by Elise Jae
“Are pancakes a normal thing here?”
“No.” He looks like he doesn’t want to tell me but thinks better of it. “I may have asked Laurel what your favorite foods are—now that you’ve deigned to let me in on the secret.”
“I didn’t know it was a secret.” I’m not sure why no one told him. “Am I going to meet your brother?”
The spatula freezes, and a litany of curses float through my head. I sincerely hope he’s not dead.
“He’ll be at the meeting.” Flipping the pancakes, he shifts his shoulders, the muscles of his back shift, still tense. “We don’t get along.”
“I’m sorry, that must be tough.”
He nods. “Thanks, it can be.”
A beat of silence passes, and this one doesn’t sit well. I have to fill it.
“Do you like cooking?”
“I like feeding you.” He says as he turns and puts a plate in front of me.
“That’s really sweet.”
The thing is piled high, and he slides a jug of strawberry syrup along with it.
“Are you sure you don’t just like that I can never finish what you give me, so you get to eat extra.”
“No, I do that because I haven’t learned your exact needs yet.” His smile sours a bit and he looks down at his food.
“What is it?”
“It just occurred to me that I’ll probably have figured it out… just in time for you to leave.”
“We’ve got three more weeks. Let’s not think about that until we have to.”
We haven’t actually talked about last night, and I don’t want to give him the chance to think I regret any of it, so I stab a piece of pancake and look at him, waiting for him to meet my eyes. “Is it going to be weird if I bring sample jars to bed with us next time.”
His lips quirk in a tiny smile. “No, I knew there would be… unconventional experiences with you.”
TRENCH
Jessica has been scrubbing her plate for too long, and I lean on the counter beside her, watching her face transform from blankness, to a smile. “Sorry, was thinking about the methodology.”
“Is that what you’re calling it now.”
She sticks her tongue out at me and goes to the workspace she set up near the window.
She’s labelling jars, making notes…. When I come up behind her, I see my name on both.
“When and where?” I ask, running my hands down her arms.
“I thought you’d be more curious about how.”
“We’ll get to that.”
Chuckling, she scoops up a small collection of jars, and looks over her shoulder at me. “Upstairs, and now.”
I follow her back to the bedroom, waiting for direction, watching as she works, methodically placing those jars in order, removing each lid.
When she turns to me, it’s with a sly smile on her lips, and she points at my pants. “Time for those to come off again.”
I toss them onto the bed, and her clothes follow after.
It’s not that I don’t love seeing her naked, but… “Shouldn’t you be wearing gloves?”
“I’ve already noted that female DNA is inevitable in the current collection process.”
She says it so matter-of-factly, I have to laugh. Dropping my head back, I shake it at the ceiling. When I look down at her again, I have to cover my mouth with my hand to stop myself from saying something silly. But the whole thing feels ridiculous….
Until she takes me in hand again.
I wonder if we would have gotten here eventually… without last night. If she might have simply handed me the jars and asked me to provide the “samples” for her instead of being instrumental in their collection….
She smiles up at me, sweet and tantalizing. “Don’t get stage fright on me.”
“I don’t think I could stop myself from coming when you’ve touched me.”
Lips twitching, she looks down and hums in appreciation, before reaching back and taking the first jar.
“Sorry if this hurts.”
“Hurts?”
She angles the jar over my cock and scrapes the top of the rim down the tip of me, collecting a dark bead of precome.
“It didn’t hurt.”
“Good. If last night’s any clue, I won’t have to do that again.” She chuckles as she spins the lid onto the jar and shoves it away. “Hopefully you don’t break the jar with this fire hose?”
I have no idea what that means but, “I’ll try not to.”
She chuckles as she turns back to my cock, and then pauses, a small sound escapes her lips, maybe a sigh, maybe a word…
Whatever it was, she leans forward and places a quick, chaste kiss to the head of my cock.
It’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen, and I know it’s not possible, but somehow it feels like I’ve gotten harder.
She doesn’t lean forward again as she works her hand over me. Doesn’t look up at me, her focus solely on my cock.
“Tell me when you’re close?”
I nod in a jerky movement, and I see her smile, even though she isn’t looking at me.
Reaching forward, she drags her nails along the bottom of my sack, and I lock my leg muscles to keep from moving forward, letting out a long breath. I don’t tell her to be careful. Don’t tell her how much faster she’s moving us along.
She wants her specimens.
This isn’t about prolonging pleasure.
I don’t fight her and my body is still primed after last night. It doesn’t take long for the pressure to build inside of me. “I’m close, Jess.”
One of her hands leaves me, and she quests blindly for that second jar.
She finds it just in time. I don’t see if she manages to catch any.
I have to close my eyes. Grit my teeth as my body tells me it’s wrong to waste this. The impulse to seize rushes through me. But I clench my fists and fight through it.
My whole body jerks and I spill forth hoping her hand is guiding me to where she needs me.
When the spasms subside and I’m able to look down at her. I curse under my breath.
Jess is covered in my come.
“Saint’s, I’m sorry.”
She’s laughing, and she looks up at me. “Now you know why I got undressed too.”
She slides the full jar beside her knee to join the other one, shaking her head. “I’m going to have to think about looking into average volume of ejaculate.”
She doesn’t give me any time to recover and this time, she licks my length, sucks at my already heaving balls. It takes less than five minutes for her to coax the second load from my cock.
This time, I watch her take the sample.
This time, when the jar is filled, she wraps her lips around me and drinks me down.
It’s getting harder and harder to admit that I can’t keep her.
It’s getting harder and harder to see straight.
“You’re still hard.”
“I know.”
“Do you want a break?”
I shake my head. “Keep going. Let’s see what happens.”
One hand stroking me, the other supporting my sack, she looks up at me and I have to grit my teeth.
“Are you okay? You look like you’re in pain.”
“I am. I have this inexplicable pain tied to the need to throw you on the floor and bond with you.”
Worry passes over her features.
“I’m not going to.”
“I didn’t think you were. But if you’re in pain—”
I don’t hear the rest of her words. I’m coming and I didn’t have the chance to warn her.
It hits me like a punch to the gut, and I nearly double over. Hands on her shoulders, I use her to support myself, trying desperately to not shift my whole wait onto her.
Somehow, she’s managed to catch the sample.
“Is it still strong?”
The desire… “Yes. It’s worse.”
Brows pinched, she releases her grip on me. “Th
at’s not a part of this experiment.”
Nodding, I stand upright, blowing out a long breath to release some of the tension. “We should probably stop at three.” Though I think I could come again and again until the pain killed me.
“I agree. I don’t want to put you in a position that hurts either of us.” She looks up at me, still on her knees. “Let’s put off working in the lab for a little bit and just… hang out on the couch or something. Try to relieve some of… that.”
Her eyes drop to my cock, and she pulls her lower lip into her mouth, biting her lip… but not in an attempt to be sexy. It’s a nervous movement.
I nod, pulling my pants on while she caps her jars and makes sure the labels are all still legible.
“I need to shower,” She says looking down at herself and then smiling up at him. “Why don’t you go down and try to relax.”
“You mean, go downstairs and try not to think about you in the shower.” Which will be impossible.
But I try anyway.
NINE
JESSICA
I try to keep my distance from Trench. The last thing I intended to do was hurt him.
So, after a quick check-in, I go to my lab table and set the jars down to start making slides and fire up the machines.
Three hours later, I have data that needs corroboration, but….
I look up to where Trench has been sitting across from me for the last hour.
Each resultant sample has a higher percentage of a chemical compound I’ve never seen before. It rises as his sperm count drops. But I don’t know what it is, and I can’t figure out why it’s there….
“Your body wants to bond with me…. And it’s hurting you. Did you have the same problem with the women at Margot’s?
“No, just you.”
I hate that I’m causing him pain.
“Hey,” he says, and I look back up at him. “I can bear it. My body wants what it wants… but I’ll take what I can get.”
I finally look at the data I’ve already gotten back from Margot’s employees. They clearly love their job and my request probably added a little fun to their day.
“I asked Margot to put out a request to her employees. I have a very strange delivery headed my way.”
“A request for them to provide you with samples similar to the ones you’ve already collected?”
“Yes. And blood samples from them if they’re willing.” I don’t add that the idea of involvement in the collection process was never a part of the plan. “They should help me figure out what happens in the bonding process.”
The doorbell rings, and I turn to stare at it. “We aren’t expecting my sister, are we?”
“No, but as you’ve already discovered, the others tend to drop by whenever they please.”
He goes to a screen on the wall, pulling up a camera and looks back at me. “It’s not your sister, but it’s definitely for you.”
When he opens the door, Margot comes in holding a box in front of her like a pregnant woman. The contents could make that happen.
“Hi!” She says, walking past Trench as though it’s my house, not his. “Let me tell you, the ladies were more than happy to help out. I’ve got five samples from bonded pairs, and three from unbonded patrons who thought the whole thing was amusing.”
“Everything’s labeled?”
“Yep.” She sets her cargo down on my worktable. “I made sure they followed the rules. They told me to pass along the offer to help any time.”
I look through the box, checking the labels, happy to see everything is how I asked for it. “These are going to be super helpful, thanks.”
Margot glances at Trench’s samples on the table and then back at me. I don’t comment. Luckily, she doesn’t either.
“I was serious before when I said I’d have Kimba bring you down with her the next time all the ladies get together. But Now… I think they’ll riot if you decide to stay home.”
“I’ll remember that. If I’m still here.”
She looks like she might want to argue, but she doesn’t. “I’ll be interested to hear what your results come up with.”
“Me too.”
She says something to Trench on the way out the door, and he shakes his head at her. Whatever it is, I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know.
Instead, I go back to organizing the samples.
They all look alike.
At least Trench’s statements about being abnormal don’t apply there.
I work though the slides and set them into the collection queue.
Before I know it, Trench is softly saying my name. It’s dark on the other side of the window and there’s a plate of food beside me that I don’t remember eating.
Trench stands beside me, watching. “Come upstairs?”
“Thanks for not letting me work all night.”
“You would have come back to us on your own at some point.”
“Maybe.” I’d spent a few unintentional all-nighters at the lab.
I make sure nothing’s running that has a time-sensitive end process and flick off the monitors.
Then, I follow him upstairs.
“Just sleeping tonight,” he says as he helps pull my tank over my head. “You’re exhausted.”
I agree, not because I’m tired—though he’s right about that—but because I’m still afraid to hurt him more than I already have.
The siren goes off almost as soon as we turn out the lights.
I pretend I’m not worried. I don’t even get out of bed when he goes. I wait until I hear the door click shut, and then, wrapped in the sheets, I go to the window.
From here, I can watch the line of his bike’s headlight as it cuts across the snow… until it disappears over a slope.
And then… all I can do is wait.
TRENCH
Jessica doesn’t say anything when I get back this time. She just rolls over and snuggles into my side.
But there’s tension in her shoulders until she falls back to sleep.
And I wonder if this is what Richter feels when he comes home.
I wonder how much worse it is with the bond in place.
I can’t fall back to sleep, but I don’t move until she wakes. Can’t imagine forcing myself to let go of her when she’s soft and snuggled in my arms.
“Hi,” she smiles against my shoulder, her eyes opening in a slow, sleepy set of blinks. “Did you sleep okay?”
She nods, “But I don’t like when you have to go out in the middle of the night.”
I don’t either, but I don’t agree with her, instead, I lean down and place a kiss on her hair. “What do you want for breakfast?”
She yawns, stretching against me. “How about you make me your favorite? Just in a me-size portion.”
“I think I might know what that looks like.”
She rolls away from me with a sigh and the sheets slip from her body. I watch her go to the bathroom, her ass making me want to follow her. But I head down to the kitchen instead.
I stand in the kitchen for a moment, staring at the refrigerator… she asked for my favorite, but that would have required prep last night, so I pull cartons and bags from the fridge and make my go-to. After all, I like it enough to eat it ninety percent of the time….
She rejoins me with wet hair and once again, I regret not having followed her. But the timing is perfect, and I set the plate in front of her with a cup of coffee.
“Mindura Pudding needs to set overnight, so this is what I’d normally eat, instead.”
She looks at her plate, taking in the seven different items, all cooked differently and arranged in a circle. “Perfect.”
She picks up her fork as I sit beside her, and stabs at the meat. Our food and theirs has been passing back and forth across the systems for almost a decade. I wouldn’t doubt she can name everything on the plate, and she digs into it as though she loves every item.
“So,” Jessica takes the cup of coffee and holds it between her palms, inhaling. �
��Why do the monsters hunt only women?”
I can’t help but smile. All business. “Because they know that without you, we can’t procreate.”
She looks skeptical.
“If someone gave you the impression they’re not fully intelligent beings, you were misled.”
“No one’s really talked to me about them at all, except you. They almost feel like a dirty little secret.”
And maybe they are.
The Agency doesn’t advertise their existence. They play them off the same way humans talk about sharks. Dangerous, but not likely to cross your path, unless you put yourself in theirs.
“We don’t understand their language, but we know they have to have one. They don’t use any technology we understand, but we have no reason to believe they have none.”
“Is that why you never cross over the rim of the caldera?”
“One of them.”
She’s watching me, waiting.
“The fact is, we don’t like killing them. And if we had any other way, we’d take it. But we haven’t found one yet. So, we’re here. Protecting the border between their part of our world, and ours.”
She’s looking at me, with eyes a little too bright, a little too wide.
It makes me want to be a little too honest. “We protect the things, and people, who are most important to us without mercy.”
“What does it take to qualify?”
She’s close enough, I can almost feel her heartbeat. I can definitely hear her breath, the way it catches as my gaze drops to her lips….
Instead of telling her she already does, I trace those lips with my thumb, wondering if I’ll ever be able to.
Again, she’s the one who kisses me.
It’s an invitation, a permission.
And I gladly take it.
I lift her, half of my mind focused on the beautiful creature in my arms, on the way she’s rocking against me.
The other is on the steps. Climbing them to get her into my bed.
It’s the most comfortable surface in my home… but it’s more than that. It’s having her—everything she’ll give me—there. The only sort of claiming I’ll be allowed.
I don’t know how she manages it, but her pants are half off before I drop her onto the mattress.