15) And I Have Filled This Void With Things Unreal
Big, hot hands lifting her. Warm mouth on her neck, her breasts, and she moaned, trying to keep her voice down.
"I wanna hear you Carolyn," That wicked voice muttered against her skin. "I want to hear what I'm doing to you."
"You're making me crazy is what you're doing," She grasped him and stroked, rewarded with a guttural groan of pleasure. "Fuck me won't you?"
"So demanding," He teased and mercilessly flipped her onto her stomach, pulling her up by her hips and pushing her thighs apart with his knee. His jī ba rubbed against her slit, blunt and thick before he began to push inside her, and she nearly wailed at the feel of him nearly breaking her in two with pleasure.
Gasping for air as her body barely accommodated him and hands coming down on either side of hers, his chest pressed to her spine. "Fuck Carolyn, you're so damn tight…" He groaned against her neck as he waited for her to adjust.
"More…" She panted under him, and his chest vibrated with what sounded like a growl before one powerful hand pushed her face down to the pillow, pinning her shoulders to the mattress and opening her body to his completely. Dimly she registered fabric against her legs and realized he hadn't even taken his pants off completely.
Oh, merciful Buddha, she would die of it, his body a battering ram of bliss between her thighs as he grabbed her hips and began to take her. Ruthless, hard and perfect and she nearly screamed into the pillow as she came helplessly around him.
And he wasn't done with her yet.
"You stayin'," She found her voice as he eased his way off of her.
"Can't, didn't have a lot of time before my shift," He glanced at her, eyes shining in the dim light of the room.
"Ah," Carolyn tried to shrug off the sudden itch of irritation crawling up her spine. "You don't want to be late."
"No," He eyed her like she'd turned from a woman into a viper. "Okay?"
"Yeah," She nodded.
Those mercury eyes narrowed at her, "Carolyn, don't say yeah like you are if you're not. I can tell you're pissed but I got no clue why." He jerked his shirt over his head as if ready to shred it instead of wearing it. "Why'n the hell can't people just say what they tā mā de mean?"
He really didn't get it, that what he'd said might be insulting. Carolyn sighed. "We don't have time right now. Go on up to the bridge, I'll get dressed and be there in a minute okay?"
"Mal ain't gonna like it if we're fighting on the bridge," He cautioned her.
No, he wouldn't. But this wouldn't be a fight, not if she had anything to say about it. "I don't want to fight with you. But we do need to talk about something, and I don't want to leave it like this. All right?"
He stared at her as if evaluating her for falsehoods before nodding jerkily and stomping his feet into his boots. "All right."
When she got up to the bridge Riddick was guarded, his expression carefully neutral as if he was bracing for a confrontation or worse. "I'm not trying to take your head off," She chided him gently as she sat down in the co-pilot's chair.
"Historically 'talks' after sex don't go well for me," He muttered.
She could imagine. Women likely wanted something more from him than he could give. Wanted to arrest him maybe. Or wanted to kick him out as quick as they could. None of those three situations were likely to be resolved comfortably for him. "I'm not mad at you, not really," She reassured him as best she could. "It was…well. Not so much what you said, although that wasn't great, but the way you said it was worse."
"What'd I say?" He frowned, obviously bewildered. "I told you I couldn't stay. I didn't have time before I had to be up here." Riddick's sensual mouth twisted in annoyance, "Seemed better than just ignoring the question."
"It was," Carolyn hastened to reassure him. "It was." She took a breath and tried to think of how to explain it to him. "But in this case, brevity sounded more than a little insulting."
"Insulting," He didn't get it. That was plain to see.
"Okay, number one, you didn't even take off your pants," She pointed out. "Which isn't a big deal until you combine it with what you said and how you said it. Then when I ask if you can stay, you gave me the shortest answer possible."
"Could've just said 'no'," He grumbled.
"I know," Carolyn sighed. "I know you didn't mean any of it to be insulting. But how it sounded, was that you were just there for a quick pump and dump and any old body would've done." She held up her hand, "I know that's not how you meant it. But that's how it sounded to me right then."
"Jesus fuck," Riddick nearly snarled and she got a visceral reminder of just how dangerous her lover could be as his teeth bared in an angry grimace. "Why's it always gotta be layers an' layers of talk? Everything's got fuckin' nuances an' innuendos an' fèiwù. Don't anybody ever talk straight an' say what they mean?" He rolled his eyes, "All these rules and codes and behaviors… I need a fuckin' translator to make sense of this shit."
"Rick," Carolyn laid her hand on his forearm and got another snarl of aggravation. "Rick, I'm sorry. That's why I'm explaining all right? I know you didn't understand why you'd upset me."
"Carolyn, I told you at the start of all this, educated in the penal system," He shook his head wearily. "Tell me what's so damn bad about wanting to spend my last half hour of free time in bed with you instead of readin' a book or watchin' some film on the cortex?" Riddick looked at her, "Because that's my time. 'Bout the only thing I've got that's really mine besides skills and shivs and my body. Chose to come to you, be with you."
"Rick, we're friends," Carolyn gently stroked the skin over his knuckles. "That's why I'm saying this. I didn't know you saw our time together as something…worthwhile beyond it being enjoyable."
"Carolyn, I like sex sure," He looked at her directly for the first time since she'd come on the bridge, the full impact of those tarnished silver eyes hitting her. "It feeds an appetite. But so do books and conversation and films. I got this need to understand things. Feed my brain. But yeah, we're friends so it's more than just sex."
Put like that, the amount of time he was willing to spend with her, took on new weight and she nodded. "Okay. Now you've told me that, so I know even if you don't have time to talk, it's not because you think I'm interchangeable with any other woman."
He sighed, "I don't say things I don't mean. I don't do what I don't want. All this…double-talk fèi huà… I don't know what to do with that Carolyn."
"Ask me then," She offered. "If you feel like you're getting in over your head, just ask, and I'll explain as best I can. And if I see a situation that you might not have experience with, I'll try to give you a heads up." She tilted her head, "Is that why you talk to Inara so often?"
"Kinda," He shrugged a little more relaxed than he had been. "I can watch her, get an idea of how awful my behavior is from how she reacts. Doubt I'd ever pass for a Core citizen, but I can eat least drink tea without screwing that up."
"Watch Simon too," Carolyn advised. "He's pretty well mannered. And the way he treats Kaylee will give you a lot of ideas as to what's proper and what isn't."
"Plannin' on polishin' me up?" Riddick tilted his head curiously, his mouth quirking in a tiny smile.
"Nah," She grinned at him. "I like you the way you are. Just don't want you to feel like you're out of your depth you know?"
"Yeah," He nodded. "Thanks Carolyn." He tugged her closer, out of the chair and into his lap for a moment, kissing her cheek.
"Hey, any time," She turned and pressed her mouth to his for an instant as she stood. "Now…if you don't need anything from me… I'm going to hit the sack."
That chuckle, wickedly dark, drifted over her skin, "Want me to wake you up when I'm off shift?"
Carolyn deliberately swayed her hips as she walked towards the door, "Sure. Just take your pants off this time all right?"
That got a grin and a leer that sent her skin prickling with want and he chuckled again, "No fear there."
She grinned as she headed back down to the dorms. Crisis averted. Though she did wonder how in the hell he'd made it to his ripe old age (whatever that was) without learning half of this stuff. How isolated was he growing up? Or in prison?
She would have to watch how she said things and do her best to not take offense at something he said until she knew how he meant it. Otherwise she'd be averting crisis' morning, noon and night. And with everything else that had the potential to go wrong these days, who had time for that?
Author's Note: A little shorter than usual but this seemed like a good stopping point. I wanted to show a bit of the kind of misunderstanding that can happen when people speak the same language but don't grow up in the same culture. Grow up in one area of the country and what's considered courteous is rude in another part of the same country. For example, where I grew up, in the grocery store, at banks, it's best to be polite, but brief. You don't take up the teller or clerk's time with conversation beyond the transaction because their time is valuable and so is the time of the people behind you in line. Where I live now, brevity is considered rude and vaguely insulting, as if you think you're too good to have a leisurely conversation with the person at the register.
Consider Carolyn, raised on Sihnon (even in the not so great part), educated and trained as a pilot versus Riddick, raised (we can guess) and educated in foster care and/or the penal system. Given the disparity of their upbringing it's a wonder there aren't more problems.
Chinese Translations:
jī ba (dick / penis)
tā mā de (damn it! / fucking) (taboo curse)
fèiwù (rubbish / waste material / useless person)
fèi huà (bullshit/nonsense / rubbish / superfluous words / You don't say! / No kidding! (gently sarcastic)
