by Jana Janeway
‘You won’t. It’s there, just reluctant. Relax. Let it happen. No one in this van is going to think any less of you. Or us. Trust me.’
The sound she made when she finally climbed over was more a strangled cry than a scream, but it was soft in volume, and then it faded into a faint whimper. As the peak of it eased and she started to float, she collapsed back to the mattress, completely relaxed, which was exactly what he had set out to accomplish.
Smiling proudly, he removed his hand from her body, lifting it out from under the covers and bringing it to his face. When she slowly opened her eyes, watching him, he inhaled deeply, purposefully, then slipped his fingers into his mouth and sucked the wetness from them.
‘You’re relaxed now. Go to sleep.’
‘What about you?’
‘This wasn’t about me.’
She could feel how aroused he was, both mind and body. He was obviously uncomfortable. ‘If you won’t let me do it, will you?’
Swallowing hard, he hesitated before answering, in thought. He’d never done that in front of her before. He hadn’t done it all, since they had gotten together.
Sensing his embarrassment, she turned onto her side and faced him, placing her hand on his cheek. ‘I can do it – I want to do it – but if you don’t want me to, then I want you to. Please? Besides, it’s not really infront of me. The blanket is covering you.’
‘Why? Why do you want me to?’
‘Because I love you. And because you’re uncomfortable right now. And, well… I think it’s kinda hot.’
He stifled a laugh. ‘Hot? How?’
She shrugged. ‘You like watching me.’
‘Point taken.’
‘So then you’ll do it?’
‘Only if you promise me something.’
‘What’s that?’
‘After, you sleep.’
She smirked. ‘I can promise to try.’
Smirking back at her, he nodded in acceptance; immediately but slowly, he tucked his hand under the blanket. The initial awkwardness he felt dissipated as they continued to gaze into each other’s eyes, as pleasure overtook unease and climbed towards its peak.
Knowing he was close, she leaned in and pressed her lips to his, the kiss gentle to start with, until he intensified it. He knew what she was planning, and so he tensed in anticipation, moving his leg to accommodate her. Permission given, her hand drifted down to just below where his was in contact with his own body, cupping and fondling him. He moaned in response, though the sound was absorbed by their now-passionate kiss.
Seconds away, he quickened his movements, anxious and desperate to get there, but then her devious thoughts took root, and he groaned in protest. She ignored him.
Nudging his hand out of the way, she took over, but slowed to an almost lazy pace, prolonging the reward he had just been on the brink of receiving.
‘Why are you torturing me?’
‘It’s fun.’
The wide smile that formed on his face broke their kiss. Momentarily. If she wanted to play like that, he was game. Abruptly, he crashed his lips back onto hers and pushed his hand between her legs, spreading them to give himself the access he needed. Then he assaulted her with perfect, rapid strokes, causing her to yelp. Where she was the epitome of slow, he was the exact opposite.
If he kept going as he was, he would have her screaming inside of two minutes, and they both knew it. Knowing she would want to avoid that, since she was nervous about being overheard and caught, he made her a deal. ‘You speed up, I slow down.’
‘You’re cruel.’
‘I’m cruel? I was there! You’re killing me!’
‘You won’t die.’
‘Neither will you.’
‘Of embarrassment I will! Slow down, please. It’s too fast.’
‘Speed up. It’s too slow.’
As soon as she complied, he did, too, bringing relief to her mind and him back to the brink within seconds. Breaking the kiss, he dropped his head and shuddered, his low moan so quiet she almost couldn’t hear it.
Before he was even fully recovered, as he continued to pant, she returned to playfully taunting him. ‘You don’t play fair.’
They were both struggling to keep the smiles off their faces, as if the other was completely clueless. ‘I don’t play fair? You started it! I think what I did was plenty fair! You wanna see unfair?’
The moment he thought it, he was back to stimulating her with renewed vigor. Initially, she began to squirm, almost as if she was trying to get away from him, or at least get him to lessen the contact, but he knew neither of those were the case.
‘I love hearing you scream.’
‘Not here. Craddock, please, not here.’
‘Yes, here. Nothing bad is going to happen, baby, I promise.’
Actually past the point of caring, her continued protests were weak at best. ‘God, Craddock, please. Slow down.’
‘No. If I thought you really wanted me to, I would. You know you don’t. You’re just nervous, and don’t want the culpability. It’s off your shoulders. The responsibility is mine. I’m doing this to you. You don’t have a choice.’
‘That’s not true. I could stop you.’
Grinning, he nuzzled against her neck. ‘Let’s just say, for right now, that you can’t. You’re at my mercy.’
‘That’s a little bit true.’
‘Besides, stopping now would be cruel. You’re so close. Can you feel it?’
‘Yes.’
‘Do you want it?’
‘You know I do.’
‘Even if it means getting caught by our friends?’
‘I think there’s a part of you that wants them to hear us. To know what we’re doing.’
‘I don’t want it, but I don’t care if it happens.’
‘And the fact that I do?’
‘Shows how shy you are. It’s adorable, really. Sshh. Concentrate. Stop trying to distract yourself. I want you to scream.’
It was a losing battle, not that she was putting much effort into fighting it. It was too intense and right within reach, and in that moment, she didn’t really care who heard her. But Craddock knew she would later, after the fact. He waited until the last possible second, then slowed his movements and dropped his lips onto hers. Those actions did nothing to prevent or lessen the sound she made when she was finally there.
“You guys okay?” Wade asked, and Jessica tensed.
Craddock, however, just offered her a smug smirk as he broke their kiss.
‘I hate you.’
He knew she didn’t mean it. She was just embarrassed. ‘No you don’t.’ “Yeah, we’re fine,” Craddock answered. “Jessica just… had a nightmare. She’s okay now.”
“A nightmare?” Wade whispered towards Bibi, who stifled a laugh in response. “Hey, Craddock?” He forced the mirth from his tone. “You gonna be ready to drive soon?”
“Yeah, soon,” Craddock called back. “As soon as Jessica dozes off again. You okay for a little while longer?”
“Yeah,” Wade answered. “Just crawl on up here when you’re set to take over.”
Wade and Bibi heard a faint, “No problem,” and then giggling, which told the story, even if they didn’t already know it. They shared looks of amusement.
“That definitely sounded like more fun than any nightmare I’ve ever had,” Wade joked, whispering so that only Bibi would hear him.
Bibi chuckled softly. “Yeah, we should definitely have ourselves a nightmare later.”
Hesitating, Wade eventually asked, “They’re really connected to one another, aren’t they? I mean, even beyond Chimie.” He glanced in her direction to gauge her reaction before returning his eyes to the road.
“Yeah, they are. If you believe in such a thing, I think they’re soulmates.”
“I do, actually. But I don’t think all soulmates have Chimie. I think some soulmates are just… ideally suited to be with each other.”
A corner of her mouth upturned, smiling t
o herself. “I think I agree with that.”
He smiled as well, though wider than she was. “Good.” He then mentioned carefully, a moment later and as his smile dropped, “I think, sometimes, Chimie might be more trouble than it’s worth.”
“How so?” she asked curiously.
“Well, if it’s unrequited, for one.”
She could tell then what subject he was oh-so-cautiously trying to broach. “Yeah, true.” Her reply was vague, wondering just how far he would press her for information. He knew the facts. She knew he did. Having been assigned to them as a group, there was no way he couldn’t know. Yet, in all their months together as a couple, he had never once asked her about it.
“I mean, it’s hard enough getting over something like that, without, you know, the intensity of Chimie.”
“I think, when it’s one-sided, it’s less intense. And since it’s never returned, it fades over time.”
“Yeah, I guess.” He paused, as if in thought, or as if he was trying to decide on a new approach. Finally, he said, “Would be especially hard, with all that, if you were around the guy all the time.”
They were going to tap dance around the subject for hours if Bibi didn’t just come out with it and tell him what he wanted to know. “I’m not in love with Craddock, Wade. Any Chimie I had been feeling, it sort of… morphed, into this, kind of, sisterly love… thing.”
He sighed, relieved. “I know we don’t have Chimie, but I think what we do have is pretty special.”
“It is,” she agreed and he smiled over at her, finally relaxing his tense body into the seat.
When first starting the conversation, he was nervous, but now knowing where they stood with each other, he felt like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders.
“Did you know that they can read each other’s thoughts?” He glanced towards the now silent, still out of sight couple through the rearview mirror. “Like, have actual conversations with each other, telepathically?”
“Not as fact, but yeah, I pretty much had that figured out.”
“To never have a private moment? I think that would be unnerving.”
“They don’t seem too upset by it. I take it you think it’s weird?”
“Maybe not weird, but it’s definitely rare, and is possibly something that could work to our advantage.”
Confused, Bibi asked, “How?”
“I don’t know yet, but if he can feed her answers to questions or something?” Shrugging, he added, “Might come in handy at some point.”
“Like, if we’re caught while rescuing Shea and Stacy?”
He shook his head. “No. If we’re caught, no amount of talking will save us.”
****
Josiah scoffed, flipping off the radio since, besides static, the only stations that came in clearly showcased either elevator music or political debates. “You sure you don’t want me to drive for a while?” he asked.
“Nah, I’m fine.” Bleary-eyed, Craddock strained to focus on the road. “Just keep talking to me, ‘kay, man?”
“‘Kay. Sure. So, where was I?” Josiah scowled as he tried to remember.
Rolling his eyes, Craddock muttered, “And then her roommate came in…”
“Oh, yeah,” Josiah drawled with a widening grin. He picked up his previous story from where he had left off. “So, the roommate comes in, and she’s even hotter! I didn’t even have to ask! She just starts taking off her clothes! And then she gets up on the counter—”
“Joe! Joe!” When a confused scowl was thrown in his direction, he sighed. “Look, sorry, but I really don’t want to hear the details!”
Josiah’s scowl became a pout. “You were talking about Jessica before.”
“About how much I love her,” Craddock countered. “Not about how we… are with each other!”
Even though he fought to hide it, a slight smirk tugged at Josiah’s lips.
“What’s that smile for?” Craddock asked, and Josiah lost the fight.
“Pretty much already got an idea about how you are with each other… earlier.”
A grin slowly appeared on Craddock’s face. “Just don’t let on to Jessica that you heard, okay? She’s embarrassed.”
“Hey, sure, no problem,” Josiah agreed, then immediately changed the subject. “So, who was that woman back at that gas station? Old girlfriend?”
Craddock groaned. “No. I just went to school with her. A million years ago.”
“Huh.” Josiah shrugged, turning his attention back to the road ahead of them. “With the way Jessica reacted, I woulda thought she was more than that.”
“Jessica felt threatened by her,” Craddock explained. “Unnecessarily.”
“You’re so crazy in love with her! You guys are so meant to be together… That other woman, or any woman, wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell with you. Jessica doesn’t realize that?”
Craddock smirked. “She does, but she’s been emotional lately.”
“How come?”
The smirk Craddock wore dropped. “Just… with everything going on… being on the run again, and rescuing Shea and Stacy...”
It wasn’t exactly a lie, but the main reason for her irrational behaviors could not be discussed just yet. She didn’t want anyone to know about the pregnancy until later. They had mutually decided to wait, knowing the upcoming task would be stressful enough without adding to it.
He glanced in Josiah’s direction. “She’s scared.”
“She’s not the only one.”
Though Josiah had muttered that under his breath, Craddock heard him anyway. Curious to know, wondering ever since his friend had volunteered himself, he asked, “Then why did you agree to do this?”
Chapter Eight
They were all doing it for their own reasons, but there they all were, staring at the entrance to the subway, all but Jessica wondering if she would back out or see it through.
But she had to do it, regardless of the odds. This was her brother, and her best friend and sister-in-law. She couldn’t do nothing.
Craddock was doing it for Jessica. If it was important to her, he would risk his life. And it was a risk.
Bibi was doing it because of the bond she felt, and had always had, with Craddock and Josiah. And now Jessica. She didn’t want to be left out. If they were all going, she wasn’t about to stay behind.
Wade was doing it because he felt that without his assistance, they would fail, period. It was a long shot anyway.
Josiah, as Craddock had learned during their heart-to-heart talk many hours before, was doing it not only because he loved Craddock like a brother, and would back him in anything, but because he was actually angry and wanting to fight back.
Ranting quietly, so as not to disturb the others in the van, he had carried on for nearly twenty minutes about the injustices the Registry was responsible for, though he used far simpler terms as he passionately voiced his outrage…
****
“Who do they think they are? For the last year, we’ve been prisoners! Stuck in that tiny town! I couldn’t see my family! Couldn’t date! All because of a lie? It’s not right! What they did to you and Jessica ain’t right!”
“So…” Craddock was calm, trying to encourage Josiah to be so as well, “you’re doing this to get back at the Registry?”
“They need to be taken down a peg or two!” Josiah shot back, but then added, a little less severely, “But no, that’s not the only reason. You’re like a brother to me, and Jessica is like a sister. If you go, I go!”
****
His reasons and obvious hatred had surprised Craddock, though he wasn’t sure what answer he’d been expecting when posing the question in the first place.
And now they were staring destiny in the face. They had arrived a few hours early, which only added to the tension as they sat around and waited, idle time allowing their thoughts to dwell on all the things that could go wrong. Finally, less than an hour before they planned to board the subway, at the stati
on before Shea and Stacy’s typical boarding stop, Wade exited the vehicle, rounded to the back, opened the double doors, and began rummaging.
“If Lloyd did as I asked,” he said to the confused foursome, “there will be a suitcase back here, under this weird mattress thing, under a trap door of sorts.” It took no time at all to locate it. “Good ol’ Lloyd.” He brought the older piece of luggage around to the sliding door after shutting the rear ones. “Disguises,” he explained, then popped the case open to reveal a variety of wigs, hats, and trench coats.
“Why did he give us this stuff?” Jessica remembered clearly that the idea to rescue Shea and Stacy had come up after leaving the crazy old man’s house.
“You never know when you might need a disguise.” Wade then began to hand out wigs to Craddock and Jessica, both in direct contrast to their own natural color and length. “They’re not the best,” he said as he chose one for himself, “but we’re only looking to buy a few minutes with them.”
Choosing a dark blue Yankees baseball cap for Craddock, he tossed it to him, then tossed Jessica a feminine pageboy style hat before selecting a nondescript black baseball cap for himself. “Craddock and I will sit off to the side, in view of you at all times.” He directed the previously reviewed instructions at Jessica. “Stand with your back to the door. When we see Shea and Stacy get on, and see how many agents follow them in, Craddock will let you know telepathically. If the plan needs to be altered in any way, or if we need to abort, I will tell Craddock and he will tell you.”
Jessica nodded in understanding, swallowing hard, her heart racing.
‘Deep breaths, baby. Stress isn’t good for Junior.’
‘Shea will ask a million questions; we won’t have time for that.’
‘Start with that, then. Tell him there’s no time for questions and answers.’
“You won’t have much time,” Wade pulled three trench coats out of the suitcase and snapped it closed, “so move fast, but not so fast as to draw attention. You know better what they’ll respond to, so I’ll leave that to you, but try not to get them panicking, okay?” When Jessica nodded again, he asked, “Everyone’s clear then? On what to do? Bibi? Josiah?”
“Our part’s pretty easy,” Josiah grumbled, somewhat annoyed by the task assigned to him. “We drive ahead, park outside the exit, and floor it when you all climb in.”
