Part six: day five, kinda.

Previous chapters to be found: one, two, three, four and five.

Disclaimer: Some are mine, some aren't. If you need more help than that, I don't think you're going to get it. Ever.

Rating: This one is definitely NC-17. Seriously, I'm warning you. NC-17 and then some.

Comment: After last time, my reaction was to get them both into bed and have done with it, but no... all the ladies had some things to say and there was nothin' that Jayne or I could do except stand back and let them say it. Never fear, I got them to acqueisce in the end. Yay.

Feedback: Comment (please! making me beg is not fair) or send an email: wily_one24@yahoo.com.au

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CHAPTER SIX.

"That's what he called me."

She whispered it up to him and Jayne could see both her confusion and an ache in her eyes. It reminded him of having an infected tooth pulled, it hurt like hell, but it was relief more than it was pain.

"Figured as much." He pulled at her waist softly, just enough so that her head lolled forward and he rested his jaw on her forehead. "You wanna talk about it?"

Her breath ghosted over the front of his neck.

"No." She leaned into him, he could feel the whole point of her body turn to him, her voice thick. "Not really."

"Then you wanna sit down?"

Her head bobbed up and down slowly, taking his with it and he led them over to the table. He was lost and the only thing he knew how to do was pull the chair out and settle her, his hand moving from her waist to the back of her shoulders.

It couldn't be anything as easy as someone needin' to be shot, could it? No, had to be her all slow and heavy, movin' like she was sleepy all of a sudden and it just wasn't fair. He wanted to help, he did, but he wasn't no good with women folk when they got like this.

"I could make tea." He offered helplessly. "You want some tea?"

Her hand reached up and took his and he felt the gentle pull of it downwards, so he grabbed another chair and spun it around, straddling the back of it to face her.

"Their mother died when they were born." Her eyes weren't sad, weren't anything really as they looked at the table in front of her. "Nobody here'd heard of three babies bein' born at once. It was hard, you can just imagine, one man an' three boys, so's they were always over here."

She'd said she didn't want to talk about it, but he wasn't gonna raise that point right now, just let her talk.

"I don't remember a time without 'em. And we'd always be together, the four of us." She sighed. "Ma says it started early, when they was jus' learning to talk. Steven was the only one of 'em who could say it, Winnie, and Mick and Mike just followed on."

Her fingers curled into his and he brushed his thumb over hers.

"It was always like that. Mick would start it with Kay, Steven would follow and then Mike would finish with Lee. It was my name in three." A small, sad smile crossed over her face. "I remember my whole life in three before..."

Kaylee swallowed.

"Mick got sick first. He always does everything first. Then the rest of us, all of us kids were wiped out, but Mick, he was bad. It was touch and go with him for a while." Her voice caught, hitched a little and he gripped her hand tighter in his. "I guess it was so bad with him, that nobody thought to really watch the other two. They were doin' fine. Everyone thought they were doin' fine."

She breathed in.

"Mick got better. Mike got better. An' so did Joe'n me."

There was a moment of quiet.

"But Steven didn't?" He asked gently and all she did was shake her head.

"I couldn't..." But she stopped, swallowed and changed her mind with whatever she'd been about to say. "I got people to stop callin' me Winnie after that. But Mick and Mike, they didn't change. Stubborn bastards. Part of me hated them for that, but part of me was grateful. I guess, when the two were put together, people just started callin' me Kaylee after a while."

"I like Kaylee. S'a good name."

He watched her turn her head slowly, let his eyes take in the curve of her cheek as it slid into the shape of a jaw, into a nose and two eyes that tried to smile at him.

"We was sweeties. Me an' Steven." A small, wistful little twist of her lips. "They're the initials you saw. Guess it wasn't too serious, not now, nothin' but kid stuff, holdin' hands and sittin' together, that sort of thing."

Her free hand traced patterns into the top of the table and he tried not to notice they matched the markings in the tree.

"But back then, to us, I guess it was pretty dead serious. We even kissed once or twice. Everyone said it was meant to be, if it happened like that, that it was lucky if you knew it so young."

Her face twisted a little on the word lucky.

"Tell me about before."

A frown crinkled her forehead and he wondered just how long it had been since she'd actually spoken about it.

"I... don't..."

"What were they like?"

"Well, Mick an' Mike, they were the same as they are today." She did smile then. "Mick was always in charge, he was the one that went first at everything, he made everything happen. Kinda like Mal."

Jayne had to nod his agreement on that one.

"And Mike, he goofed around a lot. Just followed along with the rest of us, did whatever we did, and spent his time tryin' to make us laugh."

"So he's the Wash?"

She laughed.

"Yeah, yeah I guess he is." Kaylee looked down into her lap. "Steven, he was the quiet one, real smart, too. He was always readin' books an' things, he was gonna go to school off planet and be a vet. He always wanted to take care of things. Always."

"Ah." He couldn't help it, couldn't help the little sound of connection. "Well, that explains it then, doesn't it?"

"Explains what?" She looked back up.

"Um..." There was no way out of it but the truth. Damn his stupid mouth. "Well, uh, Mike said you had a thing for the doctors and smart educated guys that came through. An', well, it kinda explains your crush on the doc, too."

"Oh." She didn't smile, but she didn't frown and it confused Jayne just enough to keep him wondering if she was mad at him for saying it. "What else did he say?"

"That... uh..." Stupid, gorram truth. "That they never turned out to be what you were lookin' for."

He waited, watching her, tryin' to see which way it was gonna go. Then she did smile and Jayne could breathe again.

"Guess he wasn't half wrong, then, was he?" A twinkle in her eye. "I think I was lookin' for something that wasn't ever gonna be there. Daddy got so mad about it, once, back when I was about seventeen. We had a real big blue, yellin' and shoutin' and Ma cried once."

"Your Daddy?" He asked. "That sweet little man we been stayin' with?"

"Yeah." The way she said it, almost sounded like she was proud of her Pa for fightin' with her. "Said I was gonna get all stupid and fly away with some silly core boy wasn't worth half of me, that'd just look down on me and mine and never let me come back an' visit."

"Yeah." He reached up and nudged the edge of her shoulder with his hand. "I can really see you puttin' up with that, too. Lettin' some hundan tell ya that you couldn't see your folk."

She let some steam out in a little laugh.

"That's what I said!" She leaned into him a little. "You speak to Mick about it?"

He shook his head.

"Well, he would've had more to say. We had... words about the whole thing not long before I came aboard Serenity."

Something about the way she said it made him pause for a second.

"Words?"

"He said some things. Mostly things that boiled down to I wasn't ever gonna find what I was lookin' for in the fancy men an' doctors an' the like, 'cause I wasn't lookin' for learnin', I was still lookin' for a dead boy an' the sooner I realized that and just accepted the truth the better."

Jayne frowned.

"He didn't have no call to say that."

"Yeah." She winced. "Yeah, he did. It's... it's complicated."

"Complicated?" Jayne couldn't stop the resentment that began to smolder. "What's so complicated he hadda be so mean? There ain't nothin' you could do worth sayin' that sort've thing."

Kaylee looked him in the eye.

"I told him he weren't never gonna be Steven. That I weren't never gonna be with him like that. That he should stop waitin' for me an' just find someone else."

"Oh."

There weren't nothing Jayne knew to say to that.

"I don't even know if he wanted to, not really." Another sigh. "I think he just took me on like another responsibility. Somethin' he had to do, somethin' Steven left behind."

Jayne sniffed at that.

"You obviously ain't seen the way he looks at you."

She rolled her eyes.

"Oh, I know he cares, I know he'd be real good to me, too. A girl couldn't ask for a nicer beau." She gave a small shake of her head and he wondered if she knew she'd done it. "But, but I never felt like that for him. He was, is, like my brother, Mike too."

"So..." He knew, he just knew he was gonna regret asking. "So you never?"

"No, but not for the lack've any one else pushin' us to it. My ma, their daddy, the whole town." Her eyes ran over him, warm and soft, made him wonder how many times she'd been through that conversation with those same people. "It's like, now we're startin' what we're startin', if anything happened to you, would you want Mattie to just step up an' take over?"

"Hell no." He growled.

"Well." She breathed in and let it out in a gust of air. "I really know how to bring down the mood of a night, don't I?"

"Yeah." He should know a change of subject, should know it well, but he couldn't help himself. "So, if Mick is Mal and Mike is Wash, does that make Steven, with all his books an' learning, Simon?"

She smiled at him and he could tell that smile was meant for him.

"No. It wasn't just the books, it was the way he cared for every little thing, knew what he wanted and made it his, no matter how long it took." She brought her hand up and ran it down his arm. "Like the way you are with your guns. Like you are with me."

She leaned forward and kissed his forehead.

"He was just like you."

***

Kaylee smiled to herself in the dark. She was a very short distance from purring out loud, with Jayne's right arm wrapped around her waist, his fingers rubbing lazy circles on her belly and his bulk cradling hers.

She could feel the fingers of his left hand tugging gently at the braids, slowly pulling the loops apart. Small, soft tugs that pulled at her scalp and released a tension she hadn't even known was there.

"You still awake?" Even his whisper was full of gravel.

"No." She murmured, nestling in closer and trapping his hand against her. "M'sleeping."

It almost wasn't a lie. They'd talked for a long time after the twins had left and it had left her drained and groggy.

They'd made their way into the bedroom and neither of them had even blinked as they'd shucked their clothes and slipped under the covers. It made her warm just thinking about it, about how easy it was compared to the first night they'd been there.

And it had only been four days.

Kaylee couldn't explain it, but she didn't feel she had to. It should have felt odd, the knowledge that Jayne had connected so many dots and put them all together to form such a coherent picture of her and what made her tick.

Should have felt odd, but it didn't. It felt kinda right.

Just like the thick hair on his thighs, tickling the backs of her own. It wasn't something she would have thought about, certainly not anything she would have asked for, but it felt good.

She rippled her body like a cat, just to feel the friction of him all over. His chest at her back, his arms around her middle and his legs cupping her own.

"You better be sleepin'." He moaned in a whisper as he kissed the back of her neck. "Or I'm gonna make you pay for that."

***

He couldn't remember falling asleep, but he certainly knew the feeling of waking up. Specifically, he knew the feeling of waking up when a well aimed knee hit home.

"Gorram it." He blinked. "Get yer ta ma..."

"Jayne!"

He blinked his eyes open at the sound of Kaylee's urgent hiss and came into contact with two tiny little blue eyes staring at him, just above a tiny little mouth hanging open.

"Mornin' little girl."

"G'morning." Lilly parroted back and snuggled down deeper between them as she yawned. "We just got back."

"So's I see."

"Ma said you probably wanted more peace, so's we should take our time and I think Nana agreed, but Daddy had to go back to work today and so did Grandpa. So we came back. But it ain't even really day yet, I'm goin' back to sleep."

"Uh huh." Jayne massaged the growing ache between his eyes. "I think your Mama's a smart lady."

"Yep." A small, slender arm snaked its way around his neck. "But it's okay, I said you wouldn't mind. I told 'em how much you both rolled in the night anyway and they all got real quiet after that."

Kaylee giggled and he managed to glare at her over Lilly's head. She poked her tongue out at him and he saw the shadow of Lilly's other hand curling itself into her hair.

"You decent in there?" A voice rang out.

"Yeah." Kaylee called back.

Ma poked her head into the room.

"What in tarnation did you two do with all the eggs?"

***

"Ching-wah tsao duh liou mahng!"

Kaylee frowned into the mirror, biting on her lip and glaring at her reflection. Stupid gorram hair, stupid gorram braids, stupid gorram frizz. She remembered why she'd stopped wearing her hair that way, why it woulda been better to tell Jayne to stuff it and wait until morning when she had a brush before he pulled it all out and over the place.

Men, didn't know nothin'...

"An' you told me off this mornin'?"

Jayne laughed as he came to stand behind her. Good thing she had both her hands busy trying to make some sense out of the stinkin' rats nest that had taken over her head during the night, or he wouldn't've been smiling too hard. No man alive would be smilin' after she did what she wanted to do.

"Look what you did."

She meant it to sound angry, accusing at least, but it came out sounding kinda stupid and girly and it probably didn't help that she emphasized her words with a little stamp of her foot.

"What?" And there were his damn hands, comin' around her waist all warm and dizzifying and distracting and... dammit, she was mad. "What I do?"

"Look at my hair!"

"It's beautiful hair." He leaned down, bringing his jaw alongside hers and she could tell he was gonna kiss her, slide his big, juicy lips over her cheek to the side of her mouth. "I like your hair."

He was gonna make this little hissy fit hard, wasn't he?

"You just like everythin' there is about me, doncha?" It was meant to sound angry, but it came out kinda pathetic. "My name, my hair."

"Yup." He gloated. "And I'm right. I told ya you'd have to get angry at some pointless thing or other. Everyone does."

"I don't..." She pouted. "It ain't pointless. My hair's horrible and it won't behave."

"Here." He took the brush from her hand and she didn't even argue this time when he brought the chair around for her to sit on. "Let me do it, then, since it's all my fault."

"Yeah, well." His hands were already soothing the tension away, not that it would have been hard after he'd just sweet talked her. Man had a golden tongue. "And yeah I told you off this mornin'. Usin' language like that around my niece."

"She's old enough."

He was teasing her, she knew it, but she still rose to it.

"She's only nine an' I don't want you sayin' that kind've stuff around her, Jayne."

"Not my fault." He pleaded. "I didn't know she was there, sneakin' up on us and crawlin' into bed."

"Well." She couldn't help teasing him back. "Was a good thing we was just sleepin'."

"Promise me, Kaylee." The brush slid through her hair without catching and she relaxed into the smooth strokes, closing her eyes. "We ever have kids, we're gonna get a lock for our bunk."

"What?" She choked and sat forward, turning around and barely even feeling the pull of the brush as it jerked out of her hair. "Promise you what?"

"Um..." He looked trapped. "Nothin', I said nothin'."

She grinned.

"You did, you said..." And her eyes widened. "You think about us havin' kids?"

"Well, no." He tried to backpedal. "I didn't mean, that is, I don't really think... It didn't mean nothin', Kaylee. Just talkin' is all."

She could feel the skin around her eyes stay stretched out.

"You think about us sharin' a bunk?"

That made him pause.

"Yeah." And then he frowned. "I mean, I thought, after we been like this, it was nice. I thought... Didn't you?"

"Sharin' a bunk is big, Jayne." Very big, she couldn't help swallowing the huge gulp of breath that tried to choke its way out. "It's important big, it means... I mean... it's more than just sex 'tween friends... it's... "

Her words died off and she could see the muscles work under his cheek as he processed that and it occurred to her exactly how that sounded. It wasn't what she'd meant, not at all, not like that.

"Yeah." He nodded finally and she breathed again. "An' far as I remember, this ain't even a sex thing yet. 'less you got someone hidden in this room that I ain't seen."

She smiled in relief.

"Or you been doin' stuff to my sleepin' body." He frowned down at her. "Just so you know, when this does turn into a sex thing, I wanna be awake."

***

"It ain't much, just toast and pickings." Mary clucked for what seemed like the hundredth time, then turned to give a glare at both Jayne and Kaylee. "Don't know what you'd want to go and eat breakfast at night for, anyhow. But there you go."

Lilly giggled into her plate.

"It's alright, Ma." To his left, Kaylee sighed happily, not even the slightest bit wilting under her mother's nagging. "This is just fine."

Jayne decided to take his cues from her.

"Yeah, we don't need nothin' big." His teeth snapped down on the final piece of his toast. "We're happy with this."

"Yes, well." Mary sniffed, flipping her hair as she turned back to the bench. "You two got plans for the day?"

"There's still so much I wanna do while I'm here." Kaylee grinned. "Jayne hasn't seen half of nothin' yet."

"Gonna be pretty warm." Mary added. "I don't want you two traipsing 'round from here to there all day long, get heatstroke, the both of you."

"I know!" Lilly beamed as she stood up, taking her empty plate back to the bench for more. "We can go swimming again! We'll pack up some stuff an..."

"That's a good idea." Mary turned to smile at the table. "Keep these this hellion out've our hair for a..."

"Ma." Jayne saw Kaylee flash her a glare, a quick, sharp look and a shake of her head.

"Or, you know what?" Ma ran a soft hand over Lilly's hair. "I think we might need some help here, with some of the preparations."

"But I don't wanna." Lilly frowned. "I wanna..."

"I think you should stay here." Betty said firmly. "I need your help with Ivy today."

"But..." The girl pouted.

"Hey kidlet." She looked so disappointed, Jayne figured he might as well try to cheer her up. "You wanna grab me another piece while you're there?"

The girl had obviously learned her quick, steely glare from her aunt. Jayne blinked at the sudden ferocity that was there.

"What's wrong with your arms, then?" She shot at him and stalked back to the table. Picking up the toast between her fingers and delicately nibbling at the corner of it. "You're big an' ugly enough to get it yourself."

"Lilly!" Betty's voice got sharper. "That's not very nice."

Silence and Lilly studiously ignored her mother.

"You apologize to Jayne right now, young lady."

"Oh, hey." He shrugged. "It don't mean nothin'. She don't gotta..."

"Yes, she does." Betty sat forward, looking Lilly in the eye as she spoke slowly and carefully. "We don't treat people like that in this house or any other. Now she will either apologize, or she will leave the table."

Jayne didn't ever wanna get on that woman's bad side.

"Fine." The toast fell back to the plate and Lilly stood up with as much dignity as a nine year old can muster in the middle of a temper tantrum. "Like I care anyway."

"What was that?" Kaylee whispered after the girl was gone. "I ain't never seen her like that before."

Betty sighed.

"She's just bein' a kid." Jayne saw her stroke a hand over Ivy's head, lying still and sleeping against her shoulder. "It's too much, all at once, you bein' back and gone again so soon."

"Oh." He saw the shadow pass over Kaylee's face, the little twist of her mouth. "Maybe I should go say somethin'."

"No." Jayne patted her hand. "I'll go see to her. Seems it's me she's sore at."

He found her out by the side of the house, kicking at a rock half buried in the earth, trying to dislodge it. Her face screwed up as she aimed again. Girl had some force behind her feet.

"Ya know." He said it casually, not reacting to the little gasp she gave as she spun around. "You don't have to like me."

Lilly glared and went back to kicking the stubborn, but still innocent rock.

"Just 'cause they say you gotta." He continued. "There's a long list of people who just can't stand the look of me. You wouldn't be alone, not by a long shot. So don't you listen to nobody who says you gotta, you don't have to like me none."

"Yeah?" She spun around again, her hands on her hips and her eyes fiery. "Well, I do! I like you heaps. So take that!"

"Oh." Jayne just nodded. "'Cause it kinda seemed you didn't, just then."

"I like you well enough." She looked down at the earth, scuffing her toes into the dirt. "It's just... you're a hippo... a hippa... one of those people who says stuff but does somethin' else. You're one of 'em."

Jayne squatted down, resting his forearms on his knees.

"Mind tellin' me why? I mean, I ain't disagreein' with you or nothin', just wanna know why you think it."

"'Cause." She said, still not looking up at him.

"'Cause ain't gonna cut it, kid."

She took a deep breath.

"'Cause you bring Auntie Lee back an' say you all wanna meet us and spend time with us and then you don't." She frowned at him, big stubborn eyes boring deep. "You get to spend all the time ever with her when you're away flying an' I never see her any. Haven't seen her for so long. An' now she's here, you just keep takin' her away and you won't ever share her. And after Christmas, you're just gonna fly away again and I won't never see her."

"Oh." Jayne couldn't argue with that. "Guess..."

"It ain't fair!" She continued forcefully. "You're one of them people, and you're selfish, too. Whenever I'm bein' selfish, I get yelled at. It ain't fair, just 'cause you're older and scarier."

She scuffed at the dirt again and Jayne wasn't entirely sure the small spray of grit that flew towards him was an accident.

"You're right, you know." He said finally. "Never thought about it like that, but it ain't fair."

"I'm right?" Her eyes went big. "Nobody ever says I'm right, not the grown ups, anyway."

"'Course you're right. Here." He held out his hand and waited until she took it. "How 'bout we make a deal?"

Lilly eyed him warily, but she shook his hand up and down.

"I'll make sure your aunt gets to see you heaps in the next few days an' after we leave, I'll make damn sure she comes back more often than she has been."

She cocked her head.

"That's a deal? What do I have to do?"

He smiled, there was hope for this kid yet.

"Good habit." He winked. "Always check for the catch before you agree to anything. Woulda saved my hide a time or dozen."

She smiled shyly.

"Tell you what, I'll make sure you see your aunt heaps, if you stop bein' mad at me for bein' stupid and selfish. Deal?"

Lilly shook his hand more firmly.

"Deal."

***

Kaylee stretched her eyes out wide, grinning as her hands hovered up in the air. A small gurgle sounded, light and silvery, as she rushed them down into her lap, down to the belly of the little baby who doubled up into herself with laughter at the tickling.

Ivy lay with her head cradled by Kaylee's knees, her small feet kicking against the pouch of Kaylee's stomach.

"She sure is a cutie." Jayne's voice came close to her ear. She was leaning back against him. "Takes after you."

"You're just sweet talkin' me." She pouted to Ivy, raising her hands again, watching the sharp little eyes follow them, her small face lighting up. "'Cause I growled at you when you wouldn't go out today."

"We're havin' fun, ain't we?"

His hand rested on her waist and she might've been mad at him, but not mad enough to move it.

"There's things I wanted to show you, Jayne. You ain't seen nothin' around here, yet."

"So show me after lunch." He breathed into her neck. "You need to stay here a bit."

"Are you looking?" Lilly's excited voice came from the side. "Are you? I'm ready!"

"'Course we're lookin', sweetie." Kaylee called over. "Go on."

Her eyes followed the girl as she tumbled head over feet and she managed not to grimace too much at the shaky clumsiness of Lilly doing handstands and cartwheels over the front yard. That landing had looked almost painful.

Small, crinkled fingers curled around her thumb and squeezed. A lump grew in her throat.

"Did you see?" Lilly stood up, brushing dirt off her jeans, her face glowing. "I did it! I been practicing and I finally did it!"

"Yeah, we did." Kaylee nodded. "Was just about the best cartwheel I ever saw. Better than I ever did. I wasn't too good at those things."

"Ha." Lilly flopped down onto the ground next to them, breathing hard. "Not the way daddy tells it."

"Really?" Kaylee rolled her neck a little, just enough to caress Jayne's face with her cheek before looking back up. Man was just so frustrating when he was right. "What does your daddy say about me then?"

***

"There ain't nothin' over here." Jayne let himself be pulled up the small hill, already he was tired. "You been draggin' me around for over an hour now and there's nothin' I've seen I couldn't see stayin' at home."

He was grumbling, he knew, but he just couldn't stop it. He didn’t even want to know when callin’ the house home had seemed like the thing to do, or when it was something that neither of them blinked at.

"There." Kaylee grinned, pointing to the small shape in the distance. "That's it."

"That thing?" Jayne squinted. "That ain't nothin' but a hole in the wall, Kaylee, just a bunch of wood stuck around a cave an'..."

His words trailed off and he turned to glare at her. She didn't answer him, just clasped her hands together and smiled. Brightly. He could see the plea in her eyes and tried to close himself off from it.

"Oh, no you don't." He frowned. "I ain't goin' anywhere near no mine."

"It's not in use anymore." She assured him, blinking with wide eyes. "Hasn't been for years."

"Still don't change the fact that it's a bunch of rock walls waitin' to pin a man down and choke the air outta his lungs."

Her grip on his hand didn't loosen and he felt her double her efforts to pull him along, even as he doubled his efforts to stand still. She was set in her ways.

"Nothin's gonna happen." She gave another tug, her voice high with amusement. "I don't know what you got against mines, Jayne Cobb, me an' the boys were playin' in it for years."

Couldn't resist the tease, the chance to distract her just a little as he grinned.

"You and all the boys, huh? What kinda playin’ you done in there?"

"Well." She blushed again, he liked it when she did that. "Maybe. Maybe not, you'll have to come find out."

“Kaylee…” It came out sounding more like a plea than he would’ve liked.

“Jayne.” She sighed, turning to glare at him. “It’s nothin’, okay? Just an old mine, no one uses it anymore. It’s just about the only place on this planet we can be alone. So quit whining and come on!”

“I ain’t whining.” He grumbled, resisting the urge to remind her that they’d been alone last night. It seemed kinda petty to hurl that at her.

The air cooled around his face at the same time the light did and it made him shiver. A thick, unavoidable shudder that slid through him like bad whisky. He gritted his teeth and waited for his eyes to adjust.

“See?” She spread her arms out wide and turned in a circle. “There ain’t nothin’ here to be worried about.”

His nostrils twitched with the water in the air, the dampness that clung to it. He hated caves and mines and the like. Hated them with a passion.

“Okay.” He nodded. “It’s just grand. Best damn mine ever. Can we go now?”

“C’mon, Jayne.” She sighed it, deep and heavy and almost impatient, her shoulders drooping with it as she sent a glare at him. “This is the last day we got before people arrive tomorrow. Then the big lunch the day after that and we’re gonna be too busy helpin’ out to really, you know…”

“Talk?” He prompted and she smiled, swinging her hips back and forth, from side to side. If he counted back from ten, he was fairly sure she’d be able to make him cluck like a chicken.

“Well, yeah. As a couple.” She breathed in then, gave a little pause and the silence of it was just about the sexiest thing he’d ever heard. “You an’ me. A couple.”

“An’ you thought we needed to talk in a dark old broke down mine?” He gave a look around. “With nothin’ but rocks and wet dirt?”

“Oh ye of little faith.” Kaylee sighed, it was a happier sigh this time, as she walked over to a pile of old boxes. “If I know Mick right, he hasn’t let the stock go down.”

“The stock?”

Not that he had to wait long as she gave a triumphant gasp and heaved a blanket out of the box, handing it to him before turning back to dig again. This time coming out with a lamp.

“What the hell you guys runnin’ down here anyway?” He spread the blanket out on the floor. “Some kind of romance den?”

“Well, that.” Her eyes twinkled. “Or we just used it to have sex.”

Jayne coughed.

“You what?”

“Not with each other.” She giggled. “Relax.”

***

“Warn me before you say somethin’ like that.”

Kaylee giggled as he sat down, leaning his back against the wall.

“What’s the fun in that?” She asked, playfully. “I’d miss your eyes goin’ all bugged out an’ your face goin’ all red.”

She crumpled into herself, folding her legs down beneath her as she sat, cross legged on the blanket, an inch from his knees. His eyes followed her on the way down, watching her every move.

It might have been an accident when she clasped her hands behind her back and stretched them out, creaking her neck from side to side.

Or it might not have been.

“There’s nothin’ fun about teasin’ me.” He growled, but it was a breathy growl.

“Yeah, there is.” Her shoulders popped and she all but moaned in release. “I like makin’ you react like that.”

His eyes glittered in the half dark.

“I like makin’ you react.”

His words hit home, thick and almost a threat, slipping right down her spine and twisting their hands into her nerve centers, tweaking them awake. Okay, Jayne Cobb, she thought, game on.

“How you gonna do that?”

“I got my ways.” He grinned back at her. “But you ain’t gonna find out all the way over there, you gotta come closer.”

“Closer?” Maybe she was playing it too much, the wide innocent eyes and full, pouty mouth as her hand came down and gently touched his thigh. “This is pretty close as it is.”

She couldn’t take her eyes off his as she felt his hand come down on hers, fingers pressing down between her own. The flesh of his leg pushed back up, tensing under their touch as he drew her hand higher and higher.

“Not close enough.”

“Jayne.”

She wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be a plea or a demand or even just a warning, but he wasn’t listening and she honestly didn’t care as her body was pulled forward and she was forced up to her knees.

It was too dark to see his eyes properly, but she didn’t think she had to, not with the way his mouth hung open just slightly, or the way he breathed, all shallow and fast.

They were still about a foot apart, him sitting back against the wall and holding her hand on his upper thigh as she knelt next to him.

“Close enough, yet?”

It was a challenge and she just didn’t care.

“No.” She leaned forward, pushing her face up into his. “Not nearly.”

His mouth was hot and hungry as she kissed him, opening her mouth and letting his tongue slide right in to find hers. His other hand came up and cradled the back of her head.

“We were gettin’ somewhere last night, ‘f I remember.” He breathed as they broke apart.

“Yeah.” She nodded quickly. “I think I remember that, too.”

Kaylee wrenched her hand free of his and placed both her hands on his shoulders before pushing herself up so that she could straddle him, settling back down on his lap. His hands came to rest on her waist.

“Now.” She continued. “Where were we?”

“Ai ya, Kaylee.” He kissed her lips, quickly, softly, with just a hint of need. “You’re gonna be the death of me.”

“Oh.” She pouted. “Better get this done quickly, then.”

He chuckled and she felt him lift his knees up, bringing his legs in closer to his body, forcing her to slide down closer to him, press herself all along him. She couldn’t hold back the gasp.

“I won’t be sayin’ no.”

She loved his voice, all deep like it was, loved the way he breathed in just before his lips latched on to the side of her neck, loved the way his hands dragged across her skin, pressing into her hips and waist and the sides of her breasts.

His hand came up behind her head, twisting into her hair and she barely had time to grin at it before she felt her head being pulled backwards, thrusting her neck and chest at him. His mouth closed over her throat.

“God.” She moaned it, her hands scrambling at his shirt, trying to pull it free. “That’s… just…”

“Yeah.” It was a low down, dirty chuckle that he gave against her. “Pretty much.”

He had to let her go so that she could drag his shirt up and off him, throwing it away to the side. Her hands found their way to his chest and she couldn’t get enough of it, the valleys of his muscles and the thick, wiry hairs that slid between her fingers, curled around them.

She tugged lightly and grinned at the way his face opened, the sound that came out of his lips. It wasn’t a groan, not yet, but she planned to make it one.

Her face fit easily into the side of his neck, her lips finding his pulse quickly. He tasted like salt and grass, sun and sweat and spice, her tongue slid up the curve of his tendons, from the front of his throat to the lobe of his ear.

Nipples hardened as she tugged at them, pressed them in with the pads of her fingers.

“One thing…” He managed to gasp out desperately as his hands came down to scrunch at the material around her legs. “… I don’t wanna go back to on that boat…”

Kaylee felt the slide of cold air on her skin as she lifted up and he stripped her.

“… is you not wearin’ dresses no more.”

His eyes grew large as he looked at her and she grinned as she pushed back down onto his lap, saw his eyes flicker shut and then open again as she ground down on the bulge in his pants.

“You like them, huh?” She leaned forward, kissing the side of his jaw hard and leaving a trail of wetness that she blew on as she sat back. “All these dresses?”

“God yeah.” His hands were hot as they came down on her shoulders, large thumbs tracing small circles over her collar bone. “They’re as sexy as hell.”

“They are?” She teased as she ran her hands over his chest again. “Or the way you keep tryin’ to get me out of ‘em?”

“Both.” He growled, sliding his hands under her arms and back up to cradle her shoulders from behind as he pulled her forward, mouth sucking hard on her neck as her head fell back. “Gorram it.”

He was breathing hard, hot against the pulse that thundered through her, the blood that rushed up, trying to force its way through her skin and into his mouth. Her fingers clutched uselessly at his shoulders as she pushed into him again.

“Jayne.” She pushed him back, breathing heavy. “I ain’t gonna last much longer.”

“Me neither.” He rasped out. “Not if you keep goin’ like this.”

“Just…” She squirmed. “Just do somethin’.”

He was evil, must’ve been, the way he leered at her like that.

“Like this?”

His hands were still behind her shoulders and they bent her backwards, just a little, just enough so that he could close his mouth over her right breast. She couldn’t stop the needy, hungry groan.

“Yeah.” And she didn’t care how needy she sounded. “Yeah, like that.”

Her whole body was stretched out, like the string of a bow, arching back as his hands held her up and his teeth nipped gently, tugging at her nipples. The stubble of day old regrowth scratched just before the slick of his tongue soothed her skin. She could feel her hair handing down and brushing against his legs.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out what he was doing when one of his hands left her back and began to travel down her spine, around her hip and over the top of her thigh.

“Put your hands on my shoulders.” He ordered into her and she shivered with it. “And don’t take ‘em off.”

“Yes.” She couldn’t help it, her mouth agreed before she could think about it. “Okay, yeah.”

She gripped him, didn’t know how she wasn’t gonna leave bruises as her fingers dug into the flesh there, had to hold on tight as he slid one finger underneath her underwear.

It was a sizzle, a little shockwave that made her want to jump up and away from it, made her want to slam her body down hard on him. She could feel him grin against as he sucked the flesh of her nipple into his mouth.

His teeth closed down suddenly and the second before she could groan out in pain, he slid his finger into her and she ended moaning in pleasure instead, begging for more.

He was everywhere around her, his hand splayed across her back, his face nuzzling at her breasts, his chest pushed against her belly, his hips between her thighs and his other hand…

Oh, god, his other hand, pushing and sliding and twisting and dragging the most guttural sounds out of her.

“I want…” She panted it. “Jayne… I need…”

“Yeah.” He kissed up her throat, pulling her against him. “Nearly there.”

She felt his tongue slick against the shell of her ear, gently probing against it as she let herself fall forward, head onto his shoulder, body taut. It didn’t take long for it all to build up, she’d known it wouldn’t.

They’d been teasing each other all damn week.

“Go on.” He whispered it, sandpaper voice scratching at her. “C’mon Kaylee, let go.”

His tongue pushed hard into her ear and his fingers thrust deep between her legs as he gripped her waist and pulled her tight, every inch of her was touching him and she came, opening her mouth and biting down on his neck.

Her knees scraped against the wall, stinging and bloody, and she couldn’t give one good gorram about it.

***

Ye soo, but he was close and he hadn’t even got his gear off yet. He felt like a boy on his first time, ready to pop without more’n fifteen minutes of play. She was clinging to him, shuddering over him and he wanted her so badly.

She wasn’t no young girl with it, neither, coming back quickly from it, kissing his neck and murmuring something into his ear as her hands came down to unsnap the buckle of his pants.

Her skin was so soft in his hands, hot to the touch and she moved with it, moved with every caress he pressed into her. He could spend all day tracing a finger down the front of her belly and watching the way her muscles jumped under it, sliding his thumb across her lips and watching them part, waiting and open for him.

“You ready?”

He blinked and gave her a look.

“You even need to ask?”

“Right.”

And then, oh Buddha’s Bouncin’ Balls, she was sliding back down on him, all wet and warm and the most delicious sound comin’ out of her nostrils as she breathed out.

“Kaylee.” He moaned it, couldn’t stop himself, didn’t want to as she began to grind against him. “Oh, gorram it, Kaylee.”

He felt his muscles tighten, the cords of his thighs clenching as his hips tightened and thrust up. His hands settled on her hips and began to guide her movements, up and down, back a little and then forward, slow at first.

Then faster.

And harder.

Both of them moaning and panting and her hands grabbing at him and their mouths sucking wherever they could and his hands slamming her down again and again as his hips jumped up to meet her.

“Jayne.” Her hands had found their way into his hair, grasping at the scalp underneath it. “I’m gonna…”

“Me too.” He rasped it out through a throat that felt scratched and raw. “You first.”

God he loved it when she obeyed him like that.

*** Chapter Seven coming soon...