The Glass Admiral Read online

  "I'm half Recessive." He told her maintaining his level, matter-of-fact tone with some difficulty as he wondered if she were mocking him. "I wasn't able to before I hit sexual maturity and after Aizawlhar… " He assessed her expression briefly for signs of morbid curiosity or judgement and found neither. "Well, let's just say that there aren't exactly droves of women lining up for sex with a half Recessive wreck that isn't capable of fucking.”

  He watched both of his LT's eyebrows lift. "You've been watching pornography / all the wrong pornography." She said after a moment. "There are no moves that are required for... coitus." A small wrinkle appeared between her eyebrows. "All that is required is a desire to make the experience feel good—pleasurable to your partner." She tilted her head and considered him with what he could only interpret as a frightening pragmatism. "I can, in fact, think of at least half a dozen ways in which to make love to you that would accommodate the needs of your body."

  A knot of slow heat unfurled in his belly; equal parts arousal and anger. He opened his mouth to reply and did not immediately recognize the tight almost brittle tone that emerged. "And yet, you are not exactly lining up are you?"

  She didn't flinch, her gaze merely sharpened to the point that he felt she could see into him. "Would you like me to?" She asked quietly in the same tone she would use ordering a coffee at the canteen and that made him angrier.

  "Do I have a choice?" He bit out.

  "You always have a choice."

  That hovered between them. A newly born butterfly.

  "What are you saying Saverna?" He both felt and heard the rawness in his voice now.

  "I am asking you if you would like to make love with me Admiral."

  Kos, I'm Kos. Something howled within him. See me. "Is pity-fucking the old man part of your job description Lieutenant?” He asked infusing every bit of contempt he could muster into the question because he could think of nothing he wanted more than to have his LT's easy hands all over his body; feeding his skin, soothing the ever present ache that churned and pulsed just below the surface.

  "That isn't what I offered." She told him levelly.

  9

  17:05, SATURDAY, ADMIRAL’S QUARTER’S, THE ASARO

  “YOU’LL GET WET.”

  “That is generally what happens when one gets in a fresher.” Saverna eyed Kosuri as she stepped into the fresher cubicle. He looks surprisingly calm for someone who hasn’t spoken in nearly an hour and is covered in blood and…other things.

  “You’ll have to consider it the consequences of crashing.”

  “Oh?” Saverna, clad in her blouse and uniform pants only, stepped closer to where the admiral stood leaning against the wall half in half out of the spray. Once again he was wearing everything but his boots. I am going to need to order more uniforms if I am going to keep up with you. “Are you disinviting me?”

  “Depends.” His face could have been carved from granite.

  “On?”

  “Your intentions.” Something like vulnerability flashed in his eyes and disappeared as quickly as it had come. Tread lightly Saverna. He’s not as unaffected as he appears.

  “My intentions?” She took another step toward him and stopped. Only the spray was between them now and she could feel the warmth of the spray begin to saturate her clothing. “Well,” Instinct had her dropping her tone to that of a teasing purr and offering him a cheeky grin. “I thought I would start by prying you out of your armor and then stripping you out of your uniform so that I can rub every last inch of your body down with—” Heartened by both the way his lips twisted with amusement and the faint heat blooming in his eyes; Saverna paused for dramatic effect. “—my—” Kosuri’s gaze dropped to her lips as he sucked in a shallow breath. Interesting. “favorite pine scented soap. You smell admiral.” She refrained from saying what he smelled like. The situation was gory enough without adding to it unnecessarily.

  Kosuri gave a startled shout of laughter. “Touché LT.” He pushed himself upright off the wall and obligingly lifted his arms so she could unfasten the straps that ran along the sides of the armor. “You know I can do this myself right?”

  “Yeah, I know.” She told him as she moved forward under the spray and went to work. Making quick work of the straps she gripped either side of the front plate and began to tug it up over his head. “Nobody should have to do this alone.”

  Kosuri, in the midst of dropping his head and shoulders to assist her flashed her a look of such blinding intensity that she froze. This is an awkward position for him. Her brain reminded her and she moved to pull the armor off over his head and shoulders. With a twist she tossed it in the corner behind her.

  By the time she turned back Kosuri had straightened and moved forward so that he was standing under the shower spray with his eyes closed as bloody water streamed off of him. Knowing that the water by itself wasn’t going to be enough, Saverna grabbed the shampoo bottle and after squeezing some shampoo into her palm, went to work on his hair. It took her three tries with the soap before the rinse water finally ran clear. Giving a little crow of satisfaction that surprised a snort of something like laughter out of the admiral she exchanged the shampoo for soap and went to work on his face and neck. By this time much of the blood had disappeared down the shower drain leaving only the tougher to reach places for her to attend to. Nevertheless, she made a point of washing his entire face because this washing was as much about comfort as it was about getting clean.

  Kosuri sighed as she rubbed gentle circles along his cheeks and down along his neck offering no protest when she undid his collar and then moved lower unfastening his tunic as she went.

  He groaned as she pushed the jacket off his shoulders and she glanced up at his face to find him staring down at her eyes not full of pain as she had expected but warm with arousal. She watched his face slacken with pleasure as she slid her hands down his shoulders and along his arm pushing his sleeves off as she went. Relieved that he wasn’t in pain and eager to explore his reaction, she ran her hands back up his arms to his shoulders and slid them down his chest deliberately skimming the erect nipples clearly delineated by the thin material of his under-tunic then moving down his abdomen to his belt line where she slid her thumbs down into his waistband and grasping the edge of his under-tunic began to push it up his belly using her palms to caress him as she went.

  Kosuri gave a sound that was half gasp half groan and his breathing became audible and irregular as goosebumps broke out on the exposed skin of his belly and chest. He didn’t move though just stood there staring down at her breathing hard as she slid her hands slowly along his skin.

  As soon as he felt her hands on his nipples that stillness became action as he reached down and grabbing the edge of the under-tunic, pulled it up over his head and dropped it on the floor of the shower behind her. That done, he went to work on her uniform blouse with deliberation, undoing her buttons and pulling it off her. Next to go was her bra and then he was pulling her up against him and dropping his head to kiss her.

  In the instant before she felt his lips against hers Saverna felt him sigh and caught the flash of relief that crossed his face and she came to understand as he nibbled at her lower lip with surprising gentleness even as he held her against him with firm hands that he was seeking connection as much he was seeking sex. Sex with him, like this, would be slow and easy filled with gentle caresses, small movements, tender nibbles and sucks and soothing kisses. It was, her body confirmed with a clench, the perfect antidote for a day like the one they’d had and she opened her mouth to Kosuri as she ran her hands down along his back pausing a moment to tease the sensitive skin at the base of his spine with her fingers before sliding them lower and using them to caress the firm muscles of his buttocks.

  Kosuri lurched forward at the contact instinctively thrusting against her and threw out a hand to catch himself against the wall as he overbalanced. The small stumble recalled Saverna to her duties and she pulled her mouth out from under his. “We shouldn’t
be doing this.” She told him.

  “We should definitely be doing this.” He murmured against her lips in the softest of caresses.

  Saverna tilted her head back away from him only to have him follow. “You need to eat and sleep and…” She gave in to the urge to nibble on his bottom lip a move that elicited a deep groan. “hydrate.”

  He used the hand he wasn’t using to steady himself against the wall to pull her against him. “This,” He sucked lightly on her bottom lip as he began to thrust ever so slightly against her. “Is all I need.”

  Two things warred in the mind of Sen Kosuri as his bodywoman guided him bodily backward until he felt the back of his calves hit the shower chair that he kept there for days when standing up was not an option. The first was a certain gratitude that this was finally happening and the second was that he was going to fuck it up somehow with his inexperience. “Saverna—” He began as she pushed lightly against his shoulders to suggest that he sit, only to fall silent as she wrapped her arms around his back to provide the steadiness he would have otherwise gotten from using one of the grab bars fastened at various positions along the shower walls. The easy naturalness of the action left him temporarily breathless. You do that like it’s the most natural thing in the universe—like it’s nothing. He thought. How strange it is that you notice me. He closed his eyes briefly sucking in a deep breath in an attempt to get control over the peculiar storm of emotions swirling through him.

  A nip at his shoulder and the sensation of hands going to work at unfastening his trousers recalled him swiftly to reality as the sensation of blood shooting rapidly to his groin caused some of the emotions to dissipate. He thought he might explode at the sensation of her hands as they brushed against him and reaching down he grabbed her wrists and pulled her hands up.

  Confused eyes met his. “Is something wrong?”

  “Give me a minute.” He told her gruffly as blood pounded through him.

  “Ah.” A satisfied look in her eyes as she took his meaning. That satisfaction had him leaning forward to take her nipple in his mouth in an attempt to level the field by making her feel what he was feeling. It isn’t fair that I am the only raw, exposed nerve ending here. He thought as he licked and suckled and nipped until he had her gasping and groaning and steadying herself against him. How ironic. He thought as he moved his hands down to waistband of her pants where he hesitated stroking the soft skin of her belly with his thumbs as he tried to decide what to do next.

  “It’s okay.” Saverna gasped moving her hands down to undo the fastenings. As she pushed her pants down her hips Kosuri dropped his hands to his own lap and hastily began to work on removing his own pants.

  Almost before he was done Saverna was on his lap knees on either side of his hips. Whoever designed this shower chair is a god-damned genius. Kosuri thought wildly as he felt her settle gently against his erect cock. Unable to help himself he pushed up against her with his hips and was rewarded for his efforts with a sharp pain in his lower back. “Let me.” His bodywoman circumvented his potential shame storm by rocking her hips gently against him. Pleasure rocketed through his body so hard that it was almost unbearable when she began to stroke the skin of his shoulders and chest as she slid the wet lips of her pussy along the rigid aching shaft of his cock. Unable to quite process what was happening to him—wanting both more and for the sensation never to stop he pulled her against him trying to get as much of her skin against his as he could. Burying his head in the crook of her neck he pressed a kiss against the delicate skin there profoundly grateful to be feeling something aside from the relentless grinding pain that inhabited his body on a good day and the agony that inhabited it on a bad day.

  He had just started to kiss his way up along her neck with the intention of reaching her lips when she shifted and with a clever little rotation and thrust of her hips encompassed the tip of his cock in her velvet embrace. Kos jerked his head up to meet her smiling eyes as sensation after sensation rolled through his body. “Is this okay?” She asked him as she shifted and moved around him not making a move to take him deeper simply caressing and massaging him—the tip of him—with the smallest of motions and muscular contractions in a way that was at once tender and viciously arousing.

  “Yes.” He said although he wasn’t sure it was. He felt as though he might break open at the intensity of holding her gaze while they were connected so viscerally.

  “Do you want to go deeper?” She asked.

  “Yesss.” He gasped not certain he could take it and she took him in another inch.

  They continued that way with her shifting and moving and rocking against him taking him inch by permitted inch while he shook and kissed her neck and jaw and mouth and tried to figure out if what he was doing was acceptable. He thought somewhat frantically of the adult vids he had seen in his lifetime and came up with nothing. I’ve never seen anything like this. “Saverna,” He said finally trying hard to concentrate through the pleasure at hand and force himself past the shame of having to ask. “Tell me what I should do.”

  “Just feel good—enjoy it.” She took him deeper with another clever swirl of her hips.

  “Sav—”

  “Medical to Admiral Kosuri.” He froze in reaction to the voice that suddenly flooded his quarters.

  “Fuck.” He cursed as his body throbbed and screamed at him to continue while his mind reminded him that he was a fleet officer; the highest ranking fleet officer onboard and that duty demanded he answer the page.

  “I thought that’s what we were doing.” Saverna purred, not without a certain humor as she held herself still apparently waiting to see what he would do.

  He wanted to pull her against him, bury himself in her, feel her skin against his; wanted to lay her out on the floor of the shower so that he could feel her beneath him as he thrust into her. But he had to answer the gods-forsaken page from the chief medical officer.

  Closing his eyes he forced himself to take a deep breath and ignore the pounding of his heart and the screaming of his skin. “Computer, answer page.” His voice was a deep rasp that seemed to him to betray that he was sitting in his shower nearly balls deep in a woman for the first time in his life and he cleared his throat with some effort. “Medical this is Admiral Kosuri.” That sounded fairly normal.

  “Admiral,” The CMO began crisply which helped him focus until Saverna took a deep breath and he felt it along his shaft and deep in the base of his spine. Grinding his teeth together as additional blood flooded his groin he opened his eyes to shoot Saverna a cautionary look only to find her staring back at him her own gaze heavy with both arousal and amusement. Locking her eyes on his she took another deliberately deep breath.

  “I just want to confirm your medical appointment—” Kos bit his lip to smother a groan as Saverna gave him a crooked smile and clenched her internal muscles around him.

  The heat that had been growing at the base of his spine tightened into a red hot ball and he felt his testicles draw up tight against his body.

  “—this evening—”

  The urge to thrust—to get inside of her—consumed him so he tilted his hips and pushed ever so slightly sliding against her sheath.

  “—at 18:30.”

  Saverna's head fell back slightly as her mouth opened on a soundless gasp and Kosuri found himself hard pressed to find the voice to answer his CMO as a heady combination of satisfaction that Saverna was apparently feeling this thing as deeply as he was; and a fresh surge of arousal flooded his body. It’s like a biofeedback loop. Her arousal increases mine. The thought intrigued him. Is it the same for her?

  “Admiral?” The CMO’s voice broke into his thoughts and he felt himself begin to flush with the old familiar shame as he wondered just how long she’d been waiting for an answer. Not doing so well today professionally are we Admiral?

  “Appointment confirmed. Thank you doctor.” He forced the words past the sudden stricture of his throat. “I will see you in—” He glanced at the bathroom
chronometer. “Thirty minutes.” Disappointment clawed at him as it sank in that what he and Saverna had started in the shower wasn’t going to end in an evening of sex and other physical explorations and that he was more than likely going to find himself somewhat more experienced but ultimately alone in bed at the conclusion of the evening. As per fucking usual.

  “Aye sir.” The CMO said crisply and the page terminated with a loud whine.

  “Thirty minutes?” Saverna cocked her head at him smiled and reached for his shoulders. “Guess we’d better make this quick.” Her eyes invited him to share her amusement as without ceremony she slid down the remaining several inches of his cock and began to move against him in earnest.

  He opened his mouth to protest but was stymied when his frustrated and inexperienced body succumbed to the stimulation and the only thing that emerged from his mouth was a stifled groan as he ejaculated and orgasm ripped through him leaving him momentarily senseless with pleasure. A bare few seconds later he heard Saverna's gasp and felt her collapse forward against him as her own pleasure peaked.

  As she rested against him breathing and regaining her senses he felt the disappointment of earlier fade in the face of the burgeoning contentment he felt to hold her against him. Is this what it would be like to sleep with her? To hold her against me in the night? Cautiously he checked in with his body. Nothing hurt. Everything felt good, still awash with pleasure. I feel well. He realized with some amazement. Not…cured but well as though… He struggled to pinpoint the unfamiliar sensation. Something has eased—been eased inside of me.

  What felt like a bare second later, Saverna pushed herself up off of his lap onto her feet and the feeling disappeared as a loneliness so strong and profound that it momentarily stole his ability to speak roared back through him and took up residence in his chest. Unable to do more than force himself to breathe through a pain that had become all the more apparent for its momentary absence; he stared at the floor of the shower as he tried to think of a way to put himself back together again.