I think I hear Ivy's voice, but it must just all be in my head. All I'm doing is thinking about her and how I’m going to explain Commander Fox’s offer to her.

"Sem!"

I keep running.

Then suddenly, my machine slows and then stops. I wonder if it's broken. Then I hear my name again.

"Sem, how could you not hear me?"

I look at Ivy. She's got a concerned look on her face. Before I can answer her, she asks another question, "And where are your clothes?"

I look down at my sweaty body and then back to her. "I didn't want to go back to my quarters to change clothing."

"Are you okay?"

"Yes. No. We need to talk Ivy and not here."

"What's the matter?"

I get off the treadmill and find a private room usually used for mediation. I close the door. "Commander Fox is going to hire the crew of the Hio to retrieve your eggs from Gala station."

"Why can't we go ourselves?” I didn’t even mention to the commander, Ivy was going to come too.

"Commander Fox says it's too dangerous, and he's not wrong. If I go, then it wouldn't be difficult to find you. Then that would impact your safety even when you're here or on Earth. The crew of the Hio are trustworthy and often make runs between here and the Empire, sometimes even stopping at Gala station. No one would think much of it if they quietly asked around."

"That's why you came here to run naked?"

"That and I was worried I'd be too stressed out to perform well tonight at our marriage ceremony. I’m dead afraid I won’t be able to orgasm."

"You’ve never had a problem before,” she says and then looking at my penis, which makes me feel even more nervous. Her green eyes slowly make their way back up to mine. “I wanted to go to the slave trading station and make sure myself, though," she says.

"I know, and I wanted to do that for you, but your safety has to come first. You were abducted a second time because I didn’t put your safety first, and I won’t do that again. I promise you the Hio will find your eggs, even if they didn’t survive."

"When will they know?"

"In a week or so. Commander Fox was going to message them today."

"Okay," she says, and I feel some stress slip off my shoulders. Then she takes my penis in her hands. Her soft touch makes me close my eyes.

“Don’t,” I say.

She doesn’t stop caressing me. Her hands stroking my penis into arousal feels amazing and so wrong in this meditation room. The door is closed but not locked, and I can hear all the other officers exercising only meters away.

“This will help you relax,” she says in a sultry voice. And I know what she’s thinking. Before she’s enveloped my penis in her mouth, it was so wrong but felt so good, and I know she wants to do that now. It began the same way before.

“No, don’t,” I say, but I don’t stop her in any way.

Then she falls to her knees and sucks the tip of my penis. I moan a bit. But then she stops and is back on her feet again.

“Think of that during our marriage ceremony, and you won’t have any problems.” Then, she opens the door to the mediation center. Everyone in the gym looks over and sees her leave and me standing there with the biggest erection of my life.

I follow her out to find my clothing. There’s nothing I can say or do to change this unexpected situation.

Thirty-Eight

Ivy

I look Sem up and down as he picks up his discarded clothing and begins walking out of the gym. I only feel half-bad for giving him that hard-on and then abandoning him so publicly.