Games We Play 4
Rayne Summer Challenge Fic/Prompt: Games
Rating: R/M, for language, some grown up type thoughts, and perhaps more…
Pairing: River/Jayne
Disclaimer: I own neither River nor Jayne nor any associated characters. Joss is da man! Just letting the muse play in the sandbox for fun.;D

Part Four

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What the cao have you got yourself into this time?

Jayne tipped back the glass of whiskey, letting the burn wind down his throat as he tilted his head back and stared up through the galley skylight overhead.

A billion bitty bright dots stared back down at a bitty Jayne Cobb in the bitty transport ship. They looked like a billion bitty eyes, all a shinin' an' winkin' knowingly at him, like they knew what was goin' on and just couldn't wait to tell the rest of the 'verse, but weren't gonna tell him a thing.

What the gorram hell were you thinkin'? Agreeing to show the girl… to teach her…

Jayne huffed out a breath, leaning to brace his forearms on the wooden table and staring into the whorled patterns in the grain. No sense not being honest about it, 'specially not with himself.

Call it what it is, man. You told her you'd sex her. And not just sex her, not just give her some run-of-the-mill lay, but guide her through her first time. Told that girl you'd take her flower. Who the ruttin' hell are you, to have earned that? Cao, you ain't even been with a virgin afore, you sure you even know what one needs?

He scrubbed his face in his hands, feeling the calluses born from years of holding a weapon and hard work scrape against his own skin. Girl oughta have softer hands than these touchin' her.

Pouring the glass half full again, he took a long, slow draw of the amber liquid. It'd be easy just to say it was the alcohol to blame for the knot in his gut. Felt like his innards was twisting around, thoughts and feelings swirlin' around like them long twirly ribbons she used when she danced sometimes, too tangled to sort out easy, but never holdin' still. He could see her in his mind, dancing around the cargo bay like she was wont to do, moving like she had angel wings on her feet.

Angel.

Yeah, she was just like an angel.

An angel ought not to have hands on her that's had so much blood on them, hands that's dealt so much thievery and destruction and death.

An image flared in his head, sudden like. Blast doors widening, revealing a dark, slender figure standing knee-deep in gore and bodies, shoulders rising and falling in time with the deep breaths she took through her nose, nostrils flaring, eyes burning into him, into all of them. Her thin strong hands gripped the handle of a bloodied blades on one either side of her as she waited for the next onslaught.

Angel of Death.

The truth of that remembered image shook him, as he realized with a surety in his gut that she had it right all along. What powdered, lotioned-up, silk wearin' prissy boy-whore would ever understand what she was? What she'd been through? Would look on her lethal grace, her deadly beauty and still be able to see the untried, unsure, self-questioning young woman she really was?

Jayne grimaced. Not hardly nobody, that's who. And them that would know what she was: would they be able to look mayhem in the eye, and not be so ruttin' scared of the not-quite-sane killer underneath them that they couldn't get to business? Would take things slow, make sure she got her play, rather than zip through the motions and skedaddle out the door? That was a pretty short list, with one name riding right there at the top.

He blew a determined breath through his nose as his lips set into a stubborn line. Well, all right then. You're gonna give that little lady her first sexin', just like you told her you would. And you're gorramed gonna do it right!

He leaned back in the chair again, staring back at those tiny distant burning suns. He'd need to check the cortex for some information. Oh, sure, he knew well and good how to make a woman moan his name when he had his hands and mouth and body on her. Spent a lot of years learning how to make sure he was a prime customer at the whorehouses, one the best girls would wait for once they heard Serenity was dirtside. Never could stand sloppy seconds, didn't matter how good the gal washed up after a customer, but that wasn't the main reason.

No, there was a certain thrill he got when he saw and heard and felt a woman come undone under his touch. Just knowin' it was him what made her eyes get that glassy sheen, caused her breath to run fast and stuttered against his neck, turned her thighs weak and trembly even while she locked them tighter round his back trying to pull herself up into his thrusts… weren't many more things in the 'verse could give a man satisfaction like that.

But in all the years since he'd been old enough to call himself a man, he'd never laid down with a virgin, never taken what even his jaded mind still considered a great honor. Even the whores he bought time with, them that'd had a hundred or more men betwixt their legs, could tell you the name of their first lover, still describe the experience after all these years, good or bad. Was supposed to be something real special, to be a gal's first man.

In spite of all his years of experience with women, every last one of them, paid or just frisky, was exactly that – full-grown, experienced women. Of course, there was one woman, experienced, gorram trained in sexin', even, who could tell him what he'd need to know.

Jayne bit back a laugh at irony. Here they was, floatin' around in the Black with a licensed, Core-educated, practicing Companion living just a few yards away. 'Nara was sure to have all the knowing he needed to do this right, but gorramed if he could ask her. Even if he didn't name no names. Weren't but one unattached, young, virginal woman on the ship, and he was smart enough to know all 'Nara's fancy education included math. That woman could add just fine, and the sum of one plus one equaled up to a dead or hurtin' Jayne, if she ever let it slip to Mal what he'd been askin' after.

What River had said to him that day in the cargo hold was true. Didn't matter that she was a legal grown woman by all accounts of the known 'verse. Hell, far as Jayne was concerned, anyone could take on a room full of Reavers, diving into them to do it, was full-grown, didn't matter if her eighteenth birthday hadn't been till the next month after that. Had to respect what the lady could do, that was a fact.

Didn't matter to the rest of the crew that she'd reached legal age, neither, it seemed. Her brother, the Captain, all of them wanted to keep treatin' her like she was still just a little girl, like she'd always be a little girl. Just cause Jayne could see she wasn't, didn't mean the rest of the crew wouldn't end him for even agreeing to her request.

Naw, the cortex logs could be erased soon as he had what he needed. He was on watch duty the next night, easy enough to do it then. After that… it was just a matter of getting him and her out from under everyone else's nosy eyes. They'd need a place where they could both relax without worry of being walked in on nor overhead by the rest of the crew.

This weren't gonna be no quick grapple in the storage closet, no hurried sexin' in the spare shuttle or snuck away in his bunk, trying like all hells to be quiet. No, it was gonna get done right, he was gonna make sure of that. Jayne let a smile tickle the corner of his lips. He had just the place in mind, kinda fitting, all things considered.

A long sigh eased out of his chest as his mind settled on his course of action. When he lifted the glass to his lips again, it didn't seem quite so heavy.

.*~*~*~*~*

A bevy of suggestively-clad ladies perked up when the big man walked through the door. Their khol-lined eyes lit up at the recognition of him, several of the women flushing a pretty pink along their plunging necklines as Jayne removed his hat and hung it on the rack at the door. Nodding a polite greeting at a couple of his usual girls, he headed toward the back office without so much as a drink, leaving several perplexed and disappointed faces behind him.

Miss Darleen must have been listening for his footsteps, the thick oak door opening just as he raised his hand to knock. The middle-aged madam still made a fine picture, her creamy skin still flawless, eyes still dancing hazel, with just the barest hint of tiny lines at the corners. Her rich auburn hair, pulled up neat and loosely clasped, still shined like dark fire, though Jayne wouldn't speculate how much of that was from nature.

"Why, Mr. Jayne Cobb! Wondered when I'd be seein' yer shuai face in my establishment," she purred in honeyed tones, reaching a soft, scented hand to trace his jaw. Her garnet-lacquered nails glimmered in the glow of the lamplight of the wood-paneled hallway. "Heard Serenity had landed in port this morning, figured it'd be just a matter of time 'fore your fine self graced our door."

Jayne let his mouth curve into a genuine smile, capturing her elegant fingers and bringing them to his lips with a gallant kiss, and giving her a devilish look over the back of her hand.

"Miss Darleen, you just keep getting' shinier. Sure you don't wanna let go all this 'retirement' nonsense and give your gals a run for their money?"

"For you, bao bei, I just might do," she laughed, the hearty sound echoing through the well-appointed office as she led him into the room. "Most days, though, I'm content to see to the runnin' of things, makin' sure the customers are payin' and the girls are clean and everybody's happy. A madam doesn't come to have the finest whore house on the rock by just sittin' back and hopin', don't think it's easier than workin' upstairs for a second."

Offering him a seat in a leather wing-back chair, she poured him a drink from a bottle on the sidebar and produced a decent-grade cigar for him. As the smoke curled up toward the ceiling, she gracefully took a seat behind the large wooden desk, eyeing him with a mixture of curiosity and concern.

"Your wave said you were needin' to speak with me about an important matter, in private," she said after giving him time to take the first drink. "I hope there's not been a problem with one of my girls? I figure you'd have said something at the time if there was, Jayne."

"No, no, nothin' like that," he shook his head. "Ain't never had nothin' but the best service at your place, Miss Darleen, an' that's a fact. That's the reason I thought of you and the Golden Lotus right off for... What I mean is…"

Her low chuckle made him blush a bit, not something that happened more than once or twice a decade, but Darleen could still get that reaction out of him. "Must be somethin' special, to get you all tongue-tied."

"Yeah, well, it's a special kinda request," he answered, repressing the sudden urge to fidget in his seat, like he had all them years ago the first time he'd set foot into the Golden Lotus.

Of course it hadn't been Miss Darleen's place then. She'd been one of the working girls on the floor, older and wiser, but still with a hint of the dew of youth in her cheeks. Jayne felt a smile working up when he thought about it, how she'd taken a still-green boy, not off-world for more than a couple weeks, and showed him a 'verse of knowledge he hadn't even dreamed of in his wettest teenaged fantasies.

That busted core compressor had put the freighter he worked on in dry-dock for two whole weeks. Old Captain Murchison was fit to be tied, but a barely legal Jayne Cobb, flush with cash for the first time in his life, considered what he'd learned in those two weeks to be miles more worthy than any jobs they'd missed out on in the meantime.

Leaning back against the leather, he laid out his request to the woman who'd made him a man. Her eyes grew wide at the first mention of him bringing a virgin here, but he'd told her as much as he dared about River, and her special 'situation' when it came to sexing. Left out the particulars on the whole Blue Hands, Fed mad scientist, wanted by the law sort of thing.

Darleen had listened with a poker-faced expression, her warm sensuality taking the back seat to her acute business senses. When he'd finished, she leaned back in her chair, the mate to the one he sat in, and steepled her hands, bringing the sparkling red tips to her pursed lips. Staring down at the carved jade flower on her desk, she sat silently for several long moments, then flicked her direct gaze into his waiting face.

Jayne held the last breath he'd taken in, not letting his own eyes waver as she sat there taking his measure.

"See here's the thing," she said finally. "Girls that come here to work, they sign contracts, releases, that sort of legal thing. They know what they're in for, and if they don't, the orientation meeting makes sure they do before they take the first customer. This girl, young woman, I don't know her Jayne. Ain't sayin' I don't trust you, but I don't trust them I ain't never met, dong ma?"

"I'd bring her to meet you first, you want," Jayne offered easily. He'd expected at least a hesitancy on the madam's part. She did, after all, have to look out for her own best interests. "Earnestly, I kinda hoped you might sit down with her and have a little talk first, kinda a woman-to-woman thing, over tea, maybe. I'd pay for yer time, of course," he offered. Darleen was a friend, as close as most folks got to being his friend anyway, but 'Miss Darleen' was an entrepreneur whose time was, and always had been, very expensive.

Gliding from her seat to stand facing the wide, sheet-glass window, she sighed. "Yes, that would be required, if… if I agree to this. I'd need to have some reassurance that once you and she had gone upstairs, she wouldn't be showing up a week later at my door with the constable, claiming she'd been trickd or forced or whathaveyou."

She turned to face him squarely. "Got thirty-five people lookin' to me for a paycheck, come the end of the week, responsibilities to see to, not to mention my standing in the community. Folks start thinkin' I'm running the sort of establishment where young girls get taken to be misused, I'll be run out of town faster than you can blink. I know you, Jayne Cobb, know it ain't in you to hurt a gal, but I don't know her, and neither do they. So you bring your lady friend by for a little chat between us girls, and… and we'll go from there. Best I can give, until I've met her. Now, assuming I agree, as for the arrangements…"

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To Be Continued...

Reviews appreciated ;D