Ursa Major, Ursa Minor

Chapter Twenty-Four:
The crew of Serenity spent the night on Sihnon with the comforting knowledge that they’d be heading off to Bernadette tomorrow for work aplenty. Inara slept soundly in her old bed with her new teaching license on her nightstand. Zoë and Kaylee burrowed into their downy mattresses and had blissfully dreamless sleep. Mal and Simon were in the same state of slumber that remained uninterrupted.

Jayne and River were the only exceptions.

After their performance, they were seated with the others and forced to sit through a fancy dinner and eat food that tasted like nothing to them as they shared heated gazes across the table. Normally Jayne would be focused completely on the leg of lamb and roasted potatoes that had been placed in front of him, but after that dance… He just couldn’t get his mind off River.

He couldn’t sleep. Lying on his back and staring at the painted ceiling, Jayne let his mind wander. River was a special kind of woman. The warmth and fondness he felt for her was something he’d never felt so strongly before. He loved his mother, his brothers and sisters, but this…

I could… I could do it.

Unbidden the image of his own family—one made with River—popped up in his mind’s eye. Jayne may have gone around for the past couple of years acting like he wanted no part of that sort of life, but after his childhood full of family and love how could he not want it?
He scrubbed a hand across his face—palm rasping against his stubble.

I could love her.

A soft knock tapped against the window his bed was shoved against. Jayne glanced out and saw the very object of his affection staring at him through the pane—her arms wrapped around her middle to ward off the cool night air.

Jayne opened the window and crawled out to meet her—automatically enveloping her in his warmth. “You heard that, huh?”

River pressed her lips against the skin between his pectorals. “I did.”

She was shivering.

Jayne dropped his face into her hair and breathed her in. “It scare ya?”

“No.”

“Then why you shiverin’, sweetheart?”

“Cold. Unfulfilled. Dinner tasted like ash in my mouth when all I wanted to do was taste you.”

Jayne dropped his head and lifted her a bit in his arms to kiss her tenderly. “I do,” he whispered. “Love you, ya know.”

River shivered again and worried his lower lip with her teeth. She was reluctant to pull away from his kiss but had to let him know. No matter how terrified she was River had to tell him. “I know. Jayne Cobb, I love you as well.”

The smile that crept across his face was brighter than ever—teeth wide and blue eyes glowing with joy. He kissed her again and River’s worries that she wouldn’t be able to give him everything he wanted and deserved fell to the back of her mind. The moment took control and overwrote any worries she had with increasing ardor.

She pressed her heel against the tendon behind his knee and dropped them both into the grass. Jayne had to smother a laugh when he hit the ground. River grinned.

“You teased me today,” she said as she bit the underside of his jaw and scratched down his chest.

“Hey, you teased me right back, xuan ni,” Jayne ran his hands up under her nightdress.

He was fully prepared to have his long fingers blocked by her panties.

“Tzao gao, woman… Ya ain’t wearin’ any panties.”

River sucked on his collar bone. “My huan ren is very observant.”

“Mm, and pretty damn horny after that dance.”

River straddled his waist and pressed herself against his hardness. Jayne slipped a finger across her cleft and grinned against her cheek. “You’re pretty damn horny, too, huh?”

She groaned and pushed back against his hand. Her eyes snapped open after a moment of his teasing and she yanked his sleep pants down around his knees.

“No more teasing,” she growled and sank herself onto his erection.

Jayne sucked in a breath. “River…”

“Shh,” she rose against him and planted a hand across his mouth. “Can’t make… Too much noise… No time.”

He sucked on the muscle below her thumb in time with her movement.

“Has to be fast,” she whispered and bit her lip to smother a moan.

Jayne nodded in agreement and released her hip with one hand and reached one agile finger between their bodies and pressed hard against her clitoris. River shook against him and fell back against his thighs—her hair trailing along the tops of his feet.

Her hand left his mouth.

“Holy shit,” Jayne growled.

“Some…thing… feels different!” she gasped. It almost felt like she was about to do something incredibly embarrassing in the middle of sexin’ her man. Jayne felt her tense.

He moved his hips again and River broke on top of him with her sharp teeth sunk deep into his calf. Fluid gushed from her body and Jayne followed her into that blissful higher plane of climax.

“That was fast,” he managed.

He helped River back into a slightly more normal position against his chest. He could barely breathe. And his leg was bleeding.

“Did something go wrong?” River whimpered into his neck.

“Huh?” Jayne rubbed a hand across her back and bemoaned the cloth blocking his fingers.

“It was different. Almost passed out. Did something go wrong?”

He smiled. “Nah.”

River nuzzled her face beneath his ear and wound her noodle-arms around his middle—tucking her hands under his body. “Why was it different?” she asked.

He shrugged. “Different position, different parts stim-u-latin’ different parts. Happens sometimes.”

It clicked in River’s carefully catalogued brain then. “G-Spot. Short for Grafenberg Spot. Female ejaculation.”

Jayne made a face. “When ya put it that way…”

River bit his neck lightly and swung her legs off of him. “Don’t fret, love. Now we are both sticky and must return to our beds before the night watch catches us.”

She yanked his sleep pants up over his hips before she hobbled back to her own window.

Jayne grinned.

TBC