Chapter 11
tabula rasa [ˈˌtäb(y)o͝olə ˈräzə]
NOUN
-an absence of preconceived ideas or predetermined goals; a clean slate.
-the human mind, especially at birth, viewed as having no innate ideas.
Helion Prime improved a bit more every time he came back. The docks had been the first things rebuilt, mostly because any imports would come by ship and a safe place to land was something most boats wouldn't let slide. Legitimate cargo to export was a little more difficult to come by but there was still a market for the raw materials on other worlds so he usually ended up filling the hold with bales of cotton or linen. Helion Prime didn't have enough foodstuffs grown to export anymore, though they were able to grow enough to feed the population and provide for the markets. People wouldn't starve if ships stopped coming at least.
Intelligently though, when what was left of the government began to rebuild they concentrated on the fields before buildings. People, they'd reasoned, could live in tents due to the mild to hot climate. But they couldn't eat or clothe themselves with torn up fields and dirt. And since they couldn't use all the cotton they grew, that they could export.
People were finally out of the tents for the most part. A good thing because those tent cities reminded him way too much of the Sigma refugee camps. Crime had run rampant there. The worst kind of predators taking advantage of the weak, sick and small. Several of his work/study stints had been patrolling the camps. There were quite a few of the scouts he'd served with there who would remember the distinct lack of tolerance he had for rape or bullies. Most of them had been of the same opinion. And the few who didn't hadn't lasted long in Strikeforce. The Academy had a way of weeding out the unsuitable.
Strange to think when he considered the ultimate goal of Strikeforce had been to create men designed to do the will of Parliament regardless of the law. But he supposed they wanted men or women who'd started out with respect for the law or military, believing it was to protect the people of the Alliance.
Even stranger to think he'd been one of them once. Not that he believed in the law, or the military, he'd seen too much corruption in both. But he had believed people deserved order and protection. There were too many who couldn't protect themselves. He'd been one of them once. A child in the system. He'd jumped at the chance to join the military and go out to Sigma. Twelve years old, big enough and bright enough to be mistaken for sixteen.
Maybe it was a good thing he hadn't gotten put into officers training straight off. Cryo had screwed with his mind so badly going from the Rim to the Sigma systems that he'd come out of it in a near berserker rage. He barely remembered anything but feeling as if he'd explode if he couldn't get out, couldn't breathe.
Of course, then he'd gotten dumped into the 'ranger' program. Working the mines, clearing the tunnels so the miners could work. A nice solid two years before he'd caught the eye of a recruitment officer. It had come out about his age then.
He'd gotten to take a look at his records while he'd been in Strikeforce. Those had been full of surprises for a fourteen-year-old Riddick.
River came up to the bridge and sat beside him, smiling gently, "The past has a way of coming back on us especially when we believe we've escaped it."
"Truer words," He agreed as he set the ship down at the docks. "Seems like no matter where you go, the past comes with you."
"How did you learn? About Furya," She glanced at him curiously. "If it was destroyed when you were young…"
"Ah, because it happened so long ago," Riddick nodded his understanding. "Kind of a long story but we can talk about it after we're back in the Black?"
She nodded slowly, "If you like. Of course." She hesitated after standing, "I don't mean to pry…"
"I don't think of it as prying," He shrugged and stood after shutting the console down. "You told me about your past. Seems like a reasonable question. It's just not something I'm comfortable talking on while we're dirtside."
River nodded and changed the subject, "Weapons?"
"Guns and blades," He nodded. Helion Prime might be one of the 'civilized' outer systems but there were always people who'd try to take what wasn't theirs. It wouldn't be his woman.
Get that thought out of your head, she's not yours, he berated himself as he headed to his room to add his guns to the weapons he wore. A knee length vest with a hood attached would serve to keep his face hidden but he wouldn't broil to death either.
When he emerged, River had added a similar garment over her shirt and cargo pants. Instead of a hood she had draped a long scarf over her hair and wound it around her face and throat, topped with a wide curly brimmed hat with the cord snug under that coil of hair at her nape. Smart. It hid her face mostly; the hat wouldn't be easy to knock off by accident and the scarf was a very common look on Helion. Especially in New Mecca. Coupled with the long loose vest and only her pale skin and slight stature would mark her as a stranger to the city.
Her sword and axe were sheathed on her back, the harness also holding a shoulder holster to augment the two pistols on her belt. Knife sheaths at her wrists under those long loose sleeves, tucked into her boots and one strapped to her thigh along with the holster strap. "Don't know what it is about how you look with all those blades and guns, but I could put you on your back and fuck you right on the table this instant," He admitted with a smirk.
"Says the sweetest things," River grinned at him, taking the remark as the compliment he'd meant. "Shall we?"
"Yeah, sounds good," He headed down to the cargo bay, aware of her at his back. "Should be able to offload in five minutes or so. Then we can be on our way to the market. Pick up supplies there and take the mule out after."
"I believe your slightly disreputable men are here," She nodded towards the still closed doors and he hit the controls to open them.
Offloading cargo, a trip to the market, and back to the ship…nothing had gone wrong. It felt like fate was setting him up for something. The muscles in his neck and spine just kept tightening as he loaded the mule with the supplies he'd purchased on Persephone.
River was watching him as if he was turning into a ticking time bomb before her eyes and it was all he could do to keep from snarling at her in irritation. That damn veil didn't let him see her face so he could only imagine the stern purse of her lips. Mentally reminding himself that he chose to do this, he didn't have to, there was nothing that said he owed this, he forced his lungs to inhale deeply. Close his eyes and breathe in for a moment and exhale.
When he opened his eyes, River stood before him. Damn she was so tiny. And she moved without any noise when she wanted. Not even a whisper of silk or brush of leather. Hands whiter than the scarf pushed the fabric away from her face and she stared up a him a moment before ordering, "Bend down."
"River—"
Why had he bothered to say anything? She glared and repeated her command, "Bend down. Now."
He bent slightly, putting his face closer to hers, only God knew what she wanted. To look him in the eye when she informed him he was acting like an ass? How was it that she had calluses on her palms and fingers from sword and gun work (just like him) but her skin still felt soft as she cupped his jaw in her hands? He closed his eyes and took another breath inhaling her scent. Cherries…vanilla…a touch of bergamot and jasmine…
Her mouth, delicately pressed to his lips. Moving before he could open his mouth to take hers. Soft kisses, like a delicate breeze over his face, sweet and soothing. "He is a leopard among jackals, a panther in the schoolyard," She murmured. "When we are done with this… we won't spar."
He opened his eyes and looked at her, "No?"
"No," She shook her head and drew away, wrapping her scarf around her face again but not before dropping a wink at him. "I want you to vent all of your frustration and need and energy on me…in your bed."
Exactly what did she want him to do with her? He'd never gone in for spanking or 'punishing' a woman as part of his nature. Dominant didn't mean pain. Not to him.
He'd nearly opened his mouth to say so when she shook her head, "Not what I meant." She took his hand and put it on the nape of her neck, shivering under his palm as he gripped her there instinctively. "You'll need to feel in control. I can give that to you."
Put like that and he wondered why he hadn't gotten the point in the first place. She must have started Reading him as much as possible from the minute he'd felt that prickle on his spine.
"Emotion sometimes impedes intellect," She pressed her lips to his knuckles through the veil and he smiled for the first time since they'd hit the planet.
She wasn't wrong.
The last time they'd been on Helion Prime she hadn't had so much time with him that she felt comfortable telling him to do something. She'd barely been confident enough to initiate sex half the time, no matter how much he seemed to enjoy her body and (as Jayne had so aptly dubbed them) her bendy ways.
Now… well. Riddick had stitched her up, seen her coming out of cryo disoriented and babbling, and nothing seemed to scare him off. She knew him better as well. And had a very good idea of what he'd need even if she didn't know exactly why.
She hadn't been able to alleviate his tension. It was like a physical sensation, claws in his spine. She could feel the echoes of it as they drove through the rebuilding city to a neighborhood more crumbled than not.
"Don't know if you saw it…my dreams from cryo… traveled with a man and a kid. Jack and Abu al-Walid, the Imam," Riddick told her as he navigated the mule through bumpy streets. "When the Necros hit Helion Prime, Abu got killed."
"Wǒ duì nǐ de sǔn shī biǎo shì āi dào," River murmured automatically. "He left family behind?"
"Yeah, a wife and daughter," Riddick nodded. "It's them I go to see."
Whenever he went by Helion Prime, River would guess. He felt he owed them somehow. She wouldn't have pegged Riddick for survivor's guilt. Not unless he felt there was something he could have done. How he could have kept an army from invading though… She'd have to wait and see. It had to be something more than failing to keep the man alive through an invasion.
The mule stopped in front of a house that could still use some work on the second story. She could see that the roof had fallen in and the corner of one wall was crumbled enabling passersby to view what was left of the room from the street. What once must have been an ornately carved filigree wood gate to a small courtyard had been broken in half, one side hanging drunkenly from its hinges. The other side had been smashed to pieces that still clung to battered hinges on the opposite wall.
"Need to get that gate fixed," Riddick muttered almost to himself. "Found some of the pieces but I need to carve the other side."
"Odd configuration," River studied the wood. The gate seemed to be two full sized doors, one hinged to swing outward, the other inward, on opposite sides of the opening, so when closed they'd press against each other like two slices of bread.
"Yeah, it's popular here. Makes it harder for people to sneak in and out," He nodded as he climbed out of the mule. "Unless you just hop the wall." River regarded the more than six-foot wall and arched an eyebrow at him. "Okay, maybe that's just me," He half grinned though teasing expression fading quickly as he looked over the house.
"Mortar and stone," She mused. "How is the roof made?"
"You can't see it but it's these really thick timbers, almost logs, boards laid across them and then the whole thing gets sealed up with layers of lime and lightweight plascrete," Riddick nodded at some of the sacks in the back seat. "That's part of what I brought with us."
"If enough of the boards and beams are unbroken then it could be repaired in a day or two, depending on the heat," River rounded the mule to stand beside him. "It sounds like the fountain in the courtyard is still working. So there's a water source."
"Yeah, fixed that the last time I was here," Riddick nodded and visibly braced himself before approaching the gate and pulling it open.
River followed him, considering the possibilities of fixing the wall and roof. The weather had to be getting in, rain, precious as it was, still had to be unwelcome inside a house. Wind and dust and the smells from the street, not the most enjoyable odor either.
They hadn't gotten halfway across the courtyard with its piles of scrap wood and metal before the thick door of the house slammed open with a bang and a tawny-skinned child scrambled out to throw herself at Riddick, crying his name in delight. The bag he carried was set on the ground as he crouched and allowed himself to be hugged. For a moment she could feel the simple joy welling up in him at the child's enthusiastic welcome. "Ziza," He set her back and she settled, standing straight, aware that he was watching her through those smoked lenses. "You've gotten taller. You're getting your father's height looks like. And your mother's beauty."
The girl couldn't have been more than thirteen to fifteen, a coltish look to her limbs, innocence tempered with experience in her eyes. "Mother says I grow like a weed," She told him agreeably leaning forward to murmur, "Who's that?" With a discreetly pointed finger in River's direction.
"That…" Riddick turned where he crouched and regarded River with a slow spreading and very wicked smile. "Is River. She's my crew."
"She's more than that," Ziza rolled her eyes. "I know what sex is Riddick."
"You're too young to know about sex," He growled. "And if I find out who's been teaching you or showing you I'll gut 'em."
"I'm thirteen," She shook her head at him, all exasperated female with a dense male. "And I saw enough bad behavior during the invasion and after that I knew what it was then."
"Nobody that young shoulda seen that;" Riddick shook his head back at her. "Do me a favor and forget you know until you're twenty."
"You're being ridiculous," She sighed. "Who is she really?"
"She's my crew. But she's also my bàng jiār, my liàn rén," He conceded. "Her name is River." River smiled behind her scarf, that was a first. A hopeful first though she really shouldn't read too much into it.
"Like yours is Riddick?" Ziza whispered.
"No," He stood, shaking his head. "I've got a first name, she's got a last name. We just give the names we prefer to use."
"Oh," She frowned for a moment. "Like Mother prefers to be called Madame Al-Walid?"
"Yeah, kinda," He nodded and his spine stiffened as a tall dark-skinned woman came to the door of the house.
"So, you've returned," Came the cold greeting. "Ziza, show your guests in, allow them to wash their hands and faces of the dust. I will bring the bread and salt."
"Lajunn," Riddick nodded to her formally and River narrowed her eyes.
A morass of hate, pain, relief, guilt, blame, rage… "Fàng zòng fēng kuáng de jié," River murmured. "Yuàn Fótuó réncí." Riddick slanted a glance at her and picked up the bag again but River shook her head, "Later."
Inside the home was better than the courtyard. An attempt had been made to preserve civilization here. A low soft couch and chair in a sitting area, an expertly repaired dining table and chairs on which Lajunn put bread and salt with barely restrained hostility. She took a piece herself and added salt to it, eating it and passed the bowl to Riddick.
He did the same, passing it to River who followed his example and slid the bowl over to Ziza. "As I have partaken of your home and hearth I offer no violence in your home, save for its defense." He intoned gravely.
"As I have offered you our hospitality, so shall you be protected by our honor while you reside under our roof," Lajunn replied coolly.
River raised an eyebrow at Riddick and he nodded, clearly, she was expected to do the same. A moment to pull the scarf away from her face, "As I have partaken of your home and hearth, I offer no violence in your dwelling, save in its defense."
Ziza intoned her portion of the ritual gravely and then immediately jumped up and ran around the table to tug at Riddick's hand, "Come and see. Mother found my old quilt in the rubble upstairs and cleaned it for me."
"That's good work," Riddick nodded and allowed himself to be pulled out of the room and back to one of the rooms beyond them.
"We have not been introduced," The grave woman regarded River expectantly.
"I am River Darcy Tam, of Osiris," River inclined her head in the gracious manner she'd learned from her mother. "I work with Rick."
"You mean you work with Riddick," The stiff upper lip nearly curled in derision.
"I do," She nodded. "I consider him a friend." She tilted her head and decided to change the subject to something else. "Perhaps you could tell me a bit regarding the house and the seasons of Helion Prime? So that I might better understand what is needed for adequate shelter?"
That worked for a time. Lajunn explained about Helion Prime's heat, the short winter/rainy season and the dust storms that blew in periodically. She spoke of the architecture of the city, the temples and government buildings, private homes and apartments. Through her eyes and memories, the Reader got a very good idea of how the house used to look. Snippets of Riddick, standing in a dark room, holding a knife to a robed man's throat, a huge snarling figure foretelling death as surely as a shroud.
"Of course, when he came…everything changed," The woman didn't quite sneer but it was a close thing. "My husband had such faith in him. In his abilities. Believed he could save us all. And look at what he wrought."
"If you don't remove that tone from your voice when you speak of my bàng jiār," River leaned forward, "I will escort you into the street and cut that pretty face so that no man will ever give you a second look and more so they would regret giving you a first. Madame al-Walid."
"You just vowed you would do no violence in my home," Lajunn retorted.
"I vowed to do no violence in your dwelling," River sneered at her. This woman with her bitterness and spite and blame like a cancer in the center of her heart looked down upon Riddick as if she had the right to sit in judgement. "Which means this house. I don't know what you consider your home so I would not make that promise. Therefore, in the street I am free to do whatever I will."
"How dare you," The words came out in a hiss of malice. "How dare you come into my home and threaten me."
"What has he done to you that you blame him for your husband's death," The Reader stared at her. "How could he have stopped an invasion?" The images that filled her mind, a tall man in Chrislam clerical robes, telling stories to a tiny Ziza of a planet full of monsters and a dark man who'd saved them. That man showing up and killing a platoon of soldiers in her upstairs sitting room. Abu leading a patrol of Necromongers away from Lajunn and their daughter, Riddick running after him.
Finding Abu's body in the street, bloodied and crushed as they snuck back to the house. The house half destroyed. Waiting and waiting for weeks, hiding and venturing out only to find food. The horrors that can happen to a woman alone in a city under siege, seen from her hiding place as she did nothing. Stealing bread so her daughter wouldn't starve. Finding her husband's necklace hung from the handle of the house door. And the Necromongers finally leaving.
"Suǒ yǒu shén shèng de míng zì," River shook her head. "Wǒ de tiān ā. You are really…xiā zi mō xiàng."
Lajunn simply stared at her coldly and River rolled her eyes, standing up and calling to Riddick, "I'm going to start unloading the mule."
"I'll be right there to give you a hand," Riddick's voice called back.
"I can help," Ziza's eager voice chimed in.
River half smiled and left the house. She'd be willing to bet good platinum that Lajunn wouldn't venture out past the courtyard for their entire visit.
He knew when he followed Ziza back to her bedroom that River was really irritated. Nobody else might be able to see it but between his nose and sailing with her for… (however long they'd sailed together; time slips, as River said once) he could tell when she was irritated, annoyed or when she tipped over into shēng mènqi.
Going back to the main room of the house River had definitely tipped into supremely pissed off. He'd heard the two women speaking, though with Ziza's chatter he hadn't really concentrated on it. Introductions, he'd gathered that much. It couldn't have been more than an hour that he and Ziza had been out of the room, less than that likely, but he got a nose full of River's fury before he'd even stepped back in the front room.
Lajunn's face had gone glacial and River had her best Core manner on like another veil as she came back in with another bag of supplies.
"Get everything into the courtyard, start work from there," He suggested blandly when River tilted her head at him in silent inquiry.
"Bringing the food supplies in, building materials secondary," She told him as they crossed paths.
"Ziza, will you give her a hand with that?" Riddick looked down at the child with a half-smile.
"Of course." This child he could keep safe, as much as possible. This child wouldn't be taken by mercs, used up and spat out at too young an age. Despite living through an invasion, Abu's death, privation and collapse, Ziza's eyes didn't have the haunted quality he'd seen in Jack. Sometimes River's eyes had that look, sorrow and pain twisting through her scent, but he'd never been able to learn her thoughts during those times.
River was with Ziza in the courtyard, working on a temporary but sturdy gate. Helpful to have a genius brain. And, as she'd reminded him, more than a year on a Firefly that took scrounging and recycling to a whole new level. Between the two she'd figured a way to make a locking gate. He'd be able to buy supplies for repairs and they wouldn't just 'walk' away from the courtyard. And Lajunn wouldn't need to keep them in the house where she and Ziza'd be tripping over them.
"She speaks another language, your woman," Lajunn remarked in her famously neutral tone while she brought a bucket of water to mix the plascrete.
"River's from the Core," He shrugged as he muscled a fallen beam into place, no point in correcting her assumption about River. Lajunn never listened to him anyway. He needed the beams in place at least, before he began to rebuild the walls. Plascrete and the stone that had fallen would work pretty well. Better than nothing at least.
"I would not expect to find you in the company of a woman like her," Nice judgmental tone. Nothing new there. If he heard anything else from Lajunn it would be a miracle.
"No, she's a rare one," Riddick smirked to himself. More rare than she looked even.
"One would not expect a Core woman to be so heavily armed," Now Madame al-Walid was fishing.
"Nope," He half grinned as he pushed another beam into place.
"She has made threats to my person," Ahh…now comes the truth. Slightly twisted but true nonetheless.
"I'll bet she did," He agreed. "But she hasn't done anything has she." He knew she hadn't. River didn't give her word very often but when she did she kept it. Something the two of them had in common. Don't make promises you can't keep.
"No…" Lajunn's tone indicated her certainty that it was only a matter of time. "But an associate of yours…"
"Lajunn, I tolerate a lot from you because I don't want Abu's daughter to grow up the way Jack did," Riddick stopped his work and looked at the fuming woman. "I know you blame me for his death. For not stopping it; for not stopping them. And part of me is always gonna wonder if there was something more I could've done to keep him getting killed. But I didn't kill him."
"You didn't save him either," Oh that accusatory tone. So damn familiar. How many times had he heard that exact statement, in that exact way.
"When a man runs headlong into death not even I can always stop it," Riddick snapped at her. Snapped at her for the first time in their acquaintance.
"And now you bring someone else, this woman, as violent and dangerous as yourself," Lajunn's tone hadn't changed despite his small show of irritation. "I will not have someone like her near my daughter."
"Someone like her," Riddick stared at her, nothing between her face and his eyes with the goggles pushed back. Nobody but River seemed to enjoy his silver predator's eyes on them. "A Core Lady."
"A killer," The widow shot back. "And your—"
"Don't," He growled the command loudly. "Don't you dare say it." His fists had clenched in reflex at the likely insult to River and he slowly relaxed his hands. "Like I said, I tolerate a lot from you Lajunn. But I won't tolerate that. Not when she hasn't done anything to you but make a few threats."
"And I will not have another person of loose morals around my daughter," That stubborn chin tilted up in a challenge.
"You haven't bothered to get to know me, or my moral code," River's voice sounded, cool as a breeze, from the staircase. "Nor do you know Riddick's ethical compass. Are all Chrislams so judgmental as you?"
"It's a Hellion Prime thing," Riddick moved towards her. "New Mecca's full of folks who are so proud of their tolerance. Freedom of religion is big. But they get fussy about other things."
"Imagine, society frowning on wholesale murder," Lajunn's words skewed towards the sarcastic.
River laughed, "Osiris doesn't exactly encourage it." She offered Riddick a glass of water which he drank gratefully, thirsty.
"Strikeforce did," He shrugged and handed her the glass. "Chéngméng guān zhào."
She pulled the scarf away from the beautiful face and kissed his dusty knuckles, "Bié tàikè qi." Her smile eased some of the tension in his spine, "The Academy too, for some reason."
"We've really gotta compare notes on our various schools of education," He shook his head.
"Could be interesting," River chuckled. "Ziza and I are nearly done with the gate. Do you want some help with the wall?"
"Yeah, I'd like to get the wall and roof fixed today if we can," He nodded. "Sandstorms come up more than rainstorms but they get their share of both with New Mecca being close to the ocean."
She tilted her head, looking at the stone on the ground and the crumbled corner. "Doesn't look like you'll have enough stone for the entire wall. We've got timber in the courtyard. Extra wood and metal. Could we put a window in? I know I saw some Plexiglas somewhere."
"Could rob some stone from the wall on one side, build up the wall facing the balcony since we've got the door at the end. Put a window facing towards the street?" He grabbed a burnt stick and sketched it out on the ground, aware of Lajunn's surprise behind them.
"Use some of the sheet metal I saw for shutters," River nodded. "Ziza and I can put a frame together. More likely two, make a casement window, about…five feet by three?"
"Center post for stability, beams around it, could even do five by four," He agreed. "You two get the windows put together and sealed. I'll keep going on the roof."
"Shouldn't take long," His lover rubbed her hands together eagerly. "An hour, or two, maybe?"
"Great. Call me and I'll help you two bring it up the stairs," Riddick took the opportunity her unveiled face afforded him and snuck a kiss. "You're a zhēnde shì tiān cái."
That made her laugh and she pulled her scarf back around her face before she trotted down the stairs with the empty glass.
It took until evening but they were able to get crumbled upper level of the house repaired. The latticework fence that rose around the balcony had been lost to the attack but the good four-foot wall which served as its base would do for a while.
Lajunn had, with palpable insincerity, offered to put them up for the night but Riddick had exchanged a look with his lover and River had bowed with equal insincerity and refused her kindness.
"Lock the gate behind us," Riddick instructed Ziza.
"When will you come back?" The girl clung to his hand.
"When I can," He wouldn't make a promise that he couldn't keep. "You be good, study hard."
"I do," She nodded and smiled up at River. "I would like to hear more of the Black and the sailing of it."
"Hopefully next time," River patted her shoulder. "Be careful."
"I always am, thank you," Ziza shut the gate behind them and Riddick waited until he heard the latch drop and then the bar which kept the inner gate from opening.
"At least the mule is still here," He remarked humorously as they climbed in.
"Will they be all right?" Her concerned voice was a balm to his raw nerves as he started the engine and began to navigate their way back to the docks and The Cutter.
"Should be," Riddick worried about Ziza a lot. More than he concerned himself with Lajunn. "Everyone gets a food allowance, a fuel allowance. Abu was greatly respected and folks remember him so they make sure no one hassles his widow."
"But they're still women alone and that makes them a target," River mused. "We could find plenty of work to take us to Helion Prime and back."
Kind offer. One he might take her up on if she didn't take off and get a boat of her own (he hated that she'd mentioned that more than once lately). There was always some cargo going to Helion and something to take back. "It's a thought," He pulled onto the main road to the docks and finally they could speed up. "Might take you up on that sooner or later."
She nodded but didn't comment. He enjoyed that about her, she didn't beat a topic to death. Now that they were closer to the ship he let his mind wander. He'd been thinking, on and off, through the day about what she'd offered him before they'd left. Giving him control.
He knew there were guys who got off on fucking their woman in front of an audience, flaunting her and her response. And the women were into it too or it wasn't any fun for anyone. But he'd spent too much time in slams to enjoy an audience like that. Other dominants might put a collar on their submissive, or a piercing. But neither of those appealed considering he'd worn a horse collar himself, complete with bit. And piercing part of her body…seemed wrong. Marring that perfect skin was a sin. And that wasn't a word he took lightly.
Handcuffs were out. For the same reason a collar was out. Though he wouldn't mind some lengths of silk or soft rope, tie her to his bed and torment her with pleasure. A blindfold maybe…that could be a lot of fun. Assuming she didn't Read what it was he intended.
At least he wasn't so furious he wanted to beat something until his hands bled. Though it felt as if he could drink a bottle of rice wine and still not be relaxed.
And now, they'd (finally) reached the ship and he didn't have to worry about thugs trying to rob them and the (inevitable) resulting bloodbath that would draw the (again inevitable) attention of the authorities (such as they were).
He jumped out, keyed the cargo bay door open and grinned as River climbed across to the driver's seat and drove the mule up the ramp. By the time she'd parked the mule and gotten out he'd climbed the ramp and closed it behind him. That smile of hers as she got out of the mule, like she was anticipating their evening just as much as him.
Closing the distance between them and pressing her to the side of the mule, lifting her so his hips aligned with hers and she could feel his dick, half hard for her already. "There's my beautiful little queen," He gently tugged the scarf away from her face. "What should I do with you?"
"Whatever you want," She wrapped her arms around his neck. "You're in control. Completely." Her legs wrapped around his hips and rubbed her body against the hard ridge of his prick.
"Am I now…" Riddick smirked as he took her mouth. Soft quivering lips, warm and opening for him, surrendering as he devoured. It was handy knowing the boat well enough that he didn't need to stop kissing her or let go of her ass to get them both up to his room. "That means you're going to do what I say doesn't it," He squeezed her ass as he set her down on the bed.
"It does," River nodded.
Author's Note: So they made it through a chapter without sex! It's gotta be a miracle. Although honestly Lajunn's attitude would be like an ice water shower. I never got the impression she was pleased that Abu had brought Riddick into their lives. And then Riddick doesn't even stop the invasion…No. I don't think she'd care much for him, though she would take the help he offered.
Chinese Translations:
Wǒ duì nǐ de sǔn shī biǎo shì āi dào (my condolences for your loss/ I mourn your loss)
bàng jiār (lover / partner)
liàn rén (lover / sweetheart)
Fàng zòng fēng kuáng de jié (knot of self-indulgent lunacy/indulge in crazy knots)
Yuàn Fótuó réncí (May Buddha be merciful / May the Buddha be merciful)
Suǒ yǒu shén shèng de míng zì (name of all that's sacred)
Wǒ de tiān ā (Dear god in heaven / Oh, my God)
xiā zi mō xiàng (blind people touch an elephant (idiom, from Nirvana sutra 大般涅槃經｜大般涅盘经); fig. unable to see the big picture / to mistake the part for the whole / unable to see the wood for the trees)
shēng mènqi (to seethe / to sulk / to be pissed off (vulgar))
Chéngméng guān zhào (to be indebted to sb for care / thank you for looking after me)
Bié tàikè qi (lit. no excessive politeness / Don't mention it! / You're welcome! / Please don't stand on ceremony.)
zhēnde shì tiān cái (an absolute genius)