NOTE: I attempted to post this entire story as a unit last night and for whatever reason, the site posted only part so I’ve whacked it into smaller bits. My sincere apologies for any inconvenience.

Disclaimer: These characters, at least some of them, are other people’s children. I am only playing with them.

Rating: A hard R, includes graphic sex. If this disturbs or offends you, please read elsewhere.

Setting; This is a Jayne-centered fic set over a four year period ending just after my story, “Waited Long Enough.” Porn with plot. After all the angsty stuff in “Raping Serenity, I needed a break before getting back into the thick of things.

Written for my friend AP.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + RED – Part Four

Jayne Cobb loved women.

Months would pass and then the tall man in the black hat would return to Clementine’s and ask for red-haired Annie, always for the night.

Jayne liked that Annie never asked awkward questions about his past or work, never tried to make their relationship more than it was, equal parts of business, pleasure and friendship. Annie enjoyed the big man who, while so powerful, was unfailingly kind and gentle with her, and who gave as much pleasure as he took.

The relationship met both their needs, satisfied them both, and neither looked to a time that things might change. Gradually Jayne opened up a little more, telling Annie about the worlds he’d visited and his new position working as a “guard” for a Firefly transport ship. Annie shared the news that Clementine was retiring and had decided to sell the bordello. Always frugal and often well-favored by affluent customers who enjoyed her enthusiasm as Jayne had, Annie had put by quite a bit and felt sure that she and Clementine would reach an understanding.

More months passed and one night, some while after the red-haired whore had purchased the establishment from Clementine, Annie looked up to see a welcome and familiar face.

"Jayne Cobb! You’re looking mighty smart and sassy.” And indeed, Annie could see that there was something different about her old friend.

The mercenary doffed his hat and turned it in his hands. “Sure is good to see you, Annie. Place is lookin’ good and you are, too. I swear, runnin’ a business seems to agree with ya.”

Annie grinned. ‘’Come on over to the bar. I’ll spot you a whisky and we can talk about old times.”

Never being one to turn down free liquor and being more than a little uncertain about what he needed to accomplish that evening, Jayne agreed.

As they each sipped the fiery liquor and made small talk, Annie thought she’d never seen the merc quite so on edge. She waved to a tall and very poised young woman who quickly joined them. “Serephina, would you be so kind as to have Zhang Li run a hot bath for Mr. Cobb? I’d like for you to take over as hostess tonight, if you’d be so kind.”

The girl nodded and left on her errand.

Jayne’s eyebrow rose quizzically, but he knew Annie well enough to roll with whatever she was up to, provided that she didn’t put him in too much hot water. Matter of fact, unless he handled things right with her, he’d be in hot water of a different sort.

After a few minutes of small talk, Annie took Jayne’s arm and led him out of the front parlor and down a long hallway, then down a series of tiled steps to the baths. Beside one of the large porcelain tubs was a basket filled with thick towels. The steam rising from the water turned the late afternoon sun pouring through the ornately glazed window into an amber fog.

“Why don’t you let me take that for you.” Annie gestured at the merc’s gunbelt and he it passed to her to hang near the tub. “Boots off!” she commanded and he obliged her.

“I’m assumin’ ya want the rest of my clothes off, too ‘afore I climb into that cannibal pot,” Jayne teased and Annie nodded, folding his things neatly and placing them on a bench close by. Just looking at him naked but for his hat, proud and unselfconscious as he stood before her, still made her motor turn over after all that time.

“Now in you go,” she directed, and he slipped like a great seal into the steaming water.

“Can’t remember when I last had an honest-to-God bath. Jesus, Annie, this is wonderful.” Jayne lounged back against the tub, resting his powerful arms on the rim as the water lapped at his belly. He leaned his head back and sighed deeply, gathering courage for what lay ahead. “Could ya light me up a cigar?” he asked. “Got one and some matches, too, in my vest pocket.”

Red Annie lit and passed him the cigar he’d requested and quickly stripped out of her own dress and under things, hanging them on a row of wall hooks. ”Looks like you could use a little company in there, darlin’,” she teased and stepped into the opposite end of the tub, her body somewhat fuller and more mature than four years previously when Jayne first engaged her services.

Jayne startled upright, “Uh, I didn’t know you was a’gonna be joinin’ me.”

Annie could see that he looked uncomfortable and wondered what was up. She could also see that Jayne’s ‘ol’ monster’ was not saluting her in the way she’d come to expect.

“Jayne Cobb, long as I’ve known you, I’ve never known the sight of a naked woman, especially this naked woman, to disquiet you. What gives?” Annie gently goosed the merc in the chest with her foot.

With the sun setting behind him and the brim of his hat sheltering his face, Annie couldn’t really read Jayne’s features. It was the way he sighed that told her. It was a long, drawn-out sigh, one dragged up from the bottom of his heart. It was the sigh of a man in love.

‘Guess there ain’t no way to say this but straight out. I owe ya that much, long as we been friends.” The merc took a long draw on his cigar, organizing the words to minimize their hurt.

“There’s this li’l gal who works on the ship I’m workin’ on now, cute li’l thing. Of all things for a woman, she’s the ship’s mechanic. But that ain’t what I need to tell ya.”

Annie already knew where this was headed. Part of her wanted to make it easier for the big man, who so clearly didn’t want to hurt her. Another part, the part full of mischief, the part that genuinely liked Jayne, wanted to rock his boat a little. And so she slid down just a little further in the steamy water and settled her foot against Jayne’s groin. Gently and very deliberately.

Jayne groaned at the sensation of Annie’s little foot kneading parts he was doing his best to restrain. “Ai ya, Annie, you gotta be doin’ that right now? Ain’t like it isn’t already hard enough for me.”

Annie grinned in mischief. “That’s why I’m doin’ it, Jayne. ‘Cause it ain’t hard enough yet.” Gettin’ there, though, she thought impishly.

The big man clenched his cigar at the corner of his mouth and used both hands to firmly remove the teasing foot from his half-hard cock. “Please stop, Annie.” He sat up straighter and took off his hat. “I’m trying to tell ya somethin’s hard enough for me to say, without you workin’ me up like that.”

“I done fallen for this girl I’m workin’ with, real serious like. Don’t know yet where things are gonna go, especially if that fong luh hundan of a Captain we got gets wind of it. I just needed to let you know I’ll most likely not be stoppin’ by to see ya any more. You’re special to me an’ I felt I owed you more than to just disappear. Didn’t want you wonderin’ if I’d got killed or was mad at you or somethin’.”

There was a long silence and then Red Annie smiled up at Jayne. “I wish you happiness. Truly. It’s been good between us these four years, Jayne, worked out right for both of us. But times change and so do people. She’s a lucky girl, this sweetheart of your’n, maybe more’n even she knows.”

Annie stepped from the tub and wrapped one of the oversized towels around her Rubanesque body, then gathered her clothing over her arm. “Just remember, I’ll always be your friend, trim or no.”

She bent and lightly kissed the big merc’s cheek. “Stay as long as you want. It’ll be on the house”

++++

Jayne Cobb loved women.

Later that evening, in an introspective mood, Jayne reflected on his visit with Annie and the curious turn his life had taken. He climbed the Firefly’s ramp and pushed open the entry door into the ship’s cargo bay. At the far end, a young woman in tan overalls and a flowered shirt squatted, carefully reinstalling a protective panel over the shorted wiring she had just replaced.

The merc crossed the bay silently and stood just behind the mechanic, waiting for her to finish her task. As she finished tightening the final screw, he grabbed her up into his arms and kissed her passionately.

“Hey you!” Kaylee greeted him. “You sure are all dressed up. Where ya been off to?”

Jayne smoothed back a lock of her hair that had slipped loose. “Just needed to say goodbye to an old friend.” He smiled down at Kaylee and winked.

“Got somethin’ down in my bunk that needs screwin’.”

(The End)