Series: Code of Honor (1/?)

Feedback: is shiny and always encouraged, both the good and the bad.

Copyright (c) February 2005 Patricia Flynn

Wo xi wang ni man man si, dan kuai dian xia di yu! = I wish you a slow death, but a quick ride to hell!

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Mal really didn’t know how that first kiss happened, well that wasn’t exactly true, he knew how it happened but it was the why that had him stumped. One minute he was walking into the cockpit minding his own gorram business and the next he had an armload of River with her lips pressing fiercely against his, so hard in fact that he could feel his lips mashing against his teeth.

Shocked, he stood there a few moments before putting his hands on her shoulders and then gently pushed her away.

“Gorram it girl, what do you think you’re doing?” Mal asked as he ran an agitated hand through his hair. Running his tongue over his bloody lip to access the damage, he realized he had the fresh taste of her on his lips. Oh yes, he was going to go to the special hell for this for sure.

“Hear you thinking about it all the time, but you never do it. Thought I’d try it, but it doesn’t seem to be that thrilling. I can’t see what Kaylee gets so excited about but she does. Must be something to it, just not sure what.” She frowns as though in deep thought.

Mal could feel his mouth drop open when his mind finally grasped what she was saying. He hadn’t been meaning to think about her in that way, but after the Maidenhead, Miranda and the Reavers, well, he’d gotten to thinking about her in a new light. Noticed she wasn’t a little girl, but a young woman.

“River just because I was thinking it, doesn’t mean I need to be doin’ it.”

“Wanted it, too. Never been kissed. Thought it would feel like water washing over me, tides of the oceans, like Wash and Zoe, Kaylee and Simon. Was like bare feet on hard stones…didn’t like it…wasn’t good.” Mal’s eyebrows rose at this, the look on his face showing that his ego was clearly damaged.

Without thinking about what he w