Paradise Post #6

 

Notes: Finally I have a path forward in my head, a clear and present plot.  This means you get Garrett and Robbie and real development.  And more soon, because this is working on me now, making me love it, making me want to go deeper.  We’re going to meet some very interesting people soon.  I don’t know yet if I’m going to love them or hate them.  On verra, as they say in Togo.  We’ll see.

 

Title: Paradise

 

Part Six: Trip On Guilt, Stumble Over Honesty

 

***

 

                At 0300 in the morning, not even a day after arriving on Paradise, Garrett shouldn’t have been awake.  No matter that the artificial days and nights on his ship didn’t match up perfectly with the cycle on Paradise, it had still been an exhaustively long day, and Garrett should have been too tired to be up. In truth, he was too tired to be up.  There was nothing he wanted more than to be nestled face-first into the gigantic bed in his ridiculous suite, taking up more than his fair share of the space and getting away with it because Jonah was good that way.  He could be sleeping in his fiance’s arms right now, and instead he was dressed (in loose, informal house clothes, but still, dressed was dressed) and making his way to the juncture of the Governor’s mansion and the military’s headquarters.  All because Robbie had to “talk.”

                Garrett didn’t care for Robbie’s talks.  They usually had the dual purpose of shaming and educating him, and just anticipating it was making Garrett preemptively defensive.  The worst of it was, no matter what Robbie had on his mind, it was probably worth listening to.  Because he couldn’t be happy with being a superior human being, he had to try to improve everyone else too.  Fucker.  Some of Garrett’s most epic bitch sessions with Wyl had been on this very subject, although Wyl was better about having his imperfections pointed out to him than Garrett was.

                It wasn’t until the marines let Garrett into Robbie’s office and went off to fetch their commanding officer that Garrett realized, a little too late to be useful, that when Robbie had said, “We need to talk soon,” and given him that meaningful look, he might have meant sometime during the actual day, not at 0300 in the morning.  But the prospect had gnawed at Garrett, taking tiny, vicious bites out of his subconscious until he had given sleep up as a bad deal and forced himself up with a sigh.

                If he had been a little more forthcoming, Garrett probably could have avoided this whole conundrum in the first place.  He knew what this talk was going to be about.  But honestly, it wasn’t relevant—it wasn’t—that there was a Drifter ship in orbit above Paradise.  There were hundreds of clans, probably thousands of ships.  There was no reason for this one to be important, not even to Jonah.  So why bother mentioning it?  It might not be relevant, but Garrett knew it would perturb his lover; Jonah was the type to brood if he thought he could get away with it.  Garrett had just been saving them all some grief.  And naturally, of course, Robbie was about to undo all that patient circumspection with his own brand of taking care of someone, which was forthrightness, honesty and a bunch of other crap.

                “When I said ‘talk,’” Robbie’s voice said from the door, and Garrett swiveled around in the chair he had claimed to face him, “I didn’t mean ‘wake me up to come and deal with your issues at all hours.’”

                “Not true,” Garrett teased with a smile, determined to get his jabs in while he still had a leg to stand on.  “You never put limitations on discussions of serious subjects.  You should, it would make you a healthier and more rested person, but you don’t.  I can only assume that’s the military training taking over your greatly diminished free will.”

                “Do not be an asshole to me right now, Gare, I’m this close to yelling at you,” Robbie growled.  He had on grey gi pants and a black t-shirt, and he looked completely edible.  Robbie had always worn “annoyed” so well, with that little line between his eyebrows and the harder line of his mouth.  Garrett appreciated the fact that he could look and not want, now.  It made the teasing easier.  “You were supposed to let Jonah know about the Drifters.”

                “I don’t really see why.”

                “Because it’s something that might affect him and you’re supposed to discuss things like that with your significant other, Gare.”

                “Still not seeing the relevancy.”

                Robbie rolled his eyes and took a deep breath.  “Here’s some relevancy for you: that ship has been up there for over a standard month, keeping a careful distance from the surface and only trading through intermediaries, like most Drifter ships do.  Now all of a sudden, just minutes after Jonah landed your ship actually, they want permission to dock a shuttle.  Not just that, they want to dock it in the closest port in Rapture to the mansion.  Any guesses as to what prompted their sudden request?”

                Garrett had spent his entire life surrounded by tacticians.  It didn’t take more than a second to figure out what Robbie was referring to, and why it had taken him and Miles away from the group yesterday.  “Oh, damn it.  They must have a skimmer.”

                “Exactly,” Robbie agreed.  “They heard Jonah’s transmission to the Tower here, recognized the accent and now someone’s curious.  That in and of itself isn’t a problem, but…”

                “If they heard that, what else have they been listening to?” Garrett finished.  He felt really tired all of a sudden, tired down to his bones, tired on the inside of his skull, just behind his eyes.  “They’ve been listening to ship transmissions going into and out of Paradise.”

                “With a pretty high tech skimmer, because we didn’t detect anything when we inspected them before allowing them a long term space dock,” Robbie said.  “It’s just circumstantial right now, but I’m betting that tomorrow we’ll start seeing some of them in town, asking questions, trying to get in touch.  I think they’re interested in Jonah.  I’ve got several theories on why.”

                “And you want me to facilitate testing those theories by telling Jonah about these newly loquacious Drifters.”

                “He can hear it from you, or he can hear it from me,” Robbie said.  He was wearing his “determined” face now, and Garrett knew there was no gainsaying it.  “For all I know they just caught a sliver of conversation and someone recognized him and wants to say hello.  Drifters are a very insular, tightly bound society, it’s not impossible that Jonah misses certain aspects of it.  He shouldn’t be denied the right to make a connection just because you’re nervous.”

                “Fuck you.”

                “No thanks.”  They sat and stared at each other in silence for a minute.  “What are you really worried about?”

                “Nothing I can put a name to,” Garrett said morosely, resigned at this point to telling Robbie the truth.

                “Is it the wedding?”

                “Only insofar as I wish the wedding was over already so that I could have proof that Jonah and Cody belong to me.”

                “They’re here, with you.  Isn’t that proof enough?”

                “It’s never enough,” Garrett scoffed.  “You know me, I want a dozen impossible things done for me before breakfast, just to feel secure enough to go about the day.”

                “You’ve gotten a lot better, Gare,” Robbie said soothingly.

                “Yes, well.  It’s always a relative measure.”  He sat quiet under Robbie’s gaze, then gave him a half-smile as his former lover walked over to him and clasped his shoulder in one broad, warm hand.

                “You’ll be fine,” Robbie stated.  No prevarication, just belief.  “Both of you.  You’ll tell him in the morning?”

                “Yes,” Garrett sighed.  “Can I make it seem like I just learned it, or does that not queue up with your code of honor?”

                “Whatever makes you more comfortable.”  Robbie squeezed his shoulder, then let go.  “Now, I’m going back to bed.  Wyl won’t get any sleep if I don’t.”

                “Aww, you’re his teddy-Robin,” Garrett cooed, happy to have a change of subject.

                “Don’t call me that.”

                “But it’s your legal name, Robin of Locksley.”

                “Go to bed, Gare.”  Robbie left, and Garrett swung the chair back and forth in a 90 degree arc, rhythmic and blank.  Go to bed.  He could do that; in fact most of him yearned to slide back into his warm bed and cuddle up to his own teddy-Jonah.  But he was awake now, wide awake and pensive and jittery, and he’d be a miserable bedmate at this point.  Better to let Jonah sleep.  Coffee was what he needed, and some time alone.  By the time his fiance woke up, Garrett would have worked out what he needed to do, he’d have found that fine line between Robbie’s abject honestly and his own penchant for obfuscation.

                Coffee, then deep thoughts.  Garrett got up and headed toward Claudia’s kitchen.

               

New Cover and post-conference news!

Hey darlins

First off, I got the cover for my story The Solstice Gift coming out in December, and it is so beautiful I have to share.  My story is part of an anthology, but it seems like it still gets its own cover, which, okay!  No bitching from this corner!

Oooohh!!!  Niiiiice!!!

 

 



In other news, the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writer's conference was a hell of a learning experience.  Fun, because I met so many interesting people (and believe me, any circumstance where I'm not the most awkward person in the room is both rare and entertaining to me) and challenging, because I learned a lot about the publishing industry, writing craft and getting an agent, which I need to do.  So.  Lots of connections, lots of people with similar interests and goals, and even one erotica author to chat with (love you, Thea!).  I'll let you guys know if anything concrete comes of this experience.

And yes, more Paradise is on deck.

Paradise Pt. 5

Notes: Part Five, yay!  I put this story ahead of polishing my pitch for the conference I’m at, guys, feel my love for you.  Speaking of which, if any of my new conference friends are reading this…hey, I warned you.  Smut.  Dirty post ahead, darlins, I hope you all enjoyJ  Not as much conflict as I originally planned, but it’s coming!

 

Title: Paradise

 

Part Five: Settling In

 

 

 

***

 

 

                The mansion was…immense.  That was really the only word for it.  Jonah had been inside some damn big houses before; hell, he had lived on a Drifter commune ship that meandered through space for over a mile in a million different directions, only cohesive in the central core.  That had been big, but it wasn’t the same as this place.  This was meant to hold a single family: the Governor’s.  The governor of an entire Federation planet who was also Garrett’s father, and a general, and the son of one of the oldest, wealthiest central system dynasties.  To say that Jonah was comfortable with the situation would have been grossly overstating it.

                Cody was clearly having the time of his life, though.  His shyness had lasted all of a minute, and from there on out he became the cheerful, friendly and above all loud child that Jonah recognized.  He bounced between the different members of the welcoming committee, talking nonstop about the movie he’d made for them and how soon they could watch it, about how different it was here and whether there were any toys in his room, when they could have dinner and what it was going to be and when he could go for a ride on Wyl’s bike.  Wyl was encouraging him, and Claudia looked completely smitten, even with the baby in her arms.  Miles was quieter, but Jonah kind of liked it that way.  The man intimidated the hell out of him.

                They got to Cody’s rooms, which were around the size of the entire top floor of Jonah’s house back on Pandora, and his kid promptly lost all semblance of control and just ran around, eyes wide, mouth open and joyfully whooping at everything he saw.  The rooms looked like they had been designed for Cody.  They probably had, actually, given the company.  The walls were covered with Space Ranger holograms, the bed was shaped like a rocket bike, and the floor had pressure sensors that triggered a lightning bolt effect wherever someone took a step.

                “You can change it to do other things,” Wyl added, pulling up a control pad on the wall beside the bed.  “Jump.”  Cody jumped, and a ripple effect flowed from his feet across the floor.

                “Wow…”

                “Jump again.”  This time it was a firework, a different color every time. 

                Cody looked over at him worshipfully.  “What else can it do?”

                “Oh man, whatever you can think of, come here.”  Cody ran over to join Wyl and they settled in to play with the floor.  Claudia held up Renee to watch the colors change as she stepped around the room, and the baby seemed transfixed.

                “That’s it, hand her over.”  Garrett made peremptory, grabby fingers at his stepmother.  “You’ve had her forever, it’s my turn to hold my little sister.”  Claudia rolled her eyes but handed Renee over to Garrett, who curled her into the crook of his arm and grinned widely at her.  It was an expression Jonah didn’t see very often on his fiance, totally open and uncalculating, even more than with Cody.  Renee was too little to need teasing or coaxing, all she wanted was Garrett’s undivided attention, and apparently his face to grab onto.  Garrett let her little hands roam freely over his mouth and nose, but backed up a bit when they got close to his hair.

                “What?” he said when he saw Jonah smile.  “It took forever for me to get it this way.”

                “I didn’t say anything.”

                “I can hear you thinking it,” Garrett sniffed, turning to look back at his little sister.  “You’ve got good genes, Renee, but remember, being beautiful still takes work.  You can’t let the haters bring you down to their sartorial level.”

                “Hey, I like the way you look,” Jonah protested.

                “Gare spent hours in front of the mirror as a kid,” Miles said.  “I’m hoping Renee won’t be quite so attached to her own reflection.”

                “We can’t heeear you,” Garrett sing-songed, spinning in a slow circle.  “La la la la la…”  Images of blue orchids sprang up beneath his feet, the result of Wyl and Cody’s latest try, and Jonah couldn’t have looked away if he tried.

                A quiet knock sounded by the door.  They turned and Jonah finally saw the last member of their intimate group, Robbie Sinclair.  He was in his marine uniform, a black military jacket and slacks with a colonel’s insignia on each shoulder.  His hair was short, sandy with grey at the temples, and he had a calm, almost grave expression on his handsome face.  It changed to a smile as soon as he and Garrett made eye contact.

                “There you are!  Honestly, what is wrong with your people, shooting guns at tanks and making you late for the important things in life?” Garrett groused.  “Hang on a sec.”  He turned to Jonah.  “Can you take her for a moment?”

                “Uh…sure.”  An instant later Jonah’s arms were full of baby and Garrett was at the door and in Robbie’s embrace.  It was tight and warm and close…Jonah turned his eyes back down to Renee.  She stared back at him with bright, curious blue eyes.  They looked a lot like Garrett’s, actually, the same warmth and long, long lashes.  She reached for his face and he intercepted her little fingers with one of his own, letting her tug on that instead.  It had been a long time since he’d held a baby.  Those had been a tense couple of years, with Cody, always worried about his health and dealing with a slow and painful separation from the life he’d always known.  Renee started to squirm, and a moment later Claudia was there, reaching for her.

                “She’s probably hungry,” she explained.  “I should take her back to our wing and feed her.  Miles—” She turned toward the door, then frowned. “Where has he gotten off to?” Miles and Robbie and Garrett were all missing, although Garrett came back into the room after a few seconds.

                “Sorry, Robbie had to steal Dad because he’s a heartless bastard with a lousy sense of timing,” Garrett explained nonchalantly.  Wyl sent him an aggravated look.  “I’m sure it’s nothing serious,” Garrett added. “Some kind of a thing over a thing, whatever, their work is never done. So!” He looked at Jonah. “We should get moved in ourselves. Our suite is right down the hall.”

                “We should get Cody settled first, grab the rest of his stuff out of the ship—” Jonah started, but his son looked up with wide eyes.

                “No, not yet! Wyl has to show me how the rest of the room works. Can we do it later? Please?”

                “It’s not a problem, I have nothing else on my schedule today,” Wyl added, his fingers tapping fast against the tops of his thighs.  He never seemed to be entirely still.  “I’d love to spend some more time with Cody.  You guys go get moved in, and you,” he pointed at Claudia, “feed your baby. We’re good here.”

                “You sure, bucko?” Jonah asked.  All he got was a distracted nod as Cody began experimenting with sound effects.

                “I guess we’ll all meet for dinner,” Claudia sighed.  “Your rooms are all set up, Gare, but just let me know if you need anything else.”

                “I’ll let the staff know, not you,” Garrett chided her.  “Honestly, woman, are you not busy enough?  Do you need another baby to use up that extra time?”

                “One is enough, thanks,” she said dryly.  She left, and after a few moments of reassuring himself that Cody would be fine, Jonah let Garrett tug him out of his son’s rooms.  They walked fifty feet down the hall and turned into the open door.

                Garrett’s suite was huge.  The ceiling was vaulted marble, the furniture was sparse, there were no rugs to soften the hard, cold lines of stone and metal.  It felt oddly sterile, and sort of uncomfortable.  Garrett shut the door behind them, then looked around.

                “I almost never stayed in these rooms,” he said, glancing around.  “I always preferred sleeping on my ship.  I’ve had the Icarus for more than half my life, and no matter where I was living, it was a constant place that was just mine, where I could do what I wanted to.”

                “Yeah, this place is…it’s…” Jonah wasn’t quite sure how to express how awkward he felt here, not just in these rooms but in this entire place.  He had none of his son’s ease of integration; instead he felt every footstep like it hurt.  “Different,” he finished.

                “I know.  Try to ignore it.”  Garrett took Jonah’s hand and pulled him further into the suite, past an uncomfortable-looking couch and a tremendous holo-screen.  “Honestly, the only advantage that these rooms have over the ship is the size of the bathroom and the size of the bed.”  Garrett pulled Jonah through an archway with a holographic barrier for a door, showing a stone façade on the outside.  Jonah flinched a little as he passed through, then relaxed once he saw they were entering a bedroom. 

                “Wow.”  That was a big, big… “That’s a big bed.”

                “Yeah, I think the original decorator just lost their mind when it came to this room and decided, fuck it, let’s just fill it all with mattress.”  It covered the entire back wall and left a slender walkway around the edge of it to lead to the bathroom and a retracting closet in the wall.  “I mostly used this place to store my wardrobe.”  Garrett considered the bed for a moment.  “And to have threesomes, but I didn’t really do that very often.”

                Jonah could just see it.  “You sure we can’t sleep on the ship?”

                “Oh baby, are you jealous?”  Garrett wrapped long arms around Jonah’s back, holding him securely.  “You don’t have anything to be jealous about.”  Warm lips pressed to the back of Jonah’s neck.  “I never loved my life here, no matter who I was with.  I never even came close to loving it with anyone who came into this room.  But I love my life now.  And I could totally love you on my bed right now.”

                Sometimes sex was the question and the answer all in one.  “Hope they’ve changed the sheets since the last time you were in here,” Jonah said.

                “Oh, they’re fresh,” Garrett assured him, swiveling around Jonah’s body and sitting down on the edge of the bed.  “White and virginal.  Perfect for making all delicious and filthy and debauched.”

                “You wanna debauch our sheets?” Jonah asked, distracted by Garrett’s swift undressing.  Blue cloth fell away and was tossed aside as Garrett got nude.  He wasn’t hard yet, but he looked well on his way.

                “Well, I want to debauch you on them.  It’s debauchery through osmosis, baby.”  Garrett tugged Jonah closer, then set to work getting him naked.  Jonah tried to help but Garrett slapped his hands away.  “Mine,” he said simply.  Jacket, shirt, belt, pants…Jonah’s brain went back online when he realized he was effectively hobbled as long as he kept his shoes on, and he kicked them and his pants off before joining Garrett on the bed.

                “We don’t have a lot of time,” Jonah mumbled around the kisses they shared, both of them on their knees, touching each other nonstop.  “Cody could come in here any time.”

                “No, Wyl knows the score.  He’ll keep him occupied for at least half an hour,” Garrett said, biting gently at Jonah’s lower lip.  “That’s enough time for me to blow you.”

                “Oh, hell.”  Jonah clenched his eyelids shut for a moment.  “Gotta save some time for me, darlin’.  I don’t want to leave you hangin’.”

                “I can come just from looking at you,” Garrett assured him.  “But we’ll see.”  He pushed Jonah onto his back and crouched between his legs.  He looked strange there, beautiful and a little feral all made up, and Jonah reached down and worked his fingers into Garrett’s sculpted hair, messing it up as well as he could from that angle.

                “Better?” Garrett asked archly, no word about his hours of work gone to waste now.

                “Almost.”  Jonah tugged and Garrett bent down immediately and sucked him into his mouth.

                Fuck…there was nothing like this, nothing.  Being inside of his fiance’s body was good, it was so good, but when it came to coming hard and fast, there was no substitute for Garrett’s mouth.  Warm heat enveloped Jonah’s length, sliding up slowly, with his slick tongue bathing the underside of the shaft and circling the head eagerly.  Eager, Garrett was always so fucking eager to take him in…

                A hint of teeth caught at the flare of his foreskin.  “Fuck,” Jonah groaned, his body caught between flinching away from the sensation and moving into it.  Garrett hummed appreciatively as he pulled back. 

“Good?”

                “Bad,” Jonah said, and Garrett smiled.

                “But good bad.”

                “Garrett—”

                Warmth again, heat and pressure and fast, this was going to be really fast, so fast it would have been embarrassing if they were at home, but this was the first time since they’d left that Garrett had really laid hands on him outside of a few very tight, very hurried showers on the ship, and fast was all Jonah was capable of giving right now.  Fast, hips rocking up without him realizing it, noises he hadn’t approved coming out of a rebel throat, all of it tight and on the edge of losing control, the very fucking edge, and when Garrett just opened his throat and took him deep and pressed down hard on the skin right beneath his balls—

                It was over.  Done.  He came with a flash of light, with a flare of darkness, all the effects Cody had been displaying on his floor erupting behind Jonah’s eyelids.  He came hard and panting and mostly delirious, and Garrett just let him flail and grasp and hold his once-perfect hair way too tightly as he rode out the sensations one shivering wave at a time. 

Slowly the tension slid away and so did Jonah’s grasp on Garrett, dissolving into pleasant lethargy.  Garrett pet his thighs gently for a moment before straddling his chest.  Jonah’s arms were trapped by his sides, and it was all he could do to open his eyes and look at his lover as Garrett took himself in hand and beat off quickly, short, jerky strokes of his wrist culminating in a spray of white all across Jonah’s neck and chin.  The scent of it filled his nose and made his mouth water.  Garrett, because he had to be psychic, caught his breath and swirled a finger through the mess, then lifted it to Jonah’s lips.  He took it into his mouth and suckled gently, cleaning it off with his tongue.

“You’re mine,” Garrett said hoarsely, his expression strangely fevered and needy.  “We’re for each other.  Nothing else matters.”

“Just you,” Jonah said, wondering how they had gone from sexual to soothing so fast.  “’Course it’s just you, darlin’.”

For a second it looked like Garrett would say something else, something serious, but then his body became like liquid and he slid down onto his side, draping himself casually over Jonah.  “Good.  Shower?  Because no offense, but you’re a fucking mess, baby.”

“I blame you.”

“Fair enough.”

 

               

Cool Sh*t!

Let's start with the shit that I want to give you:)  By unanimous decision (2 whole votes plus me = a majority) I'm going to so an ebook for The Captain series first.  Yay!!!

Gotta love us some Age of Sail, Napoleonic-era, Trafalgar-glorifying sea battle action!  Historical fiction, obviously:)  This is the first story I ever wrote for public consumption and I've had it up in three parts on Literotica for years, but I'm going to edit them more nicely together and get the grammar mistakes out before offering it up to you in ebook form.  Hopefully this will be out before the end of the month, it's my first time putting something like this together.

Other stuff I have coming up...more Paradise (soon, swear, my computer works!  It's ALIIIIIVE!!!), I'm working up a serial story concept that may be offered in the new year, a Winter Fae story in an anthology coming out in December, and a free story in an SMP anthology with a legal theme before the year is out.  Plus my mind is never, ever silent, so there are lots of things that could happen in the near future. 

And lastly, some personal cool shit: while my man and I still aren't moved into our house (I'm sort of thinking it may never happen at this point, but whatever, my cousin's couch is formed around the shape of me at this point) I'm going to go to a writing conference this next weekend.  Three days of writing seminars, huzzah, plus a query review and a pitch session.  Which is awesome!  Hopefully I'll come out of it better prepared to do the thing I'm trying to make into my career.  How freakishly adult of me.

Happy Sunday, guys.

Paradise Post #4

Notes: My brilliant man has slapped the tech equivalent of a band-aid on my computer, which enables it to work until I get the right thing to fix it for real.  Thanks for the suggestions, darlins, I appreciate it!  Also, this is the last purely schmoopy post for the story for a while; I know it’s cute but we need some conflict, right?  Yez, yez we do.  I couldn’t resist one more, though, Cody kind of demands cuteness when I write him.

Also thank you for being patient with my technological challenges.  I need a rugged, outdoorsy laptop, not the slim, trembling waif who lured me in with her smooth lines and delicate keyboard.  Curse you, shallow human nature!

(PS-I got the info I needed to do ebooks now, so where's the best place to start?  Bonded?  Anna?  Anybody want the Shadows and Light series?  Chime in, let me know what you want most out of my free library.)

 

Title: Paradise

 

Part Four:  Gettin’ There

 

 

 

***

 

                “How close are we now?” Cody demanded, staring intently out at the blackness beyond the viewport.

                “Close,” his dad said for the millionth time as he checked the gauges that monitored the ship’s velocity and angle.  Cody knew all about those.  He could name every single gauge on the flight console, and he could read most of them too.

                “Can’t we go faster?”

                “Nope,” his dad said cheerfully.  “This is as fast as it gets until we get a little closer to Paradise.”

                “And then can we speed up?”

                “Then we slow down, bucko.  Gotta be safe.”

                Cody flopped across the back of the copilot’s chair with a sigh.  “Safe is so boooring.”

                “Poor kid,” his dad crooned.  Cody frowned.  Whenever his father used that tone of voice, Cody knew he was being sarcastic.  “Doomed to a life of dullness and despair by being forced to obey all the safety rules and regs.  Angels weep for you, my son.”

                “You’re not funny,” Cody pouted.  It was a dumb joke, his dad wasn’t funny at all.  He stared ahead again.  “How close are we now?”

                His dad made that slow, special sigh that Cody knew meant he was running out of patience.  “Not close enough for you to be askin’ me that again.  How about you go finish gettin’ ready to land?”

                “I’m ready,” Cody replied quickly.  He was, too; he’d showered and brushed his hair and dressed in his best clothes, the ones Garrett ordered him that made him look kinda like a Space Ranger.  They were blue and green and so cool.  He even had shoes to match.

                “Then how about you go help Garrett get ready?  I’ll holler as soon as there’s somethin’ to see.”

                “Fine,” Cody huffed, rolling his eyes.  He knew a dismissal when he heard it.  He jumped down from the chair and marched off towards his daddy’s room, where Garrett was probably still picking what to wear.  He had more clothes than Cody and his dad combined, and it took him forever to get dressed.

                The door was closed.  “Garrett?” Cody asked as he knocked.  “Are you ready yet?”

                “Almost,” Garrett called out. 

                “Can I come in?”  Cody had learned a long time ago that he had to ask before entering their room when the door was shut. 

                “Sure.”

                He pressed his palm to the door and it swung open immediately.  The room was kind of a mess; there were a pile of clothes on the bed, another heap thrown over the chair, and the whole place smelled moist, like the shower had been going for a really long time.  No Garrett, though.  “Where are you?”

                “In the bathroom.” 

                Cody picked his way across the floor and squeezed into the tiny bathroom next to Garrett, then looked up at him.  His mouth dropped open.  “Wow.”

                “Wow, huh?” Garrett teased, smiling at Cody through his reflection on the mirrored wall.  “That’s nice.”

                “You look really pretty.”  He did, too, in some kind of bright blue suit that was just as soft as it looked, and sharpened his corners so much that he almost looked like a Build-A-Bot toy.  He’d styled his hair into weird criss-crossing layers that reminded Cody of waves, and his skin was almost glowing.  And he smelled good, like some of the flowering trees in the arboretum back home.

                “Pretty.  Well, that’s acceptable, I suppose, although I was going for stunning.”

                Cody frowned. Stunning? “Like you want to knock people down?”

                “Metaphorically speaking, yes.”

                “Oh.”  Cody considered that for a moment, then patted Garrett’s back.  “Maybe you will, then.”  He didn’t want Garrett to think all his work was for nothing, but Cody didn’t really think he was going to actually start knocking people down.  “Um, what’s a metaphor?”

                Garrett opened his mouth to reply, but before he could say anything the ship’s com sounded.  “Passenger vessel, this is Paradise towel 115, please identify yourselves.”

                “We’re here!” Cody yelled.  He ran out of the bathroom and almost fell over a pile of shoes on his way back to the cockpit.

                “Tower, this is the Icarus, registration number PD37592, out of Pandora,” his dad said into the com as Cody launched himself into the copilot’s chair.  His dad looked over at him and made a “shhh” motion and Cody obeyed, even though he didn’t want to.  He could see Paradise now, a bright orangey-brown circle in the distance dotted with swirls of white. 

                The air changed scents as Garrett joined them, and when his dad turned to look at him his eyes got wide and his jaw dropped a little.  He didn’t even seem to hear the person over the com respond, and Cody wondered if that was what Garrett meant when he said “stunning.”  Whatever, it was annoying and they were going to get in trouble if his dad didn’t talk back.  Cody nudged him with his foot.

                “Sor—sorry, Tower, repeat that last transmission, please?” his dad said, turning reluctantly back to the console.  Garrett just grinned, and placed a kiss on the top of his dad’s head as he came around and shifted Cody into his lap so they could share the copilot’s seat.

                “You’re cleared for landing at the Governor’s private dock.  Berth six.  Just follow the coordinates, Icarus, you’ll do fine.”

                “Roger that, Tower.  Icarus out.”  His dad shut off the com and they all watched as Paradise grew larger and larger in the viewport. 

                “Will they be there when we land?” Cody asked, feeling a little nervous for the first time today.

                “Probably, unless there’s some emergency,” Garrett said, like emergencies were just boring, everyday kinds of things.

                “Do I look as nice as you?”

                “You look great,” Garrett assured him, giving Cody a kiss as well, and even though he wasn’t a little kid anymore and didn’t need kisses, it was kind of nice to get one.  “You both do.”

                “Flattery will get you nowhere,” his dad said briskly, but he was smiling too.  “Time to strap in, guys, we’re going to hit atmosphere in thirty.”

                “You heard the man,” Garrett said.  He set Cody down and gestured to the small seat that was specially installed for him at the back of the cockpit.  Cody pulled it down, hopped up and buckled himself in.  Garrett checked that the fit was snug before going back to his own chair and fastening his harness. 

                The planet got larger and larger, all the black vanishing from the viewscreen, and then they hit the top layer of clouds.  The ship began to rumble.  Cody watched the viewscreen go totally white from clouds, and he clenched his hands around the edge of the seat.  How could his dad really tell where they were going?  It was easy in space, there was nothing to run into, but now there might be something in the clouds and they wouldn’t even see it, and they could hit it and then they’d crash.

                “It’s okay, bucko,” his dad said softly, and Cody figured he must have made a noise.  “We’re fine.  We’ll be down in a minute.”  The clouds thinned, going from white to grey to light brown, and then there weren’t any clouds at all, nothing but clear sky and distant orangey rocks and, right in the middle, a silver city.

                “Wow,” Cody whispered.  It was so different from the Box, so much brighter. 

                “That’s Rapture,” Garrett told him, craning his neck back so he could look at Cody.  “The capital of Paradise.  It’s the biggest city on the planet, with around a million people living here.  Most of the military’s facilities are here as well.”

                A million people?  “That’s a big city.”

                “Compared to Pandora, yes,” Garrett agreed.  The ship turned slightly and headed for a large white structure on a hill.  “That’s the Governor’s Mansion.  That’s where we’re going to be staying.”

                It was huge.  “Your dad lives there?”

                “Yes, but so do a lot of other people.  You won’t get bored.”

                “I just don’t wanna get lost.”

                Garrett chuckled.  “That, too.”

                Daddy was quiet all through the landing, guiding them down onto the fluorescent landing circle and settling the ship with a faint hiss from the compressors.  Maybe he felt nervous too.  As soon as the light went off, Cody unbuckled and went to stand next to his dad.  He took his hand and held it tight.  Garrett peered out of the viewport and grinned.  “There they are!  Ready to meet everyone?”

                Cody’s heart felt like it would jump out of his mouth if he tried to say anything.  He just nodded and held onto his daddy’s hand tighter. 

                Garrett led the way down the ramp.  Cody’s feet felt stuck, heavy and hard to move, and the bright sunlight stung his eyes.  He buried his face in his daddy’s side, and a second later he was picked up and held tight.  “You okay, bucko?” his daddy asked gently.

                “My eyes hurt,” he confessed.

                “Yeah, mine too.  We’ll be inside soon, though.”  His daddy ran a comforting hand through his hair and kept walking forward.  Cody kept his eyes closed, feeling tears seep out at the edges.  He couldn’t see, but he could hear what was going on up ahead.

                “Gare!”  There was a slapping sound, like someone getting a really hard hug.  “Finally!  You know you’re almost a day late, right?”  It was a light voice, not high like a girl’s but excited.  Wyl’s voice.

                “Don’t pretend you learned how to tell time,” Garrett teased him.  “Where’s Robbie?”

                “Last-minute disciplinary session, some moron accidentally discharged his rifle into one of the tanks.  No damage done, but he couldn’t put off dealing with it.  He’s making us all dinner tonight as an apology.”

                “Does he know that?”

                “I’ll tell him when he gets here,” Wyl said cheekily.

                “Wyl, stop monopolizing him,” a woman said.  “Gare, welcome!  And Jonah, Cody, don’t hang back!”  Slender arms enveloped both of them, and then soft hands touched his face.  “What’s wrong, sweetheart?”

                “The sun’s makin’ his eyes tear up,” Daddy explained for him.

                “Oh, poor thing, of course.  Here, give him to me, we’ll go to the terrace and get into the shade.”  Daddy passed him over and Cody found himself tucked against a very different body.  He couldn’t remember the last time a woman had held him, but it was nice.  She smelled even better than Garrett.  He heard his daddy explaining things to the others while she walked until the intensity of the light and heat suddenly vanished.  Cody blinked his eyes open, and the first thing he saw was Claudia’s face a few inches from his.  She was wearing a long white dress and had her dark hair loose around her shoulders.  It made her look younger than she usually did over the holoscreen.

                “Hi,” she said with a smile.  “Better now?”

                “Yeah,” Cody replied, wiping his eyes on the palm of his hand.  “Sorry.”

                “Oh, you don’t have to be sorry, sweetheart.  I’m sorry I didn’t think ahead.”  She kissed his cheek and set him down, but kept one hand on his shoulder.  Cody let her pull him close.  “You are even more handsome in person.”

                “Thank you,” he said, still shy but starting to feel better.  He looked at the table they were next to.  There was a bassinet on top of it, rocking itself gently.  “Is Renee in there?”

                “Yes.  She’s sleeping right now, but you can still take a look if you want.”

                “Sure.”  He stood on one of the chairs and leaned over to see into the bassinet.  There was Baby Renee, hair wild around her head and one foot stuck in her mouth.  She was sucking on it as she slept.  “She’s eating her foot,” Cody whispered.

                “Maybe it tastes good,” Claudia whispered back.  “Like chocolate.  You could lick it and see.”

                “Gross!”

                “Or maybe she’d like yours better,” Claudia suggested.  “You could let her use it for a while, see if she thinks it tastes good too.”

                “Not these feet,” Garrett said, suddenly behind him.  Cody used his hand to help jump down and looked around for his dad.  He was heading towards them, still talking with Garrett’s dad, Miles.  “They get spontaneously covered with dirt, it’s like magic.  Even on the ship, I don’t know how he does it, but I find fresh grass stains on his clothes.”

                “But not today,” Cody argued, “’cause I just took a shower!”

                “It doesn’t matter, Cody needs his feet,” Wyl cut in.  He was a little shorter than Garrett, a little skinnier, with dark hair and dark eyes and a wide grin.  “Remember what I said we’d do when you got here?” he asked Cody.

                “Go for a bike ride?” Cody said.

                “Exactly!  And you can’t ride a hoverbike with a baby attached to your foot.”

                “You keep your bike away from my baby,” Claudia scolded him.

                Cody finally began to relax.  It was just like talking to them over the holoscreen, just as funny and kind, except it was better because they were really here now.  He reached out and took Wyl’s hand.  “When can we go?”

                “Only after you put your things away in your bedroom,” Daddy said as he and Miles finally caught up.  Cody didn’t know Miles very well; he was working a lot of the time when Claudia called.  He looked a lot like Garrett, except grey instead of blond, a little taller and a little less polished.  He held out a hand to Cody, who shook it.

                “Welcome to Paradise, Cody,” Miles said warmly.

                “Thank you, sir.”

                “Not sir.  Just Miles.  Ready to see your rooms?”

                “I get more than one?” Cody gaped.

                “Oh, son,” Miles said, turning him towards the mansion, “have you seen the size of this place?  You could have ten rooms in you wanted them, but I thought we’d start with three.  Want to take a look?”

                “Yes,” Cody said, following him towards the door.

                Three whole rooms all to himself, hoverbike rides and Claudia and a huge house to play in…

                This was going to be so much fun.

Busty in a Bad Way

Bad news, darlins.  Well, inconvenient, at least.

My laptop has decided not to accept being plugged in any longer.  No matter how I try, she won't charge.  At least not with the cord.  (I might--might--have cracked the casing of the plug's receptacle somehow by, oh, carrying it around a bit callously.  But that's no reason to stop working!) 

So now I need to get that repaired, and/or find an alternate way of charging the battery until a repair can be made.  Which translates to me kicking my man off his computer to write this (Dawn of War 2 can wait, dammit!) and also means I won't be writing as much or as quickly as I want to.  My priority is the next part of Paradise, but I've got other stuff I just need to do, with limited ways to do it. 

*Cue wailing cry of despair*   Nooooooooooooooooooooooo......

No, I'm sure it'll be fine.  Soon.  Fine soon!  *twitch--twitch*  So the laptop's a little busty right now, we can fix it.  Because we are such fixy fixers.  That, or I lose my mind and mug someone for their iPad.  Beware, bitches.  Beware.

So anyway, Happy Saturday:)

HAPPYFUNTIMES!!! (re: reviews:)

There's been a brief but brilliant cascade of awesome reviews for some of my stuff lately, and I want to share them with you here, because if you're on the fence about a story I want to tip you off it (onto the soft and gentle side, of course!) and if you need a reason to recommend a story to a friend, these might do it for you.  Thank you to the reviewers, you are all.  So.  Cool. 

All reviews are helpful, but really good ones are just...um...well, you know how it is when you're really, really happy and your frail self can't contain it and you shout it to the ceiling/sky/door/clock/computer/husband's face, and you get funny looks but you just don't care?  Yeah.  Kind of like that.

The first two are for my story Reclaimed, the last one in the Treasured trilogy (which is now a collection, btw, called Pursued).  It rounds out the story of Daniel and Rhys, in what I hope is a satisfying way.

It was reviewed by Jenre, here: Well Read: Review: Reclaimed.  And here's a highlight:

At about 22,000 words, this isn't a long book. It does, however, round off the series in a very satisfactory manner and I waved off these characters into their HEA feeling that I was pleased to have known them. Those of you who have read the other books in this series will, like me, be keen to see the end.

The other review for it came from Sensual Reads, here: SensualReads Reclaimed Review.

Beautifully written with two magnificent heroes, Reclaimed shows love can save the day. Reclaimed will also have you on the edge of your seat as the plot unfolds and we cannot be sure what will happen next. Great job for Cari Z.


And just now, like 5 minutes ago, I learned that Alex at Between The Covers reviewed Changing Worlds, which if you know me you know is my baby, my longest published work so far.  And it rocks.  Rocks!

You can find it here: Between The Covers: Changing Worlds Review.  Highlight!!!

Having enjoyed the short story that this novel expands on, I was excited to hear that Ferran and Jason's story continued. And, for the benefit of people who hadn't read the first story, it's included in the beginning of the novel. (Two for the price of one!) I had already read it, but I re-read it, despite everything being explained in the novel itself (for those who choose to skip reading or re-reading the short). I was reminded how much I enjoyed the short, and with its happy ending, it was almost difficult to begin the novel, knowing there would be challenges in their future.

But I did, and I'm glad I did. A majority of the story is rather calm, action-wise, but it's tense in the relationship and political quandaries that arise. The last few chapters are incredibly compelling, and I eagerly ate through them. A great exploration of different cultures, xenophobia, and what really is the last great frontier--love. Oh, I mean space.