can’t miss anything.”
***
Jay’s dreams were turbulent and Technicolor, always with Tia trying to reach him whilst he could never hear what she was saying. He tried to wake up but sleep kept taking him down over and over again.
He was sure he kept hearing Tia tell him she loved him, and was sorry. He tried to respond but the effort was just too much – like in a nightmare where your legs won’t move no matter how badly you want them to.
Now everything was just black.
Jay … Jay!
He was looking around him in the blackness for Tia, but it wasn’t Tia. It
was a male voice. Dante? he thought. How can he be in my head? I must be dreaming. Delirious again.
No Jay, it’s me. Really me. It’s weak because I’m a long way away.
Dante?
Yes mate.
How is this even possible? He still wasn’t convinced he wasn’t losing his mind.
It’s through your new bond. I am talking straight to you because I can’t get there yet Jay, all kind of shit’s gone down. Now listen carefully mate, because your and Tia’s lives depends on it.
But I’m sick Dante. Useless.
I know mate, that’s why I’m here. Pretty soon Keenan and the Guard will turn up with a booster supply of Elixir for you. Now I don’t know if we can trust him yet. He has his Siren back and he may decide to take all five, as the Guard know where they all are. Do you understand?
Yes but …
The Elixir he gives you may be fake, so that you don’t make it and he gets access to Tia.
What can I do Dant?
You’ve got to beat this Jay.
I don’t know if I can.
What’s happening to you is like a kind of DNA invasion; that’s the only way I can explain it. Instead of physical traits, all her emotional, spiritual and philosophical ones are trying to join with yours at a genetic level. You’re feeling so shit because your body is fighting it like a virus invading your body. You’ve got to find a way to let it go Jay. Just gradually shut yourself down and give in. If Keenan comes through then no harm’s done, but if not, you’re gonna have to beat this Jay, otherwise she’ll be gone.
Then everything was black again. Did that really just happen? It was incredible. But what he heard was plausible though. Did it make sense to give in, or fight more? Did he want her in every cell of him or not? Yes he did. That was the whole purpose of the fucking exercise. His body just didn’t know it yet.
He decided to start from the feet up, and began to concentrate like he’d never done before.
***
Tia had walked out of the hospital room to get a coffee. Sarah, Sean and the baby had arrived an hour before and had just left to go back to the ranch with Cash. It had been a long tiring flight for them. Cash said he was coming straight back and had given her strict instructions not to go anywhere. Like she would actually want to be anywhere else.