He Didn't Come

When Riddick began stroking her hair, Jack reminded herself that it was just him. It was just Riddick, her protector. He would never hurt her.

His hands stroked her neck, then her shoulders. They were large, and his breath was warm on her face. Their foreheads were still touching. It made her feel connected to him. Riddick moved his hands gently from her shoulders to her arms.

“You okay?” he whispered huskily. Jack nodded, knowing he felt her motion. “Good. Keep me informed, okay? Whenever you feel anything, good or bad, I want you to tell me.”

No, Riddick, I’m only terrified, she thought sarcastically. “I will.”

“Good girl.” He resumed his careful stroking of her body. After he’d caressed her all the way down to her wrists, he moved back to study her carefully. “I’m gonna keep going, okay?”

Jack nodded, wanting him to hurry and get on with it. The longer he waited, the greater the chance that she would back out. Her indecision worried her, but she shoved it aside and accepted Riddick’s touch.

Riddick wrapped his arms around her back, and warm, smooth lips brushed her forehead. They tickled her, and she closed her eyes, smiling to herself as he gave feather-light kisses all over her face. He kissed her lips, and her eyes flew open. No one had ever kissed her there before. And though it was a totally alien experience to her, it felt amazing. Her lips felt like every nerve was standing at attention. Then Riddick surprised her by parting his lips and flicking out a warm tongue. When she didn’t respond, mostly out of not knowing what she was supposed to do, he pulled back.

“Oh, please don’t stop,” Jack breathed as his lips left hers. Riddick gave her a worried look, and she explained, “No one has ever actually kissed me.”

“Oh, really?” Riddick grinned cheekily at her.

Jack nodded, offering a small smile. “So… were you planning to continue…?”

In answer to her playful question he brought his lips to hers, giving her another taste. This time, when he asked permission to enter with his tongue, she accepted. The first contact was amazing. It was unlike anything she’d ever felt before. Warm and sensual. Mmmm… She hesitantly kissed him back, and he let her explore his mouth as she grew bolder. He actually had a taste. Somehow she never figured that mouths could have their own flavor. Riddick tasted like warm milk, but in a good way. There was nothing sour about it at all. Riddick’s taste made her feel warm and safe, somehow. She loved it. It was a totally separate feeling from the physical reactions he was causing, but both were nearly overpowering. She supposed it didn’t really matter. Right now, it just felt good.

He broke the kiss and nibbled at her bottom lip. She gasped at the sensation that rocketed through her body when he ran his tongue lightly over both lips. Pulling back, his eyes seemed to shine even more as he stared hungrily at her. It was unsettling. There was a hint of indecision in the shimmering depths, but she ignored it. Despite her words to the contrary, she wasn’t entirely sure about this at all. If he wasn’t firm in his resolve, then she knew they were both making a big mistake.

“You okay?” he asked. He resumed teasing her mouth.

Jack nodded. All fear had fled from her mind. She didn’t care about a damn thing. Her body wanted more. Needed more.

Riddick latched onto her neck and nipped at her throat gently. It sent a line of fire straight to her groin, which reminded her uncomfortably of Seth. With Riddick, however, it was so much stronger. She gasped again, unable to contain it. Riddick continued torturing her neck.

It felt so good… she’d never felt so good in her life. It was exquisite heaven, the way he heaped delicious fire on her body. Jack let out a small mewl of pleasure. Riddick’s hand came towards her face. She knew it was probably just to stroke her cheek or something, but….

It was just a second’s worth of flashback, but it was enough to cause Jack to stiffen in Riddick’s arms. In her mind was Seth’s face when she had made the same noise. She had only been eight at the time, but little kids have the exact same nerve endings down there and can feel things just as strongly. When Seth realized that she was enjoying it, he backed away from her and told her how disgusting she was, for liking it. Then he slapped her.

“Stop, stop,” she gasped.

Riddick pulled away immediately, a concerned expression on his face. “What’s wrong?”

Jack didn’t answer for a moment. She stared into his eyes, the mercury eyes that shone with liquid intensity, fighting the fear that welled up inside her. Riddick reached out to touch her face. She took his hand in her own and pressed it to her cheek, nuzzling it softly. Maybe if she touched the hand that was touching her, her fear would go away. If she could feel it….

It worked. With her hand covering his, she felt calmer. Knowing that he would stop if she needed him to, feeling the gentleness in his hand reassured her. It had been wonderful up until that fucking flashback.
“No, I’m okay. Just had a moment there.”

Riddick offered, “We can stop, if you want.”

Jack considered it. The spell was broken, and she was the insecure psycho once again. “I think that may be a good idea. For now,” she assured him hastily when his face fell slightly.

“Okay. What happened?”

She debated on whether or not to tell him. He hadn’t meant it to be a threatening gesture, and she didn’t want to dissuade him from what they were doing. He might be upset, and that was the last thing she wanted. She needed completely focused on her, completely present mentally, at least for the time being. She knew it was selfish, but she also knew that it was what she needed if she wasn’t going to flip any further.

“When you reached for me, I remembered this one time when Seth hit me.”

Contrition immediately appeared on his face, and Jack felt terrible. He had meant it as a loving gesture, not to intimidate her in any way. She raced to set his mind at ease.

“It’s okay, I promise. It was just a little flashback, that’s all. But I think I’ve had all I can take for right now.” She smiled at him hopefully. “Maybe later?”

He nodded vigorously, and she gently hugged him. “Thank you,” she whispered in his ear. His shudder made it plain that he was extremely aroused. That he was so restrained and sensitive to her needs meant worlds to her.

Riddick, she thought silently, wishing she possessed the courage to say it out loud, I think I love you. I don’t know how this happened, I don’t know why, but I think I do.

Shaking, she went quietly to her room to lie down. Riddick’s affections pleasantly thudded under her skin, but she was a little freaked by Seth’s appearance in her thoughts.

She traced her lips with her index finger, the way he had with his tongue. She crossed her arms over her chest and ran her fingertips down the opposite arms, traversing the same path previously mapped out by
Riddick’s hands.

Growing bolder, she traced her own hands over her breasts through the fabric of her shirt, and felt a small hint of the pleasure that he had seemed to awaken within her. She smiled, and let her hands fall to her sides.

Jack soon fell asleep, unhampered by nightmares. When she woke, she stretched and checked her chrono. Asleep for two hours. She felt relaxed, rested, refreshed, and ready to face her demons again, as long as Riddick was helping her along the way.

She found him in the dojo. It looked as though he was trying to murder the poor punching bag. Jack felt great pity for whoever Riddick was supposing the bag to be.

“Riddick?” She spoke his name hesitantly, but without a single tremor in her voice. He turned to her and smiled.

“Hey. You okay?”

Jack returned the smile. She had been worried—unnecessarily so, it seemed—that he would be angry with her for putting a stop to things earlier.

“I’m ready to try again.”

Riddick smiled and began removing the tape from his hands. “Okay. Want me to take a shower first?”

Jack shook her head and approached him. When she smelled his clean sweat, however, she wrinkled her nose. “Never mind. You do need a shower.”

Riddick laughed. “Fine. Wait here for me?” Jack nodded at him with some apprehension, and he smiled reassuringly. “Good.”

She sat down on the mat and watched him as he walked toward the bathroom. She marveled at her situation. Living with an escaped convict and murderer. Again. He was good at his job, that was for damn sure. Riddick was almost a freak of nature. He knew things, somehow. How the hell did he know she was in the storage locker in the first place, five years ago? And how in the hell did he know to find her at Nero’s?

She used to hate her life. She had every right to hate her life. She didn’t know anybody else who had better excuses for suicide. The thought of ending her life, though, had never once crossed her mind. She had always been a fighter.

An alarm on the console made her start. It had to have been really loud, for her to be able to hear it in the padded alcove. She stood and slid into the pilot’s seat. She had been forced to take a computer literacy course in Chap, so she knew some things. The technology on Riddick’s ship, however, was far beyond her scope of comprehension.

The navcomm started squealing in conjunction with the blaring alarm. She had never heard any electronic equipment make that sound before. It gave her the chills. Before she had an opportunity to try anything, Riddick bolted out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist. It was a very short towel, she noticed.

“I didn’t touch a thing!” she cried.

“Move,” Riddick growled.

Jack hastily scooted over to the copilot’s seat. Riddick manipulated the console more quickly than she’d ever seen before. “What is it?” she asked.

“Shh.”

Her mind raced. She could only think of one thing it could be. “Is it a merc?”

“Jack, shut up for a second!”

Jack snapped her mouth closed. She tried to tell herself that the anger in his voice wasn’t directed at her, but at the situation. It didn’t work.

Riddick seemed to forget she was there. She sat and stared at his face in remote fascination. His brow furrowed, and his smooth scalp was still dripping slightly. Jack couldn’t help but see that he was very, very shirtless.

She had no idea what he did, but the navcomm’s squawking soon eased into words. Riddick raised a hand to shush her, though she hadn’t said anything.

The transmission was horrible. Jack had never heard a modern piece of technology act so badly. Though the awful noise had subsided, it was still next to impossible to figure out what was being said.

“…ow are… go… oach the shi…?”

“Wh… as... me?”

“There’s got t… nice…board…thing else, we… ow it to Neb…ap it.”
Jack looked as Riddick, completely baffled. He muttered, “Don’t say anything, just listen. We’ve got ‘rats on our tail-”

“That won’t be a problem,” Jack interjected before she could help herself. She was full of confidence in Riddick, and it was making her a bit too
cocky.

“Shut up! Listen. They’re gonna attack. I don’t know if they’re part of a larger band or if they’re loners. If they’re loners, though, they’ve got a huge ship. If shit gets heavy, lock yourself in your room.”

“Riddick, last time you told me to get away from you when shit got bad-”

“Jack, don’t fucking argue with me!”

She snapped her mouth closed, and did her best to hide the hurt in her heart. Not knowing anything else to do, she sat quietly beside Riddick as he messed with the console some more.

After a few minutes, he said, “Go make sure the ship is locked down.”

Jack didn’t argue. All the furniture was bolted to the floor, and there was nothing small that could go flying in the main area in any case. She went to the kitchenette and made sure everything was secure, then did the same in the dojo. She locked both Riddick’s room and her own down in rapid succession, and just in time.

“Jack! Get up here and buckle up.”

“Stop yelling at me!” she snapped back.

Riddick didn’t answer right away, but after a moment he said, “Just do it.”
Jack did so, and watched in real fascination this time as he prepped the ship for a jump. She wondered why he was so worried over some space scum. Jumps burned lots of fuel, and she knew he wouldn’t make one unless it was absolutely necessary.

What was so damn important onboard that needed to be defended?

~*~

Jack was finally sitting and silent. The black ops equipment was installed in every primary and secondary stealth system the ship possessed. This particular piece of hardware was a navcomm slicer. It scanned continuously and was able to tap into other ship’s navcomms if they were close by. Riddick knew the Nebulus system. Made up of three uninhabitable planets and one station- a substation, not even a real space station- it was a pirate haven. He doubted even his ability to get the two of them out of Nebulus alive.

“Jack,” he said suddenly, “do you have anything valuable?”

“Can I speak now?” she asked in a sulky voice.

Riddick rolled his eyes. “Grow up! This isn’t a game. Do you have anything onboard that is worth any money?”

She shook her head. “No. I do have some cash, though.”

“How much?”

She shrugged. “A few hundred creds.”

“Be prepared to be very broke, very fast.”

Riddick was ready to hock away anything to keep Jack away from Nebulus. He knew that what the mercs did to the hooker would seem like a romantic date once the ‘rats were done with her. Or him, for that matter.

He shouldn’t have been surprised. He remembered when he first met Jack, en route from New Germany. The only safe way to and from the New Germany station was parallel to the Nebulus system. He should have remembered this. Why didn’t he think?

I’ve been in slam for too long, he thought. Prison Moon was a great place to hone survival skills in one-on-one situations, but when it came to the real world, it was a place of stasis. It kept the inmates in limbo, slowly growing more and more rusty and out of touch with reality. Slam became its own world.

Well, he was out of that world, and was about to get tossed into a real combat situation. It wasn’t until he reached for his shivs to check their condition that he realized that he was still wrapped in a towel.

“Jack, go get me my clothes. They’re on the floor of the bathroom.”

She did so without a word. He knew that he hurt her feelings, but she didn’t understand the intensity of their situation.

He manipulated the controls, trying to get clearer reception. The navcomm was on, but not in use, on the ‘rat’s cruiser. The concept of his modified navcomm was basically like a little spying worm. It tapped into the minute electrical impulses emitted by the targeted navcomm, and relayed those impulses through the speakers. Through a trick of the wiring of all standard navcomms, the equipment was able to receive audio signals, as well as transmit the radio pulses it used to scan the empty space around them in a half-parsec radius.

He was able to tap into their navigational system, and it confirmed his suspicions. It was a good-sized crate that traced from Nebulus. Shit.

Jack returned with his clothes, and he dropped his towel right in front of her without even thinking about it. He ignored her gasp of surprise and quickly dressed himself.

“Okay, it’s approaching. Jack, sit down and strap yourself in. Is everything locked down?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

“Good. Listen to me. I’m gonna try to save our asses, but I need total concentration. You got me?”

“Yes. I understand.”

“Good.”