“We have to be more careful,” Atlas said. “What we’re doing may feel right to us, but in the eyes of the Authority it’s a huge breach of protocol. In their eyes, a commander should not sleep with a lieutenant. It is against protocol and for good reason. The power differential is…”
“Hot.”
“You need to stop finishing every one of my sentences with the word hot,” he growled lightly, swatting her bottom.
“It’s true, though.”
“True as it may be, the power difference can lead to exploitation and…”
“Mhmmm….”
“Enough,” he growled. “We have to be careful.”
“You think we’re going to be able to stop ourselves, given your job is basically ninety percent taking my pants off?”
“If you go out of your way to earn punishments from me, you will find your pants very much on and your life very unpleasant,” he threatened.
“I’m going to let this slide, because I know that this is just Authority robot talk. It’s not really you. It’s not what you think or what you want. I saw the real you with the Dinavri. I know who you are now.”
He raised a rough brow at her, but she was not cowed because she knew she was speaking the truth.
“We are officers of the Authority, and we have standards to maintain,” he repeated his point. She wondered if he was trying to convince her, or convince himself.
Stop, she thought to herself with a smirk. If there was one thing she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, it was that there was no way they were going to stop. The hunger between them was of the kind that didn’t stop. It burned hotter and hotter until it consumed everything.
“Commander Atlas, excellent work,” Captain Janus congratulated him as Tess the spy was led away from their shuttle by a veritable phalanx of security forces. That woman was trouble, but she had been an excellent passenger and aside from forgetting to wipe the cooking surfaces down once or twice, he’d had no problems with her.
“Thank you,” he said. “It was straightforward.”
He was lying to his captain, or at least evading the truth. The captain didn’t seem to notice, however; she was too busy being gestured at by one of the secret security forces.
“Excuse me,” she said, turning and walking away, leaving Atlas and Jerri with their dirty little secrets intact.
The captain was not more than ten feet away when Atlas felt a pair of human hands on his rear.
“Cut it out,” he growled over his shoulder, only to hear a light giggle from the brat behind him.
This was not going to be easy. She was going to push every button he had, and some he didn’t know he had yet.
“You think Tess will tell on us?”
“I think Tess has her own problems,” he said. “And I think you’re going to have two very sore problems if you don’t listen to me. We cannot afford to be reckless. The consequences for what we are doing are serious and severe, understand me, Lieutenant?”
“Yes, sir,” Jerri acquiesced. “Don’t worry. I’m not stupid. I’m not going to do anything to get us in trouble.”
Famous last words.
Several days later
“Commander Atlas to Storage Bay 3.4.”
The automated request was sent through the ship’s basic organization system. Atlas auto-piloted to follow it, figuring it was probably a small but significant error that needed correcting, or, more likely, a sensor malfunction. He was trying to fill his days with as many tasks as possible in order to avoid the sexual tension that seemed to suffuse every part of the ship. Staying away from Jerri was one of the hardest things he’d ever done. It took an iron will and more discipline than he knew he had.
The storage bays were a very empty, very quiet part of the ship. It required a certain level of clearance to access them, due to cadets and ensigns trying to use them as hookup zones.
Atlas entered the bay and looked for the problem. It was about fifty percent full of crates of various materials, all of which seemed to still be intact.
There was the issue. One of the crates had moved slightly off center, which must have triggered a check protocol. He moved it back into position over the sensor and waited for it to reset.
“Psst!”
If he’d been the startling kind, he would have gotten a fright. As it was, he got an annoyance.
“Who is that? You’ve been warned! These areas are strictly out of bounds!” He snapped the censure at whichever ensigns were hiding in the rear of the storage bay.
“Out of bounds? You mean like you?”
Jerri appeared from behind one of the crates and wrapped herself around him. Of course, he should have realized she would be behind this breach of protocol.
“Stop it,” he growled down at her, even as he cupped her ass with his massive hands. She felt so good pressed up against him, her soft human curves promising pleasure that came at the cost of pain. She wanted him so badly she would hurt for him.