Jax pulled out his bag from the transport. "Let's go," he said.
CHAPTER SEVEN SO GOOD IT'S SCARY
Jax followed behind Waverly, trying to keep his mind on the escape plan. He failed miserably. Deek's words kept repeating over and over in his mind. He didn't know if they were truth or fiction but he had a feeling Deek might be right. After all, this mating ritual hadn't gone like any of the others. And if satisfaction was the key, he had never felt so satisfied, so right, so complete before in his life, as he did when he was with Waverly.
Just touching her made his stomach clench with desire.
He had promised to set her free by the end of the coming day. He didn't want to do that. The thought made him panic inside, his gut tightening while he sought a reason she would have to stay by his side. His mind began to spin through possibilities.
Waverly let the door close on him when she entered the house. He had a sneaking suspicion she wasn't as happy as he was about the fact they could be mated. He hooked the portal with his heel and slammed it shut behind him. Her body jumped at the sound, but she didn't turn around.
She tried to close the door to her room in his face, but he simply pushed until her boots slid back across the tile. He closed and locked it, then faced her.
"I'm not mated to you," she said.
"Okay."
His simple response seemed to take her off guard. He stepped towards her. She stepped back, her face confused. "I'm not going to have a family, Jax. I already decided that."
"Fine," he said. His body was on fire. They should be running as fast as they could from the very real threat of the Inter-world Council but he didn't care. He would rot in prison for the rest of his life to have her again right now.
She stepped away from him. "I don't think you're listening to me."
"Look Waverly, if we're mated, then it's out of both our hands. The gods have blessed us with finding each other. If we're not, we'll know soon enough. Tomorrow, the ritual will be over and I'll know for sure what I feel for you." He moved again, trying to corral her against the bed. "But right now, I think we both know what we need."
"I don't need you."
"The hell you don't. You need me inside you so badly, I can smell it from here." She moved towards the bed and he felt a bolt of triumph shoot through his body.
"Jax, this isn't a good idea."
"Too late now, Waverly. It's just too damn late." He reached a hand up and lightly traced her lower lip with his thumb, then closed the distance between them when she shut her eyes.
He bent his head and kissed her, using only his lips, keeping it light. She moaned. "Sit," he ordered, then encouraged her to follow directions by pushing down on her shoulders. He knelt to pull off her boots.
"We don't have time for this. We should be running right now."
"Don't worry. I have a feeling we'll both be fast." He pulled her to her feet. "Take off your pants." He kissed her again. "Hurry!"
She fumbled at her zipper, while he dropped his own trousers to his knees. When she was naked from the waist down, he turned her quickly, placing her palms on the mattress. He paused to run his hands over her hips. She was perfect.
He leaned down to kiss along the lower edge of her back. She hummed. His hand reached between her legs from behind and nestled in to find her clitoris.
"Jax!"
"Yes Waverly," he said, diving his thumb inside her while his index finger rubbed circles on her clitoris. He bit lightly on her left buttock.
"I need you."
"You've got me."
"Now."
"My pleasure." He stood up and guided his shaft inside her. They both gasped at the contact.
"So good, so good, so good," she whispered.
He pulled her hips back into his and paused. Control slipped away from him. "I'm sorry," he said, then pulled back and slammed into her, his hand reaching around her to find her clit. She grabbed the blanket below her and twisted.
"Jax, I..." she didn't finish. But he felt her body locking around him. Her release triggered his and he lost his balance, dropping down to smash her face-first into the bed.
He kept his hand on her clitoris, slowly turning circles. Aftershocks ran through her with every turn. Her continued pleasure ensured that his erection never faded. He moved out and then back in. Then slid all the way out and laid down beside her, leaving his hand still pinned under her body.
She turned her head and seemed to study his face. "I don't want a mate," she said.
"Do you know what will happen to you if you don't acknowledge the bond if we have one?"
"Alterians don't enter into a marriage unless it's a love match."
His finger turned another lazy circle between her legs and she shut her eyes, her mouth parting slightly. He moved her onto her side facing him and put one of her legs over his. He waited until she opened her eyes before dragging his shaft up and back across her, picking up her moisture and teasing her clit.
He pushed the tip of his cock inside, keeping eye contact.
"If you don't take your mate, Waverly, you'll be in constant hell. Your whole body will ache for me. You'll need to touch me regularly." He pushed his shaft deeper, watching the cobalt blue of her irises turn black with desire.
"Alterians don't mate for life. They only marry for love. Even then, we only stay in relationships if both partners agree it is what they want."
"What else are you?" He nudged himself deeper inside her.
"What?" She grabbed his shoulders.
He took her hand and guided it to the top of her thighs. "Touch yourself for me. I won't last long at this rate."
She closed her eyes and began moving her finger under his. Jax pushed deep inside her body and began to move slowly. A small movement that felt so good, he could barely concentrate. But he needed to tell her something. What was it? "You must have another race in your bloodlines, Waverly. You're too tall to only be Alterian."
Her finger sped up. He continued the small movement, but increased the power in his thrusts, hitting the top of her passage. Her face became a mask of concentration and he knew she was close to her climax. He slowed down but kept the powerful movements.
"Please."
"Please what?"
She leaned forward and bit him through his shirt. Hard. It would hurt later, but now it took his own need higher and suddenly, he had to come too. His hands grabbed her hips, adding to the strength of his thrusts. He increased his speed.
They came at the same time, each of their climaxes pulling the other up to a greater peak. Jax spurted over and over again, as if he hadn't had more sex over the past fourteen hours than he had since the last mating ritual. Every time her muscles contracted around his shaft, his cock fought to come again. When she released him, he filled her, which in turn brought her to another peak.
When it ended, they lay there, staring at each other.
"Shanks," she whispered.
"That wasn't normal," he agreed. He kissed her, tasting cinnamon and desire on her lips.
"I'm in trouble, aren't I?"
"No more than I am." He pulled out of her reluctantly. "We have to go."
She nodded, looking at him with frightened eyes. He understood how she felt. He had just been blown away himself.
CHAPTER EIGHT POSSIBILITES
Waverly started the sandrail, glad that Jax hadn't argued with her about driving. She had expected him to. The man was bossy, that was for sure.
They were heading into Bazarat to see a friend of his he thought would be able to get them off the planet. They needed to move fast. It had been over an hour since they crash-landed.
The sandrail, sitting low to the ground, bounced and jerked her in the harness. Jax held onto the rollbar above them and constantly scanned the desert. It felt right to have him beside her. Too right. She forced her mind onto her current problem.
If Deek was correct and the Inter-world Council had people tracking her, the safest place she could run to was back to her home
planet. She didn't want to return there, but if she went, the Council would have a hell of a time getting to her. Alterians protected their own.
She swerved to catch a slight rise in the land, enjoying the small rush that came when the sandrail left the ground for a few moments. It came down with a jerk.
"Waverly," Jax shouted to her, above the whip of the wind.
She kept her eyes forward but grinned, liking his white knuckled hold on the rollbar.
They circled around to the North side of Bazarat and came to a sliding halt in front of a shack. It looked like it would fall into itself at any moment, but that was typical for Sector 12. She wouldn't miss this planet, only the rush of working Junkeater deals and flying by the seat of her pants.
A man came from around the shack. "Jax, long time, friend," he said, his voice thick with an accent she couldn't place, his speech the strange slang locals spoke on Sector 12.
"Need a lift mighty fast," Jax said back to him.
"No going off-planet, man."
"Calling in the favor. Need a lift pronto." Jax unsnapped his harness and hopped out, grabbing their bags.
"Hmm," the man said, looking at Waverly with his mean, beady little eyes. He and his shack had a similar feel to them. His humanoid form was different somehow. She couldn't place what was wrong until he lifted a hand to touch his shirt in a nervous gesture. Six fingers fluttered on the dirty cloth.
She didn't like the looks of him, and had to force herself to unsnap her harness rather than turn the sandrail around and leave.
Jax walked towards him. "Gotta get off now, man. No time for yappin'."
"Who the woman?"
"My mate. She goes. No question."
Waverly opened her mouth to argue with him, then shut it. This man wouldn't care about the finer points of their relationship.
She stepped out and circled around the sandrail, her hand dropping to her side. She wanted to pull her blaster. This man reminded her of the beetle under the safe house.
"You call in favor, you go free. Woman pays for ride." He paused, looking at Jax with a slight twist to his mouth that might be a smile. "No question."
"Regular price?"
"Umm."
Guess that was a yes. Waverly resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
The man turned and started back around the shack.
"I don't like this," she whispered.
"We don't have much of a choice. Time is crucial here."
They followed the man, and Waverly wondered where they were going. It wasn't as if he had a star cruiser behind his house.
It turned out she was wrong. He did, indeed, have a cruiser behind his shack, in the bottom of a ravine. They got to it by walking down a series of ladders and a well-worn path. The closer she came, the more worried she grew. She could actually see exposed wiring where panels had fallen off the outside shielding. It made the junk she'd flown for Alexander look like the AlphaBird.
At the door, the man turned. "Money first."
Jax opened his bag and took out a stack of decodreams. When he counted well past the normal off-world fare, Waverly put a hand out to stop him. "You've got to be kidding me. How much are you paying him?"
"5,000."
"What?" She said it softly. "There is no way you are paying him twice the standard fare to fly on this falling-apart heap."
The man with the beady eyes laughed. She turned to him, and contemplated again the similarity he had with the beetle.
"Hey!" Jax said, his tone abrupt. He leaned down and whispered, "I'm taking your blaster away if you don't get that look out of your eyes." She snapped her gaze to his. "What does money matter if we're dead or in Hell's Gate? We can't spend it there."
"This piece of junk doesn't look like it can fly into Bazarat, let alone another planet."
Jax handed over the money. The man nodded, then looked at her. "This ship fastest on Sector 12, girlie girl."
"Riiight," she said.
The man laughed again and turned to walk inside.
Waverly followed Jax, not liking the turn of events.
The inside of the ship didn't do anything to calm her. Everything looked salvaged off other models, held together with bits of string and hastily done welding.
She leaned into Jax. "Hell's Gate doesn't sound so bad if you're dead."
"Don't tell me you don't find this exciting? I thought you loved the thrill of any adventure."
"Sure," she hissed at him. "As long as I'm at the controls, I'll fly in anything." When he laughed at her, she added, "Glad I'm amusing you," in a tone that sounded childish even to her ears.
Within minutes, she felt the rumble of the pre-flight blaster check as it went into rotation. Jax forced her into a seat and clicked her harness in place, while she tried to control her urge to run.
He sat next to her and secured himself in. "Don't worry. He and his ship might not be anything to look at, but it will get us where we need to go."
"And where's that?" It occurred to her he hadn't given the man a destination.
"He only makes runs to Sector 9 and back."
"Great," she said, leaning her head against the peeling paint on the wall behind her. "What in the hell are we planning to do on Sector 9? Make snowballs?" Sector 9 was covered in snow no matter what the lunar period. Sometimes it was freezing, sometimes frigid, and sometimes it was just cold.
"Catch another junket."
"Damn straight I'm catching a ship out of there." She shut her eyes. "As much as I don't want to do it, it looks like I'll have to go home."
She jumped and opened her eyes when Jax ran a hand down her face. "We could go to Jimlee," he said softly.
"Why would I go there?"
"Because I'm going there, Waverly, and I want you to go with me."
"Why?" Waverly's stomach twisted when she realized that her time with this man might not be over.
"My exile is finished. I need to find out who framed me seven years ago." She met his gaze with her own and saw the fire burning inside him. "I didn't even fight them. When they accused me of selling guns to unauthorized races, I blew it off. I didn't do it and I figured it was all a big mistake." His lips became a firm line. "It's ironic I've spent the last seven years doing the very thing that got me exiled in the first place. I thought it was a sick sort of justice."
"Do you care this much? Seven years is a long time Jax. I would revel in my freedom."
"A long time but not long enough. I need to find out who was behind this." He looked across the room for a moment, thinking through his plan. Then he met her gaze. "And I need you to come with me."
"Why?"
"Because we're mated, Waverly, and I'm not spending my life alone now that I've found you."
"You don't know that."
He looked at her.
"Jax, I'm Alterian. We don't take mates like your race does."
"Alterian and what, Waverly? Don't tell me you're purebred. You must be a giant on your planet."
She was, but she didn't like it. "So what are you saying? That I'm half Jimlee?"
"You think that isn't a possibility?"
Waverly thought of her mother. All she knew of her father was that they had met off-world during one of her mother's wandering periods. Her grandmother had told her she didn't understand why her mother was so attracted to men not of their race. Could it be that she was half Jimlee? She would never know. Her family was dead now and her mother's secrets had died with her. But if that was the case, it would explain the overwhelming sensations she experienced with Jax.
"You don't know we're mated."
"You don't think it's a possibility? It would explain why this mating cycle went so differently for me." He said it mildly, as if he didn't care about her answer, but his eyes were an intense, dark green.
"I don't think that's proof."
"We'll never have proof, but think about it. You even gave me the Jimlee gesture of love between mates."
"What?"
He leaned over and s
lowly laved his tongue across her bottom lip, making her shiver inside.
She opened her mouth to deny it. Then said weakly, "I don't know."
"Then stay with me until you do."
"It's not that easy."
"Isn't it? You have something else pressing to do right now?"
She looked at him. Her life on Sector 12 was over, her partnership with Alexander and Deek dissolved. She didn't want to go home, but there was nowhere else she wanted to be.
And what if he was her mate? Her heart pumped harder. She wouldn't be alone anymore. She would be half of a whole.
Waverly had never been to Jimlee. That was always a reason to go someplace new. She'd heard from Deek they were looking for pilots, too. She saw possibilities she'd thought were dead stretch out before her.
Pictures flipped through her mind. Jax waking beside her. The controls of a fighter in her hands. Holding a baby in her arms.
She felt the tumble in her stomach that usually came when she was flying low to the ground at fast speeds. She looked up slowly, meeting Jax's gaze.
"No, I don't have anything pressing to do right now." She smiled slowly at him. "I hear Jimlee's looking for fighter pilots."
Jax's lips turned up in a smile. "Follow me, then."
She nodded. "Okay. As long as I get to drive."
BOOK TWO: JIMLEE
CHAPTER ONE ONE-SIDED DESIRE
Waverly lowered her head into her hands and took two deep breaths. It had been three days since she and Jax left Sector 12, and since then, they had managed to catch transport after transport, each bringing them closer to Jimlee. Two more hours and they would be there.
None too soon, as far as Waverly was concerned. Her whole body was a mass of need. With absolutely no privacy, she hadn't been able to shower, let alone take care of the ache between her legs. Jax seemed unaffected. His mating ritual had ended days ago, the red stain on his hands fading completely. Hers still raged through her, gaining speed with each circulation of her blood, driving her insane with need.
Pressing the heels of her hands into her eye sockets, she contemplated the fact that Jax might not want her anymore. It was ridiculous to think she was somehow predestined to be with him. Everyone knew that Alterians didn't mate for life.
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