Page 4 of Under His Skin

Tracht made Alex strip first, and then had him help Tracht remove his own clothes. It was such a simple thing, and Alex liked doing it, but Tracht loved the visuals of it. He’d seen a scene like this in some movie when he was a teenager, and it had stuck with him ever since.

Alex stopped after removing Tracht’s socks and kissed his feet. Tracht’s breathing hitched, and the first hint of arousal settled in his stomach. It was strange how much it affected him when Alex willingly showed devotion like this. It was strange that Tracht enjoyed it, when he’d been so frustrated by Alex’s submissiveness the day before.

It helped that he could still remember Alex’s disgust when he’d first joined, and how he’d hated kissing Tracht’s feet. Tracht waited for Alex to rise up on his knees and caressed his scalp. Alex looked up at him, with his broken nose and scarred cheek, and Tracht felt himself settle.

After a few more seconds of petting, Tracht pulled his hand away. “Get on with it.” But there was no harshness in his voice.

Alex finished helping Tracht out of his clothes, then helped him into the tub. Tracht had Alex sit behind him. This might, under certain circumstances, be considered a cuddle.

It was a shame that the water wasn’t as hot as he usually liked, but he supposed he only had himself to blame for that. He should have invested in a self-heating tub, but the indulgence of a bathtub on a freight ship had already seemed extravagant. He’d also been worried if he had a tub that stayed warm indefinitely, he’d waste too much time lazing around.

He might still look into upgrading the tub while they were on Cadmus anyway. He was suddenly free of a very large debt, so he had extra income to spend, anyway.

“Scrub my back,” Tracht ordered, leaning forward. He closed his eyes and sighed in contentment when Alex started scrubbing with the exact amount of pressure he liked. That was another thing he could invest in now: getting Alex proper training as a masseuse. There had to be simple one or two day workshops—

Or maybe he should make sure Alex had no skills transferable to other jobs.

He hmm’d when Alex stopped scrubbing and wrapped his arms around Tracht’s waist.

“Can I fuck you later?” Alex asked, his mouth brushing Tracht’s neck.

It hadn’t escaped Tracht’s notice that Alex always waited until they were in the bath to request sex. Alex probably thought the bath put Tracht into a better mood. He wasn’t necessarily wrong, although Tracht had no desire to indulge Alex in this particular request. He already had allowed Alex to penetrate him far too often.

“You really haven’t done anything to deserve it,” Tracht said curtly.

Alex rested his chin against Tracht’s shoulder. “So what do I gotta do to earn it? What if you like, beat me up a bunch, and then, uh, made me lie on my back with the wounds, so I’d be in a lot of pain, and you could ride me.”

Tracht laughed, amused both by Alex’s attempts at negotiation and just how well he knew Tracht’s kinks. He’d caught on that Tracht never let Alex fuck him unless Alex was also in pain or feeling humiliated. It wasn’t even a bad scenario. Maybe Tracht could do something like that in the future.

“It’s cute that you think I’ll listen to you.” But Tracht turned his head and drew Alex into a kiss, which was unlikely to deter Alex from making a similar request in the future.

Ah well. They were in the bath, anyway. Tracht had no desire to torture Alex while they were relaxing. Although… There might be a few fun things they could do with all this water, especially now that it wasn’t all that warm anymore.

Tracht was thinking about how he wanted to continue the scene when his tablet beeped.

“Call from Vasilis,” the voice interface said.

Tracht groaned and broke the kiss. “Yes, accept call. No video.” He pinched Alex when Alex whined pathetically.

“Johannes—you said you had an urgent matter to discuss?” Vasilis asked.

It wasn’t ideal talking about this in front of Alex, but Tracht didn’t particularly want to put off the matter either. “Yes. My first officer was approached by a reporter who wanted to interview her.”

“A reporter—really? Damn.”

Tracht frowned at the reaction. That sounded like Vasilis knew something about the situation. Having this conversation in the tub was no longer an option.

“Yes, a reporter. You don’t sound all that surprised.” Tracht stood, sending Alex a sharp glare when he tried to stop Tracht from getting up, and pulled on his robe. “We’re warning all staff to avoid any reporters, but naturally I can’t control anybody who is no longer in my employ.”

He picked up his tablet and went to sit on the couch.

“We’ve had a few reporters sniffing around here too. I’ve had my PR team look into it, but none of the major publications are admitting to sending anybody.” Vasilis sighed loudly. “Okay, who are you worried about? I’ll see if we can pay them off or at least find leverage on them.”

“Lukas Ackerman. He’s had issues with me for a while now, but he quit the last time we were on Cadmus. According to Ms. Bahjat, he works for Captain Nehmann now. Since you own his ship, I thought…”

“Yes, that’s fine. Can you walk me through what Ackerman might say to reporters?”

Tracht grimaced, remembering just how long Ackerman had been on his ship. If he recalled correctly, Ackerman had been happy to harass Alex in the early days, but after some altercations he’d avoided Alex like the plague. That still gave him plenty of juicy information that an unscrupulous reporter might make use of.

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