Second Exit

by London Lampy

Chapter 34

"I don't want to do it," I say to Jack, jumping into the middle of the bed, sitting down and hugging my knees. "He can't make me, and who's going to listen to me anyway?"

"Don't be so fucking stupid," Jack replies, shutting the door and joining me on the bed. "People will listen to you, but if you really don't want to do it tell him."

It's very late, it's taken hours to get everything sorted out, for us all to piece the whole story together. Sampson and Vio only arrived here this morning but they thought to go straight to the cartel's offices to try to find out if Vin was still in the area. He was, he's been here ever since we were kidnapped working on getting us back, pretty much on pain of death from Zale I think. We've agreed to never again talk about the raid as we could be prosecuted for taking part in it, and also to never reveal the whereabouts of Barney, to say that we were blindfolded going in and out of the forest if anyone ever asks.

When Sampson saw that I was alive and well he immediately ordered several bottles of champagne and then drank most of it himself. He has somehow come to the conclusion that Jack is the hero of the hour and was more than happy to pay for an extra room for him; going on at length about the wonders of our army and how they were the best in the world, without ever really understanding why Jack was still with us. Vio on the other hand dragged me out of the hotel bar and off to the lobby as soon as she could get me away from Sampson, shouting at me about what the fuck I was doing picking up soldiers when she thought I was dead. I had to shout back at her to get her to shut up for long enough to explain about Jack, which earned us a lot of very strange looks. She calmed down once she found out who Jack actually was, and by the time the party wound down she was taking me aside and telling me that she thought that he was "a seriously decent bloke" and that I shouldn't treat him the way I treated Ry. Vin however is not so impressed with Jack, I overheard him talking to Tippit calling Jack "cannon fodder". He spent much of the evening glaring at Jack, to the extent that Jack asked me what the hell was up with my boss, so I had to explain. After I did Jack sat with his arm around my shoulders, giving Vin the occasional smug look. But even that didn't bother me nearly as much as the plan Sampson has come up with, and the part that he wants me to play in it.

"I can't tell him I don't want to do it," I sigh, resting my forehead on my arms. "We're talking about Sampson here."

"Then you'll have to do it," he rubs my back. "If Tippit can do it, you can."

"But if it happens there's going to be hundreds of people, and at least half of them would happily see me with my tail cut off working for them for nothing."

"And it would be your chance to do something about that, legally this time."

Sampson plans on using all his contacts to call a summit on slavery in Kipp as soon as possible. He's aiming for next week, going on about "striking while the iron is hot" and apparently he's spent the best part of the day in the city's telegraph office sending wires to every important person both here on the continent and back home. He wants to have them discuss the possibility of ending slavery once and for all, which I think is just about the best thing he can do right now, but what's not so good is the fact that he wants both Tippit and me to address the summit.

"I still think that it should be someone like Mathi," I say.

When I said that in the bar Vin disagreed with me, pointing out that if we are going to persuade people that echobacks are not just forest monkeys to be used as disposable labour by humans, then the worst offenders are more likely to listen to someone who has spent their whole life around humans and doesn't have an echoback accent than a tribal chief. I thought that was really insulting, and I told him so, but Tippit kind of agreed with Vin. He said that as he became increasingly fluent in the human language he was treated much better, much more like a person and less like an animal, and even though it might not be right if because of my background people listen then it would be worth it.

"Why do we have to persuade people we're the same as humans anyway? We're not, but just because we're not doesn't meant they can treat us as if our lives mean nothing."

"I get you," Jack says, kissing the back of my neck. "But if you standing up there sounding like a human helps to change a few minds it's a start." I know he's right, and I know that I'm going to end up doing it, but the thought terrifies me. "Stop worrying about it." He starts to unbutton the stolen shirt that I'm still wearing, Vio donated all my stuff to the villages thinking that I was dead and wouldn't need it.

"Can't," I grumble.

"Bet I can make you." I'm expecting him to do something like kiss me softly, but instead he kind of picks me up, flips me onto my back, lies on top of me and pulls my knees until my legs are wrapped around his waist.

"Jack!" I protest wriggling.

"What," he grins down at me.

"Get off!"

"No."

Then he does kiss me, and suddenly him being on top of me becomes appealing rather than annoying. It's certainly not a soft kiss, but a mouth bruising tongue down the back of the throat kind of kiss, but who wants to be kissed softly anyway? He stops kissing me to strip me naked, then climbs off the bed and goes over to his pack. I assume that he's gone to get the lube, which he does, but he gets something else out too.

"What do you think you're going to do with them?" I peer at the handcuffs dangling from his hand.

"You need to ask?" he kneels down beside the bed, and taking my wrist in his hand he kisses the inside. "If you really don't want me to I won't."

I take them off him and snap one half around me, letting him attach the other half to the bedstead.

"You trust me," he trails a finger along my arm.

"I trust you enough to let you do that," I indicate the cuffs. "But I am quite good at escaping."

"Do you want to escape?" he touches my face and I turn my head to kiss his palm.

"No."

I watch him taking his clothes off, and he does it slowly, enjoying my attention. His body is tanned deep brown from the sun, apart from the area that's covered by his underpants, he's clearly not been spending time outdoors naked.

"You've always been my favourite memory," Jack says, putting his hand between his legs and stroking his impressive erection.

"Do you mean you like to jerk off thinking about me?"

"Yeah," he nods. I grin up at him, taking it as a big compliment.

"I think about you too sometimes," I admit as he joins me on the bed, spreading my legs and kneeling between them.

"Think about what?" he asks.

"About this." I can just about reach his cock with my fingertips. "About the first time we did it, the first time I'd ever done it."

"You were so sweet," he strokes the inside of my thighs. "I couldn't believe how lucky I'd got. You have no idea how difficult it was to take it slowly that first time, when all I really wanted to do was to plough you into the floor."

"I think you made up for that last night, you nearly fucked me through the wall."

One of Jack's large hands starts to fondle my cock and I lift my body, drawing my knees up so he can reach my ass and tail. Using both of his hands to stimulate all my most sensitive parts he soon has me groaning in pleasure, then he coats one finger in lube and rubs me inside and I think that he's going to make me come again like he did last night, but just as I'm on the edge of orgasm he takes his finger out and stops touching me.

"Jack!" I complain in frustration.

"What?" he looks at me smugly, knowing exactly what.

"That wasn't fair."

"You're the one handcuffed to the bed, I'm the one in charge."

Ah, he wants to play those sort of games. "Still wasn't fair."

"Stop complaining," he looks down at me.

"Or what?"

"Or..." Jack turns me over, my wrist rotating in the cuff. He moves my tail out of the way, then swats me on the ass.

"Ow!" I protest, but not too much.

"That was complaining," he says, and does it again, then a few more times too. He's not hitting me hard, being hit hard by Jack wouldn't be any fun, he's just hitting me hard enough for my skin to heat up and tingle. He stops and strokes me where he's just spanked me, telling me what a nice shade of red my ass has gone.

"Mmm," I reply, as he puts a finger inside me again. "What are you going to do now?"

"What do you want me to do?" His other hand is stroking the crease of my tail.

"Fuck me." He's pushing me close to orgasm again and he knows it. "I want your cock inside me, I want you to fill me, to screw me until I spunk over myself and you spunk inside me, then I want you to lick me clean."

He makes a noise that's somewhere between a growl and a grunt. "How can you be so fucking pretty and so fucking dirty at the same time?" As he's saying this he adds another two fingers to the one that's already inside me.

"Who's dirty? You're the who has just stuck half his hand in my ass."

"You want the whole thing in there?"

"No!" Jack's hands are very large.

"Another time maybe." He laughs, then wraps his other arm under my body and lifts me until my chest is pressed against the bed, but my ass is in the air.

"Want you right now," I breath as he fondles my shaft.

"I get to choose, you don't." And to make his point he tightens his thumb and finger around the base of my erection.

"You do that and I'll never let you do this again." I rattle the handcuffs to show him that I mean them, not sex in general.

"Alright, I'll save that for another time too." He plays with me for a few minutes longer, stopping and starting what he's doing until I can hardly take it any longer, and when he finally takes his fingers out and replaces them with his cock I groan with satisfaction as he enters me.

He fucks me very slowly to start, pulling almost all of the way out and then easing back in, keeping me held still with his hands on my hips, letting out a deep breath with every slow thrust. It feels amazing, and I'm impressed with his self control.

"How long can you keep doing that?" I pant.

"Not much longer." I can hear the strain in his voice, he's teasing himself just as much as he teased me earlier. "I want us to come together, are you ready?"

"More than."

He puts one hand between my legs again and starts to jerk me, at the same time as speeding up his own movements. I'm not going to last any longer and I'm trying to say his name, trying to tell him it's about to happen when I feel his fingers digging into the flesh of my hip and he says "now". I let go and instantly come into his hand as he pushes himself hard into me, and as my body is consumed by the orgasm it feels as if there's nothing else in the world except for Jack and me and this moment.

I like sleeping with Jack. I like his solid body pressed against mine, I like wrapping my tail around his waist and I like the feel of his calloused hands resting on my back and leg, which is why I really, really don't like the fact that Vio is hammering on the door, shouting my name and making me get out of a bed full of Jack to find out what she wants.

"What?" I say grumpily as I fling the door open, still naked.

"Good fucking morning to you too," she comes back. "Although it's close to afternoon now, it's gone ten."

"So? We're not going back to Kipp until tomorrow, I don't have anywhere I'm meant to be."

"Morning Vio," Jack calls out from the bed.

"Morning Jack," she waves over my shoulder to him. "It's actually you I'm here for anyway, can I come in?"

Without waiting for an answer she edges me back into the room, so I shut the door behind her and jump back into bed, hoping that whatever she has to say will be said quickly.

"Your captain's here, Captain Samuels?" she addresses Jack.

"Here?" he frowns. "Where here?"

"Downstairs, having a drink with Vin, seems that they were in the war together. Apparently someone sent word to him that Sampson had turned up safe in Shelly so he came here to verify it. He's a bit puzzled that you're up here in bed with your "prisoner", wants you to explain things to him."

"Yeah," Jack runs a hand over his head. "I do owe him an explanation, I'd better go down and see him."

We find Captain Samuels sitting with Vin in the hotel's bar, despite the time they are both drinking beer.

"Ah, here they are," the sandy haired man looks at us. "Bryce, I need you to tell me in your own words just what the fuck is going on here."

We sit down and join them. Vin looks a bit smug and even though it's not really got anything to do with him he stays to listen to Jack try to explain the events of the last few days.

"So," Captain Samuels says once Jack's done. "What you're saying is that you manipulated events and withheld information from me for the sake of some sort of fucking long lost first love."

"Um..yeah, that's about it," Jack agrees.

"But nothing bad happened," I put in. "I knew Sampson was safe all along, and it worked out fine in the end."

The Captain blows out his moustache. "That's as maybe lad, but Bryce here didn't know Mr Sampson was safe, or that you weren't one of his kidnappers at the time. For all he knew he was hampering our sodding rescue effort, I'm well within my rights to have him court marshalled for all this." Vin nods in agreement.

"I'm very sorry Sir," Jack says. "Will you accept my apology?"

"I will, this one time, considering, as Exit put it "nothing bad happened". Samuels looks at Jack. "And taking into account that you've never let me down before. I'm making the assumption that this was some sort of moment of fucking madness on your part and that you'll never do it again."

"No Sir, I won't," Jack shakes his head.

"Good. Now that this whole bloody mess seems to have sorted itself out we're headed back up north. You can have the afternoon to say your goodbyes, then I'll expect you to meet up with the rest of us at the station."

Jack glances at me, then takes a deep breath. "Actually Sir, if you'll give me permission I want to take some time off now, and then I want to transfer back home."

Samuels looks to be thinking, and he sits in silence for what feels like hours before he replies. "And if I don't give you my permission?"

"I've got a few months left of the four years I originally signed up for, I'll see them out then go. But you could let me go now, I'm owed time off, I've not even come close to taking all of my allotted leave. I want to travel back to the Twin Islands with Exit."

"Let me get this right, if I say no the army looses you forever, and if I say yes I loose the best fucking sargent I've ever had?"

"Yes," Jack agrees.

Captain Samuels sits back in his chair, steeples his fingers and looks at Jack. "You'll be wasted back home you know. All they'll have you doing is training new recruits and going on exercises, you'll be bored out of your fucking mind in six months time, but if it's what you really want..."

"It is," Jack nods.

"Then I'll do the paperwork, and you're officially on three weeks leave starting from now."