Page 86 of Under His Heel

“I’ll test you on that at some point, so you’d better memorize it well,” Tracht told him.

If that wasn’t weird enough, Nadia mailed Alex.

Hey Alex!

I asked Mistress to ask Captain Tracht if it was all right for me to contact you, and he said yes so here I am! I just wanted to tell you that I had a great time at the movie. It was nice talking to another bondservant. My old friends just didn’t get it.

I’m kind of jealous you get to travel with Captain Tracht and Mistress, but I guess I’ve got Master here with me. He’s threatening to keep me locked up again though! Boo! (I know all of them are reading this. So nosy! :P )

Anyway. Send me a message before you’re outside of comm-space so I know what you’re up to. Feel free to share as many (many, many, many) details as you want.

?

Nadia

Alex asked Tracht about the message and was told to respond or not, however he felt like. His first instinct had been to ignore her, and he did just that for two days after he received the message. But when he noticed Parsons staring at him on the ship, Alex decided that actually, he did want to talk to somebody who wasn’t pretending to be so much better than the rest of the world.

He told Nadia he was doing okay, and he waffled a bit but decided to tell her about the massage and rimming and orgasm denial. He left out the cage though, because Alex still hadn’t figured out what had happened.

Predictably, Nadia was extremely enthused by the scenario. “It’s great that you’re so close to Captain Tracht!”

Alex couldn’t figure that line out either, so he ignored it and just focused on the rest of her mail.

Between helping Tracht out, studying the random ship things (every wrong answer meant getting hit with the cane, and if he got too many wrong he wasn’t allowed to have dinner), and messaging back and forth with Nadia, Alex was so distracted that he forgot about Parsons.

He let his guard down, and went to the gym alone, where Parsons ambushed him by lurking just outside.

“Hey, Alex. Can we talk?”

It must have been almost two weeks since their confrontation. Alex was tired and sweaty and really not feeling up to more of Parsons’ judgment, so he growled, “No,” and tried to push past him.

Parsons stretched out his arm to block the way. “I want to apologize. I was out of line.”

That stopped Alex. “Wait. You’re sorry?”

“Yeah. Um, can we move some place more private? I think my cabin is empty right now.”

Parsons actually looked miserable. Alex considered turning him down anyway, but he’d been getting better at the friends thing, chatting with Nadia, and it’d be nice to be able to do that even once they’d left comm space.

“Okay. Sure.”

Hah, Parsons hadn’t expected Alex to agree, if the shocked look on his face was any indication. But he recovered quickly and led Alex down to his shared cabin, mumbling some awkward small talk along the way.

The crew cabins were tiny. Alex knew Tracht’s cabin was large, but he hadn’t realized just how large in comparison. The passenger cabins Nick and Alex had shared on their many trips between stations had had more space than this.

A small space at the entrance held a dresser bolted to the wall, with a shoe rack on the opposite end. Beyond that, there was a heavy bunk bed on each side, the frames heavy enough that the bed space was like an inset in the wall.

Four people total shared the room. Each bunk had a curtain, but there wasn’t really any privacy. No attached washroom either. Alex was glad he was staying with Tracht and not down here.

Parsons sat down on the bottom bunk of one of the beds and motioned for Alex to join him. In Alex’s experience, two people in one bed usually led to one specific thing, but he was pretty sure Parsons hadn’t brought Alex down here for sex.

Along the walls, and on the ceiling above the bunk, were a bunch of pictures. Mostly Meilin at various ages, but also of a pretty woman with long, dark hair and a bright smile.

If that was Parsons’ wife, Alex could see why he’d been attracted to her. Alex would not have turned her down. Her tits were a bit on the small side, but then so were Nadia’s and that hadn’t been a problem.

“Your wife was hot,” Alex said, and he saw Parsons flinch.

“Ah. Thanks, I guess. Xiaoyu was amazing. Pretty firm at times, but she had such a wonderful sense of humor, and we could just… talk for hours and hours, about everything and nothing at all.” Parsons traced a finger down one of the photos of Xiaoyu. “I think the worst part about losing her was knowing I’d never have those conversations anymore. Being alone to raise Meilin, not being able to share my hopes and fears for our daughter, or…”

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