Mengliad (The Mengliad Series Book 1)

by Jana Janeway

  After several long seconds passed, Craddock turned towards Bibi. “This is the woman you tried to murder! You don’t even deserve to be in the same vehicle with her!”

  “I know that,” Bibi said sadly. “Just pull the car over and let me out. I’ll fend for myself. I deserve whatever happens to me.”

  “Shut up!” he exclaimed. “We’re not letting you out of the fucking car! And don’t even try to be noble, okay? In fact, don’t even talk right now! I am so fucking pissed at you, just the sound of your voice makes me want to vomit with rage!”

  “Craddock,” Jessica whispered, “show some compassion. She’s hurting.”

  “And I’m not?” he asked, struggling to keep his tone civil. “Do you have any idea how devastated I would be if you died?”

  “But I didn’t die,” she reminded him. “And with death, there’s grieving, but then you move on. Heal. It’s harder for her,” she surmised. “To be in love with your best friend for years, knowing you can never be with him? Seeing him with someone else, madly in love, doting on her, when all you can think about is how you wish it was you? I know you’re angry,” she repeated, “and you have every right to be, but she’s sorry, and in pain. Please, try to see this from her point of view?”

  “You’re too nice,” he grumbled. He was still holding onto his anger, but he planted a soft kiss against her temple.

  “Is there such a thing?” The joking lilt to her tone prompted an almost imperceptible smile to show itself on Craddock’s face. It was the most relaxed she’d felt him since Bibi had called them back at the motel room, with the cryptic instruction that they needed to run for their lives.

  “I guess not.” Shifting positions, his hand cupped her cheek as he pressed his lips gently against hers.

  Responding initially, it took her a moment before she pulled back, suddenly, her eyes darting in Bibi’s direction in explanation when he stared back at her quizzically.

  “I don’t care,” he told her. “I was perfectly willing to keep our relationship low key in front of her, to avoid causing her pain, but she doesn’t seem to care what kind of pain she causes, so why should I?”

  “Craddock, please,” Jessica begged. Sighing heavily, he dropped back against the seat, looking like a pouting child. She hid a smirk and inched up against him. “Thank you.”

  Exhaling sharply, with only a little less exasperation than before, he nodded as he wrapped his arm around her, allowing her soft, gentle affection to ease him down from his agitation.

  Eyes drifting closed, his anger ebbed to near nonexistence as he tried to guess what designs her index finger was drawing against his chest, taking what pleasure he could from the growing connection between them despite the tension in the car.

  “Guys?” Josiah finally spoke up, having been silent for nearly the entire trip, since leaving the industrial complex. “I see a shopping center up ahead. They’re bound to have a store that sells those pay as you go phones, right?”

  “Yeah,” Craddock agreed. “Go ahead and pull off at the next exit.”

  “Do you want me to go in with him,” Bibi asked, “or stay in the car with you guys?”

  “I don’t know. Can I trust you to go in with him?”

  Craddock’s snide tone brought out Bibi’s meekness once again. “Yes. I’m done being stupid.”

  “Then, yeah, go ahead and go in with him. And ask to use the store phone to activate it.” He pulled his wallet from his pocket, removing several bills and handing them to her. “And don’t forget to get a car charger! The thing’ll be pretty much dead to start with.”

  Once inside the parking lot, Craddock directed Josiah towards the back, wanting as much seclusion as possible. There were no other vehicles for several spaces or rows all around them, and Josiah had backed into the spot, face forward, so that they could easily see all the comings and goings from the strip of stores in the distance.

  Bibi was out of the vehicle first, already several steps away by the time Josiah exited. Taking advantage of her distance, Craddock quickly rolled down his window, calling Josiah over with a hiss of noise. “Keep an eye on her, okay? She’s emotional right now, and probably depressed, and I’m just not ready to offer her any sympathy at the moment, ya’know?”

  Josiah swallowed hard, scowling a little with the effort. “Yeah, I know. I’ll take care of it. No worries.”

  “Thanks.” Craddock gave him an upnod, waiting for him to walk away before rolling his window back up.

  “Thank you,” Jessica whispered, snuggling against him once more as he resettled in his seat. “I know you’re angry, and I know what she did was pretty horrible—”

  “Pretty horrible?” he interrupted. “What she did was despicable! It’s going to take me a long time to forgive her, if I ever do! How can you not be angry? She almost ended your life!”

  “I’m upset,” she admitted, her voice intensely calm on purpose, “but mostly, I just feel sorry for her. She’s in love with you, Craddock, and if she’s feeling even half of what I’m feeling, then she’s probably insane with the overwhelming emotions that come with it!”

  The subtext of what she had just said was not lost on him. Sure, she didn’t say the actual words, but what she did say was clear. She was in love with him. All thoughts of Bibi left his brain as he pulled her closer to him, his breath ragged as he began kissing her neck.

  “Craddock, are you okay?”

  “Yes.” He continued to brush his lips across her skin. “Why?”

  “Your breathing changed,” she choked out, undeniably affected by his attention.

  Her heart picked up pace, causing everything beyond what he was doing to spiral away to a distant, far off place that seemed light years from where they were.

  “I am so in love with you,” he whispered. “And I know you’re in love with me, too.” When she tensed, he shushed her, the sound soothing rather than harsh. “I know you can’t say the words yet, but I can feel you, Jessica. Our connection is growing stronger, and I can literally feel the love you have for me. Can you feel my love for you?” He kissed up to behind her ear, the tip of his tongue flicking gently at her lobe, eliciting a shaky sigh from her in response.

  “Yes, I can, and it’s wonderful, but also scary, all at the same time.”

  “Don’t be scared,” he whispered. “It’s only unnerving because the intensity of it is a new thing for you.”

  “You don’t seem to be unnerved by it,” she brought to his attention. “And isn’t it a new thing for you, too? I mean, you said you’ve never felt this Chimie thing for anyone before.”

  “Chimie, no, but intimacy for a Mengliad is more intense than it is for a Human. And I have been intimate with former girlfriends before. So, that much, I am familiar with.”

  Due to his physical affection, it was becoming difficult to form thoughts, let alone sentences, but she made an attempt at coherency, anyway. “Then, with what I’m feeling, where’s the line between what is normal for a Mengliad, and the Chimie thing?”

  “The Chimie is the connection between us,” he explained, his hand traveling up her shirt, slowly, so as to give her the chance to object, though he knew she wouldn’t. “You can feel the other person inside you. What they want. Need. Desire. It adds to the intensity, but, without it, it’s still more powerful than what you’re used to.”

  She nodded weakly, agreeing to everything he had just said. “How long do you think they’ll be in there?”

  Chapter Thirty

  “Thirty minutes, maybe?” Knowing exactly why the question was asked, he ventured further, his hand still beneath her shirt, seeking and fondling. “Scooch down in your seat a little.”

  “Why?” she asked, though she immediately complied anyway, before he even started to answer.

  “You know why.” Without pretense, he dropped his hand, the heel of his palm pressing between her legs. “Can I rub myself against you?”

  Nodding, she moaned when he began to rock into her while arousing her with t
he movement of his hand.

  Within a few minutes, she was tensing from the force of her emotions, and from her growing need for release, which caused her to start to shake.

  And then she began to cry.

  “Relax,” he whispered, grazing his lips across her cheek, up to her ear.

  “I can’t!” she cried. “It’s too—too intense. I can’t—I can’t—Just—just stop, please. . .” She squirmed to lessen the contact of his hand, but he just shifted with her, though he held his palm steady. He stopped all movement, including the rocking of his hips.

  “Jessica, it’s okay,” he assured her. “The intensity is part of the enjoyment. You’re just overwhelmed, because you’ve never experienced this before. Just relax. Try to flow with it, okay? Don’t fight it.”

  When he started moving again, his hand only, she immediately stiffened, gasping in air and crying out, though weaker than before. “Craddock, please, it’s too much.”

  “Are you in pain?” Even though he knew she wasn’t actually feeling any discomfort, he slowed the pace of his strokes against her as he awaited her answer.

  “No,” she admitted, breathing heavily, straining to speak, “but it’s too much! I’m going insane!”

  “You’re not, I promise.” Planting soft, gentle kisses along her jaw, he picked up the pace again, gradually. “Do you trust me?”

  “Yes.” She answered without hesitation, but her tone teetered on the brink of what sounded like fear.

  Nervousness was one thing—he expected that—but this was on another level entirely. He nuzzled her cheek, slowly grazing a path to her temple, hoping to calm her. “What are you so afraid of?”

  “I don’t know.” She shook her head, frustrated by the inability to explain. “It just. . . keeps growing and growing, and it doesn’t seem like it’s ever going to stop, and I just. . . don’t know how much more I can take, or what’s going to happen if it does stop.”

  “It’s going to keep growing, until it stops,” he told her. “And it will, eventually, stop. I’m going to make it stop.”

  “How?” she asked, oblivious to the hidden meaning within his words due to the state she was in.

  He smirked against her, so that she could feel him do so. “How do you think?”

  “Oh,” she whispered, blushing. “With as intense as this is, that’s gotta be ten times worse, right?”

  “If by worse you mean more intense, then yes. But it’ll be a pleasant intensity. This would be, too, if you weren’t so freaked out right now.”

  “How can I not be? I feel like I’m going to explode!”

  “Jessica,” he sighed, “you need to relax. And when I say relax, I don’t mean your body. I mean, relax your mind. You’re trying too hard to catch up with what’s happening, instead of just riding it through. Let it lead, and you just. . . follow. Don’t try to control it.”

  As soon as he said it, it was like a light bulb went on inside his brain. She was trying to control it.

  “You can’t control it, Jessica. Relinquish the control, and it won’t seem so overwhelming.”

  “I don’t know how.” She was on the verge of panic again. “Tell me how.”

  “You need to relax,” he repeated in a soft, comforting tone, as he brushed his lips across and around the contours of her ear. “Stop thinking about it so much. You’re focusing on the power of it. You’re fighting it, instead of submissively accepting it.”

  The change in her was almost instantaneous. Literally, he could feel the difference, her mind no longer in turmoil, her body moving with him instead of writhing impatiently, her whole being more at peace.

  “There’ya go, baby.” He began rocking his hips once again, when he saw the look of pleasure wash over her face, leaving the scowl of frustration far behind. “Better?”

  Nodding, she then whispered, as if all the air had left her lungs, “Oh God. . . this is incredible!”

  “This is just the beginning. Wait till the finale.” He grinned when she moaned in response. “Whatever happens, just keep doing what you’re doing. It’s working.”

  “If something weird is about to happen, please just tell me now. I don’t like surprises. . .”

  He shushed her before she could start panicking again, lightly kissing her pursed lips. “It’s not dissimilar from what Humans experience, it’s just. . . more intense. More pleasurable. At least, from what I’m to understand. Having never been Human, I’m only going by what I’ve heard.”

  “Speaking as a former Human, in comparison, this is mind-blowing!”

  His sense of pride swelled, taking her words as a compliment. “When you get to the brink, tell me.”

  “Why?” She was panting now, her body climbing in ways she didn’t think were possible.

  “Because I’m going to try to help ease you through it.”

  “Why?” she asked again, scowling.

  He smirked into her hair. “Because I don’t want your brains all over the car.”

  For a moment, she smirked back, but it soon faded. “How will I know?”

  “You’ll know.” His whispered answer shifted into a moan, finally able to surrender to the pleasure he was feeling since she was, at last, enjoying herself instead of panicking. “I can’t wait to make love to you properly,” he breathed. “To be inside you, surrounded by you, fully and completely connected to you.”

  She sighed her agreement, her gyrations against his hand picking up pace, almost frantically. “I think I’m close,” she gasped seconds later.

  He knew she was. He could feel her impending release as if it were his own. “Let me control the speed.” He spoke softly as he nuzzled just behind her ear. “Be still.”

  It took several moments for her to comply, her body almost on autopilot, but eventually she relaxed, stopping all movement, allowing him to take over completely.

  Nearly a minute later and she was there. Her body tensed, her muttered words, including ‘oh God’ and ‘holy shit’ were barely audible, and then she screamed out, her thoughts far from the attention it might bring them in doing so. He dropped his lips onto hers to silence her while slowing the pace, lessening the contact of his hand against her.

  Feeling her start to relax, knowing she was drifting, he pulled back, breaking the kiss. “Do you want another one?”

  She blinked up at him, confused. “You can do that?”

  “You can do that,” he answered with an amused smile, “but I can help. Is that a yes?”

  “I kinda do,” she said shakily, “but my body feels like jelly at the moment. I don’t know if I could handle another one.”

  Her tone seemed to be requesting his opinion on the matter, so he offered it. “Subsequent ones aren’t as strong, if that helps in the decision making.”

  After a moment of deliberation, she nodded slowly, smiling back at him when he gave her a pleased grin.

  “Don’t scream this time,” he said as he began to gently, almost lazily, stimulate her again.

  “Sorry. It took me by surprise.”

  “It’s just because we’re in such a public place,” he explained. “If we weren’t, you could be as loud as you wanted to be, and I would have zero issues with that.”

  “Good to know.” There was a trace of teasing in her reply, but all humor fell away as she started to climb once again. “Already?” She knew he would understand what she meant by the one word question.

  “You’re already there, so it takes no time at all to get you back up. Just relax, okay? Let me control the pace.”

  Struggling to make her body obey, she forced her focus onto her clenched fists, on how her nails dug into her palms, but she was soon writhing and moaning, rapidly approaching the edge of release once again.

  “Don’t scream.” He whispered the reminder before pressing his lips to hers, firmly and quickly bringing her, for the second time, to the brink and over.

  They kissed passionately as she rode it out, but as his movements slowed to a stop, Jessica reached down betw
een them, fumbling to undo his pants’ snap and zipper.

  Shocked, he pulled back abruptly, his expression asking the question his voice was unable to.

  “I’m doing just what you think I’m doing.” Her grin was barely noticeable, almost coy. “I’m helping you to not make a mess in your pants.”

  “Jessica—”

  His attempt to argue was cut off by her placing a single finger to his lips. “I know you want me to. And I want to, too, okay?”

  Almost as if in a daze, he nodded weakly, settling back in the seat as she exposed him and wrapped her hand around him. Lost in the sensations she was creating, he closed his eyes, his breathing ragged as the impending rush of pleasure drew closer.

  When he tensed and gasped, and his expression changed, she thought he was there, but the physical proof of that never came. Then he reached out to grab her hand, stopping her movements, which just further confused her.

  “What?” she asked, her scowl deepening when his lips twitched into a smirk.

  “I’m done.” He laughed at the quizzical look she threw back at him.

  “How can you be? You didn’t. . .” She trailed off, embarrassed to say the words.

  “Mengliads can control that.” By her return expression, he knew she needed more of an explanation. “It’s to help prevent unwanted pregnancies. We decide when to release. . . you know, sperm. We can feel the pleasure, without producing the product.”

  When she still seemed confused, he sighed and started putting himself back together, zipping and buttoning up his pants. “I’m sorry I didn’t say something sooner. I was about to, but you put your finger to my lips and stopped me.”

  “I’m not angry, Craddock,” she assured him, “I’m just. . . thrown a little, I guess. I mean, how is that possible? How can you just not produce it?”

  “I’m still technically producing it, but I can decide when to release it.”

  “How?”

  He chuckled a little, awkwardly, as he pulled her into his arms. “It’s almost like. . . bladder control, in a way. You can control when you use the restroom, right?”