She knew he would come to her tonight. The job had gone south, as jobs often did, and it had become his habit to come to her when that happened.

She lay naked on the smooth silk sheets of her bed, shivering in the cold. She had learned early on that he preferred her cold, enjoying the feel of her flesh heating only under his hands.

He entered, as always in these encounters, with a stealthy tread, his shirt and pants already half unbuttoned on the threshold. She watched him remove the rest of his clothing, throwing it carelessly to the floor in his wake. He climbed onto her bed, and she could smell the whiskey on his breath mingled with the coopery smell of blood from the bandage he’d acquired earlier in the day.

She swallowed, opening her thighs wide as he waited. As always, she fought the urge to draw them tightly back together as he crawled up to take his place at her entrance. His thrusts were hard and deep, and she bit her lip to keep from crying out at the sharp pain of it. She knew from experience he wanted silence. His teeth nipped at her skin, full of dark aggression as his thrusting continued, and she knew she would bear the marks from him in the morning. Her hands twisted in the sheets, her knuckles white with the effort of keeping her hands away from his body. He had made it clear from the beginning that he had no use for her Companion’s hands.

One last thrust brought him to his orgasm, and he held himself inside her, his arms trembling with the effort and his head thrown back, neck tendons stretching and eyes squeezed shut. After a long moment, he pulled away from her and rose on trembling legs to climb off the bed. He dressed silently, and walked to the door, stopping only long enough to reach into his pocket and withdraw coin enough to leave on her table. Pulling his suspenders back over his shoulders, he closed the door quietly behind him, leaving her to shiver once again in the cold.

************* For the explanation of how Mal and Inara got from the BDM to here, please read the next part, entitled "Bone Deep Chill".