Page 20 of Under Control

It would have been better if Tracht’s hands weren’t gloved.

“Suck,” Tracht ordered; Alex complied immediately, his eyes sliding closed as he suckled on Tracht’s fingers.

“Of course he’s contrite now,” Singh said. “You really need to discipline a male like him more often, or he’ll think he’s allowed to walk all over you.”

Alex ignored her in favor of drawing Tracht’s fingers further into his mouth.

“One more thing, Alex,” Tracht said, pulling his fingers out. Alex whined and tried to chase them, but Tracht’s hand in his hair stopped him. Tracht pointed to the floor. “Clean that up.”

Clean—oh. It was all of his jizz. It had all pooled on the floor by the exam table. Alex thought he should protest, but he didn’t care anymore. He wanted Tracht to touch him properly. Alex sank even lower to the floor and lapped up the cold, disgusting come.

“You see? He can follow orders,” Tracht said to Singh. “And breaking him down like this is half the fun.”

“Most of the fun, you mean,” Singh said with a laugh. “I’ll go grab a proper robe for him.”

She left, and the door slid shut behind her. Alex finished cleaning up, and when he was done he crawled the short distance to Tracht’s feet and began kissing his boots.

“It is phenomenally difficult not to fuck you right now,” Tracht murmured. Alex looked up, and yes, Tracht was very obviously hard underneath his uniform. Even better was the look in Tracht’s eyes, and that hint of a smile that Alex had come to cherish.

“Can I…” Alex stumbled over the words, his jaw still aching. “I wanna…”

Tracht extended a hand to him. “Yes, stand up.”

Alex gratefully took the hand and got up. He wanted desperately to hug Tracht, but he wasn’t sure if that was allowed. The question was answered a second later, when Tracht opened himself up to an embrace.

Alex flung his arms around Tracht and did his best to not sob loudly. He managed to contain it to small sniffles, and it helped that Tracht returned the hug and was rubbing soothing circles on the small of his back.

“Sorry,” Alex gasped out. “Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.”

“You’re forgiven,” Tracht said with amusement in his voice. “But I will be fucking you once we get back to our quarters.”

“Yes. Please. Please.”

Alex was still clinging to Tracht when Singh returned with the robe, and he didn’t even care that the robe still didn’t fully cover him as they walked through the halls. He just wanted to be close to Tracht.

Chapter 6

As always, things got busier on the ship as soon as they hit comm space. Where before they only had to deal with general day to day ship tasks, now it was an endless stream of coordinating with the Atalanta docks, talking to clients, and catching up on any news that had been missed. Tracht was irritated to find out that the activists pushing for new overtime regulations for sailors and dockworkers were making progress; it didn’t help that many of his own sailors were now caught up on the news and chatting about it, occasionally even getting into loud arguments.

Beyond all of that was the much more pressing concern of the Nilsens’ container. Alex was more than happy to help with the scheme, but all of it would be for naught if Espinosa caught wind of anything or decided to jump the gun.

“I’ve been in talks with Atalanta Port Authority,” Tracht told Espinosa. “They’re very concerned about the matter, and they’ll inspect the container when they come for their usual rounds.”

It was just the two of them in the office. Although Alex had gotten better about his poker face and he knew how to keep his mouth shut, Tracht wasn’t going to risk anything. Much better to have Alex occupied; besides, it would give Espinosa the impression that they shared a secret, one that Alex wasn’t privy to. It still disappointed Tracht that Espinosa had gotten pulled into Alex’s petty rivalry with her. She had to know that Alex was no competition professionally.

Espinosa smiled and gave him a satisfied nod. “I’m glad to hear it, Captain. Did they mention what would happen with Paris & Lyons?”

“Unfortunately,” Tracht said, grimacing, “there’s a lot of legal red tape around the matter. I’ve contacted Vasilis to inform him as well, but there’s only so much we can do. There’s also a risk of their lawyers stalling by suing us for breach of contract.”

“I’m very sorry about that, Captain.” Espinosa said. “Is there anything I can do to help with the matter? I’m happy to take responsibility for it, since I was the one at fault…”

“No, I doubt that would satisfy them.” Tracht drummed his fingers against his desk. “Vasilis and I were thinking though. If we could prove no ill-intent in our discovery of the collars… that is, if we made it look like it was an accident that the container was opened in the first place, we’d be in a better position. Simply scanning for electronic activity isn’t enough cause.”

This might be pushing too hard; Espinosa was nothing if not a strict adherent of the law. He could see her hesitation.

“I know, it’s entirely distasteful. Unfortunately, the laws as they currently stand are designed to favor the shipping companies themselves. Anna agreed with Vasilis’s assessment, although she also said that I had better not fall into this lawsuit on Cadmus.”

“I completely understand, sir,” Espinosa said although her voice lacked conviction. “What would you have me do?”

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