by Elin Wyn
“I’m happy to take your snark if it means I’m alive,” I replied.
“Stay alive for a good long while and I’ll give you all the snark you desire,” she joked.
“Sounds like a plan,” I grinned. “Can I ask you something?” I set her down gently so that her feet touched the floor once more.
“Anything.”
“What the kopa does snark mean?”
She rolled her eyes and I ran one finger down the edge of her cheek, her soft skin intoxicating, even just the lightest touch.
And if I’d misunderstood, if I’d lost something in translation, I could lose her touch, her laugh… her.
Forever.
“Did you mean what you said in the med bay when I woke up?” I finally asked.
Her eyes went soft and warm as the sweetest smile played across her lips. “Of course I did,” she said. “If I lost you now, I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. Losing you would break me into a million pieces and I’d never be able to put myself back together correctly.” Her gaze flickered down, then back, her voice stronger with her conviction. “I’m in love with you, Orrin. I don’t know how you did it, but you got me to fall for you.”
“I’m in love with you, too, Maris. I don’t know how you did it, but you got me to look up from the workbench.”
She beamed at me and rose up on the tips of her toes. I lowered my head and pressed my lips to hers.
She wound her arms around my neck and pulled me closer to her. I deepened the kiss, urging her to open her mouth so I could taste her tongue. She moaned softly. Something about that little noise ignited a fire in me.
I pulled her in tighter. Her hands slid under my shirt, soft palms gliding over my chest and around to my back. I wanted to feel her skin too. I dipped my hands under the hem of her shirt. Her skin was soft and warm.
She took a half-step back and withdrew her hands from under my shirt. At first, I worried I’d made an error, but then she lifted her hands above her head in silent demand.
Slowly, I lifted her shirt over her head, relishing each new inch of exposed flesh. She reached behind her to undo the fastenings of her undergarment. She closed the distance between us, pulling me into another kiss. My blood pounded in my veins. The only thing I was aware of was the feeling of her bare skin against mine.
“I need you,” she moaned against my lips, her breasts pressed against my chest. I broke our kiss and looked around. I didn’t want to take her on the floor. It was stained with oil, cooling gel, and all manner of mechanical fluids.
My gaze settled on the workbench. Maris kept it immaculately clean. It seemed like a fitting place to take her for the first time. I lifted her off her feet, ignoring the slight strain on my wound. She was worth it, this was worth anything, even a few more days in sickbay, if necessary.
Maris locked her legs around my waist, pressing herself against me, driving all thoughts of pain or logic far, far away. I pressed myself against her hot core, so she could feel exactly how aroused she’d made me.
I stepped over to the workbench and set her down. When she realized where she was sitting, she gave me a delicious grin.
“Really?” she purred. “How fitting.”
“My thoughts exactly.” I quickly undid the fastenings of her pants. She lifted her hips up so I could tug them down. When she lowered herself down, she let out a sharp gasp.
“Are you okay?” I was down by her ankles, tugging the work boots off her feet so I could undress her completely.
“The workbench is cold,” she whimpered. I looked up at her with a hungry smile.
“Allow me to warm you up.” I straightened up to my full height. As I undid my belt, I took in the sight of her. For the first time since I’d met her, Maris looked small to me.
Obviously, I was a head taller and twice as broad as she was, but her strong presence always made her seem larger than she was.
Now she was tiny, fragile, the most delicate and precious thing in the universe, laid open before me.
She looked up at me, her eyes huge and glittering. I stepped up to her, leaning down to give her a tender kiss. Her legs fell open for me.
Maris seemed to acclimate to the temperature quickly enough, and when I placed a hand at her inner thigh, it became abundantly clear why. She was absolutely burning up, and the further in I trailed my fingers, the more intense the heat became. I was sure the metal was practically glowing white-hot beneath her.
I leaned forward and grasped one of those beautiful breasts of hers, giving a firm squeeze before wrapping my lips around the rosy bud. The feeling of her soft heat was exquisite, but I wasn’t quite expecting what hit me next.
Her scent. Her intoxicating, wild, incredible scent. It radiated along with her heat, complex and wonderful. It saturated my mind, dulling my thoughts, shifting something essential in the depths of my being.
I felt a deep hunger spark down in my chest and, despite my usual tight self-control, I growled and huffed hard against her like some beast. I only had a moment to be surprised before even that was erased utterly. I grasped her arms and pulled them up above her head, pinning them to the wall to keep her exactly where I needed her.
I covered every inch of her from the waist up in starving kisses and lavishing strokes of my tongue, the desperate need growing more frantic. Every time I caught a new component of that lovely scent, my hunger peaked anew. Each of her breathy moans drove me on, every little ticklish giggle giving way to the lustful vocalizations almost immediately.
My hunger drove me downward, so I released her hands so I could reach further, and the moment I began my descent, Maris pulled her legs up and back, resting her heels at the edge of the bench. The fact that she seemed to need it just as badly as I did drove me absolutely wild.
I bent at the waist and, after lingering for a moment to take in the gorgeous image of her waiting slickness, dove forward to lap at her gleaming folds. I wasn’t quite sure what she would like best, but even that basic question failed to breach the surface of the exhilaration I was feeling.
Her body would tell me everything I needed to know.
There, the tiny nub at the top of her slit. With every brush against it, I coaxed a soft enticing moan from her, only driving me harder against her.
Maris squirmed and whimpered, her hand shooting down to my hair, tightening a bit as she guided me. Before long, I wrapped my lips around the sensitive bud of her clit, and she bolted near upright with a deep gasp. I stopped, thinking I’d done something wrong, but almost as quickly as the feeling had arisen, it was erased.
She gave a hard, shuddering moan, pushing her hips forward hard. Hearing that sound, just as driven and desperate as my own, put even the potential for thought far away. I suckled and lapped wildly, cycling the pressure and stimulation in time with the rocking of her hips.
I reached up and grabbed her hips firmly, pulling her against me every time I intensified the stimulation. She wrapped her legs around my head, and I soon realized that she wasn't touching the workbench at all anymore. Her back was to the wall, the whole of her weight on my shoulders, one hand out to brace herself against the wall. Her head thrashed side to side as if she was trying to shake away the impending climax, wanting to keep it going as long as possible, just as I did.
I backed off on the stimulation, and the moment I did, she tightened her legs to hold me in place. I felt a hard tremble run down her form as she looked down at me. The exhilaration was clear on her features, her lips parted, chest heaving with excitement. There was something decidedly wild in her gaze, the impression driven home hard by a sudden swipe of her tongue over her lips.
Both hands now cupping her ass to support her, I began the slow rocking motions once more, and she surged right back to the edge. Over and over, I backed off and pushed forward, almost-imperceptible nods from her spurring me on.
Soon, she was so consistently at the edge that no pulling back seemed to bring her back from the brink, her hand gripping uselessly at the wall a
s if to hold on as the enormity of the orgasm dawned on her.
I lingered for a long moment there, my eyes locked on hers. Her lips moved in silent pleading, her hand tightening at my hair in a desperate attempt to get me to continue. I held exactly where I was, matching any forward press of her hips with a push backward to keep her clit just out of contact, though I know she could still feel my breath.
“Orrin, I...!” Her pink tongue darted out, wetting swollen lips. “Please!”
Only when she begged me aloud did I give her what she needed so badly that she was willing to toss any notion of pride away. She pleaded shamelessly, bucking her hips toward me, seemingly almost on the verge of tears with desperation.
I dove forward to take her sensitive nub between my lips, suckling and stroking wildly. She was driven over the moment my lips made contact, her breath suddenly hitching in her throat, her body going rigid. She seemed to vibrate with the enormity of it, her eyes rolling back in her head as her mouth dropped open.
Maris seemed to go somewhere else entirely for a long, unbelievably tense moment before suddenly crashing back to reality, her body thrashing and bucking so wildly I had to hold her in place. Her soft thighs squeezed tight around my head, absolutely burying me in her scent and heat.
Just as suddenly as she'd been driven over, she seemed to jerk back in the other direction, the stimulation too much for her to handle. She pulled her hips back and placed a hand at the crown of my head, though I couldn't help a few more laps of that sweet nectar before I allowed myself to be pushed back.
She fell back against the workbench, panting and spent. With a solid surface beneath her, she went totally slack, aside from her heaving breaths and the trembling of her fingers. She seemed equal parts exhausted and exhilarated, short little bursts of laughter coming in between the gasps.
“Come here, love,” I murmured, grabbing her by the wrists and pulling her up against my chest. “This is more comfortable than lying on the workbench, I bet.” All she could do was nod. I held her against me, stroking her hair and running my fingers over her glistening skin.
She looked up at me with a wicked grin.
“Let’s do that again.”
Maris
I stretched my arms over my head as I walked out of the workshop. There was a pleasant ache throughout my body that was the result of more than just a good day’s work.
My backside was a little sore from being propped up on the workbench.
Hot in the moment, but not something I wanted to repeat.
At least, not for a few more hours.
Orrin had gone back to his room a few hours after he came by. Lynna wouldn’t let him work more than that, though Orrin wanted to stretch it.
As much as I adored working with him and was thrilled to have him back with me, I had to side with Lynna.
It would take anyone a while to bounce back from a shot to the stomach and Orrin was no exception despite how strong he was.
And I wouldn’t risk him.
I peeked into the dining hall, hoping for a late-night snack.
I didn’t see our long-suffering cook, but did see Lynna, Kalyn, and Shenna sitting at a table with a plate of fried dough between them.
Shenna said something that made Lynna and Kalyn throw their heads back in laughter. Through her laughter, Kalyn’s eyes found mine. She beckoned me to enter.
“Late night, Maris?” Kalyn asked.
“As always,” I replied. “I didn’t mean to interrupt. I’m just looking for some food.”
“Pull up a chair,” Shenna urged. “Share with us.”
“It’s fine,” I stammered.
“Nonsense,” Lynna declared. “We’ve barely seen you since that last meeting.”
I didn’t see a way out of it. It wasn’t that I didn’t like them. I liked them all quite a bit. I considered them friends now.
But that’s the thing.
Aside from Aryn, I’ve never had many friends. I didn’t know how to be friends with other women.
“You’ve seen me with Orrin in the med bay,” I reminded her as I took a seat. Shenna pushed the plate of fried dough toward me. I tore a piece off and popped it in my mouth.
“Yeah, but you always looked so tired and so absorbed in him,” Lynna replied. “Which you should be, of course. I’m glad you were so attentive to him. It definitely sped up his healing process. But it didn’t leave much chance for conversation.”
“I guess.” I stuffed another piece of dough in my mouth. I always used Aryn as a shield when I was around the other women. If I didn’t want to talk to them or didn’t know how to join in the conversation, I could talk to Aryn and not look like a huge ass.
“I don’t think I thanked you for earlier,” Kalyn said suddenly. I looked at her in confusion.
“For what? You thanked me for pulling you out of the cargo hold,” I said.
“I mean way earlier. When Xyla gave me a hard time and you stood up for me,” Kalyn grinned. “I was never sure if you liked me or not.”
“I wasn’t sure either, for a long time,” I laughed uneasily. “But I meant what I said at that dinner.”
“I appreciate it,” she grinned.
“And thanks for not telling anyone about Slink,” Shenna spoke up.
“What’s a slink?” Lynna asked.
Shenna’s cheeks turned pink and I took another piece of dough to stop myself from laughing.
“It’s…a friend for Poof,” Shenna said.
“Another pet?” Lynna exclaimed. “Where do you keep finding these things?”
“What even is it?” Kalyn asked.
“It’s like a cross between a snake and a weasel,” I explained. “It’s pretty cute.”
“I found it in an alleyway,” Shenna explained. “It was hurt and Aavat said I could keep it!” Lynna and Kalyn dissolved into giggles.
“I didn’t think that through,” Shenna murmured.
“I haven’t laughed like that in a while,” Kalyn dabbed at the corner of her eye.
“We needed that,” Lynna agreed. “After everything, we deserve a good laugh.”
“I’ll say,” I sighed. “I check those vents eight or nine times a day now.” The other three women’s smiles slipped.
“It’s been secured, right?” Lynna asked.
“Yeah,” I assured her. “It’s better than new. Orrin and I are looking into upgrading all of the piping and surrounding shafts.”
“That makes me feel a little better,” Shenna replied. “I just can’t get my head around it. Kalyn and I risked our lives to save Tiatra. If she needed help getting home, we would’ve helped her. She didn’t have to betray us like she did.”
“We’ll never know for sure what happened between her and the bounty hunter, or her and the Dominion,” Kalyn shrugged. “All we have are the scraps of information he and Tiatra left behind.”
“I don’t like this,” I groaned.
“What? Socializing?” Lynna joked.
“No, that’s actually pretty fun. I meant sitting here clucking and guessing and clucking some more,” I clarified.
“You make us sound like fat hens,” Kalyn snorted.
“More like sitting ducks,” I amended. “Sitting ducks that can’t do anything but turn over the same pieces of evidence again and again hoping to find something new. Pretty sure the definition of insanity applies to this situation.”
“What are we supposed to do, then?” Shenna asked. “Talking things through, even if we don’t learn anything new, makes me feel better than trying to pretend nothing’s happening.”
“I don’t know,” I pressed my palm into my forehead. “But talking things through isn’t going to help us when something else happens to us.”
“Do you think something will?” Lynna asked.
“It would be foolish to assume we’re in the clear now that the bounty hunter, or whoever he really was, is dead,” Kalyn agreed with me. “But I’m hoping his death will buy us some time.”
“How?”
Shenna asked.
“Regardless of if he really was working for the Dominion or working for the group of auctioneers, he would’ve told someone he’d boarded our ship,” Kalyn reasoned. “Thanks to that stealth system Maris and Orrin came up with, no one could’ve tracked his location.”
“Did Aavat find anything when he searched the ship?” I asked. I hadn’t been there when the search ensued. I was still asleep on Orrin’s bed in the med bay.
“Nothing,” Kalyn replied. “Whoever he was, he wasn’t being tracked by his organization.”
I got up and started pacing. I couldn’t help it. I was suddenly filled with nervous energy.
“You all right, Maris?” Shenna asked.
“I told you, I don’t like this,” I replied. “I think that we should talk to Dejar and Aavat about getting more weapons. Maybe Orrin and I could install some guns on the outside of the ship. We should focus on prevention and protection instead of playing detective.”
“Aavat feels the same way,” Kalyn assured me. “He and Kovor have been looking into the budget to make it happen.”
“Good,” I nodded.
“I’ve never seen you so worked up,” Lynna commented. “You should sit back down. Breathe.”
“I don’t like feeling as though someone could show up on our tails and attack us at any moment,” I explained.
“None of us do,” Shenna replied. “That’s why we're going to look after each other.”
“We did a fantastic job of looking after each other when Tiatra ambushed us,” I said sarcastically. I stopped my pacing and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry,” I turned to the others, “I’m not used to feeling vulnerable like this. I don’t know how to cope.”
“Clearly,” Kalyn laughed. “None of us are fans of it.”
“You know what I think?” I offered. “I think this all started with the shockwave and everything that happened since is connected. I don’t think we’re fighting a few small monsters, I think we’re fighting against one big one.”
“Good luck proving that,” Shenna sighed. “We could be fighting one monster, we could be fighting twenty. Doesn’t matter much when we’re basically blindfolded.”