Things were much, much different than they had been an hour ago.
Inara had stayed with "David" at the party, as had Zoe and Jayne, at McMahon's polite "request". What if he had insisted on bodyguards? Mal thought to himself, not for the first time as he surveyed this part of the building, with what was clearly a large amount of security hovering around the room. He knew at once Zoe and Jayne wouldn't have stood a chance with all of these men. Although McMahon had been nothing but jovial, agreeable and talking of legitimate business since they got up, it was dawning on Mal that even if River hadn't been here, Mal would already know that something was wrong here. He eyed the room. The "smoking room" of McMahon's party consisted of men with women, definitely not companions, but what Inara would have admitted as simple whores in various states of undress. It was some kind of brothelesque place.
"I should have thought to mention that it might not be the most appropriate setting for your wife Mr. O'Brian," He had said upon entering with a smirk on his face. River hadn't batted an eyelash and said she was quite comfortable, thank you. McMahon shrugged and didn't comment on it again.
Mal eyed River uneasily and she looked up at him with heavily made up eyes that he couldn't read. She was almost unrecognizable, he had never seen River made up the way Inara did herself up. It made her look older, more confident and sharpened her beauty. She held his hand during the negotiations, gave it an occasional squeeze and sat silently beside him. McMahon hovered over Mal. They had been sitting together chatting amiably for an hour now, sizing each other up, haggling prices. He realized now that McMahon knew he was working for Badger. Mal didn't bother to deny that it was Badger who had "put him onto" McMahon, but denied that Badger had any involvement in the finalized deal. McMahon told him he felt very uneasy about dealing with Badger, but he felt Mal O'Brian was a man after his own heart and they could certainly do business. River sat there looking over the room, watching couples kissing, fondling, and occasionally getting up together to leave the room for a more private setting. She feigned boredom with the conversation while she listened to McMahon and his associate's thoughts. McMahon eventually stood up and shook Mal's hand. They had a deal. He just needed to make a few calls and could have the aerosols here within the hour. Perhaps Mal and his wife Maggie could have some quality time together. McMahon smirked again as he took his leave.
Mal turned to River and opened his mouth to finally get the scoop. River wasted no time. She jumped into his lap before he could speak, straddled his hips, an act that brought the skirt of her dress much higher than it should be and pressed her lips to his. He recoiled instantly.
"What in the gorram hell is going on girl?" He hissed. He tried to lift her off of him and she responded by holding on to him tighter and grabbing onto his collar.
"This is the only way we can talk without being heard by anyone," River murmured against his right ear. "There are mikes in this room, but they won't pick our voices up when we're this close. I needed to get in here with you and get close to you. This is the cover. He never thinks, never suspects the little wife is the muscle. Right now, he's just thinking we've been apart all day and I want to get this deal done and you back home to bed. Inara can't play this part, and Jayne and Zoe can't be here." She grabbed his hands and pulled them onto her waist. "If you're doing this with me, he doesn't know that you know the plan has gone wrong. He thinks you're duped." She wiggled in his lap and sighed against his lips, frustrated with his performance thus far. "you've gotta make it look real Captain."
As mortally embarrassed as Mal was to be here in this semi public space with River in his lap (thank god it's dark and they can't see the colour of my face, he thought) he found his hands, almost of their own volition, tightening on River's waist and stroking her back slowly. "I don't understand what's happened though," He whispered back. "The story checks out, he believes me." River leaned forward, pressing her lips to his, feigning a confidence she didn't feel. She had kissed boys before the academy, but that was a lifetime ago. She'd kissed boys planetside on jobs. None had felt like this. These were her first real kisses tonight. With the Captain. It was a surreal moment. Mal felt stiff and awkward beneath her, but she could feel him warming up to her against his will.
"Not your fault, none of our faults," River broke the kiss and peppered small kisses down his neck before coming up to his ear again. Mal could feel her breasts skimming his chest and swallowed hard. She went on, "It's Badger. They had a bad deal some months back and McMahon got cheated, and exposed to the law. Had to pay a big fine on top of losing cargo, all Badger's doing. That's why Badger needed you to be go-between in the first place. McMahon trusts you, but he's going to use you as an example to send a message to Badger. Take his money, kill his man and keep the goods. You're just caught in the middle. You and your new wife."
Mal cursed under his breath. Of course that little snake would leave details like that out. Anything that made him look less than the professional he wanted everyone to believe he was. And here they were, another job gone south. Jobs and contacts were few and far between these days after Miranda, but Mal would think seriously about taking more work from Badger after tonight. Nothing ever went the way it should. And this... this was not the way it should be going.
Mal pulled River back to look in her eyes, "When did you figure all this out Darlin'? Just tonight, back on the ship?" River lowered her gaze.
"I'm sorry," She whispered sadly. "I should have realized it earlier, I was listening in on all of you at the party, to make sure everything was okay and I felt him. I came as soon as I felt his intentions but was late getting here. I let all of you down, you didn't have to go in so blind if it wasn't for me."
"No!" He cut in quickly, cupping her cheek. "You're probably going to save all of our asses tonight and I won't have you apologizin' for what none of us could have known without you." This girl, (this woman, he corrected), was nothing short of a miracle to him and his crew. She heard his words and thoughts and smiled up at him shyly. It was downright comical that the girl could have a look like on her face given the fact she was splayed on top of him in what was essentially a brothel.
Right. About that. Mal's concentration swayed wildly from the job to the more pressing issue of River kissing him in a way she had no business knowing how to do. It had been a long time since he'd had a woman on his lap like this and it was a mite unsettlin' the way River was making his head spin. Inevitably, the phrase Special Hell entered Mal's consciousness. He was starting to seep farther into dirty old man territory, which was absurd on so many levels. Not least of which was the fact that this was River and that they still had to get the goods and get out of here in one piece. He simply didn't have time for this.
River read these thoughts and leaned to his right side. "It's okay Captain," She reassured him, placing a kiss below his ear. "We're playing the part of newlyweds, remember? Your body is reacting to my body in a normal physiological response, enhanced by the tense environment. It's nothing to be ashamed of. Makes it real, makes them believe we are both stupid enough to be doing this with each other when we're in danger. Makes them complacent." She ran her hands down his arms, feeling the muscles taut as Mal groaned and kissed her again, forcing open her hot little mouth with his and their tongues connected.
River knew in a detached way that what she said was true. Both of them were just at the mercy of hormones as they sat entwined with one another. Somewhere in the last few minutes, her a pleasant dull ache had started forming in her core that was rapidly turning into an insistent throbbing. It was made worse that she could feel also Mal's arousal radiating off of him. This wasn't a simple charade anymore. She shifted on his lap to give that throbbing between her legs what it wanted. Mal muttered something incomprehensible at the change of position and the hand that had been on her cheek snaked into the loose ends of her hair and pulled her closer. Maybe his body was just acting against his will, but gorrammit, his will felt pretty much in tune with what was going on right now. Yet as his hands drifted down to her hips and legs bare where her skirt had ridden up into folds of emerald fabric between them, as Mal began fingering the hem of that skirt, and listening to how her breathing became ragged, alarm bells started sounding in the back of his mind. Awareness of where he was, what he was doing, and who he was doing it with.
Mal's hands froze in their spot. He broke the kiss, his breath came hard and fast. He tipped her head up to look into her eyes, darkened and dilated. Her breathing was rapid as she gazed back at him. So he wasn't the only one caught up in the moment. Mal didn't know how he felt about that. He shook his head at her.
"This is a dangerous game, Darlin'." Mal whispered hoarsely. "How's about you start helping me come up with a plan to get us out of here?" River nodded and got herself under some small semblance of control. She tilted her head to the side as though listening to something.
"Plan's in motion and all in place Captain, we're just playing our parts," She didn't move off of his lap, rather leaned forward into his ear again and began whispering, Mal closed his eyes, still enjoying the contact despite himself. "McMahon is five minutes away from coming back here, cargo's on the roof. He'll be coming down to escort us up there and make the electronic transfer of funds to his account. This is what we're going to do then..."
End Part Four