Author's Note: I wanted to explore a different dynamic between Jupiter and Caine, and it doesn't look like anyone's written jealousCaine or angry sex between the two yet, so I thought I'd give it a try. Please leave some feedback in the comment section.
I'm setting this story in my own little JA universe, same as "Take Me to Church" and "Daring to Want", but the stories themselves are not related
Loud techno music pulses all around him, the reverberation of the bass practically shaking the floor beneath his feet while multi-colored strobe lights dance a-rhythmically across the walls. But Caine can hear nothing, he can see nothing else, only Jupiter. She is on the far side of the dance floor tucked into a semi-dark corner behind the furthest end of a long and crowded wooden bar. She is wearing a short black leather dress and tall, tall shoes. Caine has never seen her wear anything like it before, and she looks beautiful, every bit the queen she is as her hips sway in time to the thumping beat.
The man she is with must think so too, his hands never leaving her hips as they dance together, bodies moving in harmony as the music pulses and thrums. As Caine watches, the man leans forward, his lips moving against the side of Jupiter's face, speaking directly into her ear in an effort to be heard above the music. Try as he might, Caine's lupine ears can not filter out all the distracting background noise in order to pick up his words. It doesn't matter because Jupiter hears him, laughing aloud at his words, her eyes bright and happy. He presses a kiss to her cheek as he moves away, his arms lingering around her waist a moment longer than necessary Caine thinks. Then the man is at the bar, speaking with great animation to the person serving drinks behind the counter, as Jupiter continues to gyrate on the dance floor.
To Caine, it feels like the initial blast from a plasma-ray; a large invisible wave of sound and fury so powerful that initially it overwhelms all of your senses. At first you feel nothing at all, you can not see nor hear, and there is only a numbness at having been sent flying through the air at great speed. It's only once you have landed, when you have begun to regain your senses, that you feel the burning, the searing of the torn flesh where the weapon has laid you open.
Caine gasps for breath, willing himself to inhale calmly and slowly. He watches the slight man at the counter, his delicate hands passing cash to the bartender as he takes two glasses. The man is small; he is slender and insignificant, and the part of Caine that remembers the taste of Entitled blood running down his chin even if he can't remember why, knows that he could snap this man's neck with ease, imagines for a moment the satisfying crunch of bone beneath his hands.
Shocked at his own visceral and violent reaction, Caine staggers backward. He knows in his rational mind that he would never harm this man, he wouldn't do that to Jupiter, would never willingly cause her pain. Nevertheless, he finds the momentary impulse upsetting. He is used to having much better control over his baser instincts. This place smells like sweat and sexual arousal, tobacco and fermented plant products, and it is suddenly making him very nauseous, he needs to get out of here immediately.
Making his way swiftly to the closest exit, he finds himself dumped out into an alley beside one of the relatively quiet side-streets. The cool night air is blowing welcome across his face, but he is still too distracted to thoroughly check his surroundings for on-lookers before leaping into the air. His only thought right now is of distance, of escape, as he flies straight up toward the night sky. Caine doesn't see the busboy crouched beside the dumpster smoking a joint as he takes his mid-shift break in that very same alley. Fortunately for him, the busboy is incapable of remembering very much clearly the following morning.
Caine flies back to the church where he's set up his base of operations in the city. He slams his fist into the outer wall, cracking several bricks as he enters, thundering down the stairs. It was foolish to go looking for her, he shouldn't have gone looking for her, it's only that Jupiter hadn't been where she was supposed to be and he had gotten worried.
Balem was dead, of this they were certain. His remains had been recovered from the refinery some weeks after the explosion. Titus was currently in the midst of complex criminal proceedings resulting from Jupiter's kidnapping and subsequent attempted murder, and was under close scrutiny that would make him unavailable to cause trouble for the near future. Plus, the Aegis were maintaining a blockade above Earth, so things had been relatively quiet the past few months. Jupiter should have been completely safe tonight without a bodyguard, but then she should also have been tucked safely inside Katherine's million dollar condominium with it's state-of-the-art security system and patrolling night watchmen. When she hadn't been where he'd expected to find her, Caine had gotten concerned and tracked her across the city to a popular nightclub. Stupid, stupid, he thinks, slapping himself across the face several times in rapid succession, trying to distract himself, trying to replace the pain he could feel beginning in his chest with a sharper, more tangible one.
Caine was supposed to stay at Stinger's farmhouse tonight. There had been a Legion briefing over long-wave teleconference and it was expected to go into the wee hours, so he'd told Jupiter that he'd be gone all night. Since he would be out of town, she'd decided to sleep over at Katherine's and have a "girl's night".
"You know - - a bottle of wine, a pint of ice cream, pajamas, rom-coms and boy talk?" she'd replied when he'd lifted his brows in confusion.
He didn't know in point of fact, and it didn't sound like fun to him, but he suspected that Jupiter didn't really enjoy munitions testing at Stinger's farm as much as she pretended to for his benefit, so he'd smiled politely and told her to have a good time. When the teleconference had needed to be rescheduled due to technical problems with an Admiral stationed on Certantia 9, Caine had flown home early.
Not wanting to interrupt "girl's night" he'd hovered outside Katherine's building doing a routine security sweep, intending to spend the night discreetly perched on the roof while they "rom-commed" without him. However, a quick scan of the apartment had revealed neither Jupiter nor Katherine were home. Caine had gone inside then, his instincts on high-alert. Nothing had been broken or appeared out of place, but he could smell an unfamiliar scent on the air and he was worried. He had tracked them to the club, and now he wished that he hadn't. He should have left it alone. There were some things it was better not to know.
Now that the initial numbness has worn off and he is starting to feel the pain, a sharp stabbing pressure has begun to establish itself in his chest. He has no right to be angry with her, no right to feel hurt, he knows this on an intellectual level. They have never discussed exclusivity, and even if they had, it would certainly not apply to her. As an Entitled, Jupiter has the right to demand that any partner be faithful exclusively to her (per section IV-b6), but she would still remain free to dally with whomever she wishes. The fact that she would share her bed with a Splice at all is more than he should have hoped for, the fact that she seems to genuinely care for him, more than he would have dared to dream only a few short months ago.
His knows that his jealousy is irrational, and he hates the feeling. Right now his emotions are control, running rough-shod over his logical, well-trained Legionnaire-side. This has happened once before, even if he can't remember the details, he knows that it's dangerous and he needs to get himself reigned back in quickly before something bad happens.
Before Caine has time to think any further, he hears the door squeak loudly from the church above. He hears the footsteps clicking sharply across the floor overtop his head . . . . Jupiter is here.
tbc
Author's Note: Sorry for the super-short chapter guys. I wanted to get something posted before I chickened out of writing this altogether, I'm finding the tone impossibly hard to get just-right. Please leave a comment. Cheers :-)