Becoming Sleepers (1/7)
Title: The Ties That Bind (1/7)
Series Title: Becoming Sleepers Continued
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 1425
Title: The Ties That Bind (1/7)
Series Title: Becoming Sleepers Continued
Author: Cricket
Disclaimer: I’m just playing with Joss’ toys, but I promise to put them back when I’m done.
Rating: NC-17
Author's Notes: Continues from Becoming Sleepers, which in turn is a prequel to stormwolf_dawn7's Sleepers (alt. version)
Word Count: 1425
River woke with a start as the door to her cell slammed shut. The dimmed lights along the stark white walls revealed Jayne's large form standing at her bedside. Dressed in the Academy's standard issue loose, pale blue scrub pants and shirt, he stood perfectly still, his head bowed over her. The look in his cold blue eyes made her breath hitch in her chest as his gaze raked over her body as though he could see through her own clothing down to her flushed skin. She shivered when he growled deep in his throat, breaking the thick silence wrapped around them.
"Jayne." His name was a whisper between her lips that faded like smoke into the air.
River remembered the paralyzing fear that had gripped her the first time she heard the reaver's thoughts. He'd wanted to hurt her, rape her, watch her bleed and drink in her pained screams. Closing her eyes tightly, she pushed the memory away and reminded herself that this wasn’t the reaver anymore, this was Jayne. The man, not the monster.
River sent her thoughts out, slipping easily inside his head, where she gently stroked at his mind, caressing the sensitive nerves with her own soothing warm emotions. Jayne's eyes rolled closed and the growl turned into a soft purr of contentment.
Taking Jayne's hand in hers, River pulled him down to her bed and positioned him to lie next to her. Quirking her lips into a shape that wasn’t quite a smile - for who could smile in a place like this - she lay her head upon his chest and let his warmth seep into her.
"How was your training today?" she asked, tracing her fingers over the faint bruises and healing cuts covering his knuckles. Last week he'd been practicing hand to hand combat, today had been a review of espionage and reconnaissance technique.
Jayne hummed a non-committal noise and pressed a kiss to the pale skin of her forehead. He didn't like to speak aloud if it could be avoided and much preferred making her fish through his thoughts for an answer. It wasn't difficult for her as their minds were bonded and sharing thoughts most of the day anyway, but she enjoyed making him talk.
His voice sounded so much different when he spoke out loud then it did in his head. His thoughts were guttural and held an animalistic quality that scared her sometimes, while his voice was a gruff baritone with a rim-borne drawl. It reminded her of the man he'd once been, an alliance officer with a keen sense of adventure that had led him to answer his government's call to settle on a newly terraformed planet. But the wild streak that had set the man apart from his straight-laced coworkers had made the monster he'd been transformed into a creature of unparalleled ferocity. The trait had been difficult to suppress and still remained at the fore of the new personality River had pieced together for him.
"Your hair is growing shaggy again, perhaps it's time for a trim," she prodded, knowing that he despised the idea of anyone's hands on him but her own and hoping for some kind of verbal response from him.
He ignored her prompting and instead busied himself with spreading hot, rough kisses across her throat and neck. She allowed the distraction and tilted her head to give him easier access to her needy skin.
They never quite knew how long they'd have together. Sometimes they were allowed long days spent alone with only daily rounds of medications to disrupt their intimacy, but lately there were given barely an hour or two together before they were dragged back out for yet another seemingly endless training session.
With such an unpredictable schedule, Jayne wasted no time in drawing her flush against his body and showing her just how desperately he wanted her. He nipped at her skin until angry red marks blossomed beneath his mouth, and eagerly pushed at her baggy clothing to get at the flesh beneath.
To anyone watching it would look as though Jayne was staking his claim, dominating her like an alpha male declaring his mate. Though it was partly true, in all actuality everything Jayne did was because River allowed it. He belonged to her as completely as she belonged to the doctors who had restructured her brain. But unlike her relationship with Dr. Mathias and his scheming team, River cared deeply for her creation and in return was given his eternal loyalty and obedience, something which her doctors would never have from her.
River moaned throatily as Jayne shifted to straddle her hips. She buried her hands in his dark hair, encouraging him to suck harder on her neck. The smell of her need was thick in the air and he basked in the knowledge that he could give her this pleasure. She was his life, his world and he owed everything he had to this one infinitely beautiful being. The memory of River burning away the hated madness that had kept him chained in the deepest parts of his mind made him ache in want of her.
Quickly divesting River of her shirt, Jayne dragged his mouth down her chest, pausing only briefly between her breasts before resuming his journey down across her flat belly to the dip of her navel. He lightly circled the edge of it once with the very tip of his tongue and savored her sharp intake of breath at his delicate touch.
Jayne continued teasing her with barely perceptible licks down the short distance over her lower belly to the dark curls at the apex of her soft thighs. Delving in without warning, he swept his tongue up the length of her moist silky flesh to stroke boldly at the sensitive nub that he knew would drive her as wild for him as he was for her.
River gasped, relishing in the delicious sensations coursing through her. When she'd first imagined freeing the man from inside the reaver she'd entertained girlish thoughts of him dancing with her, but now, knowing how blissfully wonderful he could make her feel with his hands, mouth and body, she couldn't care less about dancing. She wanted Jayne buried inside her, stroking places so deep even the doctors couldn't reach. With a sharp tug of her mind, she let him know she was ready.
Eager to please, Jayne positioned himself between her spread thighs and pushed into her. She held on to him tightly, her blunt fingernails digging into his warm skin. The moment when their bodies connected as solidly as their minds, an overwhelmingly pure sense of completion washed over her.
With River's thoughts funneling into his brain for guidance, telling him when to thrust harder and when to tilt her hips at that maddening angle, he brought them both to their peaks quickly and smiled at the thought of spending himself inside her slick convulsing center.
The urge to breed had long ago been destroyed in him by the chemicals he'd unknowingly breathed in daily on Miranda; reavers made poor parents and were more likely to eat their young than care for them, but need for the orgasmic release of sex still drove him to couple with her as often as she would allow. But it was more than sex that drew him to her, more than the debt he knew he could never repay to her. He needed her to feel human, to be sure that he wasn't still the raging monster that plagued his nightmares.
River needed him as well, Jayne knew. He could feel the bone-deep loneliness that she tried to ignore. Her family, her brother especially, had been vitally important to her before she'd been brought to this place, and though he could never return that sense of comfort that her family had provided, he was more than happy to give her the closeness and human contact that she so craved.
He liked to think it was something special about him and not just the lack of other choices that made River want to be with him. He hoped she could feel the energy that was obvious to him whenever they were together. There was a connection between them, a certainty he'd discovered the first time their skin had touched that he knew they were meant to be together. And the dread that enveloped him whenever they were separated only confirmed his belief that being apart would lead them both to death.
< Previous: Prologue | Next: chapter 2>
***ETA: I completely forgot to thank the wonderful and talented angel932 for beta-ing this for me! A million apologies to her for the omission!**
Series Title: Becoming Sleepers Continued
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 1425
Title: The Ties That Bind (1/7)
Series Title: Becoming Sleepers Continued
Author: Cricket
Disclaimer: I’m just playing with Joss’ toys, but I promise to put them back when I’m done.
Rating: NC-17
Author's Notes: Continues from Becoming Sleepers, which in turn is a prequel to stormwolf_dawn7's Sleepers (alt. version)
Word Count: 1425
River woke with a start as the door to her cell slammed shut. The dimmed lights along the stark white walls revealed Jayne's large form standing at her bedside. Dressed in the Academy's standard issue loose, pale blue scrub pants and shirt, he stood perfectly still, his head bowed over her. The look in his cold blue eyes made her breath hitch in her chest as his gaze raked over her body as though he could see through her own clothing down to her flushed skin. She shivered when he growled deep in his throat, breaking the thick silence wrapped around them.
"Jayne." His name was a whisper between her lips that faded like smoke into the air.
River remembered the paralyzing fear that had gripped her the first time she heard the reaver's thoughts. He'd wanted to hurt her, rape her, watch her bleed and drink in her pained screams. Closing her eyes tightly, she pushed the memory away and reminded herself that this wasn’t the reaver anymore, this was Jayne. The man, not the monster.
River sent her thoughts out, slipping easily inside his head, where she gently stroked at his mind, caressing the sensitive nerves with her own soothing warm emotions. Jayne's eyes rolled closed and the growl turned into a soft purr of contentment.
Taking Jayne's hand in hers, River pulled him down to her bed and positioned him to lie next to her. Quirking her lips into a shape that wasn’t quite a smile - for who could smile in a place like this - she lay her head upon his chest and let his warmth seep into her.
"How was your training today?" she asked, tracing her fingers over the faint bruises and healing cuts covering his knuckles. Last week he'd been practicing hand to hand combat, today had been a review of espionage and reconnaissance technique.
Jayne hummed a non-committal noise and pressed a kiss to the pale skin of her forehead. He didn't like to speak aloud if it could be avoided and much preferred making her fish through his thoughts for an answer. It wasn't difficult for her as their minds were bonded and sharing thoughts most of the day anyway, but she enjoyed making him talk.
His voice sounded so much different when he spoke out loud then it did in his head. His thoughts were guttural and held an animalistic quality that scared her sometimes, while his voice was a gruff baritone with a rim-borne drawl. It reminded her of the man he'd once been, an alliance officer with a keen sense of adventure that had led him to answer his government's call to settle on a newly terraformed planet. But the wild streak that had set the man apart from his straight-laced coworkers had made the monster he'd been transformed into a creature of unparalleled ferocity. The trait had been difficult to suppress and still remained at the fore of the new personality River had pieced together for him.
"Your hair is growing shaggy again, perhaps it's time for a trim," she prodded, knowing that he despised the idea of anyone's hands on him but her own and hoping for some kind of verbal response from him.
He ignored her prompting and instead busied himself with spreading hot, rough kisses across her throat and neck. She allowed the distraction and tilted her head to give him easier access to her needy skin.
They never quite knew how long they'd have together. Sometimes they were allowed long days spent alone with only daily rounds of medications to disrupt their intimacy, but lately there were given barely an hour or two together before they were dragged back out for yet another seemingly endless training session.
With such an unpredictable schedule, Jayne wasted no time in drawing her flush against his body and showing her just how desperately he wanted her. He nipped at her skin until angry red marks blossomed beneath his mouth, and eagerly pushed at her baggy clothing to get at the flesh beneath.
To anyone watching it would look as though Jayne was staking his claim, dominating her like an alpha male declaring his mate. Though it was partly true, in all actuality everything Jayne did was because River allowed it. He belonged to her as completely as she belonged to the doctors who had restructured her brain. But unlike her relationship with Dr. Mathias and his scheming team, River cared deeply for her creation and in return was given his eternal loyalty and obedience, something which her doctors would never have from her.
River moaned throatily as Jayne shifted to straddle her hips. She buried her hands in his dark hair, encouraging him to suck harder on her neck. The smell of her need was thick in the air and he basked in the knowledge that he could give her this pleasure. She was his life, his world and he owed everything he had to this one infinitely beautiful being. The memory of River burning away the hated madness that had kept him chained in the deepest parts of his mind made him ache in want of her.
Quickly divesting River of her shirt, Jayne dragged his mouth down her chest, pausing only briefly between her breasts before resuming his journey down across her flat belly to the dip of her navel. He lightly circled the edge of it once with the very tip of his tongue and savored her sharp intake of breath at his delicate touch.
Jayne continued teasing her with barely perceptible licks down the short distance over her lower belly to the dark curls at the apex of her soft thighs. Delving in without warning, he swept his tongue up the length of her moist silky flesh to stroke boldly at the sensitive nub that he knew would drive her as wild for him as he was for her.
River gasped, relishing in the delicious sensations coursing through her. When she'd first imagined freeing the man from inside the reaver she'd entertained girlish thoughts of him dancing with her, but now, knowing how blissfully wonderful he could make her feel with his hands, mouth and body, she couldn't care less about dancing. She wanted Jayne buried inside her, stroking places so deep even the doctors couldn't reach. With a sharp tug of her mind, she let him know she was ready.
Eager to please, Jayne positioned himself between her spread thighs and pushed into her. She held on to him tightly, her blunt fingernails digging into his warm skin. The moment when their bodies connected as solidly as their minds, an overwhelmingly pure sense of completion washed over her.
With River's thoughts funneling into his brain for guidance, telling him when to thrust harder and when to tilt her hips at that maddening angle, he brought them both to their peaks quickly and smiled at the thought of spending himself inside her slick convulsing center.
The urge to breed had long ago been destroyed in him by the chemicals he'd unknowingly breathed in daily on Miranda; reavers made poor parents and were more likely to eat their young than care for them, but need for the orgasmic release of sex still drove him to couple with her as often as she would allow. But it was more than sex that drew him to her, more than the debt he knew he could never repay to her. He needed her to feel human, to be sure that he wasn't still the raging monster that plagued his nightmares.
River needed him as well, Jayne knew. He could feel the bone-deep loneliness that she tried to ignore. Her family, her brother especially, had been vitally important to her before she'd been brought to this place, and though he could never return that sense of comfort that her family had provided, he was more than happy to give her the closeness and human contact that she so craved.
He liked to think it was something special about him and not just the lack of other choices that made River want to be with him. He hoped she could feel the energy that was obvious to him whenever they were together. There was a connection between them, a certainty he'd discovered the first time their skin had touched that he knew they were meant to be together. And the dread that enveloped him whenever they were separated only confirmed his belief that being apart would lead them both to death.
< Previous: Prologue | Next: chapter 2>
***ETA: I completely forgot to thank the wonderful and talented angel932 for beta-ing this for me! A million apologies to her for the omission!**