Page 52 of Under His Heel

It didn’t hurt as much as it used to, the swelling having gone down, but it was still an unpleasant twinge. Alex knew better than to evade the fingers though, so he lay passively while Tracht multi-tasked torturing him and chatting with his sister.

“Oh, honey, no! We value your services deeply. You’re a good boy.”

It took Alex a moment to realize that she was addressing him. If his mouth weren’t full, he would have said something rude. From Tracht’s expression, he knew it too.

“Anyway. You’ve robbed me of enough sleep. Good night, Anna. I’ll call you once I’m on the station.”

“Of course. Thank you for the asteroid video, by the way, the kids loved it. And Vasilis will probably be in touch too.”

The call ended and the tablet screen dimmed down. Tracht set it aside and slid down so he was face to face with Alex, his fingers still in Alex’s mouth.

“Anything to say?”

Alex swallowed and shook his head.

He could hear Tracht chuckle, could feel an exhale of breath against his cheek. The fingers slowly retracted, replaced with Tracht’s lips against his, Tracht’s tongue lovingly tracing every inch of his mouth.

When Tracht pulled away, he took his shirt off and threw it on the floor somewhere. Then he stretched an arm out and said, “Come here.”

Alex shouldn’t have gone so easily. He should be upset. But he settled his head against Tracht’s chest and allowed himself to be held. He even put an arm around Tracht’s waist and took comfort in his warmth.

After a few moments of silence, Alex found himself calmer. “So… Johannes?”

He received a pinch to his ear for that. “If you ever call me by my given name, you’ll regret it.”

Naturally.

[Chapter 17]

With the ship back in comm-space, everybody was suddenly a lot more active. Alex hadn’t even realized how dead things had felt until he compared it to the current flurry of activity. Tracht had to make calls upon calls to suppliers and business contacts and the station management, only some of which Alex was allowed to listen in on.

The crew was noticeably excited to be getting close to port; everybody was making calls of their own or watching new vids.

Parsons in particular was happy. Something about how he got to talk to his daughter again. Alex listened to him ramble, which was better than being bored by himself, what with how little time Tracht had for him. Tracht hadn’t even made use of Alex’s tongue stud, despite the fact that the swelling in his mouth had gone down and Singh had switched the barbell out for a shorter one and proclaimed him fit for work.

When Alex checked his own inbox, he found one message from Nick. He didn’t know what to do about it, so he ended up not doing anything. Left it sitting unread in his inbox.

For some stupid reason he mentioned it to Parsons too.

“You don’t want to talk with your brother?”

Oh, right. He hadn’t told Parsons about Nick—the only reason Tracht even knew was because of the whole running away thing. He’d kind of just… forgotten that Parsons didn’t remember any of that night, hadn’t even been anywhere near Nick.

Alex shrugged and hoped that was enough of an answer.

“Hmm. Well, family is really important,” Parsons said, “But sometimes you do have to put yourself first.”

He honestly hadn’t expected that kind of sympathy, and it itched under his skin. Not even like he wanted to hit Parsons, just like… he didn’t hate him anymore.

===

Two hours until they docked.

Apparently that meant a whole ‘nother round of inspections. Every single member of the crew was working to prep the ship—cargo weight needed to be shifted around, readings had to be taken, navigation suddenly required an extra three people.

Tracht was doing his final run through the ship. The cargo bay, which had been mostly dead during the trip, was bustling with crew members double-checking the status of the goods and preparing them for eventual off-loading.

It was kind of overwhelming, and Alex did his best to keep up and do whatever Tracht told him.

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