Page 22 of Under His Heel

They arrived at the gym, which was occupied by two other people. The dude cleared out as soon as he saw them, but the woman stared openly. Even grinned a bit creepily at Alex. It was the same chick he’d seen in the laundry room when he’d first been brought on board, and he suddenly understood what she’d meant when she’d said she couldn’t wait to see him at the gym. She must have been one of the ones that thought working for Tracht came with a huge perk.

Tracht put Alex on the treadmill and set it to a strenuous enough setting that Alex had to concentrate. Then Tracht started his own workout.

Alex hadn’t eaten enough to do well with this work out. He hadn’t slept enough. The damned cock cage started buzzing intermittently, throwing his steps off so that he stumbled on the treadmill. He shot a few dirty glances at Tracht, but he was jogging along on the next treadmill over without paying any attention to Alex. At some point the creepy-stare lady cleared out, and it was just the two of them in the gym.

After maybe twenty minutes of running, Alex was out of breath. He pushed himself further though, because he wasn’t going to be this pathetic. And not going to the gym while in space was dangerous, because your body would try to get used to the slightly lighter gravity, and then when you were on stations or, even worse, on a planet, the gravity there would crush you. Not that Alex ever intended to go down to a planet.

What ended up getting him wasn’t the running though. It was Parsons walking into the gym. Alex startled so badly that he slipped off the treadmill entirely, sprawling on the floor. His pathetic excuse for a shirt slipped up and exposed his pecs for everybody to see.

He needed to get up. But he was too tired and stunned to move.

“Hey, you okay?” Parsons stepped right up to him and extended his hand.

It reminded Alex so much of how Tracht had pulled the same move that he blurt out, “Fuck off,” without even thinking. Then he panicked and glanced over at Tracht, but Tracht continued his exercise without a second glance. Alex struggled to his feet and wished he had the energy to do more than send nasty glances at Parsons. Not that he would risk punching him right in front of Tracht, but it was a nice thought anyway.

He didn’t miss the surprised look on Parsons’ face. Same stupid look he’d had that night that Alex had beat him up. Looked like an idiot too, with his hand still stretched out.

Alex walked over to Tracht’s treadmill and stood right in front of him. “I’m done.”

He thought he saw Tracht’s mouth briefly twitch into a smile. “Apologize to Mr. Parsons.”

“What?” Alex’s shortness of breath had to be because of the workout.

Tracht pressed a button and the treadmill slowed to a stop. “Apologize to Mr. Parsons. For your rudeness and for nearly killing him.”

Alex growled and turned back towards Parsons, who looked like he wanted to be anywhere else. Was he too good to be conversing with Alex? Too terrified of Alex, sweaty and out of breath and wearing the most ridiculous outfit ever?

“Sorry,” Alex snarled, and he got a kind of satisfaction out of seeing Parsons’ eyes widen.

“It’s... fine?” Parsons looked between Alex and Tracht. “I... I didn’t mean to interrupt. Dr. Singh suggested I try to get a bit of exercise in today.”

Tracht shook his head and held up a hand. “No, it is a public gym, after all. We’ll be leaving and you can do your workout in peace.” He paused briefly. “Mr. Parsons, I do hope this past week hasn’t negatively colored your experiences on board my ship.”

Parsons took a step away from Tracht. “No, it’s... it’s fine. I guess I was warned. B-bondservants, right?”

“Yes, exactly.” Tracht smiled, and Alex almost laughed at how completely un-reassuring the expression was. “Thank you for understanding.” He put a hand on Alex’s shoulder and guided him out of the gym.

===

“I’m hungry,” Alex complained. His stomach pinched with the first pangs of hunger.

“You ate this morning.” Tracht had gone through the pressure scrubber and changed into loose sweats and a longer tank top. “But I might have something for you. Go kneel by the table.”

Alex knew he should have been putting up more of a fight, but yeah, exhausted. Slop for breakfast, constant low-level arousal, twenty minutes on the treadmill—no way was he going to give up even the chance at a treat of some sort. He didn’t bother to consider how Nick would be handling the situation.

He knelt by the table and waited. He waited so long his knees started to ache.

Tracht puttered around, not looking at Alex, which wasn’t fair in the slightest. Alex was there, doing what he’d asked! It wasn’t right for Tracht to ignore him now. It wasn’t right for Tracht to drink almost an entire bottle of water and snack on fresh vegetables while Alex salivated watching him.

Finally Tracht got up and walked over to the mini-fridge. He pulled out a small container and set it down by the table.

“There are some pastries inside. One of the crew was celebrating a birthday, I believe. I’m not much for sweets, but I thought you might enjoy one.”

Now Alex frowned. That sounded kind of nice of Tracht. There had to be a catch.

Tracht tapped Alex’s lips. “But I’m not sure you deserve this.”

That sounded a lot more like Tracht. Alex tensed his shoulders and waited.

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