The rest of the day would have gone smoothly, if Schultz hadn’t stopped Alex on his way to the gym and asked where Parsons was.
“How should I know?” Alex snapped. His hands felt a bit clammy, and he wished he’d waited for Tracht so nobody would bother him.
Schultz raised her eyebrows at him. “Because he’s usually hanging out with you at this time? But he didn’t show for our usual post-shift breakfast.”
She wasn’t exactly pretty—Alex wouldn’t have gone out of his way to pick her up at a club—but if pressed he wouldn’t have turned her down either. Her head was completely shaved, with just a small hint of a buzz, and her skin was kind of the same dark shade as Parsons’. Alex decided he didn’t like the sharp angles of her face, and he especially didn’t like the disapproving way she looked at him.
“Well, I have no idea, and I don’t care. Leave me alone.” He started walking towards the gym again.
“You know, Parsons always defends you.”
Alex stopped short. “What?”
“When people talk about you. Parsons will tell them to shut up or to have some sympathy. I’ve always thought he was wasting his time with you, and I guess I was right.” She walked off, leaving Alex to stare dumbly.
That… that didn’t matter. So what if Parsons defended Alex. It didn’t change the fact that he’d been playing Alex the whole time.
There wouldn’t be a reason to defend Alex when Alex wasn’t even there, but… No. Whatever. Parsons brought everything on himself.
He hurried to the gym to take out some of his frustrations. But even after full hour at the gym he couldn’t shake the discontent, and he gave up.
While he was walking back to the room, an announcement came over the PA system.
“There will be a mandatory meeting at 18:00 tonight in the lounge. All personnel must attend except those working a shift critical to the ship’s function. Thank you,” Espinosa’s voice droned.
No question what that meeting was going to be about. Alex hurried to get back to the room and avoid all of that. He definitely didn’t want more people asking him about Parsons.
===
He ended up having to entertain himself while Tracht went to that meeting, probably explaining that Parsons was locked up and that all of his shifts would be redistributed.
Would people ask questions? Alex tried to imagine if, like, Schultz had randomly disappeared from the ship. He wouldn’t have cared, but Parsons might have. And Carpenter hadn’t exactly disappeared—she’d still been around, doing menial labor and supervised for the remainder of the trip.
He lounged on the couch and scrolled through the music he had saved to the tablet. He found a bunch of songs in Chinese and clicked on one at random, but it sounded shrill and harsh. The next one he tried was just as bad, and the one after that was even worse. In frustration, Alex deleted all of them.
Maybe if he studied he could avoid thinking about… stuff. Only studying Earth was out, and all the recent stuff included notes that Parsons had helped him make. He even spotted one typed by Parsons: “Seriously, don’t ever mess with these pipes without proper safety equipment!”
Like Alex would ever do maintenance on a ship. He didn’t know why it was important for him to know what the pipes were called or what they did, and really, why the fuck was Parsons giving him advice when he’d already been planning on screwing Alex over?
With a frustrated cry Alex shut off the tablet and crawled into the bed.
Not that he could sleep either. He tossed and turned and desperately tried to clear his thoughts and relax, but it wasn’t working.
By the time Tracht came back, Alex had succeeded in working himself up so much that his muscles were tense and his leg jittered. It was torture getting on his knees for food, and even the sweet dessert didn’t distract Alex.
He actually startled when Tracht placed both of his hands on the sides of Alex’s face.
“Hmm. I was planning a reward for you,” Tracht said, “but now I’m not sure.”
Alex growled and pulled free from Tracht. He stormed over to the couch and sat down, fuming at Tracht the entire time. “Whatever.”
He caught the frown on Tracht’s face, and the then the slide into annoyance, and okay, Alex was being dumb, but he was also not in the mood for… for whatever. “What’d you tell the crew? That you beat Parsons bloody?”
Tracht stood up and slowly came over. “No. I explained that Parsons had been caught attempting industrial espionage, and that he was being confined for the remainder of the trip. I also mentioned that I would dismiss him as soon as we reached port, and that in the meantime, all of his shifts would be distributed as overtime to the rest of the crew.
“Nobody questioned the decision, though I suppose they either liked the prospect of receiving Parsons’ wages or were afraid I would find a reason to fire them as well.”
He stopped directly in front of Alex and leaned forward, bracing his arms next to Alex’s shoulders and boxing him in. “Now, tell me why you’re acting so idiotic.”
Alex shook his head and looked away. “I don’t—I’m not—I just don’t feel like it right now.”
Tracht gripped Alex’s chin and forced him to meet his eyes. “We’ve established time and again that your feelings on the matter are completely irrelevant.” He let go and stepped back. “Get on the bed, face up, with your arms above your head.”
“Or what?” Alex demanded, knowing even before he said the words that they’d piss Tracht off but for once not caring.
“Do not make me repeat myself, Alex.”
Alex didn’t know why, but the coldness settled him a bit. Tracht was going to hurt him, and it would suck, but at least he’d be distracted from the turmoil inside him.
He got on the bed and positioned himself as asked. He watched with some apprehension as Tracht pulled out a rope from his chest of torture devices, along with—
Along with the cat-o-nine tails.
Alex sucked in a breath and curled into himself. “No! Never mind! I’m sorry!”
All he got from Tracht was a hard glare. “Get back into position. Unless you’d like to spend the next few days in the cage with nothing but water.”
Why couldn’t Alex just keep his damn mouth shut? He shook as he lay down again, and he closed his eyes so he couldn’t see what Tracht was doing.
The cat would hurt. Especially on his front. He took a breath and steeled himself, because yeah, he knew he was going to end up crying out, but maybe he could just endure for a little while.
He felt the bed dip, and then Tracht’s hands running over him. They settled on his wrists and started tying them together with the rope. A slight tug had Alex stretching further up, until his arms were tied securely to the headboard.
“Perfectly still, Alex,” Tracht murmured. He again trailed his fingers down Alex’s body, stopping to remove the cock cage and then moving on to Alex’s feet and toes. Alex tensed in preparation for tickling, but all that came was more rope, securing his feet in a spread-eagle position to the sides of the bed.
Then a gentle touch on his stomach. Alex warily opened his eyes. Tracht sat next to him and held the flogger just over him, gently running the ends of it over Alex’s chest and down to his cock.
“What’re you doing?” Alex asked gruffly. His muscles were bunched up with tension, ready for a sudden strike.
“You thought to provoke me into violence,” Tracht said. He continued swishing the cat over Alex’s cock. “But Alex, I refuse to be manipulated by you. And I absolutely refuse to punish you for standing by me, for choosing me over somebody else. So I am not going to hurt you today.”
That should have made Alex happy. He didn’t want to hurt. He didn’t like pain.
But a wave of confusing anger washed over him. “You said—”
Tracht leaned down and kissed him, and even that was gentle and different. “I’m going to reward you, Alex, whether you want it or not.”
He got up and stripped his clothes off, throwing them haphazardly onto the floor. Then he sat down next to Alex again and stroked Alex’s cock. There was nothing for Alex to complain about. It was exactly the right type of pressure that he liked, and Tracht varied his strokes between slow and fast, until Alex was hard and vibrating with need and confusion.
“Stop,” Alex begged. “I don’t… I don’t want to—”
Tracht laughed and leaned forward to touch their foreheads together. “Alex, I honestly thought you would be enjoying yourself, and I would put up with one unsatisfying fuck for your sake.” He sat back and picked up the bottle of lube from the night stand. “It’s getting a bit more fun for me now.”
He poured a bit of lube on his hand, and then he reached down and—and started fingering himself. His own hole. Alex sucked in a breath and jerked in his bonds.
“What are you doing?” Alex demanded again.
“Exactly what it looks like.” Tracht hissed and used his other hand to jerk his cock. “A little while back you asked if you could fuck me.”
Alex’s eyes widened. No. Arousal washed over him, and he tugged at the ropes. He felt himself get even harder and a glance down showed his cock leaking precome, red and swollen. “Wait! I’m—”
Tracht pulled his fingers out and wrapped the lube-sticky hand around Alex’s cock. Alex let out a strangled cry and god, he almost came right then.
“I do hope you can hold out for a bit longer than that,” Tracht said. He finished coating Alex’s cock with lube, poured more on it, until Alex was sticky with it.
Alex had to close his eyes when Tracht straddled his hips, because the sight alone could have set him off.
Warm, wet pressure, all around him. God. Alex sobbed loudly, and he didn’t understand why this was making his eyes blur. He’d wanted to fuck Tracht. And this was better than getting flayed open.
It was so much though. All at once. Nothing but pleasure, so intense it stole his breath.
Tracht placed his hands on Alex’s shoulders and started moving his hips, and he squeezed tightly around Alex’s cock. Both of them groaned.
Alex couldn’t believe that he’d ever thought he liked pussy more than ass. He had never felt anything like this, pleasure piled on top of pleasure, Tracht’s moans echoing in his ears, and then Tracht leaned down to kiss him, robbing Alex of what little air he had left.
“I haven’t done this with anyone in over ten years, Alex,” Tracht whispered, “so I—” he groaned, “I hope you appreciate it.” He rubbed his finger along the sides of Alex’s eyes, where the tears were leaking out.
Alex struggled to lift his hips enough to fuck into Tracht, clumsy, uncoordinated, but he loved Tracht’s sounds, loved knowing he was the only person to have fucked Tracht in years.
When Alex felt his orgasm nearing, he cried out because he didn’t want it to end. He wanted to keep being inside Tracht, but Tracht drove down on Alex’s cock and squeezed, and that was it. Alex spasmed and came so hard that his vision blurred.
He lost a few moments, drifted on the aftershocks of pleasure. Tracht was still fucking himself on Alex, which was starting to feel like a bit too much. Alex whimpered and struggled, to which Tracht squeezed tighter.
“Keep moving,” Tracht said while jerking himself off. Alex did his best to lift his hips as much as he could, but he was exhausted and drained. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from Tracht’s face though. Probably nobody else had ever made Tracht enjoy sex without torturing somebody first. Alex tried to memorize that look of bliss. If his hands had been free, he would have been jerking Tracht off or lifting him up by the hips to give him a proper fuck.
His cock was starting to burn though, hypersensitive and getting soft. He hissed when Tracht squeezed hard again, and he was so glad when Tracht came moments later, splashing hot come all over Alex’s chest.
“My hands,” Alex begged as Tracht slipped off. “Please. Undo my hands.”
“Hmm?” Tracht rested his head on Alex’s shoulder and yawned. “In a second.”
“Please. You said you were gonna be nice. That this was a reward.”
“So I did.” After another few moments—and it looked like Tracht wanted to fall asleep—Tracht sat up just long enough to untie Alex’s hands.
As soon as he was free, Alex wrapped his arms around Tracht and pulled him close, kissing his neck and jaw and mouth. He saw how surprised Tracht was, and if his legs were free he might have rolled them over and really kissed him. But this was okay too.
They made out for a little while more, and Alex felt warm and comfortable and completely satisfied. He remembered a girlfriend who had liked making out as the main event. He’d always thought she was weird, but he kind of got it now.
When Tracht finally untied Alex’s legs and cleaned them both off, they rearranged themselves so that Alex had his head on Tracht’s chest. Tracht petted Alex’s hair and asked softly, “Feeling better?”
Alex thought about it, and he couldn’t even remember what the issue had been. “Yeah. Dunno what was wrong with me.”
He heard Tracht snort, but he was too tired to care what it meant.