Right Ascension (The Sector Fleet, Book 3)

by Nicola Claire

  And then sanity returned, and I stiffened.

  It took Leo a second longer to realise I was shutting down. Shutting him out.

  He pulled back slightly. Then dipped his head again and kissed me on the side of my neck. A lingering kiss as if he knew that would be the final time he ever got to kiss me.

  He lifted his head and looked me in the eyes and said, “No regrets.”

  Then he stepped back and stood at parade rest at my side.

  “Don’t do that,” I said a little too harshly.

  “Do what?” he asked in an extremely non-regulation way.

  And why I was thinking of regulations right now when he’d held me, kissed my skin, and made me feel emotions I’d denied myself for years; I don’t know.

  “Don’t retreat behind the guise of an officer when you so clearly don’t wish to be one,” I said waspishly.

  He looked at me then, a soft smile on his lips that seemed entirely inappropriate for the situation he’d found himself in.

  “Then demote me,” he said simply. “Strip me of my rank. Make me a pay-for-passage. But it won’t change the fact that you liked me touching you. That your body craves it. And it won’t change the fact that I want to do it again.”

  I blinked at him.

  “I’m really beginning to think that you’re suffering from a brain-eating disorder or perhaps you received a knock to the head when we were fighting Aquila.”

  He grinned back at me, and I won’t lie; that grin was welcomed. I hadn’t broken him. Even with the threat of rank stripping.

  I sighed.

  “Leo,” I said with a defeated breath of air.

  “Sophia,” he replied, letting my name roll off his tongue sensually.

  I closed my eyes. “You’re not making this easy.”

  “I don’t want it to be easy,” he said. “I want it to be the hardest decision you’ve ever had to make. So hard, in fact, that you don’t make it. That you allow yourself this private moment between us and many more.”

  I opened my eyes and looked at him. I wanted this, I realised. I wanted someone I could trust implicitly. Someone who I could talk to who wasn’t part of my command structure and who wouldn’t behave as though I was their captain, and therefore speaking or acting out of turn could result in stains on their crew record.

  I wanted someone to hold me. To touch me. To take all the fear and responsibility away for just a few moments.

  I stared at him, and he let me. Openly staring back. Letting me see his conviction in this. Letting me see his heart.

  “If we do this,” I said, noting the spark of desire that flared in his eyes right then, “we do this privately. We maintain a strict professional appearance outside of these rooms. And I will demote you, Lieutenant Commander, if you don’t follow the Anderson Universal Officer Code of Conduct to the letter. Don’t think I won’t. I will strip you of your command and throw you in the brig. I will…”

  He stepped forward and pressed his mouth to mine, sweeping his tongue across my lips seductively, and then delving inside. He kissed me as if I’d hung the moon and stars; as if I was the answer to his universe. He kissed me so soundly that I didn’t even tell him off.

  In fact, he kissed me so soundly that I was forced to kiss him back.

  Damned if I was going to let him think he was in charge here. He might have made the first move, fired the first salvo in our battle of wills, but I would take charge of the war that brewed between us and command it.

  My hands fisted his short hair, and I kissed him with every hidden emotion I had. I pressed up against his body, forcing him to lean back against my desk, and then I kissed him until I was sure he couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t act.

  It was my hand that undid his uniform for him. My hand that pulled his shirt over his shoulders and bared his chest. My hand that stroked forbidden skin first. That laid the path for my lips to follow.

  He moaned, half sprawled across my ready room desk as I moved onto his uniform trousers. His whole body jerked as my hand slipped in the opening and wrapped around him.

  “Are you sure about this?” I said, my voice thick with unfamiliar lust.

  “Never been surer in my life,” he rasped.

  “No regrets,” I offered.

  “None.”

  I stared him hard in the eyes, saw the answer there - so open, so sure - and then slipped to my knees before him and took him in my mouth.

  Twenty-Eight

  Thank You, Saitō

  Leo

  Holy mother of…damn…what the…? This was actually happening. And more than that, this was happening with Sophia giving me a blowjob. I almost laughed hysterically at that. Sophia, the woman I had only caught glimpses of emotion from, falling to her knees before me to satisfy my every dirty whim.

  And then it occurred to me, as she deftly held me on the edge of release, that this was entirely fitting. Sophia was definitely in charge. I might have set out to seduce her, but Sophia was taking control of the seduction and allowing it to happen on her terms.

  Which made me all the more determined to get her moaning beneath my lips and tongue.

  For now, though, the captain held all the cards.

  I let out a soft groan as her teeth scraped up the underside of my cock. My eyes half-lidded and heavy, looked down the length of my body, until I could see her mouth spread wide around my circumference. Her lips glistened with saliva; her eyes were closed as she swallowed me, sucked me into the hot depths of her mouth. She hummed slightly as she released me and then pressed forward again as if she was gobbling me up.

  As far as fantasies becoming reality went, this one was hot.

  I reached out and cupped the back of her head. Her hair was still in a bun, loose tendrils falling down the side of her hollowed out cheeks, but it wasn’t enough. I curled my abs and found the clip at the nape of her neck and then removed it. Before she could open her eyes, I’d hidden the clip away to be added to the other I’d kept, and her hair fell out around her shoulders.

  “Better,” I husked, as she looked up at me, eyebrows arched.

  Her hair framed her face now and tickled my thighs. Every time her head dipped forward, I felt the soft stroke of the strands, the sensual overload of sensations almost making me come.

  She squeezed the base of my cock and stilled her movements as if she knew exactly how close I was. I sucked in a breath, my heart thundering inside my chest, and urged her on with a roll of my pelvis. My hands automatically came to her hair, fingers wrapping up in her luscious locks.

  She made a popping sound as she pulled her mouth off my cock. The cool air of the life support system hit the wet crown making me moan out loud.

  “Hands on the desk,” she ordered.

  Fuck, that was hot.

  “No,” I said, gripping tighter.

  “You want to come; you’ll put your hands on the desk.”

  “No,” I repeated, holding her stare.

  She moved to stand up. I released my grip on her hair for fear of pulling on the strands. She smirked. I growled.

  And then she was on her knees again, my cock in her mouth, practically halfway down her throat, her hand fisting the base and stroking in time with the bobbing of her head. And there was nothing I could do because Sophia had decided I could come.

  With what little control I had left, I grabbed hold of her hair in my hands and gripped tightly, just as I spilt my load onto the back of her tongue.

  Fuck me.

  She released me, wiping the back of her hand over her swollen lips, her eyes glittering with challenge.

  “What part of ‘hands on the desk’ did you not understand?” she demanded.

  I chuckled. “The part where you get to learn that giving up some control can be worth it.”

  She narrowed her eyes at me and moved smoothly to her feet. She was still dressed in her uniform. Her hair was down, and her face was flushed, but everything else about her was strictly professional. Somehow that
was just all the sexier.

  “We’ll see,” she said, but I knew I’d won a small victory. Sophia wasn’t used to letting anyone in. I wondered why. And then I resolved to push her to her limits. To help her find a new normal to live by.

  I’d make her trust me if it was the last thing I did.

  “My turn,” I said, pushing up off the desk and reaching for her.

  She stepped to the side, evading my grasp.

  “Let’s not overindulge,” she said swiftly.

  “Let’s,” I offered up as a pathetic argument.

  She shook her head, but her lips turned up at the edges.

  “That’s enough for now, Leo.” There was something there in her voice. Some kind of warning that had me backing off.

  Pushing Sophia was going to be a delicate job. I nodded my head but did reach forward to touch her hair. Then brought it to my lips, kissing the strands softly.

  She arched her brow at that.

  “What?” I said. “If you want more, say for me to kiss you on the lips, then you’ll have to ask.”

  She looked at me, her expression softer than I had ever seen it, and then the captain was back. A mask that slid into place as surely as the setting of the sun back on Earth.

  I wanted to ask if she had regrets, but I had too much pride to do so. Instead, I made quick work of getting dressed, while Sophia surreptitiously watched me from the corner of her eye as she checked on the status of the ship.

  “Everything looks in order for firing up the engines this evening,” she said.

  “Good,” I said.

  Her eyes came up sharply to my face.

  “We’re not going to a have a problem here, are we, Lieutenant Commander?” she asked.

  “Not at all, ma’am,” I said, suddenly feeling a little dirty. A little used, perhaps?

  “Good,” she said, repeating my earlier word.

  Damn it. Things were awkward. I had to say something. Do something. But it felt like Sophia had wrapped her captaincy around her body and heart, and frozen me out.

  I looked at her from across the other side of her desk, where I’d had to go to fetch the rest of my uniform, and suppressed a sigh.

  “If that’s…” I stopped myself from finishing that sentence. Really? ‘If that’s all?’ As if I’d just performed some part of my duties to her.

  “Have you completed the assessment of all of Corvus’ systems?” she asked, not looking at me.

  Look at me, damn it!

  “Not quite,” I said. “We’ve got the final one to go. Communications.”

  She did look up then and grimaced slightly.

  “You’ll take precautions?” she pressed.

  And the sad thing was, she wasn’t asking for my safety, but that of her ship. And then I felt like a complete idiot because of course, she was asking for the safety of her ship. I was being entirely too sensitive.

  “Of course,” I said. “We’ll work in isolation down in the science labs.”

  She nodded her head.

  “Good,” she said.

  “Yes,” I offered.

  We stared at each other. More than a ready room desk between us. This had been a mistake. I needed to leave and nurse my wounds in private.

  “Very well, ma’am,” I said. “I’ll get to it.”

  “Thank you, Saitō,” she said.

  And damn me if I didn’t feel like she was thanking me for our intimate moment like some pay-for-passage who had just acted outside of their passenger tier for the good of the vessel.

  I offered an almost acceptable salute and spun on my heel, marching out of her ready room via the second door, so as to avoid the bridge proper.

  It occurred to me that I was taking a walk of shame from the captain’s office.

  Even that thought wasn’t enough to make me grin.

  I wasn’t sure I would ever again.

  Twenty-Nine

  Captain Steel Tits Anderson

  Sophia

  Crap. That went downhill fast. Leo’s entire attitude changed in an instant. Did he regret it already? Had this been a mistake?

  I shook my head, staring at the door Saitō had just gone through. This hadn’t been Leo’s mistake to make. This had been mine. As the senior officer, I should have known better. But I’d let a moment in time, a fraction of a lifetime, rule me. Because it felt so nice.

  Because I’d forgotten how nice intimacy could be.

  Damn it. I might have lost a good officer.

  I might have lost someone who could have been a good friend.

  I sank down in my seat and stared at nothing. My body was tingling; the remnants of desire. I could taste Leo on my tongue still. My lips were bruised from the thickness of his cock as it pushed inside my mouth.

  “Ughhh,” I groaned, tipping my head back and closing my eyes.

  “Are you in pain, Captain?” Corvus asked. Shit. Corvus. Had she watched? Would she tell? “Shall I call for Dr Lin?”

  I sat upright again and straightened my uniform and then reached up to my loose hair. Where the hell had that hair clip gone?

  “No need,” I said, reaching into the desk drawer for another. I didn’t have an unlimited supply; I needed to keep a better handle on the damn things. “I’m fine.”

  “You do not seem fine,” Corvus said. “You look…different.”

  “Where have you been?” I asked in a poor attempt to find out if the AI had been watching.

  “I…um…I was busy.”

  I blinked at that strange reply.

  “Doing what, Corvus?” I said, finishing up with my hair.

  I knew it was an illusion, but I felt better for having my hair tied up and everything looking the way it should.

  “I was…Do I have to answer that?”

  What the hell?

  “Yes.”

  “I was watching a sitcom,” she mumbled.

  “And this is something to be ashamed of?” I pressed.

  “Well, Leo said I should experience life and not watch it. I feel like I…” She trailed off.

  “You feel like you let him down,” I said for her.

  I sighed, thinking I might have done the same thing.

  “Yes,” Corvus said. “Should I tell him?”

  “It’s your choice, Corvus. But I’ve found Lieutenant Commander Saitō to be a very approachable man.”

  “Man? Not officer?”

  “The same thing in this particular instance.”

  “You do not think of him as an officer anymore,” she said. It wasn’t a question.

  I chose to take it as one. “Yes, I do. Of course, I do.”

  “Something has happened.”

  “Nothing has happened that will affect our duties.”

  “One moment, please.”

  “Corvus?”

  “Ooh, that is exciting. Better than my sitcom at least.”

  “Corvus!”

  “I won’t tell, Captain. Leo said you required my loyalty at all times. I will prove you have it.”

  I lowered my flushed face into the palm of my hand and suppressed a pain-filled groan.

  “He rather liked that, though, didn’t he?”

  “Corvus!” I shouted, shocked.

  “Oops! I shouldn’t talk about it with you, either, should I?”

  “No, you should not!”

  The AI giggled. It was beyond bizarre and almost into the realm of creepy, although I wasn’t quite sure Corvus’ teenage tendencies could ever be considered creepy. More perplexing and entirely inappropriate. But really not very creepy.

  “Shouldn’t you be working on your communications systems with Lieutenant Commander Saitō?” I asked, trying to get us back on more professional ground.

  “He’s taking a shower. I’m not allowed to watch. But I can see the steam and hear him under the water. He seems to be pushing the three-minute water allowance to its limit. He must have been very dirty.”

  It took a second for me to realise what I was feeling. What emotion had
crept in and frozen me. Hurt. I should have recognised it immediately. It was one I was fairly familiar with after all. He’d gone straight from my ready room, from me, to the shower. And scrubbed himself clean.

  I felt a little sick. No. I felt a lot sick. I pushed up from my chair on shaking legs and stumbled to my bathroom ensuite. Splashing water on my face, I allowed some of it to trickle into my mouth, washing away the taste of rejection from my tongue. This had been a terrible mistake. He had his regrets. And now I had mine.

  I looked up into the mirror and stared at the woman who stared back at me. I wasn’t sure I knew her anymore. The Sophia Teresa Anderson I knew, commonly called as Steel Tits, would not have allowed this to happen. I resolved at that moment to make sure she came back.

  I dried my face off and reapplied my makeup and then brushed my teeth without thinking about the reason why I felt the need to. Once I stepped back out into my ready room, I was once again the Sophia I needed to be.

  I crossed to the desk and said, “Corvus, locate the mayor, please.”

  “Yes, Captain. The mayor is in the Habitat One central hub.”

  I scowled.

  “Is he visiting with someone?”

  “He is with many people, Captain.”

  Damn it. Was he organising some sort of civilian revolt?

  “Show me on the gel wall, please,” I instructed.

  An image of one of the top tier bars came into focus on the wall beside me. The room dark, but only due to the lowered lighting. Clearly meant for ambience. It was an upmarket looking establishment, appropriate for its location on Deck F, among the top tier Habitat One passengers. And there was the mayor drinking what looked like scotch in the middle of a group of equally liquor happy people.

  Corvus provided audio to go with the unusual image. Nikolaev was regaling them all with a witty story. I listened for a while, trying to decide if it was seditious. It wasn’t. It was purely for entertainment purposes.

  “Has he told them of the leaseholder’s death?”