Assassins Of The Earth - Book 1

Chapter 5

I woke up in Jay's arms, which was one of my favourite places to be, and therefore was an excellent start to my day. We'd been - away? Not on Earth at least - for maybe a week or two by now. Time was hard to track - we slept when we were tired, and that didn't seem to correlate much with a day-night cycle, not that there really was one here. Norin turned up when we needed them for training, and other than that the only person (was Norin a person? Human, then. The only human) I spoke to was Jay.

'Meg?' Jay's voice, groggy with sleep, whispering in my ear. I turned in his arms gently, stroking his face. He was still half-asleep.

'Morning, sleepyhead.' I mumbled. He smiled, his eyes still closed, and pulled me in close. 'Did you sleep well?'

'Um, I slept OK. You?'

'Not too bad.'

Jay opened his eyes, stroking the back of my hair gently. 'Can we talk?'

'Sure.' I said, sitting up a little and leaning on my hand. Jay did the same, stroking my side gently. My stomach churned a little. I hoped it wasn't anything bad.

Jay gnawed on his lip anxiously, and then he flicked his eyes away from my face. I reached out, stroking his face gently.

'Do you wanna have sex with me?' he blurted.

I was a little taken aback.

'Uh, what?'

'We could have sex, if you wanted to.'

'But...you don't-' I swallowed. 'I didn't think you wanted that.' I took his hand. 'I'm fine with you not wanting that, Jay.'

'But do you? Want that, I mean. Take me out of the equation for a minute. D'you wanna have sex?'

'It's not that important to me.' I shrugged. 'If you weren't ace, I'd want it, but you are, so I...I don't mind. But wouldn't it make you uncomfortable?'

'Not uncomfortable.' Jay said, quietly. He squeezed my hand. 'Imagine it like this - I'm not fussed about the, y'know, physical aspect of sex. But whilst we were having sex we'd be kissing and all of that - I like that, I enjoy it, it is, quite frankly, one of my favourite things. If the sex part would make it even better for you, then I want you to be able to experience that, even if it won't be better for me, you understand?'

'But...wouldn't it bother you?'

'Not in the slightest. Just because it wouldn't be any more pleasurable for me, doesn't mean I don't want you to experience that.'

I didn't say anything. Jay tipped up my chin with a single finger. 'I'm not saying we have to have sex tonight, Kari. Or this week, this month, or this year, if you don't want to, if you aren't ready yet. But, if that is something you end up wanting at some point, I just want you to know that it can happen.'

I smiled softly.

'Maybe.' I said, and then pressed a kiss to his nose. 'Come on, we've gotta get up. We've got stuff to do for a couple of days' time.'

'I'm still not sure about that, you know.' he said, heaving himself into a seated position, rubbing his bad hand gently. 'You could get hurt. You're still not - I mean, I know we've been training all hours of the day, you nearly passing out from exhaustion, but we've only been training for...not that long, OK? You might...I couldn't bear it if...'

I stood up, pulled him to his feet and kissed him, long and slow and gentle. 'I will be fine, Jay. I've got you to talk me through all of it.'

'But what if you freeze up again? What if-'