Thanks to:

blondevor – I'm part Irish. Really I am.

NightmareWeaver – Thanks for the continuing reviews!

Tweety – glad you like it!

Chapter XVII: Showers and Bites

Jack shivered as the water hit her body and reached for soap and a cloth to scrub herself down. She had pinned her hair up, not wanting to wash the huge mane right now, considering it would take hours to dry and she didn't want to have it drying outside. Swallowing, she blushed as she remembered what those heavenly twenty minutes had consisted of. Jack then put the idea of a shower and those twenty minutes together and she almost moaned from the idea.

Every time she closed her eyes she imagined flashes of such a scene, each one more heated with passion then the next.

She shuddered as she felt two hands, slick with water, slide around from behind and span her stomach, then moving down to massage her hips.

Snapping her eyes open, she mentally scolded herself. If she kept doing this, she would never get out of the damn shower! But as she leaned her head back to wash her face in the spray, her eyes closed again.

The same hands were spread to two opposite ends of her body. Sucking and biting various fingers from one hand, Jack couldn't help but moan as she felt the other dip between her legs.

"Oy! Jack! Ye've been in the damn shower for at least fifteen minutes! It's going to tomorrow by the time we get out, ye dumb lass!" Liege shouted, rapping her knuckles on the steamed glass shower door.

Jack jumped at the interupption, but was instantly grateful for it. Quickly shutting off the water, she reached outside for a towel, happy when she felt the fluffy cloth beneath her hand.

Pulling it closed around her, she looked down as she stepped out of the shower, not really looking anywhere else on her body.

When she looked up, she was confused by Liege's stare. Sure, the towel was short but it wasn't that short. They had been together in school long enough for neither to be bothered by it. 'Well, there was that one time after paintball, but I totally wasn't expecting her to just…be there. Half naked. And shit.' Jack thought, still puzzled at Liege's stare.

Heaving an annoyed sigh, Jack shoved Liege to look in the mirror, because maybe then it would make more sense. Holding her towel around her, she stepped in front of the mirror. Only to scream bloody murder.

At this point, wherever Riddick may have been, he quickly moved into the shadows, not wanting to be Jack's warpath. Slipping into the shadows of the house, he waited for the girls to come downstairs.

Sure enough, about fifteen minutes later, he heard Jack stomping down the steps, cursing in all the different languages she must've learned at school. Liege walked behind her, laughing while she double-checked her knives.

Riddick couldn't resist at grinning when he saw Jack walk into view wearing a particularly wide choker, covering whatever may have been left underneath. He growled at the rest of her outfit, a strapless shirt covered by a vest, which was bottomed by a pair of tight black jeans. Too tight in his opinion.

Jack and Liege waited for Imam, who was returning from his morning religious classes in ten minutes. Liege leaned against the entry hall wall, testing the sharpness of her favourite blade while Jack ranted.

"Sure I'm glad he physically 'claimed' me, but now I have to wear this until it fades!" Jack exclaimed, tugging at the choker.

"And yer quite sure ye didn't feel it while he did it?" Liege asked, not even looking up from her knife.

"Well…you know…" Jack trailed off, making vague hand gestures, as if Liege could translate that into real English, which, luckily for Riddick, she could.

"Being with him makes you passionately insane, so you can't even fathom time or reason, especially when he touches you. Yes, I'm well aware of your…emotional highs while you are….intensifying your physical relationship with him." Liege said in a perfectly unaccented voice, sounding eerily like Jack.

"Way to go to break it down into science." Jack muttered, rubbing her hand across her neck, where it soon traveled to the ring. Rubbing it, Jack let her head smack against the wall, feeling completely at loss. "I really like him, Liege."

"I know, Jack. I can see it in yer eyes. Ye really are head over heels for this lad. Good for ye, he can take care of ye just as easily as he takes care of 'imself. Bein' with ye is like second nature to 'im, I bet." Liege replied, slipping into her accent again.

"But do you think he feels the same?" Jack asked, cut off by the sudden entrance of Imam.

"My children! Why do you waste time inside? Look how beautiful it is today!" He exclaimed, opening his arms wide, making the long sleeves of his robes hang. Jack giggled and Liege smirked, both thinking he looked like an orange, red-striped bat.

"Well, Imam, we are going out, but we needed your permission first." Jack sweetly said, trying to stifle her giggles.

"Well, no need to ask, just don't be home late." Imam cautioned, stepping aside as the two girls passed, Liege ducking her head out of respect and habit.

Imam closed the door behind the pair of girls and their laughter could be heard drifting in through the courtyard. Sighing, he turned around and stopped in the entry way.

"Now, Mr. Riddick, what reason is there to hide?" Imam scolded, as if talking to a child. Not waiting for him to appear, Imam walked up the stairs and went to his study.

Soon after that he did remove himself from the shadows and went to the balcony, pulling his goggles on, seeing as it was almost midday. Growling deep within, Riddick wasn't surprised when he felt the need to protect Jack, as he saw her walk to the corner, still laughing with Liege.

Comfortably positioning himself on the wide balcony, he rubbed his shaved head, wondering what mess he had gotten himself into this time.

'But maybe this once,' he thought as he welcomed the breeze from the fountain. 'Maybe this once I don't want to get out of the mess.'