Page 44 of Under His Skin

Maybe the problem was his cock, flopping free inside his underwear. He got back on the bed and stripped completely naked, throwing his jeans and underwear to the opposite side of the room. He was reminded of the previous night’s date, with his cock free on his thigh, and that was pretty nice.

He hadn’t come in a while either.

After a moment’s hesitation, he gripped his cock and started moving his hand up and down. His own touch felt strange and foreign to him. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d jerked himself without Tracht ordering it.

This was against the rules. This was definitely against the rules, and he could imagine Tracht finding him like this, that disappointed grin on his face that was secretly really happy that he had an excuse to punish Alex. Alex growled and stroked himself harder than he liked, pretending that it was Tracht’s hand on him after he’d been discovered.

But just when he thought he was getting close, he visualized Tracht being there for real, disappointed and disgusted with him. He imagined Tracht saying that there wasn’t even a point, and that he’d have a better time with Mikhael.

Alex let go of his cock. When his erection didn’t subside, he pinched his balls as hard as he could stand, just to get his cock to chill out.

None of this was helping him sleep. Alex pulled the covers up again and started thinking about Galanis and Franziska instead. Fuck both of them. As soon as all this shit was over, he was going corner Galanis in a dark alley and make him regret ever crossing Tracht, consequences be damned.

Those nice fantasies ended up lulling him to sleep.

===

Bright and early the next morning, the hotel’s PA system rang loudly. Alex reached out to shut it up, except they’d confiscated his tablet and there was no room control switch anywhere within reach.

“What the fuck do you want?” Alex yelled at the system.

“Whoa, language,” a very familiar voice answered.

Alex sat up suddenly. “Bahjat?”

“Yep. I’m at the front desk. Can I come up?”

Alex glanced at himself in the nearby mirror. He looked and felt like shit after a night of bad sleep where he’d tossed and turned. He’d had a nightmare too, some weird-ass dream where he was calling for his mom but the only person in the room was Nick, pushing him towards a pit of knives.

But he was awake now, and dreams were just dreams. Alex rubbed his face and said, “Yeah, sure.”

“Then I’ll be up in just a few minutes.”

A few minutes was barely enough to get dressed, and he was still fastening his belt when Bahjat knocked at his door. “Yeah, come in.”

When she entered, Alex almost didn’t recognize her. She wasn’t wearing the ship’s uniform. She wasn’t even wearing the usual jeans and long-sleeved shirts that the sailors tended to wear in their off time.

She was wearing a skirt.

“Wow. Are you going someplace fancy?” Alex asked, staring at the skirt. It was white, with a floral pattern on it, and she had a yellow blouse on top. Alex thought he could see a hint of her bra underneath. She’d done something with her hair too, so it looked kind of wavy. He hadn’t even seen Nadia dressed up like this, and Nadia was way girlier than any of the sailors on the Sigrun.

“Nah. Just breakfast.” Despite the fancy clothes, Bahjat still had her same confident stride as she came into the room. “Nice place. The station is paying for this?”

Alex shrugged. “I guess? I mean, I’d rather be on the ship. Or with Tracht.”

She snorted in amusement. “I figured as much. The captain called me yesterday and asked me to check in on you. Guess you two are kind of stuck on each other, huh.”

“He sent you?” Alex couldn’t stop himself from grinning. Last night he’d been stewing about this fucking bondservant that Tracht had had fun with all those years ago, and part of him was already worrying that Tracht would decide he didn’t want Alex back after all. There were so many other people in debt, after all, and they’d probably be happy to sign a contract with Tracht. Or not so happy to sign.

That was a thing Tracht didn’t want: a willing bondservant. The more Alex wanted it, the less Tracht did.

“Yeah. He was pretty out of sorts yesterday. Although he pretended that he was fine.” Bahjat smiled widely. “I should have taken the opportunity to tease him a bit. It’s not usually a good idea, but he can’t really do much to me right now since he needs me to come back to work once this is all over. But my date was getting impatient.”

Tease Tracht? Alex’s stomach churned. “You wanted to piss him off? Isn’t all of this shit bad enough already?”

Bahjat just clapped him on the shoulder, a lot harder than Alex thought she’d be capable of. “Don’t worry so much. He can handle a little bit of disrespect.”

Alex glared at her, but in the face of her constant amusement, it was hard to stay annoyed. Alex didn’t know how she could be so unaffected by everything. She wasn’t like Nadia, who was cheerful all the time but admitted to Alex that sometimes she got worried or scared. Bahjat was just honestly amused by everything.

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