23) I'm Taking A Mental Picture Of You Now

River Tam was an interesting and unique individual and Riddick found himself (slightly) unwillingly fascinated. Beautiful and Interesting. Rare that both of those qualities he found so appealing occurred simultaneously and, in a person, rather than some predatory creature.

It was obvious that she was from White Sun, she and her brother, he'd figured that straight off, hadn't needed Carolyn to tell him, though the confirmation had been nice. What in the name of God (pū jiē very much almighty) were the two of them doing on a transport ship that looked as if it had worked its way up (with a lot of love and a genius mechanic to boot) to decrepit. Not that he didn't like the ship. But anyone who didn't, would take one look and assume that duct tape, bailing wire and a lot of fervent prayer were the only thing holding it together.

River had decided to cook dinner (she'd swapped chores with her brother, or flat out told him no, she was cooking, Riddick wasn't sure which, and he wasn't inclined to argue the result either way) and whatever it was smelled pretty damn good. He'd nodded at her and headed down to the mid deck for his chore of the day. Switching out the used water filters for clean ones wasn't his favorite thing but it wasn't the worst either. Kaylee had a system for everything. Pull the used filters, set them out on the drying rack under the main portion of the reactor. They'd dry out and the next time they hit a port Kaylee would scrub them out with biodegradable cleaners. The old ships didn't use the disposable filters like the newer ones did. If you could find enough of the filters you could keep the water clean for a good decade (or more) before they wore out.

Of course, after he'd finished with that, he needed to scrub himself somewhat and the closest sink was in the galley. He nearly bumped into River as she ran down the hallway past him to the galley only stopping when she got to the stove and adjusted the temperature down. "Everything all right?" He kept out of her way while he scrubbed his hands and forearms clean.

"Temperature was far too high," She frowned at the oven as if it had betrayed her.

"Maybe somebody bumped it," Riddick glanced over at the controls. A knob rather than the typical ten key pad. Figured; they'd only started fitting out galleys with keypads in the last eight to ten years and Serenity was a lot older than that.

"Possibly," River conceded and rubbed the back of her neck. "Prevented the dish from burning. No damage done."

He grinned, "That's a mercy. Smelled damn good when you put it in. Was lookin' forward to tasting it."

"Baked protein sausage, dried potatoes and apples with spices, rehydrated with water and then baked," She rolled her neck and he winced at the loud crack he heard.

"Need any help?" He glanced at the oven and hoped she'd made a lot. Jack was going to sprout soon if Simon had anything to say about it and she'd burn through whatever bodily reserves she had. And those were precious few.

"Plan to make flatbread pie for dessert," River half smiled. "Could keep her company?"

"I can do that," He nodded. "What kind of pie?"

"Flatbread pie," She smiled and pulled a tin down from the cupboard. "Roll out the dough for the flatbread and hydrate fruit," Dark eyes gleamed as she looked over at him. "Has a favorite type of fruit?"

"Partial to strawberries," Riddick half smiled. The first girl he'd kissed had tasted like strawberries and apples. He'd figured out later it was her lip gloss, but he'd still liked it. "But I like any fruit pretty well."

"Scheduled to land on Triumph," She dug into one of the drawers and pulled out a vacuum sealed pack. "Dehydrated strawberries, hunchberries and blackberries. He will fill a pot with water please," She pointed at one of the cabinets over the stove where Kaylee kept the cooking pots.

As opposed to the old beat-up pots she used to clean engine parts. They were kept back in the engine room after Jack had mistakenly grabbed one and nearly poisoned them all boiling water for tea. It had been close, but River had seen the pot Jack was using and kept her from what would be a very unfortunate mistake.

Mal had suggested Kaylee keep engine part pots back in her domain from that point forward.

The cooking pots were all old, heavy but scrupulously clean and looked as if they'd been banging around the 'verse almost as long as Serenity.

The process of rehydrating dried fruit was interesting. He'd never put a lot of thought into the process food went through in order to shrink it down or turn it into something that didn't need refrigeration or a dry drawer to keep. He guessed knowing how food got dried out would help to reverse the process. River simply put the dried fruit into the pot of water and covered it, letting the fruit pull the water back into itself like a little sponge. "Try," She fished out one of the blackberries and he popped it in his mouth. Softer than a dried berry but still a little firm in his mouth like it would be hard to chew. "Still a little tough, like jerky," She explained with a smile. "So, we add a bit of orange juice concentrate and water and turn the heat up. Citrus acid softens the fruit and gives the dish brightness, rather than cloyingly sweet."

"Kinda like chemistry," He vaguely remembered some of the schooling he'd had about chemical reactions. Don't mix bleach and ammonia, that sort of thing.

Dark eyes gleamed appreciatively, and she nodded, "Very much so." She covered the pot again. "We'll leave it and work on the flatbread. That's our crust."

He watched her with the flat bread dough, another readymade product popular on ships. Most people tended to make a descendant of hardtack with it. Or something to wrap around a meat flavored protein. He'd never seen it used as a pie crust but that's just what she was doing, flattening it over and over until what had been a three-inch-wide ball of dough became a thin layer almost a foot in circumference.

"Trick is to keep it cold," She explained and showed him what she was using to flatten it. "Kaylee made this. Dry ice inside it, keeps the metal cold, wooden handles so our skin doesn't freeze. Keep it in the freezer."

"Knew the girl was a genius with machines, nice to see it's even more than that," Riddick shook his head admiringly. "So you put it in the pie tin?"

She shook her head, "First, fold it into quarters so it can be lifted without tearing." Deft slender fingers expertly folded the flattened dough and laid it in the pan, then unfolded it. "We trim it and put the excess dough on another pan, to bake separately." She slid both pie tins into the oven beneath the sausage dish and grinned at him. "Cook it separately so it crisps. Pour the fruit over the top after baking. Let the juice seep into the crusts, like a dry sponge. Then rebake for a little longer to caramelize the sugars."

"Where'd you learn all this stuff?" He put another pot of water on to boil and considered then grabbed the dry milk. He didn't know a lot about pregnant women, but he knew milk was something they needed.

"Read some books, watched recordings on the cortex," River shrugged. "Paid attention to Kaylee when she cooked."

"Self-taught huh," He liked that. The only people he knew who'd learned things in school were 'professionals' like her brother, like Carolyn. Most convicts learned everything on the fly, it was either learn or die trying, and dying was a helluva lot more likely.

"Genius," She shrugged. "Feels good to learn. To be useful."

"Just because you're a genius, don't mean everything comes easily," He shrugged. Or maybe he was wrong, and everything did come easy to her. That didn't mean her making the effort and cooking for all of them was worth less. Worth more to him because she didn't have to do any of it. She could go make a living at some fancy college or figuring out how the 'verse worked.

River smiled, "Nice to be appreciated, valued." She admitted quietly.

"Mal seems to value you pretty high," Riddick half smiled. As he watched she rolled her neck again and his hands itched to touch. "Neck hurt?" He found himself asking the question before he could think better of it.

A shrug of those shoulders, deceptively slender for such a strong woman, "He wouldn't know, but hair can become…heavy." She rolled her eyes and he laughed.

"Yeah, I got that. Why d'you think I keep mine shaved off," He smirked. He had other reasons too but that one was valid. "So, take it down. Not like you can't keep it out of your way."

"Worn loose or down her back, even braided," She hesitated and finally admitted. "Look too young. Like a child. Inexperienced and in need of protection."

"Oh cào nà," Riddick rolled his eyes. "Like how you look makes any difference in how good you are at what you do." That got him a beaming smile that he liked a little too much and his palms still itched to touch that skin, feel if her hair was as soft and silky as it looked braided into a ball the size of his fist at the base of her neck.

"Many are not as…clear in their definitions," She hesitantly reached back, and those nimble fingers slowly pulled a couple of pins out of the ball. (Damn he'd like to feel her hand wrapped around his dick, see the contrast in their skin tones, feel the strength in her hands gentled on him-focus Riddick and pay attention to what she's saying.) "Appearances change their impressions of capability." A slight blush in her cheeks, yeah, he probably had a pretty lustful look on his face at the moment. Focus damnit. Now she held four pins that were as long as her hand.

"You're cooking, not out pulling a job or flying the boat. Why shouldn't you be comfortable?" He reasoned. Nothing to do with wanting to see that long braid. Or wrapping it around his fist to hold her in place while he took her mouth. Nope. Another little blush. He really needed to stop showing his thoughts on his face. Didn't used to be a problem. Something about this woman. She was so damn interesting.

"Gets in the way," River slid the pins through the fabric of her shirt by her shoulder, reached back to the knot and did something mysterious and inexplicably female that made it unwind and fall down her back in a tail that dangled tantalizingly over her pert pì gu.

"Long," He whistled low under his breath. He hadn't ever thought about the relative merits of long hair versus short. Or dark versus light. Most women of his acquaintance (because until Carolyn and Jack he hadn't actually had female friends since he was sixteen) kept their hair short(ish), utilitarian and he never cared about the length or color.

"Traditional in the Core more than the Rim," She explained as she did something else to the berries in the pot. "On Osiris and Sihnon, and Londinium especially, women of the upper classes wear their hair longer. Once of a certain age a young lady should wear her hair up. Show's she's an adult. Of courting age."

"When's that supposed to happen?" He'd never heard of that. Inara hadn't mentioned it but then their conversations hadn't been so much about a young lady's role in society.

"Presented to society at eighteen," She smiled at him. "A debut, a large party and dancing, afterwards, she is gifted a coming-of-age experience."

"So, turning eighteen is a big deal," Riddick considered that for a moment. It wasn't a new idea; basic schooling was supposed to be officially done by then. Eighteen was when you started work.

"In most cultures," She agreed with a smile. "Water boils. Which tea does he prefer?"

She did have a very polite way of changing the subject when she didn't want to speak about something anymore. Never said 'guǎn nǐ zìjǐ de shì' but it was also clear she was done discussing whatever.

So, tea.

With his and River's backs to the rest of the galley he guessed Jack thought he wouldn't hear her watching in the doorway. The scent boiling off of her, bitter and harsh as River guided him through the intricacies of making pie and their chat afterwards. He could hear Kaylee in the engine room and Mal with Zoë on the bridge. Carolyn was probably asleep since she had to be on the bridge a couple hours after dinner. He could hear Simon's step on the middeck, the doctor likely coming upstairs to see his sweetheart or try to help with dinner.

Riddick had experienced Simon's cooking once. He wasn't keen to repeat it. As he turned to look at the doorway Jack took off. The doctor glanced in her direction as if puzzled but entered the galley with a polite smile for Riddick and a bigger one for his sister.

"Smells wonderful mèi mei," He complimented River. Doc was good like that. Riddick had seen him screw up telling his girlfriend how pretty she was, but he never messed up with his sister.

"Ready in forty minutes," She smiled. "Nothing more to be done."

"I better let Carolyn know," Riddick nodded. "Back in a bit." Of course, he had other ideas about how to spend those forty minutes and maybe if he was lucky Carolyn wouldn't be averse.


Carolyn shivered as she came out of sleep, a thick finger teasing down the line of her jaw, petting her hair away from her face, "Hmm…Rick?"

"Yeah," He chuckled, a low wicked sound that set her nerves trembling. "Dinner in about forty minutes. Figured you'd want to be awake a bit before that."

"Hmm…" She knew him well enough by now to recognize the look on his face. "No ulterior motive to you waking me up?" She stretched, arching her back, aware of his eyes on her breasts, nipples tight under his gaze.

"Might be one," Riddick tilted his head and she nodded, sitting up and pulling her shirt over her head, pushing her panties down her legs. "Take it you don't mind?"

Carolyn smirked, "If I did I'd throw you out and go back to sleep." She let her eyes scan his body, damn he was huge, and if she wasn't mistaken ready to fuck her hard. "Seems like I'm not really gonna have to seduce you though." He had to have been flirting with River. That was the only woman on the boat that got him so revved up and ready without even touching. He could send Inara hurrying to her shuttle to spend time alone, or Kaylee roused enough to hunt down her boyfriend without a twitch of physical reaction. But when he flirted with River it was a whole 'nother story, maybe because he didn't have her figured out. Or maybe it was something else. Only Riddick knew and he wasn't telling.

"You mind," He was pulling off his boots and shirt, shoving his pants down his legs. Riddick was by no means a stupid man. He knew she'd put together the cause and effect a month back.

"Nah," She smirked and curled her fingers invitingly. "So long as it's only flirting." That chat she'd had with Mal, her offer to speak with Riddick about love triangles flickered through her mind. She figured she had maybe another month or two before she'd have to have that talk with her lover. She was grateful there was still time. She still liked it when Riddick would come and fuck her after she'd had a nightmare.

"Only flirting," Riddick nodded. He knelt at the end of her bed, stroking his cock and Carolyn shuddered in reaction. Every time he pushed inside her; she knew he was holding back for her sake. But that look of hunger on his face…

"C'mere," She reached for him. He never asked for this, but right now, she wanted that huge cock in her mouth, wanted to kneel in front of him and feel his hand in her hair before he fucked her with it.

"Carolyn, I…" Incredibly he hesitated, an odd look on his face and she shook her head.

"Not me," She moved towards him and gently took his hand out of the way. "Just for you…" She smiled up at him, the head of his cock against her lips, "Sometimes I just like to…feel it."

"Rather you didn't," He shook his head and pulled her up, kissing her hungrily and letting his hands roam over her body. That big heavy cock pressed against her belly and his hands moved from her hips, fingers biting into her ass, up to her breasts, kneading and pressing. Making her forget all about the fleeting idea of going down on him as foreplay.

"Oh Buddha," Carolyn couldn't help the moan that rose in her throat as he pulled his lips away and trailed them over her neck.

"Touch yourself," He growled against her skin and took her hand, pushing it between her thighs. His hands cupped her breasts, holding them to his mouth as he took them both down to the mattress. Every suck and pull of his mouth echoed between her thighs and she wanted touch more than anything.

"Ohh…yes…that's…" She spread her legs for him, fingers surrounding and rubbing her clit. "Rick…"

"I want to smell that gush of slick between your thighs Carolyn," Riddick's hot mouth, sucking her breasts. "Come on your fingers."

"Yes…" She moaned as she felt it build. "I need…"

"Got thirty minutes to spend with you," That sensual mouth, she felt it curve against her skin. "And I want to hear you come Carolyn. Want to feel your body pulling my dick into you. Maybe fuck you in that peach of a pì gu this time. Want it?"

"Yes…ungh…please…fuck me…" She arched up to his mouth, whining for it, and when he sucked hard on the wrinkled tip of her breast a storm broke over her, coating her fingers and thighs as she shook in its grip. "Rick…"

"You smell so good when you come Carolyn," Riddick scraped his teeth over her throat. "You ready for me?"

"Yes… Yuàn Fótuó réncí," She moaned.

"Gonna fuck you hard," He warned her. "I need it, Carolyn." Those big hands slid under her knees and spread her legs, the impossible width of his prick rubbing and pushing against her.

For all his warnings he still pressed into her body slowly and carefully and Carolyn felt her breath catch in her throat at the feeling. Stretching around him, feeling him push deeper and deeper until she wasn't sure she could take it. Riddick's hips swiveling against hers and she moaned louder than she'd meant to. "Rick…I'm…Unghh…God!"

Over and over he brought her and finally came inside her before he flipped her onto her stomach and dragged her hips up. How the man could keep going she'd never understand. But she could be limp and panting with pleasure and he'd still be full of energy and ready to fuck. God the feel of that thick cock, plugged into her and those hands on her hips, gripping her tight before he pushed into her. "All right?"

"Yes," Carolyn gasped. "Ohh…god…"

"So wet," His growl rolled over her skin, and she moaned as he began to move. Hard and fast, hips slapping to her ass until she was gasping with each thrust. Deeper and harder until she felt him hit the end of her with a wince. A second time and she flinched, Riddick slowed down, and she felt his breath on her back as he bent over her. "One more baby, unghh…fuck Carolyn," She gasped as it felt like he'd push even deeper for a moment and then the hot flood as he came into her again.

Gentle as he pulled out of her, grabbed a cloth and cleaned up, then began to (for him) tenderly clean her up, "Hurt you Carolyn?"

She could hear the frown in his voice and sat up, shaking her head, "Not hurt Rick." She smiled as reassuringly as she could. "A little uncomfortable the last couple times, that's all." He nodded slowly and impulsively she leaned over and kissed him, "If you ever hurt me, I'd say so. I promise."

His boyish grin looked almost out of place on such a big guy, but he grabbed her and pulled her into his lap, "Got ten minutes left." He reminded her. "Want another round? You be on top? Or you want me in your ass this time? I'm good either way."

"You're insatiable aren't you," Carolyn giggled. "But yeah, let's make it a good ten minutes," She bent down and kissed him.


Author's Note: So we're seeing a little bit of the flirting between River and Riddick, and his reaction. This is…for a mature River and Riddick, a bit of a more slowly developing relationship. I'm dropping hints regarding the characters and their preferences that are leading somewhere. Riddick tends to be fairly guarded so an outright explanation for his actions seems a bit out of character.

Chinese Translations:

pū jiē (drop dead! / go to hell! / fuck you! (Cantonese))

cào nà (fuck that)

pì gu (butt)

guǎn nǐ zìjǐ de shì (mind your own business)

mèi mei (little sister)

Yuàn Fótuó réncí (May Buddha be merciful / May the Buddha be merciful)