Imagines (Imago, Book Two) Read online

  “Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Solomon Islands.”

  “So basically, the tropics of the Pacific.”

  Lawson gave a nod and sighed. “Larvae feed typically on kerosene wood, citrus, and Euodia. Imago, they eat from blossoms of the doughwood plant.”

  “Okay, so what’s happening to these plants to impact the butterfly?”

  “By all reports, from various universities and the CSIRO, nothing. There has been some decline of the Euodia tree in deforestation, but that doesn’t contribute to the fact they’re dying in captivity.”

  “Okay, then, so tell me what’s unusual about their deaths. It seems odd to me that they’re making it to adult stage and then dying.”

  “Exactly. Typically parasites that may affect a butterfly species will render eggs unfertilised, or the egg casings are simply not viable.”

  “What is the main factors in adult Ulysses’ deaths?”

  “Heat stress, pesticides, predators such as snakes, frogs, birds.”

  “None of which can contribute to the butterflies at the conservatory.”

  Lawson shook his head slowly. “No. Everything is organically grown and certified, from the national park, actually, and the conservatory is climate controlled. There are no predators.”

  “And it’s only the Ulysses. No other butterfly?”

  Now he sighed. “Just the Ulysses.”

  “It has to be botanical.”

  “That’s what I said.”

  “Does Piers not agree?”

  “He’s tested the soil, the leaves. As have I. There are no significant changes; we’ve tested for every disease we can think of. Potassium was marked a little higher than usual but still well within the normal ranges. I’ve wasted three days re-testing when I should have been doing something else.”

  “Like what?” I asked. “What could you have done to avoid that butterfly dying today?”

  He put his head down. “I don’t know.”

  “Lawson, you had to start from the beginning. There’s no point in studying a contaminated control sample.”

  “Maybe I should be here,” he mumbled. “Full-time, trying to save this species.”

  My heart stopped.

  His frown deepened. “The Tillman Copper is thriving; the Ulysses is not. My time would be better spent here.”

  “Oh.” I nodded slowly. “You’re right. It would be.”

  He put his forehead on my chest. “Though I can’t bear to think of leaving you.”

  I rubbed his back. “We’ll work something out,” I said, not feeling the conviction I’d hoped he heard. “If it comes to that.”

  He looked up at me, his eyes imploring. “If I did decide to move here, would you support my decision?”

  “Of course I would. I’d hate that you were so far away, but we could make it work. I told you before, distance isn’t a problem for me.”

  He settled his head against my chest and slid his arms around me. “Thank you.”

  I gave him a squeeze. “You’re welcome.”

  “I’m hungry.”

  I snorted and lifted his chin so I could kiss him. “Then I shall feed you.”

  He let his forehead fall to my shoulder, and I kissed the side of his head. “Room service?”

  He burrowed into my neck and hummed. “I wasn’t talking about food.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Lawson

  I don’t know what it was about having Jack’s arms around me, but it brought something out in me that I hadn’t experienced with anyone else. Every time he embraced me, I felt safe and sheltered, in every sense of the word.

  He also spurred a yearning, a deep physical desire within me. I wanted him to have me, claim me and own me. I wanted to be his, to fulfil every need he had, and to be thoroughly at his mercy.

  His sweet, sweet mercy.

  “Come with me,” I murmured against his lips. “I want to show you something.” I took his hand and led him to the bedroom. I urged him to sit on the bed, and I went to the drawer I’d put my underclothes in. “Now, please don’t be mad.”

  I took out the two white envelopes I’d brought with us from home. The envelopes from the pathology lab concerning our bloodwork.

  Jack’s eyes went wide when he realised what they were. “Oh. You brought them with you?”

  I nodded slowly. “I don’t know why I wasn’t ready before, but I am now.” I swallowed hard. “If you are.”

  He still sat on the bed, his eyes were filled with worry. “I’m sure. Are you sure you’re sure?”

  I gave him a smile and sat down next to him. “Never been surer.” I held up the two envelopes. “Do you want to read mine or yours?”

  “Mine.”

  I handed him the envelope addressed to him and slid my finger underneath the seal of mine. I pulled out the folded piece of paper and opened it. Jack did the same, and we read our reports at the same time. My blood work was all fine, and I watched Jack as he read through his. He looked up and smiled, then handed me his report. I gave him mine, and after seeing his report was all fine as well, we sat in silence for a moment.

  “What now?” he asked.

  I took the letter from him, stood up, and set them both on the bedside table. Then planting my knee on the bed, I swung my leg over him to straddle his hips. “Jack, can I tell you something?”

  He had to look up at me, his hands bracing his weight behind him. “Of course.”

  “I don’t know if I will explain this adequately,” I started, sliding my hand along his jaw. “I want to be yours.”

  He smiled in confusion. “You already are.”

  “No, I want to be only yours. I want you to make me yours, make me belong to you. In a way that no one else ever has.”

  His nostrils flared, his eyes flashed with desire.

  I bent down and kissed him, tasting his mouth before I pulled away. I put both hands to his face and spoke against his lips. “Jack, I want to take you inside me, all of you, and only you. I want you to come in―”

  Jack crushed his mouth to mine and flipped me over so I was on my back and he was between my legs. He drove his tongue against mine and kissed me so hard my brain lost all coherent thought.

  I could feel his erection, hot and hard, against mine through our clothes, and then he was frantic about removing them. He sat back on his haunches and pulled at my shoes, giving me a chance to catch my breath. Then he undid my trousers and pulled the hems at my ankles to slide them off my legs. Then my underwear, then my shirt, until I was naked before him.

  He took in every inch of my body and licked his lips. “Oh, Lawson.”

  Not that I minded being on display for him, being studied and ogled, not when he looked at me like he wanted to devour me. But one thing wasn’t right. “You’re still very dressed.”

  He pulled off his shirt, tossing it over his shoulder. Then he climbed off the bed and took his boots off, and while he undressed, I leaned over to the bedside table and collected the bottle of lube.

  No condom.

  My blood warmed at the thought of what we were about to do.

  I flipped the lid on the bottle and Jack’s head turned at the sound. “Put that down. That’s my job,” he said. His gruff voice sent a shiver through me. I snapped the lid shut and took a hold of my erection, giving myself a long, slow pull. He crawled onto the bed, up my legs, and stopped when his mouth met the tip of my cock. He locked gazes with me, let his tongue out, and licked the tip as I jerked myself off.

  Then he slid his lips over my cockhead as I pumped the base, and he sucked me hard. I rolled my hips, urging him to take more of me, but he pulled away.

  “Goddammit, Jack. Don’t stop.”

  He smirked at me and continued crawling up until his mouth met mine in a hard, deep kiss. My cock forgotten, I gripped his hair and spread my legs, lifting my hips to meet his. He wrapped his hand around my knee and hitched my leg higher and ground his erection against me.

  “Jack,” I growled. I was fast running
out of patience.

  He pulled back so he was resting on his haunches. His thick cock jutted forward, almost right where I wanted him. He took the lube, slicked his fingers, and rubbed them over my perineum.

  “Mmm,” I hummed, raising my hips for him. “More, Jack.”

  He slipped a finger inside me, and I relaxed into it, knowing what I really wanted wasn’t far away. Then he added another finger, sliding in and out of me, and I pushed down on him, needing more. “I need you inside me,” I groaned out.

  Jack leaned over me, still fucking me with his fingers. “I am inside you.”

  “Your cock, Jack. I need you to fuck me.”

  He grinned. He found something about my cursing during sex amusing. “There it is.” He kissed me as he withdrew his fingers. “I know you’ve had enough games when you start to swear.”

  I considered cursing, and I considered demanding that he drive into me, but all I could do was beg. “Please, Jack. Please.”

  He poured lube onto his cock and slicked himself properly and wasted no time in positioning himself at my hole. He leaned over me once more, his eyes above mine. “Are you sure?”

  I cupped his face. “Yes.”

  And so he pushed into me. Thick and breaching, hot and hard, and everything I needed. It was pain and pleasure, too much and nowhere near enough. Jack’s eyes were closed, and his jaw clenched tight as he pushed all the way inside.

  “Look at me,” I whispered.

  His eyes shot open and he groaned. “Lawson, you feel so good like this.”

  I brought his lips to mine. “So do you.”

  He moaned out a cry when he was all the way inside me, and he shuddered. “Lawson, I don’t know how long… I can’t last like this…”

  “Then don’t.” I ran my hands over his face, taking in the depth of his restraint in his eyes. “Do what you want, fuck me if you need.”

  He pulled back and slammed into me. “Do you want to be mine?” he asked.

  I nodded. “Please.”

  “Only mine?”

  All I could do was nod.

  He was annexing me in the most incredible way. Driving into me, filling me, and taking what was his. He hooked his arms underneath my shoulders, buried his face in my neck, and fucked me. Such a brutal tenderness; my cock rubbed between our bellies as he slammed into me but he held me like I was made of glass. Every fibre in my body, every strand of pleasure, every part of me belonged to him.

  He bit my earlobe, then sucked on my neck, scraping his teeth against my skin. “Prove it to me,” he rasped, and it set off a reaction I couldn’t stop. My body responded, a chord struck within me.

  My orgasm buckled me, pleasure detonated like a bomb, and I came. My cock spilled between us, my whole body strung tight. I gripped onto his shoulders and arched my back as the waves of pleasure almost became too much to bear.

  “Oh fuck, Lawson.” Jack’s voice was tight and strained. I opened my eyes to see him watching me, his gaze wide and filled with wonder. “I’m gonna come inside you.”

  I put my hands to his face and watched as his orgasm crashed over him. His eyes rolled back, his jaw strained and neck corded as his cock swelled and he came so far inside me.

  In that moment, we were one. Physically, emotionally. I could feel his heartbeat pulsing inside me, through his chest, and it beat in time with my own. Resonating, completing, everything.

  I’d never felt anything like it.

  Jack shuddered as his orgasm subsided. I ran my hands through his hair and pulled his face back from my neck so I could kiss him. Deep and consuming, he thrust one final time and groaned in my mouth. His arms tightened around me and I knew without any doubt, he felt the same.

  He slowly pulled out of me and rolled us onto our sides, pulling me close and wrapping me up in his safe embrace. “I love you, Lawson,” he whispered in my ear. Then he cupped my face and looked into my eyes. “I love you, Lawson Gale.”

  I nodded, and my emotions crumbled. Like my heart was exposed to him and he cradled it with such tender hands, like a gift. I blinked back tears and all I could do was nod.

  He froze. “Are you okay?”

  Then I laughed through my tears. “So much better than okay.”

  Jack finally breathed and tucked me into his side, squeezing me. “Oh, you scared me.”

  “I’m just a bit overwhelmed,” I admitted.

  “That was very intense.” He ran his hand over my back in reassuring patterns for a few moments, giving me time to breathe. Then he said, “We should get cleaned up. If you like, I could run you a bath, then I can order you some room service for dinner.”

  He was so protective, so nurturing. I felt completely adored and secure, and I had to admit, I loved letting him take care of me. I sighed contentedly and looked up to his perfect face. “I love you too.”

  He chuckled and put his huge hand on my face. “You’re…”

  “I’m what?”

  “You look like you’ve been thoroughly had.”

  I smiled. “I have been. Every inch of me, thoroughly and completely, in the very best of ways. I’m not sure my skeletal system is back to solid form yet, so the bath may have to wait.”

  He kissed me with smiling lips. “Then let me get a cloth. You stay right here.”

  He peeled himself away from me and slipped out of the bed. I stretched out, feeling the most delicious aches in all the right places. Jack came back a moment later with a warm, wet flannel and took his sweet time wiping me down, following each caress of the cloth by a soft kiss and a hum of appreciation.

  When he was done, he kissed the top of my shoulder. “Feeling like that bath now?”

  “Mmm.”

  “Lawson, can I ask you something?”

  “Of course.”

  “Do you have any regrets? About what we just did… no condom?”

  “No regrets at all. Why? Do you?”

  He barked out a laugh. “Uh, no.”

  “And you feel okay? Not sore?”

  “I feel incredible. Do I not look like I feel incredible? Because I’ve never felt this sated. I’m not actually that well versed in physics, but I do believe you changed my bones from a solid to a liquid.”

  He chuckled, somewhat smugly.

  I waited for him to look into my eyes. “Why do you ask?”

  His smirk was salacious, and his eyes flashed with a heated look I was becoming quite familiar with. “Because I want to do it again.”

  * * *

  I arrived at the conservatory to find Piers studying a microscope, speaking to one of the lab assistants without looking up. They gave me a smile as they walked past. “Good morning.”

  “Quite,” I answered, making Piers look up.

  “Ah, Lawson. Good morning. How was your evening?”

  The mere mention of last night brought with it a slew of memories and visual flashes of just how my night went. Sweaty bodies, quiet whispers, grunts and moans that felt so real a shiver rippled through me. Followed by a blush. I pretended to be distracted and focused on the microscope. “Very good. What are you studying in the slides?”

  “The scales of the Ulysses that died yesterday.”

  “Find anything?”

  He shook his head.

  It was then I noticed the dead Ulysses on a tray behind him. It was fully intact. “Is that…?

  Piers nodded. “The final remaining Ulysses was found dead this morning.”

  I sighed. Maybe Piers was right. Maybe my time was better spent here. The Tillman Copper was thriving and would do so whether I was there or not. The Ulysses, however, needed all the help it could get.

  Moving here, away from Jack, was not what my heart wanted. But I couldn’t, in good conscience, turn my back on a threatened species.

  “Where is Jack today?” Piers asked, rescuing my mood somewhat.

  “I just dropped him off at the park. He’s spending the day doing what Parks and Wildlife officers do.”

  “He’s a good man,” Piers
added. “I’m sorry if my being forthright with you earlier was unwelcome. I didn’t mean to question your loyalty to him.”

  “He is a good man,” I stated, probably with more finality than was necessary. But I was done discussing personal matters with Piers. That’s not what I was here for. “So I’ve been thinking about the Ulysses. Are you familiar with entomotoxicology?”

  Piers frowned. “The analysis of toxins ingested by arthropods that have fed on carrion?”

  “Yes. Primarily it is testing on maggots and beetles that have fed on human remains to test for toxins in the body at the time of death.”

  “How is that relevant here?”

  “Bioaccumulation.” The blank stare he gave me told me he wasn’t familiar with this. So I explained, “Bioaccumulation occurs when an organism absorbs a toxic substance at a faster rate than that at which the substance can be lost by catabolism and or excretion.”

  “I know what bioaccumulation is. What are you suggesting, Lawson? They’re being poisoned?”

  “My suggestion…” Then I corrected myself. “My professional opinion is that we surrender the Ulysses specimen to the CSIRO for entomotoxicological analysis, specifically toxicology reports.”

  His face resembled a cartoon character’s. He went a furious red like a rising thermometer, and I half expected steam to come out his ears. “Surrender it?”

  I stood my ground. “Yes. They have the proper testing facilities.”

  “They’ll destroy it. To run such tests, they’ll need to destroy it.”

  “They’ll have to, yes.”

  He shook his head. “No. We can learn more from it as it is. I can pluck a few scales from the underside of the wing to analyse under a microscope, but to suggest they pulverise it…” He finished by shaking his head again.

  “Professor―”

  “No. These are the last species in captivity anywhere in this country. And you’re suggesting we allow them to put it in a blender?”

  Well, that was a crass way to put it. “Yes.” I looked at the dead Ulysses in the tray. “You’ll learn nothing from it as it is.”

  “We can run tests here. And we have! Dozens of tests.”

  “That found nothing.”