Page 24 of Under Control

Thankfully, their little show had the desired effect. Lucassen was clearly uncomfortable, and she shook her head. “It’s all right. Um, we don’t need to see him punished, Captain Tracht. Shall we move on to the next container? We’ve been told to check container CT-8956…”

“Certainly. This way,” Tracht said, leading them further into the cargo hold. Alex followed in a sulk.

===

Alex couldn’t stop himself from staring at Tracht’s pocket. The one that had the small, thin whip in it. Not really a big deal, but Tracht hadn’t warned Alex, and he got cold all over again thinking about the threat. He kept thinking about it during the rest of the tour with the customs workers, and even later, when the fucking container got picked up by somebody even Alex could tell was more Nick’s type of friend than Tracht’s.

Okay, that had been kind of good, standing behind Tracht and glowering threateningly. The guy had started to argue with Tracht but had changed his mind once Alex had made his presence known. Even the two beefy dock workers the guy had brought along hadn’t seemed keen on fighting Alex.

Then the container was gone, and Alex was back to remembering that Tracht had threatened to whip him in front of those chicks.

No matter how much he tried to ignore it, the thought of that whip kept pushing itself to the forefront, even while he sat in the warm bath with Tracht.

“What if they’d said yes? What if they wanted to see me whipped?” Alex asked. The water should have mellowed him. Hell, washing Tracht and sitting like this, Tracht’s back pressed against his chest, should have made everything feel all right.

“Then I would have whipped you, Alex. The spectacle would have distracted them, and maybe one of them would even have thanked me for the lovely show.” Tracht snorted. “But your anger scared them both. It was wonderful.”

Alex had only been angry because he’d been surprised! That and the way Tracht had talked about it. He didn’t like the way his chest had tightened at those words. “I’m not useless,” Alex said quietly, burying his head in the juncture of Tracht’s neck and shoulder. He suckled on the skin there and considered leaving a mark.

Tracht gave a happy sigh. “You aren’t useless, Alex. You know I said those things for the sake of the… of the con, if you will. You performed marvelously.”

It didn’t sit right with Alex though. All that stuff about not wanting to keep Alex around after the contract was up. That couldn’t be true, right? But Alex was too afraid to ask. He reached down to take a hold of Tracht’s cock, brushing over the tip with his thumb. Not a full-on handjob, since Tracht hadn’t asked for one, but Alex liked holding Tracht’s cock.

“What’re we gonna do once we’re on station?” Alex asked, wrapping his other arm around Tracht’s chest and pulling him closer. “No parties this time, right?”

“Do you want me to find one?” Tracht asked, amused. He covered Alex’s hand on his cock and made Alex stroke with more intention. “I’m sure there are some happening. Dr. Singh mentioned that Claude DuBois’s ass is up for auction sometime this week. That might be a fun excursion.”

“I don’t like DuBois,” Alex muttered. “Guy’s full of himself.” That was the impression he’d gotten that one night. Man, it had been pretty long ago. The first of the parties Tracht had dragged him to. He’d seen DuBois a few times at other parties, although by then he’d looked pretty different, with all the body mods.

Screw that guy. Alex still blamed him for what had happened that first time. Well, Singh too, since she was the one who’d invited Tracht in the first place.

“I think he’s mostly full of other people, these days,” Tracht said with a chuckle. “I think there’s a themed party, that might be interesting.”

“Themed?” Alex tensed and slowed his hand motions.

“Pets and domestic animals. I don’t usually go for petplay, but you might make an interesting bull. Or a large stallion, waiting to be studded out.”

Alex’s mood soured further. “Can’t we just go out to dinner? We finished all the hard stuff. Your stupid container got off the ship. We should celebrate.”

“And you dressed up as a horse sounds like quite the fun ride,” Tracht responded. “Yes, I like this idea. Good thinking.” Tracht pushed Alex’s hand off his cock and stood, dripping water all over Alex’s face. Alex sank deeper into the bath now that there was space.

“It’s not fair,” Alex grumbled.

“At no point did I ever pretend to be fair, Alex,” Tracht said, a note of warning in his voice. “I think it’s decided now. Stop moping and get out of the tub.” He extended his hand for Alex though, which Alex grudgingly took.

Alex was surprised when Tracht pulled him close and cupped his jaw. “But I suppose you did do a good job today. Let’s have a nice evening out.” He kissed Alex on the lips, and Alex was so surprised that he stood frozen for a moment.

Then he wrapped his arms around Tracht and pulled their bodies tight, returning the kiss aggressively and grinding their cocks against each other. Alex wished he were more than just a few centimeters taller than Tracht sometimes, although it did make kissing easy. The emotions bubbled up inside him, lust and heat and the desire to be as close to Tracht as possible. Who cared about some shitty party, when Tracht gave him moments like these?

He whined when Tracht stepped back. “More, please.”

“Later,” Tracht promised. “Get dressed and lock up your cock again. I’ll make arrangements for dinner.”

Not quite what Alex wanted in that moment, but he’d never refuse a nice meal.

===

Their reservation for dinner was still a few hours away, and Tracht insisted they go shopping together. Not the shopping center that Alex usually went to when he was on Atalanta, but one a bit farther away, with higher end stores. Alex had been there a few times with Tracht by now, so he didn’t quite marvel at how shiny everything was.

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