How Lee Got His 'Y' Back

How Lee Got His ‘Y’ Back


“Hey Apollo, what ever you did this time really set her off! You should’ve seen the way she stormed out of there. Damn! And I thought I was in trouble when Sharon realized I’d forgotten –“, suitably impressed, Helo congratulated Lee from where he leaned against the hatch.

“Huh - what?” Lee drowned out the rest of what Helo said. Looking up from his desk, he had no idea what the other man was talking about. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, Helo. I haven’t done anything to anyone today.”

Pushing off of the jamb and entering the CAG’s office with an easy stride, Karl pulled out a chair and turned it around. Sitting on it backwards, he draped his arms across the backing and let his fingers add to the conversation. “All I know is that it’s been a long time since I saw Starbuck that pissed. And the only person I know,” Helo tapped a finger against his chest before pointing at Lee, “who can piss her off to no end is you. So, you gotta tell me. What did you do that was so bad that she stormed off the deck spouting off how she was going to – now how did she say this again? Because – I gotta tell ya – not that I didn’t know this already – but damn! Your girlfriend SO knows how to put words together.” Shaking his head, he didn’t even bother trying to keep a straight face as he restrung the words Starbuck blithely blared across the hanger deck. “First, she kicked the creeper she had been lying on and made it roll end-over-end until it skidded into a toolbox. Then, she said, ‘Frak this; I’m getting Lee’s balls back. And when I do, I’m going to – personally – screw them in so tight that they’ll be half way up his ass by the time I’m was done’. I told her that if she did that, then you’d be lucky if you ended up pissing out your belly-button. Wanna know what she said about that?”

Having seen just how creative Starbuck could get when she was so inclined, there was no way Lee could guess at what came out of her mouth.

“She said, and I quote, ‘Good – that way he’ll have to actually stand up – for a change – when he takes a leak’. Of course, I can’t do justice to how she said it…” The wistfulness in Helo’s smirk barely made a dent the ‘oh, frak’ look on his friend’s face.

“She said that?”

“Lee – wake up.” A series of two-fingered snaps fluttered in front of his friend’s face. “You’re so not listening to what’s going on here. Your girlfriend is on a mission to get you, Mr. I’m the Reason Baltar Got Acquitted, a set of stones and all you can say is, ‘she said that’?” Karl blew out a ‘you are so missing the point here, Lee’ breath over his teeth. “Apollo, think about it. You’ve got an irate Starbuck storming the corridors of Galactica, hell bent on getting something she thinks you obviously don’t have, and you’re stuck on what happened five minutes ago?”

Scrubbing his hand over his face, Lee looked like a man who didn’t know where to start. Should he call the MP’s to arrest her, head out after her himself or wait for her to do whatever the hell it was that she was going to do and then deal with it once everything was said and done? Being in a relationship with an ion storm complicated his job description. Being married once taught him that whatever happened outside their quarters would affect what happened inside their quarters.

“I have no idea what set her off.” Taking in Helo’s expectant look, Lee slouched down in his chair and tossed his pen onto the nearest stack of papers. “I didn’t do anything. We got up, we went to breakfast, and we went to work. That’s it. End of story.”

“Let me guess.” A rueful look matched the way Helo sized up Apollo. “Last night – even though you pulled a double shift yesterday and you got off a good four hours before Kara came off Second Shift – you were still awake even though you both had to report for First Shift this morning?”

“Yeah – so?” Lee shrugged his shoulders. There was no reason to deny it. Karl was right. Despite being dog-tired, he stayed up doing paperwork just so that he would be awake to greet her.

Clearly enjoying himself over Apollo’s cluelessness, Helo asked, “And this morning, in Central Mess, you pulled out her chair for her at the table, didn’t you?”

“You were there – you saw what happened.” Still not seeing the point his friend was trying to make, Lee relived the moment, “Yeah – for all the good it did me. I got a ‘what the frak are you doing’ double-take that could’ve knocked an asteroid off its course just before she grabbed a seat two chairs away from where we normally sit.”

“And let me guess – you tried to make it up to her by walking her to the Ready Room and giving her an ‘I’m sorry’ kiss at the hatchway – even though you had no idea what you were sorry about but you did it anyway, just because you’ve been conditioned that you should?”

“You make it seem like that’s a bad thing. It was only a little bit out of my way. It’s not like I went clear across ship when I didn’t have to; her class was starting and I just did –“, Lee sagged in his chair. He couldn’t win. Not with Kara and now, not with Karl. “It’s not like she kissed me back. For a second there, I thought she was going to clock me.”

“Kara does do the ‘non-verbal’ thing better than most.” Brotherly pride and protective exasperation melted into his words. Shifting gears, Karl grinned at Lee. “I gotta ask one more thing.”

“Oh yeah – and what’s that Dr. Agathon?” Lee snorted.

“Well, Major Sarcasm-Adama, answer me this.” Karl looked like he was just about to score the winning point in a Pyramid game. “Have you let your chest hair grow back yet?”

“And my personal grooming habits are any of your business for what reason?” Pulling on the cuffs of his uniform jacket self-consciously, anyone calling the CAG’s office and asking for Mr. Defensive would have been immediately transferred to Lee.

Getting all the answers he needed to put everything together, Helo stood up and set his chair to rights. Patting himself down until he found what he was looking for, he unwrapped a lollipop and slid it over his tongue with all the pomp of scoring the winning goal in a Pyramid game. Savouring the first few licks, he looked down at Lee and gave into the urge to give the seated man a jaunty two-fingered salute.

“You’re leaving now? First you come here accusing me of triggering ‘The Rampage of the Century’, and then you interrogate me only to deduce that my only crime is being a nice guy, and now you’re going to just up and walk out without telling me anything?” Being baffled and aggravated added more layers to Lee’s confusion. Caustically spreading his arms in a gesture of an open invitation, he prompted, “Apparently you have this all figured out, so why don’t you enlighten me, my friend?”

“No can do. Don’t have time or the inclination to have my face connect with Starbuck’s right hook. Got things to do and places to go. Not to mention that my wife likes me living a black-eye free lifestyle, Apollo.” Picking the lollipop out of his mouth, Karl clicked his tongue against his teeth. A good natured smile teased his lips. “If you need me, send a runner to the bunkroom. I’ll be there, passing the hat.”

“A collection – what for?” The thought that Helo might be a Viper shy of a squadron crossed Lee’s mind.

“The way I figure it, it’s gonna have to be a group effort to replace all the hair you’re missing down there.” A suggestive wink, a wave of his lollipop and an indignant look from the younger man proved that Lee kept more than just his chest smooth. Waggling his eyebrows roguishly, Helo made scissoring motions in the air with his fingers, “You know – last time I checked – Sgt. Hadrian’s office isn’t too far away from the Senior Officer’s quarters. Maybe I‘ll stop there first.”

Remembering how he used to chase Zak out of his room when he was a kid made Lee wish he had a pair of balled up socks to throw at Karl’s retreating back as the sometimes-XO snickered his way out the hatch.

Two seconds into trying to figure out what he was going to do was all the reprieve he got before Agathon poked his head back into his office.

“What is it now, Helo?” Getting up from the desk, he walked over to where the other man was standing. “Because right now, I’m pretty sure you’re the front runner in the Heir of Pythia competition.”

Completely ignoring Lee’s jibe at being too cryptic to be understood, Karl asked the question that had been burning a hole in his tongue ever since Starbuck stormed off the flight deck. “Do you really sit and tuck when you hit the head?”

“No!” Sitting up straighter, he saw Helo’s jaw all but drop when he couldn’t control the flash of embarrassment that gave him away. Attempting to be blasé, he back-pedalled. “Not all the time – it’s just quieter that way.” Summoning the same rationale that was used get him to ‘change his ways’, Lee used it to counter the ‘when are you going to stop being whipped’ look on Agathon’s face, "Since when is it a crime to be considerate? Some people are light sleepers and emptying a bladder in the middle of the night can be…noisy…sometimes.” Lee looked at Karl and set about being vindicated. “With her sense of hearing, you can’t tell me Sharon never asked you to…”

“Nope. Never,” Helo answered honestly. “She knows a man has to do what a man has to do. Sort of like someone else we know.”

Not one to pray for Divine intervention, but Lee couldn’t help but hope that at any minute the Action Stations alarm would sound.

“Wait.” Helo tilted his head like he was straining to listen to something. “Do you hear that?” Whistling like an incoming artillery shell was immediately followed by Karl making like he was taking cover by throwing his arms in front of his face at the same time he imitated the sound of the same artillery shell exploding. Lowering his arms, Helo looked disappointed. It was as if he expected his make-believe missile to destroy something that was evidently still there. “Damn – didn’t even chip it. That’s some powerfully strong stuff.”

Grabbing Lee by his shoulders, Karl tried to brush something off of the CAG’s uniform. Shrugging out of the taller man’s grip, Lee didn’t know whether to laugh or press sexual harassment charges. “Easy there, big guy. Something tells me you ought to talk to Sharon before you starting doing things like that.”

Sliding his lollipop to the other side of his mouth, Helo shook his head and mimicked Cottle’s bedside manner. “Nothing for it, Apollo. You’re coated in the stuff and by the looks of things, it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.”

Hands on his hips, Lee challenged Dr. Agathon’s diagnosis with a smirk. “And what the hell am I supposed to be coated in, Helo?”

“Purple eye shadow, Lee,” Pinching the stick of his candy, Karl used it to trace a path from the top of Lee’s head to the bottom of his feet and back up again. “You’ve been dredged, rolled, rubbed and encrusted in it so many times that I’m surprised your eyes haven’t change colour.”

Bsg……….Xxx……….Bsg……….

“FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!”

The chanting reached his ears before he even got close to the Enlisted Quarters.

Pushing his way through the crowd with a pair of Marines trailing behind him, Major Adama was all business when he stepped through the hatchway. In front of him was the one thing he knew had to happen at some point but prayed never took place.

Of all the bunks in the room, one was turned over. Mattress on the floor, personal affects scattered everywhere, and from the sounds of things, Starbuck had moved on to Dee’s locker in her search for whatever the hell it was she was hell bent on finding.

“Okay people – let’s break it up!” Using his best Major Adama voice, Lee shouted over the chanting.

In another place, in another time, in another setting, what was taking place would actually be funny. Shorter and slighter than Starbuck all the way around, a furious Dee was being kept – literally – at arms reach as Kara pulled handfuls of Dee’s belongings out of the locker and threw them to the ground. Every now and then, Dee would breakaway and tried to charge at Starbuck. Too angry to actually think about what she was doing, Dee tried to come at Starbuck through her ‘blind side’, forgetting that Starbuck didn’t have a blindside. What she also forgot was that Starbuck had reflexes that Dualla just didn’t possess.

One clean leg-sweep from Starbuck and Dee was on her ass. Crooning at the younger woman like she was talking to a baby, Starbuck made like she was the epitome of innocence. “Oh – did you fall down and go boom?” Turning her back to Dee, she resumed her search.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dee push herself to her feet. Being the junior officer, he should have ordered the Marines to protect her, but he couldn’t find it in him to feel sorry for Dee. His ex-wife had been baiting Kara ever since she came back from the dead, laying emotional land mines that Kara had side-stepped time and again. Truth be told, he had been surprised his wingman had held out this long before putting Dualla in her place. A brief hand signal had the Marine nearest Dee yank her hands behind her back and clap a pair of handcuffs around her wrists.

“I said – BREAK IT UP!” Snapping an angry look at each of the women, he made his point clear, “You both are ordered to cease and desist NOW!”

Being jostled from behind by the crowd, he stumbled forward and nearly crashed into Kara. A well-pleased smirk on her face told him she had found what she had been looking for. Keeping that blasted cocky look on her face, a deft sleight of hand had something scratchy and small enough to fit in between the brass buttons of his uniform jacket scoring his stomach before the remaining Marine wrestled Kara’s arms behind her back and started hauling her out of the bunk room.

Being shuffled-stepped out of the bunkroom, Starbuck stopped short just as she brushed past him and glanced down at his midriff. Whispering to make sure he was the only one who heard her, she ticked her tongue against her teeth. “Might want to tuck that in, Major; hate to think that all my hard work ended up being in vain.”

Matching his eyes to the same spot she was referring too, a shimmering purple strap was snaking out between his plackets. He should have pulled whatever the hell it was that she shoved in there out and given it back to Dee, but instead, he hastily tucked the purple cord into his uniform.

Recovering quickly, he gave his orders.

“Okay – move them out. Take Lieutenant Dualla to the Brig, D Deck level. Captain Thrace, I want her remanded to a cell on C-Deck.”

Clearing out the bunkroom, he followed the Marines out into the hallway. Major Adama still had things to take care of, and then he could go and be Lee and figure out why his world was suddenly coloured purple.

Bsg……….Xxx……….Bsg……….

Yeah – there was a punching and speed bag in the Fitness Centre. And yeah, the Centre had a lot of other equipment as well. But this place, this hold deep in the stern of Galactica, a place that never got completely warm, was where one of Starbuck’s finest Triad winnings was suspended from the ceiling.

A two-day card game on the Aerilon Maiden reduced the players to putting up anything and everything just to stay in the game. The stakes were high. The rumour mill had it that Starbuck actually put up the Raptor she flew in on as the game wound down to the final hands. Coming home on the same Raptor she signed out, there was something extra in the cargo hold alongside the other supplies. A premium grade bag, complete with a length of chain shanked at the bottom and running up and through and out of the middle of the bag for several yards, was topped off with a clip made out of battle-grade plating. This was where one went when the frustrations that needed to be exorcised ran deeper than a communal room could handle. It was the ‘safe place’ where those who needed to vent in a place away from prying eyes could do so. The cargo hold was also the one place where whatever happened inside those four walls, stayed inside those four walls, regardless of what happened inside that room.

It was the one place Lee needed to be after he signed off on the order to have Kara released from the brig for tearing apart Dee’s rack and ransacking Dee’s locker. The first day, out of the three-day stint she had been sentenced too, dragged. She wasn’t there when he got up, she wasn’t there to eat meals with, and she wasn’t there to mediate between him and the deck crew. The second day she was gone, with no one to wait up for, he went to bed when he was tired, completed his paperwork without being mindful of someone else’s schedule and he put in some extra time fixing a Viper. When he got ‘home’ there was no disappointed look, no snippy comment about why he was late, or the need to justify where he had been and what he had done. By the end of day three, in the quiet of the darkened cabin, staring at the object that his girlfriend had sacrificed her freedom for, he realized that Kara was the one person who’d never give him a hard time about staying out on a patrol just to satisfy a latent feeling of uneasiness about the Fleet’s location – because she’d do the same thing. She’d never begrudge him some down time with the guys down at Joe’s – because, more than likely – she’d already be there without it being a designated ‘date night’. Nor did he have to face that simpering ‘wounded’ look if he didn’t account for his whereabouts as he stepped through the hatch. First of all, simpering was not synonymous with any aspect of Kara Thrace, and if she ever thought he cheated on her, she would drag his sorry ass and the ‘other woman’ to the nearest airlock, by the most visible means possible, and open the seals with his father and Helo nodding in approval. The same would go for her too; he wouldn’t hesitate to haul her ass all the way to the nearest airlock and do the same thing.

Destiny had returned Kara back from the dead as the untameable, incredibly gifted, beyond-insane woman she was always meant to be sans the self-destructive motivations and insecurities that nearly destroyed her. For himself, he had come back to centre enough to reclaim his commission and a place at his father’s side. That didn’t mean that Starbuck stopped ruling the Triad tables, or that crazy-ass manoeuvres in the air weren’t pulled on a regular basis, especially if there was a life on the line or that Captain Thrace didn’t make her Nuggets piss their beds if she thought they weren’t paying attention during Basic Flight training. Nor did that mean that Major Adama didn’t stalk the corridors like he’d forgotten to take the clothes-hanger out of his uniform or that harshly worded lectures didn’t take place in the Ready Room on a regular basis, or made sure that Apollo was the last one in whenever there was a skirmish with the Cylons. What it did do, though, was give them a place to start where past hurts were no longer razor-sharp barbs and a fertile ground for a deeper friendship to flourish so that when trespasses were committed, the ‘all or nothing’ lines in the sand never had a chance to be drawn. Neither one of them was going anywhere and neither one of them wanted to be with anyone else. Even now, Kara wasn’t angry with him – just what he was doing. He just had to figure it out.

Circling the bag like it was prey, he charged forward. Forgoing gloves, his wrapped hands struck and pummelled the bag. Watching the bag sway, he timed the momentum of the backswing so that when his foot connected with the canvas covering, it swung deeply to the side. Throwing himself to the mat, he tumbled, rolled and got up again to launch another volley of crosses and jabs as the bag came back at him. He had been at it for a while. His arms were beginning to burn and sweat was stinging eyes. Breaking away from the bag, he started to stretch. Feeling his heart rate begin to slow, he treated each of his legs to deep lunges. The tightness in his hamstrings eased a bit and he transitioned into stretching out his shoulder and chest muscles.

Cooling down, he looked at his sweaty arms, soaked tank and wriggled his toes against the damp fabric of his socks. Tipping back his water bottle and drinking deeply, he was man enough to acknowledge he needed three things: Kara, a bed and sometime between when they finished and morning, food. All of which was superseded by a dejected sigh that what he wanted, he wasn’t going to get until he showered and presentable. Wiping his face and drying off his neck with his towel, he pursed his lips around the bottle-top and sucked down some more water. Leaning against the bag, it took him a moment summon the laundry schedule and whether or not the extra set of sheets were already on the bed.

The water in his mouth went down the wrong pipe as he spit and gagged at what he had been thinking: extra sheets, presentable? What the frak! Logic fired in his head and long groan rumbled up from his inner dumb-ass as he connected all the dots, of which strongly resembled purple sequins.

Now, he got it. NOW, he knew why she did what she did and what Karl was trying to say.

Securing the hatch and resetting the lock, a light jog ate up the decking that lead to the door of their quarters. Tapping out the code on the keypad, he pulled on the hatch and tugged it shut behind him.

She was there, exactly as he knew she would be. Lying in bed, on her back, lights off, hand thrown over her eyes, she was wearing only a tank and military-issued briefs. Toeing off his shoes, he tugged his feet free of his socks and tossed them into the laundry hamper. Turning his attention to the blonde sprawled out on the bed, the backside of his hand he used to separate her ankles. He needed to get past her knees if he was going to rub his cheeks against those oh-so-soft, well-worn, grey panties and breathe in that exotic Kara-smell that infused the soft curls underneath.

Drawing a deep breath, he held it in to warm it up. Resting on his elbows and letting it out slowly, he ‘drew’ a line from the tender indentation that marked where Kara’s hip met the inside corner of her thigh to where her mons began to divide. Doing it again, he blew all of his hot, moist breath along a similar path, this time starting on Kara’s other hip. Inhaling for a third time and shifting so that he was laying flat against the coverlet, Lee puckered his lips and, starting where his two previous breaths ‘joined’, he traced the seam of Kara’s sumptuous cleft.

A sleepy hand rumpled his wet hair. “Hmmm… that’s nice. Gotta love an educated man who knows his alphabet.”

Her knees coming up to ‘keep him where he was’ was matched by the sexy-hungry look in her eyes. He wasn’t the only one who had been deprived of relief over the past three days, “Whatcha’ doing down there, Flyboy?”

Sliding out of her ‘trap’, he crawled up her body. Placing his knees along side the creamy expanse of her inner thigh, he stopped moving when his lips were inches from hers. Dipping his head, he didn’t answer her. Instead, he sealed his lips to hers and took control of their kiss. Every time she raised her neck to vie for control, he only pushed her deeper into the pillows. Every moan, gasp and throaty growl was matched, ardour for ardour. Tongues and teeth and lips and nibbles were interspersed between deep, soul-probing kisses. His arms slipped underneath the small of her back and arched her body against his even as he felt her fingers press into the muscles of his shoulders and her hands slide forward to caress his neck.

Awareness flared her eyes wide and she repeated the words his kisses had initially swallowed. “You’re all sweaty.”

“Uh-huh,” he murmured, his attention focused on his mouthful of Kara-flesh. Not letting go until he had left his mark, he met her gaze. “I know.”

Lifting her bottom, she dragged her heated centre along the hardness that was barely contained by his work-out shorts. His eyes closed for a moment as the sensation she invoked rose and failed to subside. Opening them only when he was fairly confident he wasn’t going to burst, he saw a glimmer of hope shine in her green orbs. Devouring her lips, her hot breath panted one word sentences against the side of his neck as he suckled her pulse point. “I. Like. Sweat. Lee.”

Licking and nipping his way from the base of her neck to the edge of her ear, he took a swipe at her sensitive whorl and dried it with a handful of words. “I know you do, Kara.” Tipping up her chin and using her jaw as a guide to find her other earlobe, he latched onto it in a way he knew would make Kara shudder with arousal. Her face buried into his neck mumbling incoherent mews of pleasure spilled a cascade of goose bumps down his back. The sensation of her briefs sliding along his lap made the muscles in his ass clench and release and reduced his voice to a gravelled huskiness. “It just took me a little while to remember it.”

Letting go of her bottom, he reached for the hem of his tank and with a groan he broke off their kiss. Pulling off his shorts and briefs and falling back on his heels, he peeled off shirt. Watching Kara make a carnal event out of taking off her simple shirt pooled more tension into his hips. There was just something so erotic about watching his woman strip because she wanted him just as badly as he wanted her. Not that undressing a woman couldn’t be sexy, but a steady routine of systematic clothing removal, of having to go through the ‘bases’ every time… he had forgotten what it was like to ‘hit the ball’ and head to ‘third’ just because he was playing with someone who would just as soon frak him where he stood as look at him. Her thumbs hooked the elastic of her panties. Shimmying out of them, she tossed them across the room. Lying back down, she let her knees fall slack. Trailing a sensually slow hand around one moon-blessed breast and plucking at her tightly furled nipple, the other she traced the mid-line of her body until her fingertips burrowed into a thatch of dark blonde hair. She looked like a starfield. Tiny drops of dew were twinkling against a darkened backdrop. His arm reached out and stopped her fingers from going any further; she was the stars and the moon that he could hold in his hands. As much as he would like to watch her pleasure herself, a hot session of simultaneous masturbation was not going to happen tonight.

Spreading his knees, shifting his weight and making sure he was in a comfortable position, he changed his grip on Kara’s wrist. Hauling her towards him as much as she pushed herself to an upright position, he gathered her in his arms. Sliding her up along his still sweaty thighs, her cleft separated the higher he lifted her even as she placed near-desperate bites of her own along his heated, salty skin. The feel of her long legs instinctually wrapping around his waist when his chest crushed her breasts and that evocative Kara-musk filling his nose made him stop for a moment before he could go on. Trembling with the need he had for the woman pressed against him, he unhooked her legs with a caress.

“Bend your legs underneath you, Kara.”

Still perched on his thighs, he splayed a strong hand at the small of her back. Bracing herself against his hand, she tipped herself back and placed her softest curves on the altar of their mutual craving. Succumbing to temptation, his mouth filled with the sweet tips of her breast; in his ears, Kara’s moans of pleasure cooed. Biting and sucking, gentlemanly restraint was not part of his vocabulary. Not any more. Rolling her sensitive nipples between his teeth, the more pressure he applied, the more his Kara responded. The woman he was with was his match in every way. She was someone with whom he didn’t have to rein in his ardour and would drive him to the brink of sexual insanity in demanding that he gave everything he had to give. The slickness that he used to slide his thumb over her folds nearly scalded his skin. Sucking in as much of her as he could hollowed his cheeks. Her writhing pulled her breast from his mouth, his teeth scraping every delectable inch of her along the way. Somewhere, he was aware of her nails scoring his back and the near desperate undulations her hips were grinding into the hard muscles of his thighs.

“Lean back, Kara and hold onto me.” Watching her nod, words being beyond her, he bracketed her hips with his hands. He lifted her high and in one power powerfully lithe movement, fully seated her on his lap. Her breath hissed out as he filled her completely. Strong, feminine hands found much needed leverage with his shoulders as his well-muscled arm snaked up her back and prepared to take her weight. His fingers moved into position and cradled the nape of her neck. His free hand delved back into her folds and resumed stroking her.

The man in him feasted on the way her skin flushed, her breasts heaved, and the way her passion-swollen lips formed his name over and over as his thumb and his aim hit her sweet spots again and again. The Lee in him needed more than that to fully slake his need for his woman.

“Kara – look at me.” Slowing down the movement of his thumb, he watched as she lifted her nearly closed lids. Stilling her hips nearly made him come undone.

“I’m going to pull out your chair for you, but only when the situation calls for it. You’re a warrior, pilot, and officer – but you’re also a woman who will receive the respect I want to bestow upon you.” Sealing his assertion with a mind-numbing kiss, he started moving his thumb again. This time, he traced wide circles around – but not touching – her most sensitive areas. “I’m going to kiss you and frak you – a lot – and for many reasons: your taste, my desire, wanting, needing, just seeing you and not being able to help myself. But never will ‘perfunctory’ be part of that equation.”

Sexual fervour banked, her eyes wide with understanding, he felt Kara shift from bracing herself to throwing her arms around his neck and rising up to kiss him fiercely; his Kara was the master of the non-verbal.

Feeling her nearly pull herself all the way off of his length as she accepted his promises was when he stopped his intimate stroking. With a similar caress that he used earlier, he wrapped his hands around her wrists, pulled her hands behind her back and pushed her back down so that he was once again fully sheathed. Holding both her wrists in one hand, he brought his still damp thumb to her lips and traced the pillowy contours. Never one to be passive, a flick of her tongue had Kara licking at moisture his finger left behind. Fixated on the surge of need that followed in her sensual wake, he barely registered that her hot mouth was fellating his thumb until her teeth nipped at his flesh.

The tell-tale tightening in his groin, as well as the escalating tremors in Kara’s body, told him he was running out of time to do what he needed to do before the man in him took over and laid siege to the woman writhing in his arms.

“I am the officer, warrior and pilot you love. Thanks to you, I am the man I know we both love. You are the only woman I have ever loved.” Steeling himself, he promised, “We will have sex when we want to, independent of the laundry cycle. If I am awake when you come home, it will be because I want to be, not because I think I need to be.” A wry smile broke through his concentration. “The only time you won’t see chest hair or a nest full of pubes is if it somehow gets singed off or Cottle orders it off for a procedure.”

Unable to resist pressing herself against his hand or grinding her hips into his lap, an element of lucidity broke through the sexual corona that hazed her vision. Hands still secured behind her back, she caressed his face with her eyes and let the truth of his words reflect back at him. “You’re back.”

“Yeah – I am.” Kissing her dewy lips until his ragged breath came out in gasps, he pulled back and looked at the goddess in his arms.

“Now…what…” A profound shudder separated her two words.

“Now, Kara – you ride.”

Driving himself deep inside her liquid heat, he set her back into position and let her go. The woman in front of him rose and fell with the determination of testing every sensual boundary previously established.

“Oh. Gods. Lee!” Every breath was a pant. Every pant was a prayer. Every prayer was sent to the Gods for giving them each other. They gave to each other as much as they took from each other.

Climbing to the point of being beyond herself, the man in him took over and revelled in the splendour that two souls could create when love, passion, need and trust converged. Pulling his hand free of her sopping centre, and digging the same hand into her hip, he made her ride through the sensations that threatened to overwhelm her and together, they laid claim to a new sensual summit.

Rocking backwards, his head landing near the foot of the bed, it was the near-howl of feral pleasure that came from Kara when his cock kissed the deepest part of her that set his hips snapping upwards and drove the shallow gasps of breath – that she was able to inhale – out of her body with every thrust. Releasing her wrists, he threaded his fingers roughly through her hair and brought her lips within an inch of his own.

Eyes blazing with intensity, taking ownership of every emotion that she rained down on him and releasing a few more secret places inside his soul to her safekeeping, there was one more thing he wanted from her.

“Fly with me, Kara!”

Bright lights flashed around him and a powerful yawl seared his throat as every ounce of his being coalesced to one pin-point of light – to one star – and then exploded like the cosmic waves of a supernova. With him – anchoring him as much as she was flying free with him – was Kara: his star, his supernova, the only one who got him the way he was supposed to be understood. A circuit of energy cycled through them – he could feel it as it transformed when it flowed through her psyche and travelled back to into his body, giving him the strength to flip them over and drive into her. Kissing her and tweaking her super-sensitized nipples as his hips flexed again and again, he felt it happen a second before he witnessed a second, full-body orgasm wrack Kara’s body. A third orgasm had her throwing her head back and nearly bouncing him off her as her body twisted and shook.

Sated and spent, he matched the joyful laughter that tumbled from her lips as he rolled them over one last time and stroked the sex-tangled hair that spilled over his upper chest. He was the keeper of a Kara secret as well. Only he knew that afterglow was the only time Kara ‘Starbuck’ Thrace giggled.

Keeping her where she was, he liked the feeling of softening inside her and the cordial of their mingled passions sealing their union. Clapping a cupped hand to her bare rump several times in a row earned him a ‘you love to live dangerously, don’t you’ look from the woman sprawled across his chest.

“What was that for?” Her breathing had yet to return to normal.

“For making me wait three days to do this with you.” Kissing her puffy lips, he could still feel his heart racing.

“Is that so?” Smirking, her eyes were still lit with the after effects of their love making.

“Yes, that’s so.” Another couple of spanks fell on her other ass cheek. “And, to save you asking, those were for making me look at ‘that’ for the past three days.”

Watching her turn her head in the same direction he nodded, he felt her smile against the stubble that was peppering his chest.

“Yeah – I saw it on the table when I came in. But good for you – when I opened it – it had already been emptied.” A playfully haughty toss of her sweat-dampened hair had him sitting up and taking her with him. “And all your pertinent parts were already put back into place.”

Humphing with the blitheness she used to refer to his bits, he scooted to the edge of the bed and gave her an interesting look as her legs locked around his waist; she wasn’t ready to let go of him just yet. “Yeah – I got that part of your message. Believe me; peeing out my navel is something I can live without experiencing.”

Pushing up with his legs, he walked them to the small bathroom at the back of the cabin. Shoring her up as she pulled the shower curtain aside and reached for the water regulator, he stepped them both underneath the hot spray. Kissing and letting go of Kara, holding her steady while she found her feet and started to spread foamy lather up his arms and over his chest, he cupped his hand protectively around his balls.

It was good having them back where they should be, instead of trapped in what Dee’s purple sequin evening bag – the same one Kara stole from the other woman’s locker and was taking up space on the table in the living area – represented.

Making a mental note to have a runner return it to his ‘ex’ in the morning, he dropped to his knees and tended to Kara’s personal hygiene with his hands and mouth as she squealed and laughed at how his stubble was tickling her.

Oh yeah – it was good to have his ‘boys’ back.