Page 44 of Under His Heel

That pissed Alex off even more for some reason. “You jealous? Want to crawl into Tracht’s bed yourself?”

“Hah!” Carpenter pivoted away from Parsons. “I wouldn’t touch that dick even if you paid me. Oh, wait, you’re the one getting paid.”

Alex didn’t wait any more. He side-stepped Parsons and sent a punch at her. She ducked under it. Two seconds later Alex found himself tripping over one of her legs. He reached out to pull her down with him.

He thought he had her, only she kneed him in the balls. He was vaguely glad he was wearing the cock cage and the brunt of the forced was blocked—he saw the shocked look on her face when she hit the hard cage rather than soft flesh—but it was still painful enough that he lost his hold on her.

Vaguely, he recognized Parson’s voice yelling, “Stop it!” Parsons even tried to get between them, but Carpenter pushed him aside and somebody else pulled Parsons completely out of the way.

They’d drawn a crowd. Alex felt the familiar rush of adrenaline he got in any fight. He thought he heard somebody shouting out bets. All Alex really cared about was getting his hands on Carpenter and beating her bloody.

She wasn’t half bad as a fighter, and Alex guessed she’d had formal training at some point. Alex had the advantage of sheer strength, but actually catching Carpenter was proving to be a bit more difficult than he’d anticipated. Just one good punch, and—

“What is going on here?”

Alex froze. Fuck. With horror, he turned towards the entrance to the lounge. Tracht was standing there, looking completely livid.

Every single person in the room shut up and cleared the way for Tracht to step into the center of the impromptu ring. Alex had an extreme urge to get down on his knees and kiss Tracht’s boots; if not for the many people there, he probably would have.

“Mr. Ackerman! Explain, concisely, why I am seeing what appears to be a fight, on my ship.”

Carpenter’s friend stood to attention. “Yes sir! That is, uh... Carpenter and the bondservant had a disagreement.” Even from where Alex was standing he could see the guy sweating. Carpenter herself didn’t seem fazed in the least.

Tracht wasn’t impressed with the answer. “A disagreement that required fists to resolve?”

“Sir,” Carpenter interrupted. “The bondservant was being completely insubordinate. He needed to be taught his place.” For a split second Alex saw her smirking, like the fucking bitch was trying to get Alex in trouble on purpose.

He was ready to jump in and defend himself, except Tracht held up a hand, signaling Alex to hold steady. “Ms. Carpenter. This is the second time today that I’ve found you behaving beyond unprofessionally on my ship.”

All humor fled her face. “No, Captain—I was simply punishing him for—”

“Ms. Carpenter. Did you, at some point, pay off Alex’s debt when I wasn’t looking?”

“Um, no, sir.” The cocky look on her face was slipping away. Good. Served her right. Everybody else in the room was shuffling away from her, and at least one person who’d been in the crowd fled out the lounge door.

“Did I ask you to discipline my bondservant?”

“No, sir, but I assumed—”

Tracht made a harsh, disgusted sound. “You assumed that Alex was communal property? That I somehow would welcome your disruption to the order on my ship?”

Oh god. For some reason, Alex was getting hard. He was glad the cock cage would keep anybody from seeing his reaction. It didn’t make any sense at all, except the way Tracht was stripping this bitch down, the way he had said my bondservant was making Alex’s body heat up.

“If you felt Alex had behaved inappropriately, the correct course of action would have been to report him to me. Instead, you incited violence and a large disruption on a ship where every single crew member plays a vital role. Do I need to remind you of the dangers of space travel?” Tracht sneered at her.

“Sir, it’s just that—” Her voice wavered.

“No. Save your sniveling. You’ll be on toilet duty for the rest of the trip. I also suggest you work on your resume, because once we dock, I don’t ever want to see you again. The employment contract is explicitly clear that violence on board the ship is not tolerated under any circumstance.” Tracht shook his head and then turned to face the rest of the people still in the room. “And every single one of you is lucky that somebody advised me of what was occurring. I’m going to review the security footage, and you will all receive written warnings on your files.”

A written warning sounded like nothing to Alex, but judging by the expressions of everybody in the room, it was a serious consequence. Nobody was dumb enough to try to protest it though.

Tracht hooked a finger around Alex’s bondservant collar and pulled him out of the room. Just as they passed the crowd, Parsons flashed Alex another one of his looks. There was no time to decipher it, and anyway Alex was much more focused on Tracht, who was walking so quickly that Alex had to jog or risk getting choked on the collar.

It took Alex a moment to realize that they were heading towards Tracht’s office and not his quarters. That was kind of disappointing, because Alex just wanted to... to do something for Tracht. Well, he’d probably still be able to blow him under the desk.

Only once they were in the office did Tracht let go of Alex. He didn’t look at Alex, but sat down at his desk and flipped open the computer.

“That was really hot,” Alex said after watching Tracht type for a while. “The way you just tore her down. She was quivering in her boots. Like, I want to blow you now, and normally I—”

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