Page 5 of Under His Heel

He shook his head. “No, we’ll wait to do that when we’re in space. We’ve got his station-side vitals from the debt-leasing center, and I think that’ll be good enough until we depart.” He gave Alex a look. “By the way, the contract specifically states no body modifications, but I would be willing to have your missing tooth replaced. It is, of course, up to you, and we would need to annotate the contract and inform the brokerage firm.”

“What’s that going to cost me?” Alex asked suspiciously. If there was one thing he’d learned in life, it was that there was no such thing as a free gift.

“Oh, we can add a single day to your contract, if that makes you feel better about it. But honestly, I simply prefer my... staff... to be healthy.” Tracht nodded at the doctor. “We could do it now, right, Dr. Singh?”

Singh hesitated, then shrugged. “Sure. No medical emergencies going on right now, and we’ve stocked up on prosthetic teeth. I’ll put it on your list of expenses.”

Alex warred with his gut instinct to refuse outright. He had absolutely no way of paying for a prosthetic on his own, and adding one day to his contract wouldn’t make a damned difference. Hell, he’d probably be coming out on top. And going along with this minor thing could make Tracht a bit more tractable.

In the end, it was the doctor’s obvious reluctance that got him to agree. She probably didn’t think he was worth it. Alex settled himself into the patient chair, and closed his eyes so he didn’t have to see her working.

Thankfully they did something to numb his mouth, because if he’d had to feel the tools he’d probably have panicked a bit. Once it was all over, he had to admit he liked the feeling of having a full set of teeth again.

Tracht seemed really pleased as well. That night he fucked Alex slowly, gently, and whispered cheesy words into his ear. Alex endured and didn’t say anything when Tracht finished off without bothering to bring Alex to orgasm.

[Chapter 3]

“I need to go out and take care of a few business meetings,” Tracht announced on Alex’s third day.

Fucking finally. Between kissing Tracht’s boots and serving him coffee and following him around like a dog, Alex was getting a bit tired of the guy. He gave the room a quick once over once he was alone—no need to antagonize the guy by leaving a mess behind—then started browsing the ‘net on Tracht’s tablet.

He sent a quick message to his brother, and was gratified when he got a response fairly quickly. “Going to a party 2nite! W/ L & Perry. Miss u!”

A few more messages back and forth, and Alex deleted the entire exchange. He pulled up a few maps of the station and tried to orient himself on where the ship was docked and how to get around this area of town if need be. Finally, he loaded up some porn and jerked off. He’d had a serious case of blue balls for the past two days, and no way was he going to let Tracht leave him unsatisfied for yet another night.

It wasn’t the best orgasm or anything, but he was glad for it anyway.

When he’d recovered, Alex decided to scope out more of the ship on his own. He got dressed in the Tracht-approved tunic and leggings combo, grabbed the laundry hamper, and then made his way down the elevator.

The ship was laid out in sections by utility. The lowest levels held ship operations and the cargo hold. Alex wasn’t going to bother going down there. He didn’t care about the engine or the cargo. The main level held more storage in the back, but the front part held the crew quarters, dining hall, laundry, lounge, gym, and the med bay.

He stopped by the laundry room first. One crew member was in there, some redheaded chick with just a bit too much bulk for Alex’s liking.

“Not with the Captain?” she asked, smiling at him.

“Nah. He’s busy. Gotta take care of this stuff for him though.”

He set all of Tracht’s stuff to wash. Maybe there was some rule about sorting clothes, but Alex wasn’t that keen on getting on his good side, so he just threw everything in at once. When he turned around, the chick was very obviously staring at his ass.

“Like what you see?” Alex joked, and he flexed his arm to show off his biceps.

Her grin widened. “Yeah. I’m looking forward to when the captain takes you to the gym.” She hefted her own laundry and waved lightly. “See you around.”

Her wording was a bit weird—Alex woulda been willing to go to the gym with her right then, or maybe just make out with her in the laundry room—but whatever. He checked how much time was on the washer, then wandered around some more.

The gym looked pretty sweet. It had a bunch of weight training machines, as well as treadmills, stationary bikes, free weights, and a punching bag. Alex rarely got to go to a real gym, because he and his brother couldn’t spare the cash for it.

Since he didn’t have enough time for a full workout, Alex left to check out the rest of the floor. He grabbed a protein bar from the dining hall, made sure to avoid the med bay—he had no interest in seeing Singh again, not even to thank her for the new tooth—and then ducked into the lounge.

One side had vending machines with snacks and alcoholic drinks. A sign next to them explained that every crew member was allowed one free alcoholic beverage per day, and the rest had to be paid for. Probably they would have to swipe their ident chips.

Some couches were around a giant TV screen, and the other end of the lounge held a round table, a pool table, and a dart board.

Currently there was one person in the lounge, some dude sitting on a couch and reading on his tablet.

“Where is everybody?” Alex asked.

The guy looked up, startled. “Sorry?”

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