Page 22 of Under His Heel: A Kidnapping

“Me? I’m perfectly fine.”

She gave him a look, a reminder that they had been acquainted for near seven years by now, and she knew him far better than most.

In her mind, they were friends. Tracht thought of what he’d said to Alex, of how nobody else mattered, and wondered how he’d feel if it had been Singh in Alex’s position.

Certainly he wouldn’t have appealed to the Nilsens for help then.

“Don’t insult either of us by pretending you aren’t completely gone for Alex. There is no way you were unaffected by what happened.”

“As you say. It was highly stressful and unpleasant. I was ready to murder Anna if she didn’t shut up about sacrificing Alex for Johan’s sake.” Tracht smiled sharply. “Are you going to tell me that this is beneath me?”

She laughed. “Don’t be absurd. It would be very hypocritical, considering the relationship Charles and I have with Nadia. Anyway, it’s not like this is news. I noticed two months in that you liked Alex a lot more than the other ones.”

He wanted to deny it. He was fairly certain the real turning point had been their arrival on Atalanta, after Alex had saved him from being crushed by a container, but maybe she was right.

“Regardless,” Tracht said, “I do need to figure out how to reward him for—for not being dead. And then to punish him for getting into this situation in the first place. Any ideas?”

Dr. Singh was delighted to brainstorm with him.

==

The next few days were a bit of a blur for Alex. They went to the debt-leasing center and got Alex a new collar. Alex was invited to dinner with Tracht’s family and actually allowed to sit at the table with them. It was weird.

He could only use his left hand, so Tracht ended up cutting his food for him, which made his ears burn in embarrassment. Nobody else noticed though.

Johan was pretty quiet for most of the meal too, except he kept looking at Alex with these big eyes of his. It made Alex feel even more uncomfortable than Markus’s incessant questions.

As they were leaving, Vasilis ended up clapping Alex on the shoulder. “Seriously, thank you. When you’ve finished out your contract with Tracht, feel free to contact me and I’ll find a job for you.”

He mumbled some sort of excuse and hurried after Tracht, who had that air of impatience that was so dangerous on him.

“Looks like you’re all set for when you leave me,” Tracht said in clipped tones.

“Huh? Leave you?” Alex tried to figure out when he’d said anything about leaving, but drew a blank.

Tracht huffed a laugh. “Never mind. I’m being dramatic.” He placed his hand on the small of Alex’s back and led them to the street, where a cab was waiting to take them back to the docks. Back to the ship.

[Chapter 8]

Tracht hadn’t been kidding when he’d said he was going to coddle Alex for a week. It was amazing. Alex would easily place it as one of the best weeks of his life.

They watched movies together. Not the boring documentaries or the fucked up porn Tracht liked, but real movies. Action movies that Alex could really get into. Tracht commentated about how awful they were, but it was kind of funny and didn’t bug Alex. And Tracht even held Alex while they watched. They were cuddling, which was kind of awesome even though Alex remembered Nick being derisive about girly shit like that. Who cared what Nick thought, anyway.

Alex liked cuddling with Tracht.

They took baths together while they were still docked, and Tracht took him out to restaurants. Then when they were in space, Tracht hand-fed Alex a bunch of awesome food and petted him and was just plain nice.

When they had sex, Tracht rode Alex, or gave him blowjobs. Not much getting off for Tracht there, which made Alex feel a little bit bad, but Tracht smiled and said he’d make up for it later.

Oh yeah, Alex didn’t need to wear the cock cage for that week. He’d almost forgotten what it was like to be completely free-hanging.

Alex got a bit cocky, but he figured he had to take the good stuff when he could get it. So he wrapped his arms around Tracht from behind—only when they were alone, he wasn’t that stupid—and stole kisses that Tracht grudgingly allowed.

The only downer was that Alex’s fractured hand meant he couldn’t really help Tracht with his clothes or boots. He did try, but it frustrated both of them when he didn’t have the coordination to do it one handed.

All in all though, Alex was flying high.

And then the week was over.

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