Jack This Heart, page 11
“Those skills were then enhanced by my adoptive parents. I learned more about technology, human anatomy and how if we’d just had a certain monitor and a particular medication from the Uppers, my mother might have lived giving birth to me. Of course, my eagerness to see all people on equal footing is what lured me to Kascade’s Humans First group. That’s where Noid and I became friends, where the prejudices from childhood were washed away from years of being nowhere near this place. Except, when Humans First imploded, Noid was welcomed back. I, on the other hand, still have nowhere to go.”
Somehow, she felt relieved to say all of that, to spew it out and get it off her chest. Even if Jack rebuked her or made fun of her story, at least she’d come out with it.
Of course you left out the most important stuff.
“Homeless, but not without skill and talent. It’s got to be worth something. Your abilities were worth Full Throttle signing you on.”
Shannon shrugged and tried not to get frustrated with how easy Jack was taking this. “Sure, but it’s nothing permanent.”
“Only because you haven’t asked if it could be.” He dead-stared her for a good five seconds and her chest grew tight. She couldn’t breathe.
“My turn to tell you a story.”
She waited as he ate a food cube and took another drink. She flexed her fists and pursed her lips to keep from shouting for him to hurry up.
“I told you about my mother gambling away our belongings, but in particular…I made her a necklace for her birthday one year. Something to try and cheer her up. I carved our family symbol out of an animal bone. See, my father married my mother and took her name, as a homage to her father and to carry on the family name that would have died out. He truly gave her everything… Anyway, she gambled the damn necklace away on a game of chance. Risking a gift for a single shot of shine.”
Jack’s fist thudded against the table. “Maybe if she’d been parting with it to buy food for us or even clothing, something of worth… I could have forgiven that.”
Shannon’s heart clenched at how heartbroken Jack sounded. How this one act had destroyed whatever good feelings he had for the woman who’d birthed him. Similar to how she’d lost her love for the father who hated her. She reached up and pulled the carved bone out from underneath her shirt, and clenched it tight in her palm.
“My father refused to let me hate her or the others in Frog Lick who kept encouraging her. No, he said, it was fate. Fate that took the necklace away, that my carving would go out into the world and find someone special and when it was time…” Jack looked at her again, first her eyes, then at her throat where she kept the carving safe. “The necklace would return to me with the person I was supposed to be with. My mother was doing me a favor. I’ve held onto that story for so long, wondering for years where my necklace ended up.”
Shannon let the carving fall out of her hand, swinging wide as the rope pulled tight against her neck from the weight. “I found it.”
“You saw then?”
She nodded. “Your tattoo on your arm. I recognized it somewhere and then it dawned on me, the necklace. I’ve had this since I got to the moon. It was the first thing I was allowed to have that was mine. Something I chose.”
Those words hung heavy in the air between them. She had an urge to move toward him, to close the distance. This entire time, she’d been tied to Jack, and he to her, if his father’s story held any bit of truth.
“It doesn’t have to mean anything, but it seems pretty impossible that a necklace lost to an off-worlder would have come back to Mars, to my town specifically.”
Shannon decided to go with action over words. She shoved her chair out of the way and went to Jack, going in for the kiss, letting her tongue and lips do the talking. The idea they were somehow bound, somehow made whole because of this charm she wore around her neck was ridiculous and yet… Why does it feel so damn right?
Her hands roamed, across his wide shoulders, gripping his biceps, the muscle there. The exploration continued and he joined in as well. What started as a mutual, slow connection turned into a fast-paced race for who could get their clothes off first.
They broke apart and she watched with delight as Jack removed his shirt, boots, pants. Everything was gone and she matched his enthusiasm with a strip show of her own. Soon they were both naked and panting, with mere inches separating them.
“That bed could break.” Jack cocked his head toward their mattress only a foot or so off the ground.
“I’m willing to give those who might be listening a show.”
Jack laughed and reached for her, pulling her flush against his body. She sighed in relief as their bare skin met, his belly to hers, his hard cock pulsing between them.
“You’re crazy.”
“And you love it. Now, fuck me.”
He picked her up, like she weighed nothing, cradling her against him. Their lips met and Shannon let herself get lost in how he kissed, with such want and desire. He acted like he wanted to eat her up, the way he nipped and sucked on her lower lip.
Lowering them both to the mattress, the groan he let loose alarmed her and she pulled back from the embrace. “Are you okay?”
“My leg.”
Enough said. She pushed on his pecs. “Let me go. I’ll stand and you lie down.”
“But—” There was frustration in his eyes, the way he gripped her tighter as if determined to prove his body wrong.
“You’re no good to me broken. I need you for the heist tomorrow.”
He growled. “Fine.”
She only fell about a foot when he let her go and she did her best not to make a sound. No sense in adding to the already present guilt he carried. I’ll make him feel good.
Scrambling out of his way, she let Jack lie down before putting her hands on him, all over him. She massaged the tissue of his upper thigh where flesh met metal, using her other hand to start stroking him.
“You don’t have to touch me there. It’s not pretty.” His eyes were shut tight, as if he feared to see her reaction.
She let go of his cock and leaned down to press a kiss to the scarred flesh, where he’d been burned and injured. “Every part of you is gorgeous. It’s what makes you unique. Don’t dismiss this difference as something not worthy of admiration or affection.”
He opened his eyes then and the emotion present sat heavy in her chest. “No one has ever said that to me. They just ignore that part of my anatomy.”
“Well, let me be the first to say I like to celebrate differences. They speak to our experiences, the risks we took to get where we are.” She started to stroke him again, this time with a little more speed. “And I personally would also like to celebrate this delicious dick of yours. So long, so hard and perfect for my mouth.”
Jack had wanted to say something to Shannon, but those words died as soon as she wrapped her mouth around him. His eyes rolled and he clenched the side of the poorly stuffed mattress with both hands, determined to let Shannon drive the pace of this encounter.
Emotionally, he was all over the place, unsure of what to expect from the future and desperate to be present in the now, this moment where Shannon desired him, even the less attractive bits. Where she was momentarily honest about where she’d come from and how they both shared childhoods that weren’t the greatest.
All those thoughts fled, though, as she snaked a hand up to cup his balls, gently massaging, until a couple of fingers worked their way backward.
“What are you doing?”
She popped off his dick and gave a smile. “A little trick I picked up. Are you okay with me trying something new?”
He nodded. “Go ahead.”
Submitting to her was easy and instead of being turned off by her experimental, risk-prone antics, he found himself eagerly wanting to chase after her. To see what came next.
She found a place under his balls, back toward his anus, and massaged. He jerked in response at first.
“Relax and let me make you feel good,” she replied, the words murmured as she rubbed her lips against the head of his cock, controlling the motions with her other hand.
Whatever she did, it was working. He started to get the feeling he’d pop off at the slightest provocation. A tingling sensation coupled with the need to pump had him doing his best not to buck under her.
“You want to thrust, huh?” She looked up at him with a grin. “Then thrust. Fuck my mouth like you’re inside me. Don’t worry, I’ve got you.”
She swallowed him up again and he tentatively moved. He was shocked by her urging. The request was unlike any he’d heard. Once again, he felt guilty for not giving more pleasure to her and seemingly taking all for himself.
She moaned, and her vocalization vibrated against his cock. Paired with the stimulation she was administering underneath his balls, he couldn’t stop himself.
Slow, measured movements became surges upward, drawn into the sweet, suction motions of her mouth. Heaven wouldn’t be this amazing. Then he pumped in earnest, desperate to reach the peak she’d helped him climb. He wanted to come, to find the finish line like a driver behind a racer, foot pounding the accelerator.
Whatever he dished out, she took, enthusiastically urging him on by continuing her massage of his flesh. Until he was at the breaking point.
“I’m going to—”
The orgasm hit him hard, causing his thighs to spasm and his back to arch as he shot his load. Shannon didn’t pull away—she swallowed every bit. When she finally sat up, licking her lips and smiling wide, Jack was stunned to silence. This woman was a sensual being of the most perverse sense and he loved this aspect of her.
Shocking him to his core, the dual hit to his senses rattled his emotional and physical centers. He’d believed he knew what he wanted before and Shannon had whittled away at those ideas with each day they had spent together. Physically, mentally, she should have been the last thing he wanted. Instead, he was starting to think he might be unable to be without her before this was done.
She sat up and smiled, having effectively swallowed the evidence of his pleasure. “You’re delicious. Too bad we aren’t back at the Trading Post.”
“Why?” He found himself unable to hypothesize a reason, not so soon after coming and still reeling from his own realizations.
Shannon crawled up his body slowly, dragging her tits across his stomach and chest. How did she make even these movements feel so erotic? He twitched beneath her at the feel of them skin on skin, his nerve endings still so sensitive from her milking him to completion.
“Because then I’d let you get me all messy. I’d squirt everywhere.” She was face-to-face with him. Leaning down, she kissed him and he tasted his salty essence on her lips.
What a fucking rush.
“Is that what you call what happened this morning?”
She nodded. “It’s a form of release that I don’t share with many. Men and women I’ve been with in the past weren’t exactly aroused by my body’s response.”
“I enjoyed it. If you want to do that again, right now…sit on my face.” Jack was almost shocked at how bold he talked with her. Usually he wooed women, kept his words flowery, but with Shannon, all sense of censoring himself fled.
Shannon pressed a hand to her chest right above her breasts as if shocked, but her smile said the opposite. “You sure know the way to win a woman’s heart. Are you going to lick my pussy?”
“I’m going to feast on you until you blast my face.”
She grinned and nodded. “I’m down for that.”
Jack hauled her the rest of the way up his body, hooking his arms under her legs to spread her wide and get that wet center of hers where he needed it—his mouth.
“Better hold on. I’m not stopping until you explode.”
Chapter Fourteen
“Give me two,” Jack said, tossing a couple of low cards from his hand and waiting for the dealer, their host, to give him replacements.
Last night was like a fever dream compared to now, sitting at a table with five other men he didn’t know. They were in the gang-town of Skeiron. Shannon had almost cursed when she took a second look at the holo-tablet this morning.
“It’s not a woman-friendly gang. They keep their females under lock and key. I’ve never seen one on the surface. Hell, for all we know, they don’t have any.”
The Skeiron gang-town had been in the final race one time since Jack was old enough to remember. They were an all-male crew with lean wiry bodies and sharpened teeth. Wespero gangs jokingly called Skeiron vultures, circling others waiting to pick off the scraps from the dead.
“You sure you’re in?” asked the host, Wotan, a man with long black hair from the center of his head like a shaggy mohawk. He’d been shaved bald on either side. When he grinned with those pointed teeth designed to rip and tear, Jack had to lock his shoulders so he wouldn’t shudder.
Jack had asked Shannon the same question that morning, but instead of fearing whatever would come of robbing Skeiron, she’d gotten a little excited. Almost too eager to stick it to those patriarchal bastards, as she’d put it.
He tossed another slip of crinkle to the center. “Yeah, I’ll call.”
Wotan and the others tapped the table in unison. One by one, they laid down their cards. There were little chuckles of mirth as each set of five was better than the last. Two pair, three jacks, a hand of hearts and finally…
“My turn.” Jack gave his best sheepish shrug. “Maybe I should’ve taken the warning when I arrived.”
He flipped his cards over and leaned back in the seat for the effect his full house, two aces and three fives, elicited with multiple groans. There was a sharp scrape of wooden chairs as two of the players stood. He recalled their names vaguely. Wotan stared him down, grinning the entire time.
“You’re more than we expected. Most who walk through those doors with an introduction from Noid don’t typically deliver on the pitch. You actually know how to play cards.”
Unfortunately.
“I’m surprised you let me in if Noid’s reputation is he brings you space fish and klogs.”
Wotan gave a nod toward Jack’s legs under the table. “You walk different, heavy sound. Imagined you might be worth getting to know regardless of how you played.”
“Flip your cards.” Jack had to keep the game going, until he received the signal from Shannon that her thievery was complete.
“Sure, but remember…we’re really good at cards too.” Wotan revealed a straight, a lovely sequence of low cards in order and shine on the metal… They were the same suit.
Skeiron were cheaters. No doubt about it. Jack would need to pull deep into his repertoire of a past life he’d despised to get through this evening.
I shouldn’t have agreed to this.
One of the others lit a fat chunk then, the distinct smell of marijuana coated in something far less innocent drifting through the room. There was shine in tall bottles, something called rye whiskey in some. These men were surrounding themselves in all the vices that came from Earth. Even Wotan took to sniffing cocaine directly from a pouch he kept on his wrist.
“You won that one.”
Wotan dipped into his pouch with a finger, coating it in white powder before rubbing the drug all over his gums. A drop of red appeared on his fingertip from where he’d pricked it against his teeth. “Whoops.” He sucked it into his mouth. “These games are getting exciting. It’s your deal next.”
His deal…the cards, the drinking, the casual drug use. He took a deep breath and almost choked on the scent of the laced marijuana. This all reminded him of the parties in the Watering Hole before Drag had taken over and they’d decided to make Frog Lick less about getting lost in vice and more focused toward a common goal.
Shannon, hurry the hell up.
Because he was already agitated. His skin crawled with the desperate need for fresh air, escape, anything to get away from these people who reminded him of the ones that would steal from his mother. They’d play and play with the promise that one more game might change her luck. One more flip of a card could have her gaining back everything she’d already lost.
Gathering the cards, he started to shuffle, numbing himself to the sounds of laughter, the shared mirth that these men seemed to have in their intoxicated state.
“Sure you don’t want any?” This was from the red-haired man next to him, shoving the chunk toward him.
Jack shook his head, keeping his expression neutral and focusing on the cards in his hands. “I’m good. Once this is over, I’ll have to drive back to my rooms.”
Wotan snorted. “Staying with those Zephyrs? Surprised they’d take you in. They don’t like outsiders.”
“I don’t imagine any gang does.” Jack separated the deck and angled the cards to flip them back together. “Only for a night, though, then I make my way.”
“To the next card game?” the redhead asked as he took another big toke off the chunk.
Besides the four people at the table, there were others engaged in various games of their own. Dice on one table, knives on another, a wheel with a round rock. Noid had told Jack he’d introduce him to the person he needed to keep occupied.
“Always up for a good game.”
Wotan motioned around them. “Then you see Skeiron is good for exactly that. Games, we have tons of them.”
The cards had been sufficiently shuffled and Jack shoved the deck over to the redhead to cut. “Afraid I prefer cards.”
Because that was what his mother had taught him. After so many times of being beaten, she’d not only taken Jack with her to play lookout for suspicious behavior, she’d taught him every possible game folks would try with fifty-two little squares. Maybe she’d wanted to get better or just ensure Jack didn’t fall in all the ways she’d had. But…he’d still suffered.
“A real bumdum, because we like playing all types.” Red-Hair cut, then pushed the deck back to Jack.
He did what was expected, but his eyes bothered him. He had a desire for something to drink besides the shine swill. How much longer? “Five card right or how about we change things up?”
