A Sky Without Zeppelins (41/?)

[amberfocus]

                                                                                              Banner by Mitashade

                                                                      Chapter Forty-One

 

When Jonathon and Rose wake up a few hours later they spend the afternoon in bed, eating, making slow, lazy love, and talking. Rose thinks that it’s Jonathon’s goal not to put clothes on for the rest of their time together, because every time she even thinks about putting on her robe it mysteriously, or not so mysteriously, disappears from her reach. She’s pretty sure that at the moment it’s hidden underneath his pillow. Not that she really minds all that much. The minute she gets dressed he’ll follow suit and she’s rather enjoying looking at him so uninhibitedly.

He’s tracing mindless patterns on her back when she asks him, “Where did the alien baby come from? I mean, Caelum’s planet, obviously, but how did you get a hold of her?” she wants to know.

“It was after Elisabeth died. About nine years ago or so. Maybe ten. I had to force myself to get back into the water or I was afraid I never would. So I took scuba diving lessons to get over my fears. It worked and I was scuba diving off the Inner Australasian Reef. She was floating on the surface. I thought she was pretty and I took her as a souvenir of my first big dive. That was back when you could still do that sort of thing, before the reef became endangered habitat. Even so, I wouldn’t have broken a piece off, but this one had already come free,” he explains.

“And she never showed any sign of being an alien?” Rose asks, carefully skirting around the issue of Elisabeth’s death. Though she likes that he feels free to talk to her about it now, it always reminds her that he, too, could have died that day and very nearly did.

“She never showed any signs of being anything. She matched up with the reef coral pretty closely. Enough to fool me and marine biology is one of my doctorates.” He leans over and kisses the back of her neck and she sighs.

“I guess that makes sense. She was dormant until recently. The right conditions had to be met before she’d grow,” muses Rose.

“Yep.” Jonathon pops the P against her skin and she giggles.

“That tickles.” She can feel him smiling. “I wonder what the right conditions were, exactly?” she asks.

“I doubt we’ll ever know.”

“How’s she doing?”

Jonathon is quiet for a moment as he concentrates. “She’s asleep. She’s content. She likes it here.” His lips brush against her shoulder blade.

“I like it here, too,” Rose murmurs and rolls over onto her back.

“Hey, I was kissing there,” Jonathon protests with a slight pout.

Rose leans up and kisses him then falls back down against the pillow. “Lots of places on this side you can kiss, too,” she reminds him.

“Ah. So there is.” His lips find her collarbone and she feels his tongue swipe along the indentation. She shivers. “Like that, do you?”

“Yeah,” she manages and stops talking for a few minutes. Her mind continues to race on though, and she speaks again after a bit. “So she’s a space ship, in a way.”

Jonathon stops what he’s doing and looks up at her. “I suppose so. Mr. Lumin did say that Caelum carried his people inside himself.”

“Do you suppose…?” She stops and bites at her lip.

“What?”

“Do you suppose she’ll be big enough in our lifetime to…to go anywhere?” Rose asks hesitantly.

“I’ve no idea. Mr. Lumin said Caelum’s life expectancy is measured in millennia. I have no idea how long it takes one of his kind to mature. Maybe it won’t be in our lifetime. Maybe our children or our grandchildren, or who knows, our seven times great grandchildren will still be waiting for her to grow up,” he says.

“I just…I like the idea of being able to travel in space,” she says wistfully. “I’ve always wanted to see the stars.”

“Why didn’t you try for the space program?” he asks.

“The British space program is…closed off. You have to be someone or know someone who is someone to get into the program. And my interest always lay more in the direction of robotics. I just think it would be fun to explore strange new worlds.”

“To seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go--.” Jonathon stops with a muffled oomph when a pillow hits him in the face.

“This isn’t Star Trek,” she admonishes him. He pushes the pillow away.

“You’d look dead sexy in one of those short, little dresses.”

“Be serious.”

“I am being serious.” He runs his hand across her thigh. “All that leg exposed.” His hand slides back up her body. “And you have to admit those dresses were tight in all the right places.” His hand finds the right places and she moans her appreciation of his actions. “Plus the boots were hot.”

“Oh, you like boots, do you?” she asks.

“When they’re knee-high and made out of black leather?” He grins at her. “Oh, yeah.”

“Really?” She runs one foot up his calf and then back down again. “So do the boots have to be black?”

“Well, if you’re going for an authentic Star Trek costume, of course they do,” he says.

“You are such a nerd.”

“I prefer the term fanboy,” he says with pretended injured dignity. His pout is quite ruined when she pulls him closer and runs her tongue along his lower lip before kissing him.

When she pulls away from him she smiles. “I didn’t mean Star Trek boots. I meant do they have to be black for your boot fetish?”

“I don’t have a—well, okay, maybe I do,” he says. “Never really thought about it. Why?”

“I have these boots,” she begins. “From Halloween several years back. They’re white, made out of pleather, and they go up to about here.” She traces a finger at mid-thigh. She looks at him from under lowered lashes and her voice gets husky. “Maybe you’d like to see me in them.”

“Oh, I don’t think there’s any maybe about it,” he replies, stroking the inside curve of her hip bone.

“I know they’re around somewhere. I’m sure I’ll find them while I’m packing,” she says. “Then I’ll be sure to bring them over here.”

“Packing?” he asks.

“Oh, that’s right. In all the excitement of Paris, I’ve not had a chance to tell you. Since Mum is getting married, she’s giving up the flat after the wedding. I decided that I didn’t want to go live with her at Howard’s. It’s too far from Illuminate, even further away than the Estate. So I found a girl who needs a roommate after the school year ends. I’ll be moving in with her right after graduation. And the best part is her flat is only three streets over from Illuminate and less than half a mile from here. Easy walking distance.”

He smiles. “But…I mean you could have…”

She turns slightly to look at him. “Could have what?” she asks.

“I would have been happy to--.” He breaks off and can’t seem to figure out how to word what he wants to say. She gives him a puzzled glance. “It’ll be lovely to have you nearer,” he finally says.

“I thought so.”

“Are you going to need any help packing? Or moving?” he asks.

“I don’t have much to pack. There’s not much space in the flat, so I never had a lot of possessions. Well, books, but not too much beyond that. Although I’m dreading cleaning out my closet. It’s a little too full. But with the moving part, yeah. If you don’t mind. Elliot said I can use his truck so long as he drives it.”

“Elliot?”

“A boy from school. Didn’t I introduce you the day of the expo?” She frowns, trying to think. “So much happened that day. Anyway, his girlfriend Sarah is the one moving out of the flat I’m moving into. So he’s helping me in exchange for me helping them move Sarah out.”

“I can help with that, too, if they don’t mind,” Jonathon volunteers.

“I’m sure they won’t turn down an extra set of hands,” Rose says.

That settled, Jonathon moves closer to her and starts kissing her collar bone again, before trailing his lips down to her breast. Rose gasps as his teeth graze her nipple. His tongue flicks out and laves the tender bud, the flat of it licking around the areola before his lips attach themselves and he begins to suck hard. Rose cries out at the sensations that race through her body, at the sharp, sudden twinge in her groin. Her hand goes to the back of his head, holding him in place, her fingers twining through his thick, chestnut locks.

His hand moves to her free breast, his fingers kneading roughly at the softly rising mound. He’s been tender all day and she wonders where this sudden intense need is coming from. Not that she’s complaining. She bites her lip as he twists the nipple between finger and thumb, his mouth coming free as he watches her face, ready to back off if it’s too much for her. She gives him a heavy-lidded gaze and a slow, encouraging smile and his mouth returns to its previous task, making her arch off the bed at the intensity of pleasure.

She almost sobs when he stops, the sudden cessation of sensation causing a longing ache between her thighs. His lips move down to the soft underside of her breast and he gives small, cat-like licks along the line where breast meets chest. He kisses his way down her ribcage and across her slightly rounded belly before coming to a rest just above her soft curls. He sucks at the flesh there, raising a powerful bruise as he marks her skin.

Rose squirms as his lips and nose nudge downwards through her curls and his hands part her legs. He climbs between them and runs his fingers up and down the tightly corded muscles of her inner thighs. She quivers as his lips start at the inner edge of her knee and he works his way upwards, his hot breath stopping just shy of her sex. He pulls away and he laughs as she calls him a rude name. His attention turns to the other knee and he works his magic as he licks and sucks his way back towards where she wants him.

His fingers part her folds and he looks at her for a moment. She bucks up impatiently under his gaze and he meets her eyes. There is something dark and implacable in them for just a moment before his eyes drop back down to study her. He leans forward just a little and holds her open. He blows lightly against what he has exposed and she shivers.

“Jonathon, please,” she moans. “You’re torturing me.”

“Oh, Rose, I haven’t even begun,” he says and there is so much dark promise in his voice she thinks she can orgasm in seconds if he continues to talk to her just like that. He blows across her clit this time and she jerks. He smiles and uses one index finger to trace down the inside of her labia, first one side, than the other. He avoids her clit altogether and does not attempt to dip inside her though she can tell she’s soaking the bed sheets from her arousal.

Instead he glides his little finger along the join of thigh to pelvis, first the right side and then the left, before trailing down to slide across the sensitive perineum and back up again.

“Jonathon!”

“What?” he asks innocently.

“You know what!” she says with frustration.

“No, I don’t.” The look he turns on her is intense. “Why don’t you tell me?”

“Tell you?”

“Tell me what you want, Rose. Tell me—exactly—what you want.” There is a ring of something in his voice, maybe it’s command, maybe it’s simple dominance. Most of the time she’s okay with that. When he’s simply doing it or he tells her what he wants her to do or what he’s going to do. Right now, though…she isn’t sure. All she knows is that when he looks at her like that it makes her entire body flush. She feels color rushing to her cheeks and knows that she is blushing deeply.

She struggles to find the words. He has no problems coming out and asking for what he wants during sex, but she still finds herself having difficulty with the specifics. Oh, she has no problem asking him to make love to her, but with details? Her stomach twists into knots and she swallows down hard on the lump that is suddenly in her throat.

It shouldn’t be so hard. Jonathon is a sweet and attentive lover. He is powerful and strong, yet giving and tender. He can make her body sing. He can do so much for her without her having to ask…and now he wants her to ask. She takes a deep breath. “I want you to touch me,” she says and is embarrassed by how much her voice is squeaking. “I want you to…I want you to, to, you know.” She throws her head back against the pillow in distress.

“I can’t,” she says. “I can’t talk dirty to you.”

“Telling me what you like in bed isn’t talking dirty, Rose,” he says seriously, sitting up on his haunches. “I like giving you pleasure. I want to know what works and what doesn’t.”

“Everything you do works,” she mutters. “And it’s not like you’ve ever needed a guidebook before.”

“I want it to be the best it can possibly be for you,” he says. “Why is it so hard for you to tell me?”

“Jonathon, for all intents and purposes, you are the only lover I’ve ever had. I don’t count that teenage fumble with Jimmy as being anything other than a momentary lapse in judgment that took my virginity with it. Even if I did count it, he and I were never…there was never anything like this, never anyone like you in my life. I’ve just barely gotten used to having sex. I’m not comfortable talking about it so…explicitly. I’m…it makes me feel shy and awkward and, and stupid.”

“Stupid? The last thing I’d ever think of you is that you’re stupid, Rose. You’re brilliant.”

“But not in bed.”

“Are you kidding me? You’re enthusiastic, willing far more often than I have any right expecting, always ready to try a new position, and you’re a fast learner. You’re up for anything I’ve thrown your way so far and it’s never, ever bad. Making love with you is the best thing I’ve ever experienced,” he tells her.

“Really?”

“I want you all the time. It’s not like you to lack confidence, Rose,” he says. “Why do you think I can’t keep my hands off of you?”

“Because you’re a randy sod?” she asks.

“Only with you. I’d been celibate for years before I met you.”

“Were you really?” she asks hesitantly. “I know you said, but…well, you are a man and my experience with men has always been that they…they’d do or say anything to try to get into my knickers. Going that long without, it just seems…I don’t know.”

Jonathon moves across Rose’s leg and settles down beside her. He puts his arm around her and pulls her up against him. “I don’t like talking about Elisabeth when I’m in bed with you, Rose, but…her death hit me pretty hard. I couldn’t even look at another woman for years. I’d always think I was ready and then the thought would cross my mind that if I did find someone, they could be taken away just like that.” He snapped his fingers. “I didn’t want that kind of loss in my life again.”

“What about one night stands?” she asks.

“I’m not that sort of man. I want to be in love when I make love.”

“What made you decide to take a chance on me when we met?” she asks curiously.

“I think I loved you before I knew you, Rose. The intensity of it the day I met you was like nothing I’ve ever felt. I just knew that you were the right woman for me. I’ve never doubted it.” He kisses the top of her hair. “I never will.”

She turns into him and brings her face closer to his. “Kiss me,” she says softly. Her tongue flicks out and wets her lips and his eyes follow it along before his mouth settles onto hers. She licks lightly at his upper lip and then at the seal between them and he lets her into his mouth.

Her hand goes to his hair and she teases her fingers through his locks. She can feel his hand moving down her back, settling onto the curve of her bum for a long moment before starting its way back up over hip and waist, then cupping her breast and circling her nipple with his thumb. Very slowly he does it again, his fingers trailing with teasing lightness.

She sighs into his mouth despite her busy tongue and reaches down to grasp his penis. He arches into her and she smiles before continuing her exploration of his teeth and the roof of his mouth. She strokes him, reveling at the velvety soft smoothness under her fingers. She loves the way he feels in her hand almost as much as the way he feels inside her body.

Jonathon’s hand moves to her thighs and she spreads them so that he can get between them. There is no teasing this time as he zeroes in on her clit and begins wiggling his finger against her back and forth with the perfect amount of pressure. It is exactly the way she likes it and she breaks from the kiss to tell him so.

He smiles at her and recaptures her lips, this time controlling it and stroking his tongue into her mouth. The kiss seems to last a lifetime as her insides turn to jelly and the smoldering fire between her legs increases to a tightly coiled inferno of need.

This time when she breaks the kiss it is to say, “I want you. Make love to me, Jonathon.”

Jonathon rolls away from her and pulls open the nightstand, reaching for a condom. “Damn it,” he grumbles. “I forgot to restock the nightstand. I’ll be right back.”

“Wait.” Lots of things flash through Rose’s mind in that instance. She thinks about the fact that she’s just finished her first packet of birth control pills save the week of non-hormone pills, and that her period is likely to start the next day which means they won’t have sex for a few days. She thinks about how he had felt in her hand with nothing between them. She thinks about how even taken right, sometimes the pill is not effective and that condoms are a safety net she thinks they ought to be using. She remembers the one time he pushed into her without a condom and how she’d stopped him. And she thinks about how much she wants him right now, how much she doesn’t want him to leave her side.

“Rose?”

“Can we…without?” she asks him. His eyes get enormous.

“What?”

“Just once. I just want to know what it’s like to make love with you with nothing between us,” she tells him.

“Rose, I want to. You have no idea how much I want to,” he says. “Are you sure?”

She bites her lip and nods her head. “I want to,” she tells him. He studies her face and then nods.

Rose eases herself down further on the bed until she’s flat on her back and she opens her thighs for him. He slips in between them and lines himself up with her entrance. “Ready?” he asks her.

“Yes,” she says. He locks his eyes on hers and pushes inside her in one smooth thrust and she gasps out, “I love you.”

“I love you, Rose,” he says, his voice thick with emotion. He moves slowly within her, making long, slow thrusts into her body. The sensation is different without that thin piece of latex, a bit more intense as flesh rubs against flesh.

She raises her pelvis to meet his thrusts and locks her legs around his hips. He can’t go slowly for long and he begins to increase his speed until he’s pistoning rather fiercely in and out of her. She feels like she’s going slightly mad from the intensity of sensation. Every stroke is driving her higher and she feels her orgasm beginning to coil tightly within her womb.

“I can’t…I can’t hold back, Rose,” he gasps. “Not for much, for much longer. Are you close?”

She nods and loosens her legs from around him. He slips his hand between them and rubs swiftly at her clit as he tries desperately to slow his mad rush down. She comes in a blinding flash of light, waves of contractions shaking through her as she clenches down hard around him. He groans and pulls his hand away, dropping back down against her again.

He drives into her body again and again and his hand reaches up to stroke the side of her face. His fingers find her temple just as he lets loose with a violent orgasm. She feels the warmth of him filling her insides and at the same time feels his lightness tiptoeing through the edge of her consciousness. She welcomes him in and feels his joy as he finishes coming.

When he moves to pull away she wraps her legs around him tightly. One thing she has always hated about using condoms is that it doesn’t allow for him to stay within her until he softens. They’ve always had to worry about the condom coming off if they didn’t immediately tend to business.

His arms are shaking from holding himself up off her. “It’s all right,” she says. “I can take your weight for a little while.” He allows himself to collapse on top of her and he stays that way until his penis softens and falls out of her. He rolls off her then and pulls her into his arms.

“That was wonderful, Rose. Thank you,” he says huskily.

“Thank you.”

She feels fluid leaking out of her and she’s sure she’s leaving a mess all over the sheets. It certainly isn’t the best for clean up, but all in all, she’s happy for the experience. After a few more minutes in his arms she sighs. “Should get cleaned up.”

“Yeah.” She makes her way to the bathroom and jumps in the shower for a few minutes, washing away sweat and semen. She’s actually shocked that she manages to make it through a full shower without being joined by her lover. He’s not got what she’d call boundaries.

When she returns he’s stripped the bed and put on clean sheets. He kisses her lightly and heads into the bathroom to clean himself up. He emerges a few minutes later, still naked but with damp hair. He has a handful of condoms with him that he dumps into the nightstand drawer.

“I’m assuming that was a one-time thing.”

“Yeah. Much as I loved it, I think…I think until we’re married, except in dire circumstances, double protection is a good idea.”

“What constitutes dire circumstances?” he asks.

“I’m sure we’ll know them when we find them,” she says.

“Ah.” They cuddle up together in silence for a while, before Jonathon says hopefully, “Rose?”

“Yeah?”

“It kind of feels like dire circumstances might be arising.”

Rose follows his line of sight to his lap and then bursts into laughter and whacks him with a pillow.

Ch. 42:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/248693.html