“Clothes stay on,” Roys said from the front of the group.
“It’s fucking hot and the exoskins aren’t doing shit. These are ancient, aren’t they? I bet they haven’t been updated in decades,” I said while attaching my visor to my belt.
“Centuries, more like it,” said Arana.
“Don’t complain when you get burned,” Roys warned.
Grinning, I cut the space between us, passing by Iylene and Lilea to do it. Roys had me carrying the back of the group, claiming I could handle anything that came at us from behind. He wasn’t wrong there, but we both knew he was full of shit. He wanted me as far from him as possible, as he had done for the last eight days. Five of those he scheduled himself on other teams. I played along, but the game was starting to dull.
Roys stiffened when I came up behind him to whisper, “Are you concerned about me, Captain?”
“Get back in position.”
“What if I don’t? You gonna grab me by the throat again for the whole team to see?”
He maintained a cold expression, eyes forward.
“I wouldn’t mind if you did, by the way, and I think it’s pretty clear you’d like to give it another go, too.”
His eye twitched and warmth erupted in my gut that had me biting back a grin. He was too fun to mess with.
“And here I thought we were finally getting along.” I pressed a hand over my heart and let our arms brush while we walked. “If you keep up this mistreatment, you’re going to hurt my feelings.”
At that, he rolled his eyes. “I am beginning to wonder if you have feelings.”
“Admittedly, not many, and usually just horny, which I currently am, and you could fix that, oh mighty captain.”
“Unless you want to be scrubbing the toilets tonight, get back in position,” he warned in his favorite authoritative style. It wasn’t so different from his tone in the cavern, the gravel in his voice, the warning, and that had a shiver running down my spine.
“Careful using that tone, it turns me on.”
Roys’ tapped his commlink.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Sending commands to the droids not to clean the restrooms. A private has decided to take care of them.”
I leaned in closer, smelling that cherry candy, seeing it pressed against his cheek. “You were more fun with your cock in my mouth.”
He still wouldn’t look at me. Snickering, I fell back and tugged a smoke out of my pocket.
Ryker gawked. “You’re having a cigarette here?”
“Why not?” I shrugged and lit it.
“It’s hard enough to breathe already. My visor is the only thing keeping me going.”
“Weak.” I blew a plume of smoke at Ryker, smiling when he waved it off before giving me the finger.
The smoke certainly didn’t help, but sleuthing around got boring. Not that I wanted another rabid flora encounter, but a man was allowed his vices, and smoking was mine.
Another, apparently, was the unruly captain. At least being at the rear rank meant I could stare at his ass, so maybe there was a perk to his so-called discipline. Maybe that was his kink. Get off, play hard to get, be annoying, and then jump your bones later. That was fine. I had other opportunities.
The group stopped momentarily for Zavir, who knelt by a small plant, using the commlink to scan it. Another member of our troop had it catalogued already. I saw it on the holo screen from where I stood behind him. Though I spoke to Zavir, I watched Roys across the way. “Hey Zavir, when we get back to base and cool off, wanna fuck?”
Roys hesitated before grabbing his canteen.
“Sure.” Zavir stood and stretched all four of his arms.
