by Elise Jae
She crawls onto the couch, laying down on top of me and snuggling her cheek against my chest.
“I need to do laundry.” She says with a sigh.
“You could walk around naked. I wouldn’t mind.”
“I would.” She shivers, but I don’t think she’s actually cold. Just making a point. “I’ve been ignoring it thanks to that laundry chute. Can’t see the hamper, so I can pretend the dirty clothes don’t exist. Sadly, my closet is thinner than my uncle Maurice’s hair.”
Shifting her, I manage to sit up, and when I stand, I scoop her up to take her with me, not letting her go until we’re at the top of the stairs. “Let me show you how we do laundry on this planet.”
The lower levels are always eerily silent, and the rooms on the side of the hall opposite those with the view of the sprawling tundra are always dark. But the light in the laundry room flicks on and she lets out a low whistle.
“That looks like an industrial oven, not a washing machine.”
“It’s not like the ones you have back on Earth… it’s better. Or at least that’s what I’m told.” I point to the return handle and she steps forward, cautiously, pulling it out.
The basket housed there slides out and she looks from the clothes there to me.
“They’re clean.”
“Does all the work for you.”
“Damn. That’s a dream come true. I loathe laundry.”
She pulls a sweater from the pile and pulls it on, snuggling into the fuzzy fabric. Smiling, she hugs herself and then her lips twist mischievously.
“Hey… I’ve got a question, that may require a small experiment. Are you up for it?”
“I already told you.”
“Good. Get your coat on.” She hurries upstairs, and when I catch up, it’s at the door.
I take my time grabbing the lighter of my two jackets and head back to her, warily. I don’t know what has her so excited, but it scares me.
“Are you going to tell me what you’re up to.”
She nods her head, but instead of telling me, she pulls me out into the crisp air of my driveway.
“I want to know how far you can throw me.”
“That sounds dangerous.”
“It snowed four feet last night. If you aim over there, I’ll be fine. There aren’t any rocks or anything else I might land on.”
“I might have to amend the ‘anything’ statement.”
“Please? It’ll be fun and the risk is minimal….” She smiles up at me, biting her tongue, and she’s jiggling as she holds onto my coat. “Pretty please? I’m willing to barter.”
“And what,” I ask noting that small flurries have started to spin around us. “Do you think it’s worth.”
That wicked smile is back and she reaches up to pull my face down to hers. “There’s a whole lot I’d be willing to do for free.” She kisses me. “So, what’s your price?”
Eyes narrowed, I consider that. “Why don’t we figure that out after the toss. If you survive.”
Her smile is all teeth and joy.
“But only once.”
“Deal.” She pushes up and kisses me once more. “You’re not going to regret it.”
“I might.”
“Well, I won’t.” Both brows raised, she watches me, a hopeful brightness in her eyes.
Hands around her waist, I pick her up, lifting her off the ground first. I pull her to me, and she kisses me again. “I like when you hold me.”
“And apparently, you like when I throw you away.”
She’s about to say something, but I don’t give her the chance.
Her squeak of surprise disappears on the wind.
The arc she flies is enough to get her into the powder but… Saints I hope I haven’t thrown her too far.
I start after her before she’s landed and when she does….
She completely disappears in a puff of white.
The powder is too soft and too thick. I slog through it feeling heat suck away faster than it should. But it’s the chill in my blood. She hasn’t sat up.
Shit.
I shouldn’t have said yes.
When I finally get to her, she’s laying in the middle of a her-shaped hole, laughing.
“I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
“No. I’m just sad I promised to only make you do it once.”
Her smile is so wide, I’m tempted to let her convince me to do it again.
She reaches for me. “Come here.”
I fall into the snow with her, loving every giggle.
Kissing me, so sweetly, she sighs against my lips. “I’ve wanted to do that for days.”
“If you’re trying to convince me to throw you again….”
Shaking her head, the move brushes our noses together, “I’m sorry. I just thought it’d be a fun test of your strength, but now it has me thinking about how easy it would be for you to toss me around.”
She shivers. And even though I don’t think it’s from the cold. I slip one arm under her, ignoring the ice that slides into my sleeve, and pull her up as I stand.
She laughs as she wraps her legs around me and lets me carry her back into the house. “This isn’t helping.”
“Let’s get inside before you convince me to do anything else as ridiculously dangerous.”
I let her down inside, and watch her as she strips off her coat, shaking off the snow that has clung to her.
“Jessica?”
When she turns her face to mine, I kiss her, trying to be as sweet as she was moments ago.
She sighs and melts into me, turning to deepen the kiss.
Her tongue slips into my mouth, and I open my eyes.
And warning sirens go off.
Both in my mind… and overhead.
She curses under her breath, screwing her face up in a scowl. “Go. I’ll be here waiting for you when you get back.”
She pushes me toward the stairs, and I hurry through the process. I want to get this over with and get back. It’s becoming glaringly clear that my limited time with her is going to fly past even more quickly than I’d realized.
The snow is bitterly cold without her.
As I follow the sensor to the incursion, I have to force myself to remain present. Have to remind myself that being distracted is the easiest way to keep myself from getting back to her.
It’s caught.
And it’s struggling.
One leg is tangled in the cabling of an old boundary marker.
When it sees me, it freezes, eyes wide, pupils fully dilated.
Something is very wrong.
Teeth bared, it tries to back away from me. But, again, its leg is caught.
It doesn’t want to be here any more than I do.
When I step forward, it lunges, snapping its trisected jaws.
I’ve been bitten before. It wasn’t fun.
I don’t want to do it again.
From here, I could shoot it. Could end this excursion and untangle a corpse instead of worrying about the living creature. But…. I can’t.
I have to get it free then we can see if it actually wants to do this.
I know what Drift would say to do. Know that he’d argue that as soon as it gets that leg free, it’s going to come after me.
Except… that doesn’t seem to be what it wants at all. It just wants to get away.
I might be able to get it free…
I walk a long circle around the monster, working my way to the point where the cable starts. It takes no time at all to cut through it and release one side of the thing.
But that only makes it worse.
It’s still struggling to get away, but I’ve widened up its options with a whole new range of motion. Getting to the other side of the cable isn’t going to be half as easy.
And it’s not.
Three steps toward the other side, and I must have come too close to it, because it charges, and training kicks in.
The sound of the shot makes me flinch almost as muc
h as the bullet hitting the monster makes it jerk.
Another corpse in the snow.
Another failure too many people would count as a victory.
I tear the tarp off the back of the bike.
Frustrated, I squat down and untangle the creature’s leg from the cables. The hair and skin were worn away in the struggle, and the gore shouldn’t bother me as much as it does. But watching it struggle, even for as little time as I did….
I heft the corpse up and drop it onto the tarp.
And that’s when I realize.
The skull.
It’s intact.
Cursing, I wrap it up and strap it to the bike, not bothering to clean up the cabling.
I need to get it home to Jess. And I need to get it there, now.
JESSICA
I step into the garage before the bike’s engine dies, and when Trench pulls back the tarp covering the creature, I stutter step.
“Its skull….”
“It’s a miracle.” Trench hefts the creature onto his shoulder and turns toward the cold room.
He doesn’t get far.
I don’t realize what’s happening, until he’s thrown it, and grabbed me around the waist.
He drags me back into the house…. But not before I see the other—living—monster, at the threshold of the still-open garage door.
I hear the door shut, but I don’t see it. I don’t see anything now other than Trench’s chest.
He’s got me in a death grip, and there are no signs he’s going to let up.
He breathes against me, chest moving in rolling waves. I hear his heartbeat, drowning out my own.
“Hey.” I poke him in the chest.
It takes three tries before he looks down at me.
“We’re okay. We’re inside. We’re safe.”
He looks like he doesn’t believe any of those statements.
“You told me they couldn’t get me in here when you’re out hunting them down… so either you were lying to me, or….”
He seems to exhale all of himself, and his grip relaxes, just a little bit.
“I just… I don’t know what I would do if it had gotten to you.”
“And now, you don’t have to.” I nod to the wall screen. “Any chance you have a camera in the garage that we can use to see what’s going on?”
He nods, and finally lets me go. Turning to punch in the right information. And the camera projects a gruesome scene.
“What’s it doing?” I ask, tipping my head to the side, trying to figure out….
“It’s eating the other one.”
“What?” I look closer and it’s clear that is what’s going on but, “Why didn’t you tell me they’re cannibalistic.”
“Because I didn’t know they are.”
I dip my head to the side, watching, despite the gruesome display.
“Maybe they aren’t.” I point at the dark spot on the live one’s forehead. “What is that?”
“I don’t know. We’ve never gotten a complete skull before the one it’s eating.”
“And it’s eating that part of the skull. Something is there. Something they don’t want us to know about. But what?”
Wrapping my arms around my waist, I watch the thing. Watch how it moves when it finally stands. It doesn’t seem to know it’s being watched. But it’s had its fill. And it leaves.
“It’s gone.”
Trench slides me a look that tells me exactly how far I’d get if I tried to argue that I need to go out with him. So, I wait, patiently as he goes out, makes sure the coast is clear, and tells me it’s safe to join him.
I bite my tongue the whole time because it would be ridiculous to argue. I am not equipped to protect myself from them.
When I’m finally back out in the cold garage, I look at the mess of the corpse. “It certainly did a thorough job of destroying the evidence.”
He grimaces, but agrees as he picks it up and maneuvers it into the cold room for me.
Setting it to the side—I doubt there’s anything else it can tell me.
I pick through the pieces of the first one’s brain, trying to find the part of the frontal lobe that would have connected to that spot on the creature’s brain.
“Something detonated here.”
“Like a bomb?”
“Maybe? I can’t be sure without getting my hands on the complete brain.”
Trench is very quiet. He’s staring down at the body. “I need to get ahold of Drift. We need to call a meeting.”
But he doesn’t leave. He’s waiting for me. And there’s nothing I can get done in here tonight. So, I close up, and let him check the garage again before I cross the to the house.
I wait for him. Listening as he fills his boss in.
When he’s done, his shoulders drop, and he looks at me like he doesn’t really see me.
“Hey,” I pull his face down so he looks me in the eyes. “Let me take your mind off it.”
It will take mine off it too, and I had an idea that I think he’ll like.
When we get upstairs, I pull off his clothes and shove him back onto the bed. “Just lie there for a minute. Stop thinking about what’s outside, and start thinking about what you could be inside.”
Leaving him with that, I slip into the bathroom, and get what I need.
His eyes are closed when I come back, but he’s not asleep. And if he was, this certainly would wake him up.
Stripping down myself, I crawl onto the bed.
I straddle him, setting the fake cock on his abdomen, just above the one I really want to slide down on.
Looking down, one brow raised, his stomach clenches in a laugh. “You're serious?”
“When have I ever teased you about something like this?”
I kiss him, wondering if I’ll get used to how wet he makes me… before I lose him.
Shoving that thought aside, I lower myself onto the toy, happy to find I’ve placed it just right. Each movement slides his cock along my ass and makes me clench on the dildo harder.
Each movement makes him clench his teeth. “This really isn’t fair.”
No, it’s not. It's a play at a dream we’ll never be able to realize.
Letting out a sigh, I kiss him, nodding. “You’re right.”
Throwing my leg over him, I roll off and raise up onto my hands and knees.
“We don’t need that anymore.”
He pushes it away and moves to kneel behind me, and the depression of our body rolls the bottle of lube into my knee.
Obviously, I know this has worked before. I know he’s going to fit. But, I’m probably always going to be a little scared of it.
He’s the one who hands the vibrator to me this time, and I barely have my fingers around it when the first drop of cold liquid hits my ass.
My sharp inhale is silent, and I manage to hold myself still.
Trench knows what he’s doing. He doesn’t hesitate, he doesn't rush. And—faster than I’d expected—he’s inside of me.
As he slowly presses into me, every ounce of air leaves my lungs.
It’s strange how being full of him feels so foreign and so right all at once.
He holds me there for a moment. Letting me breathe again, and then….
The movement is small. It sends a spike of pleasure through me. He’s caged over me, chest to my back, his hand snaking around to take the vibrator from me, I let it go and use both hands to brace myself on the bed.
I come apart on him, my pussy clenching the vibrator, my ass a vise around his cock.
I’m not surprised when he grunts over me and I feel his stomach flinch against my back. He’s coming, and each spasm is a tiny thrust inside of me.
I don’t give him time to recover. As soon as I’m able to trust my arms and legs to hold me, I pull away from him… just enough that I can slide back.
I manage to get a few strokes in, fucking him with my ass, before he pushes himself back up to kneeling.
“Jess.” He says
my name like it’s a curse, and his hands go back to my waist to hold me still.
“Mmhmm?”
“Are you just using me for my cock?”
“If I say yes, will you punish me?”
“Will it be the truth?
A small part of me wishes I could say yes.
Wishes it would be true, and that leaving him in two weeks isn’t going to tear my damn heart out.
“No. I’m using you for so much more.”
His thrusts are slow, he’s barely removed himself from me, but I know that will come soon enough.
Biting my back, he moves on me more quickly. Pumping into me with a maddening rhythm. It pushes me right to that precipice…. But no further.
“Trench…. please?”
I don’t know what I’m asking for, but he clearly does.
His hand in my hair, he grips me tightly, the pressure and pain biting at my scalp as he pulls me back.
I come apart, sobbing his name. Collapsing onto exhausted arms, I hear him groan and feel the hot warmth of his come on my back.
As he helps me to stand, I try to sort out what’s going on in my head. Try to put myself back together.
I let him lead me into the shower and lean against the wall as he sets the spray.
Satisfied, he turns back to me, presses a soft kiss to my lips, and says, “I’ll be right back.”
I watch him go, dazed, and something snaps.
How am I ever going to give myself to another man after this? If only I could….
“I want him so badly.” Letting out a long breath, I drop to my knees under the stream and have to take a moment to just stare at the tile.
“Jess?” Trench curses in his language, and the shower door snaps open. He hauls me to my feet. “Fuck, Jess. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have.”
I kiss him to stop him from saying we shouldn’t have done it. To stop him from trying to take it back.
Hands firm on my shoulders he pushes me away, looking down at me with something like fear in his eyes. “Tell me what’s wrong?”
“I want you so badly. But I can’t see a way to have you... and not lose myself in the process.”
He swallows, and his brow is creased with pain, but he doesn’t make me any promises. He never lies. And he won’t lie now, even to make me feel better.
“Come on. Now’s not the time for a shower.”
He doesn’t hand me a towel, neither of us dress. He leads the way downstairs and guides me into a dim room that’s a few degrees warmer than the rest of the house.