#will riker

The evacuation of the research outpost was a blur. Between the time Doctor Eldin made the announcement on the main communication channel and when I finally dumped my bags in a pile on the floor of one of the Federation ship’s cargo bays, less than three hours had passed. Three hours to rush home from my work station and pack up everything I owned, or at least everything that would fit into the suitcases that were hurriedly replicated for us en masse. Three hours to lug those suitcases to the beam up point and hope I hadn’t forgotten anything crucial. And now the contents of those suitcases were all that was left of the home I’d lived in for the last two years.

Everyone must have made it off the planet, because the ship that rescued us had gone to warp and was currently sailing far, far away from the research planet. My fingers shook a little as I lifted my glass and I immediately set it back down. My heart was still racing, which was ridiculous, so I settled for watching the stars fly toward me just on the other side of the floor-to-ceiling windows of the ship’s lounge. I didn’t even know what it was all about, really. All I knew was what Eldin had told us: that an alien race was laying claim to the planet and that the entire research station had to evacuate. All one hundred of us. This ship—I thought it was called the Enterprise—seemed massive but even so, they didn’t have the space for all of us to get private or even shared rooms. Instead, the cot I’d been given was in a partitioned area of a cargo bay, in a row with dozens of others. It was going to be a long week back to Starbase 87. At least they gave us curtains. I liked the rest of the research team and living with the same group of people for two years had made us all very comfortable with each other, but even I needed space sometimes.

On the next swallow of my drink, I was pleased to see that my hand had stopped shaking. I hadn’t been frightened, not really. We’d never even seen the alien ship that supposedly was on its way to destroy our entire outpost. But I’d woken up that morning expecting to spend my day running diagnostics on the seismic sensors, not packing up my entire life and making a mad dash off of Albion II. It had been hours of frenzied movement and lots of shouting and I was happy to be sitting alone in this lounge. And I was allowed to shake a little.

I finished my drink. My hair fell in a curtain as I looked down into the empty glass and I pushed it back with a huff. One thing I hadn’t been able to find among my packed belongings was a hair tie and my hair had grown too shaggy and long to be left loose. Ridiculous, really. Like all the rest of this.

“Would you like another?” A waitress appeared across from me as if summoned.

“Do you have any beer? Real beer?” I clarified.

“No, ma’am, I’m afraid we only have synthehol.” She sounded far too happy about that.

I sighed. “Then I’ll take a root beer.”

“Great choice.”

I didn’t think it was, not really.

The door to the lounge (someone had called it Ten Forward) opened and a handful of my fellow scientists came in to cluster around the bar. I turned back to the window. I’d spent the last few hours in the cargo bay sitting around talking with fifty other displaced researches and I didn’t think I could handle any more commiserating. Especially while drinking root beer. The smiling woman dropped a mug off on my table with a solid thunk.

The stars were still streaking towards us and I couldn’t keep my eyes off the windows for long.  It had been two years since I’d last been in space. I wasn’t Starfleet, didn’t have the same obsessive love for the stars and space travel like they seemed to, but anyone would be mesmerized by the view I currently had. I picked up the frosty glass and moved closer for a better look. The hum of voices in the room behind me was getting louder and I turned back just in time to see another party walk in through the door. My table was already taken. Everyone was probably rehashing how sudden the evacuation was, how awful it was to not complete the research, how unsettled we all felt. It was all very true. And very unhelpful to continue to reiterate.

“Not drinking with your colleagues?”

Someone appeared at my left and I found the first officer smiling at me. I’d met him, more or less, during the evacuation but I couldn’t remember his name. “No, I’m just enjoying watching the stars.” I held my mug up toward the windows.

“It is a lovely view.” He was looking at me, though, not at the stars, and his blue eyes were twinkling.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been in space. I forgot how beautiful it is.”

“You’re in luck, then. This is the best view on the ship.”

I glanced out at the streaking starlines and then back up at the man still standing beside me with no sign of leaving. “I’m sorry, you’re Commander…?”

“Will Riker.” His fingers were curled around a short glass, filled with something bluish purple, as he stepped closer. I had to tilt my neck back to meet his gaze. “And you’re Doctor…?”

“Right, Will. Nice to meet you, I’m Anna.”

“I hope you’re settling in alright on the Enterprise, Doctor Anna.”

No one ever called me Doctor (not on an expedition full of Doctors) but I didn’t correct him because there was something nice about the way he said it. “Thanks for getting us all out of there. It seemed… close.”

His smile was a little wicked. “Oh, we had a few tricks up our sleeve if we needed them.”

I couldn’t help but smile back. Something about his good-natured attitude was infectious, despite my sour mood. It didn’t hurt that he was tall and his eyes were a warm blue and his beard was full and soft-looking… “I’m glad we didn’t need them. At least everyone got off the planet.” Behind Will, a few geologists from the outpost wandered over to look out the windows just like I had. “Everyone did get off, right?”

“Oh, yes, we evacuated everyone in time.”

“Good, that’s good. Guess that’s why we’re packed into the cargo bay like sedimentary rocks.” I snorted at my own joke but my smile quickly fell and I turned back to the stars. “But we lost so much equipment.”

“I wish we had time to get everything.” He sounded like he meant it. “Did you get your personal things, at least?”

“Yeah. I think so. Most of it.” I sounded as unsettled as I looked, bouncing up on my tiptoes and back down. Nervous energy with nowhere to put it and now talking to the first new person I’d met in years. “It was a lot to pack.”

“How long have you been at the outpost?”  Will lifted his glass to his lips and his eyes stayed on me over the rim.

“Two years."

“Two years?” Surprise was evident in his voice and when I turned to look at him, his wide eyes reflected the same. “That’s a long time to be on such a remote planet.”

“There was a lot of work to do.” I shrugged. “And we were getting some really good data.”

“Still, two years on that outpost. It’s not exactly a luxury hotel.”

“It definitely wasn’t a vacation. I would kill for a real bath.”

“A bath? That’s easy to arrange.”

“Oh!” Just like that, the conversation had verged into uncharted territory. It wouldn’t be so bad if Will didn’t have that damn smile on his face or that look in his eyes, like I was somehow the most fascinating person in this room or on this ship. Like he had come and spoken to me individually for a reason.

“What’s your area of expertise?”

“What? Oh, it’s geology.” I sipped the root beer and wrinkled my nose. “Your ship really doesn’t serve alcohol?”

“Sorry. It’s Starfleet policy. The replicators only make synthehol.” Will laughed at the disgruntled sound that escaped my throat and I glared at him, but I couldn’t maintain it. He was smiling at me with something dangerously close to warmth and it was a welcome break from the chaos of the last hours. “So, you’re a geologist?”

“Mmm, yeah, I’ve been researching seismic activity to find better ways to terraform planets.”

“That’s what all the research at the station as for, wasn’t it? New terraforming techniques?” He crossed his arms over his chest, fingers tapping against his nearly empty glass, looking genuinely interested. That was very hard to resist, especially since he was the first person I’d talked to in two years who wasn’t working on the same project.

“Mmhmm. It was a multi-disciplinary project to see how the planet was evolving. Albion II, it’s different. It’s like the natural evolution is accelerated. The seismic activity is ramped up, the weather patterns and climate are always changing. Everything is so much faster than a normal, stable planet. So it was perfect to see how these natural planetary phenomena behave on a shorter timescale, like you’d have with terraforming…” I slowly trailed off. The Commander’s eyes weren’t glazing over (he was actually still watching me with rapt attention) but I was rambling and I knew it. “Anyway. Yes, we were all studying terraforming.”

“Could you find another planet to study?”

“Another planet? Do you know how rare it is to find a planet like Albion II? With the exact age that makes the seismic activity as pronounced as it is? And the influence of the three moons making the tides as unstable and extreme as they are, along with the solar flux from the twin suns? Not even to mention the…” I trailed off again. Will’s eyes were a little wider than before. “Er, so no, we can’t find another one. That was one in a billion.”

“Ah.”

“Sorry. I’m probably not the best company right now.” I bit down into my bottom lip and turned back to the stars. He was handsome. And cute, somehow, and he seemed genuinely interested in the project and I shouldn’t be being rude.

“I don’t mind. But if you’d like to watch the stars alone…” He let the statement hang. A question. An offer to leave me alone.

I shook my head. “No, that’s okay. As long as you don’t me snapping at you.”

“I’ve handled worse.”

I laughed in spite of myself. “Worse than a pissy geologist?”

“Much worse.” That grin again. This man was dangerous.

“Well, then… Cheers.” I lifted my root beer and Will clinked his indigo-colored drink against it. The root beer had warmed from my hand and I grimaced, disappointed enough to set it down on a table to the side. “And at least we got two years of research done! That’s more data than I would have had from spending five years anywhere else. And we got most of our files off the station, so I can’t complain.”

“Well, there’s a silver lining.” Will’s eyes flickered over to my abandoned mug and he had the nerve to laugh out loud at me. “What were you drinking?”

“Root beer.”

“Root beer?”

I crossed my arms and huffed. “Well, the waiter said she couldn’t give me real beer.”

Will’s eyes flickered up over my shoulder, looking at something behind me. “That’s because she doesn’t know where Guinan keeps her secret stash.”

“Oh? Secret stash?”

“Our bartender has a few bottles that she’s picked up. But they’re only for special occasions, so she’s very protective.”

“Well, I wouldn’t want to get you in trouble.”

“I don’t mind some trouble.” There was that mischief in his eyes again. I narrowed mine. This was a bad idea.

“Oh, don’t you?” Or maybe not such a bad idea.

“I could do some investigating. Unless you’d like another root beer.”

“I don’t even like root beer,” I admitted. “But this lounge seemed better than sitting in that cargo bay for another minute.”

Will winced. “I’m sorry about that. We don’t have enough spare accommodations for a hundred people, so we had to improvise.”

“No, I understand. And it’s better than being blown up on the planet…”

“But its not ideal. Especially after being stuck on an outpost for two years.” Will stepped a little closer. “Why don’t I see what Guinan has hidden behind that bar, and then we can get away from the crowd?”

“Away from the crowd to…where?”

“Well, if you’re want to get away from your colleagues, then I would love to show you the arboretum.”

My teeth tugged at my lip as I looked up at the Commander, head tilted back to see him. He had no right being as tall as he was. Or for filling out his uniform as well as he did. I ran my tongue over my lip where my teeth had dug into it and then nodded. “I’d love to see the arboretum. Assuming you can find that bottle of something without getting caught.”

His eyes danced as he stepped back. “I’ll see what I can do. Don’t go anywhere.” He had the gall to wink before crossing the room on his long legs, weaving between tables on his way across the room. I watched him for a moment, until he made it behind the bar and grinned at me, and then I turned away to face the stars. The group of geologists over by the window waved me over and I shook my head, waited a beat, and then gestured over at Will across the room. My colleague followed my gaze, looked at Will for a long few seconds, and then waggled her eyebrows at me.

“Marie!” I hissed and she laughed, very loudly, before returning to her conversation. I pushed my hair back from where it’d fallen in my face again and then a hand brushing against the center of my back made me jump. He was back—and holding a bottle of something orange.

“Ready?”

“Yes!” I glanced back at Marie, who was grinning at me and looking far too happy, and followed Will across the room and out the door. The corridor was quieter than the crowded room and Will slowed his pace so I could fall into step beside him. “What did you find?”

He held up the bottle. “I’m not completely sure.” He tilted it to the side and the orange alcohol sloshed against the side as he pulled out the glass stopper. I smelled something close to peaches. “It was hidden in the back, so that should mean it’s good.”

“You really just stole that from your bartender?”

“She won’t miss it for a while. But I don’t want to be around when she does.”

“I’m sure she’ll forgive you eventually.”

“She’s an El-Aurian, so she can hold a grudge for a very long time.”

My pace slowed. “Why is your bartender an El-Aurian?”

Will stopped in front of a turbolift door and held his arm out for me to go first as it slid open. “Because this is the Enterprise.” He followed me inside. “Deck Seventeen. Arboretum.”

The doors closed and the hum of the turbolift was the only sound for a moment. I glanced down at Will fingers where the wrapped around the neck of the bottle.

“So I guess the rule about Starfleet officers not drinking isn’t exactly a hard and fast one?”

“It’s flexible. Especially for the senior staff.”

“Well, that doesn’t seem fair at all!”

That laugh again. “You’re very worried about Starfleet regulations for someone who isn’t in Starfleet.”

“Well… I thought about it.”

“Did you?”

“Yeah. When I was in high school.” The turbolift stopped and I led the way out, only to stop and let Will direct us down the corridor to the right. We passed a few officers (science officers, judging by their blue uniforms) but the hallway was much emptier than Ten Forward had been.

“Why didn’t you join? You could have gone into the sciences through the Academy.”

“It just didn’t seem like it would be a good fit.”

“You’re definitely dedicated enough to your work. Two years on an isolated planet.” Will shook his head as if he still couldn’t believe it.

“I’m dedicated, I just didn’t think I’d be good at the whole chain of command.”

Will hummed. “Not the kind of woman to follow orders?”

 “Only if they make sense. But I love working for the Institute and we partner with Starfleet a lot, but I get to choose what work I do. And I don’t have to wear a uniform.”

I felt Will’s eyes on me at those words. “I can’t argue with those reasons. The Arboretum’s right through here.” A pair of double doors opened and I sucked in a breath as the smell of earth and pine needles rushed out to meet me. I followed him inside, mouth hanging open.

“Those are full grown pine trees.”

“Yes they are.”

My feet pressed into soft grass. “And a creek!”

“The water’s recycled through pumps in the deck below, back to the top of the hill.”

I followed the line of the water feature up from the pool to the small hill where it appeared to flow back down again. “How do you grow trees like this on a ship?”

“Very carefully. And probably using a lot of the techniques your botanist friends were researching. There’s a bench over here.”

I followed Will around the curve of the small creek, over a mounded, grassy hill, and into the shade of the pine trees. Pine needles crunched under foot as he led me to a bench under the tall trees. I sank into it and leaned back against the carved wood. “This is incredible. I’m no botanist but even I can tell this takes a lot of expertise.”

“It’s good for the crew to have real plants and grass, especially on longer assignments.”

“I bet…” I leaned forward, elbows on my knees, and breathed in deeply. There were a few other people in the arboretum, including a family with a young boy sitting by the water, but it was still quiet and peaceful. “I imagine some people get stir-crazy after a while on this ship.”

“There’s the holodecks if we want to get away. I have a program I use for fishing. But sometimes you need the real thing.”

I tilted my head to look at the Commander. His red uniform suddenly seemed out of the place among the green plants. “You fish?”

“Yeah. It’s a simulation of a creek I grew up fishing in back home.”

“Where’s home for you?”

“Earth. Alaska. And you? Where are you from?”

“Stratus V. It’s a lot like the Pacific Northwest. At least, that’s what people have told me. I’ve never actually been.”

“To Earth?”

“Oh, no, I’ve been to Earth a few times. Just not to that part of the planet.” Will leaned back with his legs stretched out long in front of him. I followed the line of his thigh up to the bottle in his hand, resting on the arm of the bench. “You think we should open that?”

“Why, yes, Anna, I think we should.”

“I guess we’re drinking out of the bottle?”

His lips quirked even as his brows scrunched together in a disappointed frown. “You think I’m that bad of a host?” And then he was holding two glasses.

“Where did you even…?”

“Always be prepared.” He unstoppered the bottle and poured the peach-scented liquid into the two short glasses, filling them halfway.

“Figures you were a boy scout,” I muttered as I took one of the two. I swirled the glass and sniffed it. It still smelled like peaches but the alcohol underneath was more obvious now. “And you have no idea what this is?”

“Nope!” He clinked his glass against mine. “To the unexplored.”

“To exploring.” I took a hesitant sip. “Oh, wow.” Another larger swallow. It was very smooth. Sweet but just barely. And definitely very strong.

Will swallowed down half his glass and then held it up to eyeball the remainder. His elbow rested on the back of the bench and brushed my shoulder when I sank back beside him. I tilted to face him, taking in his slanted grin and the way his tongue darted out to capture a drop of booze from his lip. “That is very good.”

“I can see why she was hiding it.”

“Oh, I am definitely getting in trouble for taking this one.”

“It was worth it.” I took another sip and let the alcohol settle in my stomach. “This is not how I expected my day to go.”

“What did you have planned?”

“I was going to do some work on my detector system. Make sure they didn’t need re-calibrated.”

“Oh, that sounds—”

“Boring, I know.” I chuckled into the glass and my breath was reflected back up at me in a wave of peaches. “And maybe play some pool in the evening.”

“Pool? That’s a little old-fashioned.”

“The outpost was built fast, so we didn’t have any holodecks or much to do for fun.”

“Hmm… So, what have you been doing for fun the last two years?”

“We play a lot of games.”

Will’s eyes narrowed. “A hundred scientists stuck on a planet playing board games for two years.”

I grimaced. “Basically.”

“You’re braver than I am.”

“And we were supposed to be there for another year!” I tilted my head back against the wood and stared up at the trees and the ceiling beyond. “Can I say something terrible?”

“Absolutely.”

“Part of me’s relieved.”

“At having to evacuate?”

“Yeah.” I closed my eyes. “I know it’s awful. We could have discovered so much more. But damn it, I was starting to go a little crazy.”

“I don’t blame you. Deep space missions are hard on starship crews and at least they're out exploring, not stuck on a planet.”

 “That’s nice of you to say.”

“I mean it, Anna. Two years on the same station researching the same planet would make anyone crazy. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to get out of there.”

“Oh, so you think I’m crazy?” I sat up to stretch my lower back.

“You said it, not me.” His cheeks were a little pink as he finished his glass and it was distractingly cute, the way the flush disappeared down into his beard.

I held out my own glass. “Refill?” He finagled the bottle open one-handed and splashed some more of the orange liquor into both our glasses. I hummed in thanks and sat back again, pulling my feet up onto the bench beside me and shifting closer to Will.

“So, what will you do now that you’re free of Albion II?”

“Hmm. Doctor Eldin has been talking to the Daystrom Institute but I don’t know what the plan is to get us back to Earth. But we’ll get there eventually and start doing something with all the information we collected.”

“Not back out to another research station?”

“Oh no, not for a while. The data analysis is being done on Earth, so this’ll be my first time staying on the planet for a while.”

“You’re going to love it.”

“I hope so. I want to explore. I hear Budapest is beautiful.”

“I’ve never been. I can recommend San Francisco.”

“Is that just because the Academy’s there?”

“Alright,” Will admitted with a sheepish grin. “I may be biased. But you’ll have a chance to make it further up into the Northwest while you’re in the area.”

“Maybe up to Alaska.” I didn’t know why I said that but Will’s face lit up and I was glad I did.

“Maybe so.”

I leaned a little closer into the short distance between us, my folded knees nearly brushing against his. He was still smiling at me and I was suddenly off balance so I looked away, down into my glass because that was a safe place to focus. Two years of only talking to the same group of scientists, each of them the type of person to commit to such a long and remote undertaking, and I was much less equipped to handle a man like Will Riker than I had been before.

But I did want to handle him.

“I have no idea what time it is,” I stated, “but I’m starving.”

“Hmm? We must have missed dinner.” He leaned in a little. “We could go back to Ten Forward for something to eat. Or there are some other messes on the ship. Or…” He trailed off.

“Or?” I liked ‘or.’

“Or…” He drew out the word, eyes almost searching mine, as if not sure what my answer would be to whatever he was about to propose. “My quarters do have a replicator, if you wanted somewhere quieter. Less crowded.”

“I think quieter sounds very nice right now.”

At my answer, the corners of his eyes crinkled. “I can make that happen.”

I slid my feet off the bench and onto the thick blanket of pine needles that crunched beneath my shoes. I straightened my pants as Will pushed the stopper back into the bottle, which reminded me to down the last of my drink with a cough. “That’s stronger than it smells.”

“Especially on an empty stomach. Come on, I’ll make you something to eat.”

Roots rose from the dirt on the walk back to the path and I carefully stepped over them. Will’s hand brushed my elbow, as if afraid I’d somehow trip and fall. After a glance at him, and after we’d already left the pine trees for soft flat grass, I wrapped my hand around his forearm and let it rest on the soft fabric of his uniform. He hummed softly and maneuvered us through the double doors and out into the corridor.

His quarters were a few decks away and he ushered me through the door with an easy smile. I stopped just inside, instantly pulled in by the stars streaming by the large windows, streaking endlessly from left to right. The windows ran the length of the living area and presumably down to the right, where I saw the corner of a bed through an arched doorway.

“You have a wonderful view,” I breathed, stepping closer.

“You’re very taken by the stars.”

“Well, look at them.”

“I’m too distracted by something I’m more taken by.” His voice was lower, a little quieter but still easily heard in the quiet space. Just like my responding giggle. He was obvious, so obvious, and it shouldn’t be working but it was and I couldn’t tell if I was annoyed or just as taken by him or both. And the worst part was that the look in his eyes told me he knew it was working.

Then he stepped away toward the replicator along the left wall, setting the half full bottle on the table on his way. “What would you like for dinner?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I’ll eat anything.” I looked around his quarters while Will’s back was turned, taking in the details. A chance to see what kind of man he really was.

“Anything?”

I glanced into the bedroom and then followed him back the other way. “Yeah, I like most food. Steak’s my favorite.” A trombone stood against the wall, looking shiny and well-loved, and the desk next to it held a couple of PADDs but even more knickknacks. Stacks of poker chips, a folded up felt poker mat, a few books on everything from Shakespeare to some kind of Orion romance, and a statue that I frowned at until Will came up to stand beside me, trying to place it.

“Have you ever been to Risa?”

I spun to face him. “I knew that was a horga’hn!”

His warm laughter reached his eyes in a way that told me he never laughed in any other way. “So you do know Risa.”

“I can’t believe you bought one of those.”

“Well, I didn’t. It was a gift.” He turned back toward the glass table and I realized I smelled food when I saw the two full plates. “If you’d like something different…”

“No, this is perfect.” And it was sweet, as he pulled out a chair for me and then sat across from me. I picked up my fork and tested the steak that he’d replicated along with a baked potato and steaming mound of broccoli. “Thank you.”

“And there’s more of Guinan's bottle, if you’re interested.”

I glanced at where he’d set it just within arm’s reach. “No, I think it’s safer if we don’t open it back up.” I picked up the glass of water he’d replicated for me. “But thank you.”

“Thank you for having dinner with me.” He cut into his steak and I busied myself with smashing my baked potato into a mound of sour cream, cheese, and bacon. I held back a groan when I took a bite, but barely. I couldn’t actually remember if I’d lunch before the evacuation order came. The day had been a blur and I was starving and, fortunately, Will was willing to eat in silence until my plate was half-cleared and I leaned back in my chair with a contented sigh.

“So who do you know that bought you a horga’hn as a gift?”

He swallowed a bite before answering with a serious expression. “My captain.”

“Your… your captain?” Whatever response I had been expecting, whether a lover or a friend as a joke, that was not it. “Your Captain bought you a horga’hn?”

“Well,” Will said slowly, drawing out the word with a grin, “I may have asked him for a souvenir.”

“That’s terrible.”

“I was doing him a favor.”

I squinted but didn’t voice the thought that crossed my mind, namely that I was fairly confident that Will had once helped his captain get laid. I shook my head instead. “You’re funny.”

“Am I?” He tilted his head. I bit my lip. His fork clinked softly against his plate as he set it down. Behind it all, I could hear a hum of ship’s engines, pulsing like a heartbeat.

“Yeah. And thank you for dinner. And for rescuing me from Ten Forward.”

“You don’t have to thank me.”

“It’s polite.”

“Is that why you’re here? Being polite?”

I huffed. “No.”

“Good.”

I sat forward again and picked up my fork to push the few remaining pieces of broccoli around my plate before setting it back down. I wiped my fingers on the napkin and tossed it onto the plate.

“If you’re finished, there’s something I want to show you.”

“Alright…” What could he possibly want to show me? But he cleared up the plates and vanished them into the replicator and I barely shivered when his palm landed warm and solid on my back to guide me over to the couch. He didn’t pull away when we stood in front of the windows and I didn’t either.

“They’re not all stars, you know.”

“What?”

“The warp stars. They’re not all stars. Some of them are comets or asteroids or even smaller particles, caught up in the warp bubble.”

“Really?” The stars, or maybe not stars, kept sailing by and I tilted my head a little to follow them as they zipped past. My hip brushed against Will’s leg and his hand moved to my waist, pulling me just a little closer.

“Yeah. And the blues you see sometimes, or the reds, those are different metals in the rocks burning up.”

I looked up at Will but for once he wasn’t watching me. “I never knew that. That’s where the colors come from? Metals?”

“Yeah. I think the blue ones are copper. Or lithium.”

I traced the path of a blue streak until it vanished. “Nickel burns white so that must be why there’s so many white ones. But how many of them are stars?”

“It depends on how fast we’re going. But not very many.”

“Oh.” His thumb brushed across a wrinkle in my shirt. “So they’re not really stars…”

“I didn’t spoil it for you, did I?”

“No, not at…all.” I stuttered a little as I met his eyes again and I couldn’t figure out when this had stopped being a fun distraction. “Why does everyone call them warp stars, then?”

Will paused, as if considering my question. “Well, it sounds better than warp streaks of burning space dust.”

And just like that, I was laughing again, turning away from the streaks of burning space dust to face him. His arm stayed draped over my hip, a comfortable weight, and I let my fingers trail up his arm to his shoulder because I had been wanting to touch him since we’d sat down on that bench in the arboretum. “You really know how to ruin a moment, Will.”

“Did I ruin it?” His voice was teasing and his eyes sparkled but there was something burning in them, something that made me step a little closer.

“Maybe not.”

“Just maybe?”

“Well… I guess that depends.” I let out a little gasp as he pulled me a little closer, my chest almost touching his but not quite.

“What does that depend on, Doctor Anna?”

I swallowed and stood up straighter, my fingers squeezing his bicep. “On whether you’re finally going to kiss me or not.”

That got a smile that I was sure had broken dozens of hearts, but I didn’t care because the next moment he was kissing me and everything faded away as his lips brushed against mine. The kiss was soft, barely there, warm and almost hesitant and his beard tickled against my skin in a way that made me giggle into his mouth. But, God, he tasted like peaches, and his hand was hot on the small of my back and when I surged up on my tiptoes to deepen the kiss and press my tongue to the steam of his lips, he groaned in a way that sent shivers straight through me and down to my suddenly aching cunt.

Will cupped my cheek and his fingers were gentle but insistent as he angled my chin up so he could kiss me fully, devouring me, and I melted against him. He stepped closer and I fumbled to twine my fingers together behind his neck, steadying myself as his tongue brushed against mine. And damn it, the way he kissed me made me see stars just like the ones that were flying past.

Will pulled back and I took in his blown pupils for the span of just seconds before he let out a quiet laugh and kissed me again. It was just a peck on my lips but I chased after him for more, feeling him hot under my hands. He felt so damn good, his body solid against mine, and the way he groaned again when I nibbled on his bottom lip was addicting. I sank back down flat on my feet, grinning in a way that couldn’t hide anything because why would I want to when he kissed me like that?

“You are dangerous,” he murmured.  He tucked my hair back behind my ear and I couldn’t stop myself from leaning into the warmth of his palm when he settled it back against my cheek. His thumb stroked along my jawline and I shivered in his arms when it brushed against my bottom lip.

“Will…” I breathed. His hair was soft and barely long enough to tangle between my fingers and when I did that, he pressed his thumb into my lip and my mouth opened in a silent prayer. He didn’t answer, just kissed me again, soft and slow and lasting long enough to make me finally tug at his bottom lip with hungry teeth before releasing with a whine. I knew he wasn’t teasing but the way he kissed me made me want more—all of him and all at once.

“Fuck, Anna.” The way he said my name, a little in awe and a little desperate, had me clenching my thighs together. He leaned back in and I was panting into his mouth by the time his lips ghosted over my cheek and along my jaw, pressing open-mouthed kisses to the soft skin of my throat. His arms surrounded me and he didn’t stop very thoroughly turning me into putty until he had sucked what was sure to be a bruise against my collarbone.

And I whined when he pulled away.

“So, did I ruin it?”

“Ruin…?” I took a steadily breath but the way his arms still wrapped around me and the hard press of his body against mine was very distracting. “No, I don’t think you ruined it, Commander.”

“Good…” I was half a second away from dragging him into his bedroom that lay beyond the arched doorway when he stepped back. His hands rested heavy on my hips and his fingers dipped below the hem, warm against my skin. Now the touch was teasing, just like my fingers where they played with the hairs at the nape of his neck and trailed down over his chest. “Because I don’t think I’d forgive myself if I’d run you off.”

I pulled him back closer. “I wasn’t planning on going anywhere.”

“I knew you were trouble.” His voice was soft, affectionate.

“I thought you could handle trouble.”

“I like to think so, Doctor.” I wanted to kiss that grin off his face.

“Oh, shut up.” I tugged him down to swallow his laugh. “No one calls me that,” I breathed before kissing him again. And he let me. For a moment.

“Alright, beautiful.” Then we were stumbling through the doorway into his bedroom and I didn’t think I could bear it if he stopped again because I hadn’t been kissed like this maybe ever, especially not while being marooned for two years with scientists who knew more about degrees of freedom than they did about fucking. I nipped at Will's lip again, harder than before, and he responded by gripping a handful of hair and tilting my head back to suck on my tongue and the whimper I let out should have been embarrassing but the hardness I felt pressed against my hip told me that Will wasn’t any more composed than I was. So I pushed him down onto his bed and kicked my shoes off while he propped himself up on his elbows and just watched me.

“Computer, dim the lights.”

The room darkened and I left my shoes and socks in a pile, standing hesitantly for just a second at the foot of his bed while Will lay with mussed hair and red lips and eyes that were bright and focused on only me. The bed sank under my knee when I started forward and Will met me halfway, tugging off his shoes before gently pulling me down over him. His fingers carded through my hair, pushing it back from my face so I could lean over him and he looked almost fond before I kissed him as thoroughly as he had kissed me earlier. He almost purred when my lips ghosted back to his ear, before I tugged at his earlobe for just long enough to feel his hands clench on my hips, and then down his throat until the collar of his uniform stopped me from going any further.

“Off,” I mumbled against his skin. My hands found the hem of his shirt and Will helped me pull it over his head. I felt a shiver run through him when my fingers traced a path up through his dark chest hair and I grinned down at him and at the hunger plainly written on his face. I stradled him without a second thought and pressed my lips to the hollow of his throat and down to his collarbone now that the uniform wasn’t in my way, sucking a bruise to match the one I was sure he'd given me. I panted against his skin when his hand returned to tangle in my hair and when he rolled his hips up to meet mine and I felt him press against my thigh, my teeth dug into his shoulder harder than I’d intended.

“Shit, pretty doctor, are you trying to kill me?”

“Sorry.” I soothed the already purpling mark with a kiss and traced my tongue around the dark edges. His hand moved from my hip to squeeze my ass and I nipped at a bare patch of skin, much softer than before, only to earn a swat in retaliation. He was laughing when I settled my palms on his chest and glared down at him.

“You deserved that.” His dancing eyes belied the need that I felt hard against my thigh and the way his fingers dug into my ass.

“You’re a brat.”

His mouth fell open and damnit he was gorgeous. “You didn’t just call me a brat…”

“Didn’t I?” I couldn’t get enough of his mouth, the way his lips moved and his teeth tugged, the way his tongue forced entry and stroked against my mine. I sunk down against him and wished my shirt wasn’t between us as I ground against his hardness, but his hands pushed up under the fabric and over my skin and I moaned into his mouth when his fingernails scratched a track down my spine. “Fuck, please…”

“Anything.” Will kissed the corners of my mouth. “Tell me what you want, beautiful.”

What did I want? I wanted to ride his cock until I couldn’t move or come one more time. I wanted to see his face when he came because I thought he might be beautiful. But I couldn’t say that, so I kissed him again just to have him pull me away with his hands running up under my shirt and he had my bra unhooked before I knew what he was doing. I’d have to tell him later how impressive that was, but right then I was too busy tugging my shirt off over my head and throwing it onto his bedroom floor.

Fingers splayed across my skin and pressed into my ribcage as Will just looked at me. He was panting, his chest rising and falling beneath my palms. “Beautiful.” He sat up and pulled me down to meet him until his lips could reach my neck again. The softness of his kisses against the scratchiness of his beard and the just noticeable calluses on his hands as they stroked my bare back had me writhing in his lap. And when he bit my shoulder, softer than I’d bitten him but still hard enough to make me whine, I rolled my hips against him and realized we were still wearing far too many clothes.

Will must have had the same thought because he gripped my hips and a breath later I was on my back, his thigh pressed between my legs, and his fingers were at the buttons of my pants. I helped him, or at least got in his way while rocking up against his thigh because, God, I was soaked and aching and he’d barely touched me. He got my pants unbuttoned before I pulled him down for a kiss and he had to know what he was doing because he moved  just right so his muscled thigh pressed hard against my clit through the ruined fabric of my panties. My back arched and I was very much not in control of the kiss anymore when he ground between my legs again and stroked adept fingers up my stomach and ribs to brush against the curve of my breast.

“Will!” I was whining, not quite pleading, and my eyes were closed or else I’d have seen his satisfied but just as desperate expression. But they were closed and I just let myself feel his thigh grind against my cunt and his thumb roll across my peaked nipple and his lips on mine and the broad expanse of his back as I held him closer. I sucked in a sharp breath when he pulled away with a last peck at my lips but I didn’t have time to catch my breath because he moved down my body and I huffed when the wonderful pressure against my pussy vanished and I found myself grinding against empty air.

He pinched my nipple and I think I growled.

“You going to bite me again, Doctor?”

Damn him.

“I didn’t mean to do that.” I couldn’t stop touching him and it didn’t help that his hair was so damn soft, especially when I curled my fingers through it and he responded by flicking his tongue against my hardened nipple. “Oh!”

He did it again before sucking it into his mouth and I felt just the hint of teeth, nothing more, but just that was enough to have me wrapping my legs around him and arching up from the bed. And he didn’t stop, even when my fingers tightened their grip in his hair. He palmed my other breast, full in his hand, his thumb and forefinger closing around my nipple, and something like “Oh fuck, yes” started spilling on repeat from my mouth. Cold air washed over my pebbled nipple when he released it, wet from this mouth.

“You’re so sensitive,” he murmured, lips still against my skin as he kissed the valley between my breasts and flicked his tongue in a way that made my entire body jolt. “And so damn soft.”

“And you’re…really good at this.”

Will propped himself over me on his hands. “Oh, am I?”

I nodded, too enthralled by the way his hair was absolutely ruined and spiking out between my fingers and by the red tint on his cheeks. “Yeah.”

“You’ve been on a remote planet for two years.” His words were teasing but his voice was rough.

“And it was torture.” His heart was racing under my palm.

He hummed and kissed me in an almost perfunctory way before he returned to his original task, which had been to finish undressing me. “Good thing I’m here, then.”

I lifted my hips for him to pull my pants off and then his thumbs hooked around my panties and…

“You’re soaked.”

My thighs pressed together. Not to hide but because the tone of Will’s voice made my cunt ache with the reminder that I was still so empty. And he was just looking at me like he had all the time in the world, like he wasn’t torturing me right now. I pulled him down over me, my knees bracketing his hips, and worked at his pants, finding the zipper and pushing them down to his knees. He didn’t have a clever comment for that, just helped me with his clothes, until he was naked on top of me. My greedy hands couldn’t take in the contours of his body fast enough before they finally landed on his ass with a tight squeeze that had him grinding his hard shaft against my thigh. His weight pressing me into the mattress was too much, too heavy, and I tugged him closer until he was crushed against every inch of me. I wanted to be on top, to suck bruises into every inch of his skin to match the ones on his collarbone and his shoulder. But he had the same idea because as soon as he landed over me, he sucked marks down my throat and over my breasts while his hands wrapped around my ribs and pulled me from the mattress to meet his hungry mouth.

“Need you,” I managed to raggedly moan after he’d left a trail of marks down over the curve of one breast and had started on the other.

“Wanna taste you first.” Will let me sink back into the bed and kissed down to my stomach.

“Later, you can do that later.” My hands covered his and I tried to pull him up. He just looked at me, chin resting on my hip.

“Later?”

“Yes, later, I want to…I need to fuck you now. Please.” I had never begged for sex before in my life and I wasn’t sure if that was what I was doing now but Will’s expression changed from baffled to fervent and I suddenly didn’t care if I was begging as long as I got what I wanted.

“You need me that bad?” he practically groaned. He rose back over me, hips slotted against mine with one hand on my thigh to spread my legs apart as he settled between them and, fuck, his cock was thick and hard and hot on my skin. And when I rolled up to meet him, the sticky wetness of precum smeared across my inner thigh and Will groaned into my mouth.

“Wanna ride you,” I panted against his lips. “Wanna watch you cum.”

“Christ, sweetheart, you’ve got a mouth on you.” Will shut down any response by devouring me again and I was reminded of how tall he was when he tilted up my chin with his hand on my cheek and thumb brushing my throat so he could move up my body to grind his cock closer to my almost dripping pussy. “Later. You can ride me later. Right now, I want you like this.”

I wasn’t in any position to argue when I chased after his kiss, tugging him closer only for him to slide his hand from my thigh down to my ass and squeeze. “Fine,” I panted. “Yeah. Okay. Good.”

“Good.” And the man was grinning again, like he didn’t have me pinned to his bed with my legs spread and his cock leaking against my cunt. Like I wasn’t finally watching him wrap his hand around that thick cock and stroke his hard length in a smooth, slow motion that left my jaw slack. Like he wasn’t sliding it across my dripping pussy with a drag that made my fingernails dig into his skin and my back arch in a desperate search for friction against my clit.

He groaned when I arched under him and I could see in his eyes the moment when his self control snapped. The blunt head of his dick pressed at my entrance and I couldn’t stop myself from gripping his ass and tugging him closer so that his thick cock stretched the clenching walls of my cunt as he slid inside.

“Fuck, beautiful, you can’t…” Will’s eyes clenched shut and his breath came in short gasps against my temple. “You gotta let me… go slow for you.” He rolled his hips, pressing a little deeper, and something like a whimper escaped my lips before he kissed it away. My eyes fluttered closed and I couldn’t stop my head from tilting back to expose my neck with a satisfied moan when he gripped my thigh and wrapped my leg around his hip and finally fucked into me deeply and completely. He was big, bigger than I was used to, and fuck if I couldn’t feel every delicious inch.

“You feel so damn good,” he mumbled against my cheek as he finally pulled out enough to thrust back in. “Does that…fuck…" The slick drag of his cock against some deep and sensitive spot had me clenching around him and gripping his hip to keep him there.

I finally blinked open my eyes just as he pulled out to slide into me again. “God, Will…”

His fingers laced between mine and his voice was rough when he asked, “That feel good, sweetheart?”

I nodded with a strangled laugh and squeezed his hand. “Yeah. Fuck. Yes.” I wriggled my hips, canting them back for a better angle, and I saw stars again when he eased into me deep and slow. “Oh, that’s… yes.”

“Just like that?”

“Uh huh.” A whimper.

“Yeah? You like me fucking you slow?” Will swallowed my answer with teeth tugging at my bottom lip and I moaned into his mouth when he sunk into me again so slow that I wanted to take it back. Then his hips snapped against mine and I wondered it he could read minds. A slow drag out followed by another hard thrust, filling me so, so full and forcing another whine from my lips. His fingers gripped my thigh and I bucked my hips up to meet him when he plunged into me, wrapping my legs around him. He squeezed my hand and pressed a slow kiss to the side of my mouth and fucked me hard enough to rock the bed.

I lost myself in him.

Fingers laced together with mine, breath warm on my cheek, body solid and heavy on top of me. The heat of his skin. The delicious, almost overwhelming stretch as he filled me in a way I had been aching for. The press of his hand on my thigh when he canted my hip up and thrust into me and…

“Oh fuck, Will, right there!” Pleasure sizzled up my spine and I whined when he pulled out and my cunt clenched around nothing, but he filled me again with a snap of his hips and his hard length drug against that sensitive spot buried deep within me and my fingernails bit into his skin as the sparks of pleasure rolled through me. And he didn’t stop, just drove into me again and again until I was panting against his shoulder in stuttering gasps and burying my teeth in his skin to ground me through the trembling waves of my release.

“Fuck, Anna.” Will shuddered between my legs and plunged into my wet heat as I clenched around him. His thrusts grew sloppy, desperate, chasing his own orgasm until he buried himself inside of me with a growl and his cock pulsed as he shot his release deep in my cunt. He rolled his hips in a final, shuddering thrust and collapsed panting on top of me.

I drew in a slow breath. Then another. The shivers that followed after my climax started to subside. I blinked up at Will’s ceiling and let my hand unclench from around his. When I did, he pushed himself up on his elbows. He looked utterly wrecked, lips parted in a pant, and all I could do was grin feebly up at him with a breathy laugh. Then he pulled out and, Christ, I could feel his cum dribbling out of me to drip past my ass and soak into his sheets.

“Fucking…” Will groaned as he rolled onto his back with his arm around me to draw me close. I rested my cheek on his shoulder. His chest was still heaving under my hand when I trailed my fingers through his dark hair and I felt him shiver under my touch. Neither of us spoke until his breathing evened out and his heartbeat slowed to normal. Then he kissed the top of my head and pulled me closer with his hand warm against my back. “How do you feel?”

I hummed softly. “Tired.”

He laughed and I felt it vibrate through him. “Yeah, me too.”

I nuzzled against his warm skin. I was tired and comfortable and didn’t think I could move after that. I really didn’t want to move. “Mmmph.”

“What was that, sweetheart?”

I melted against him. “I’m gonna fall asleep if I don’t get up.”

“We should get cleaned up first.” He covered my hand with his and rubbed his thumb over my knuckles. “I made a mess of you.”

A strangled mewl caught in my throat. He had made a mess of me. I could feel his cum sticky on my thighs. “I’ll get up in a minute… Clean up before I go.”

“Go?” His thumb stopped its path against my skin.

“Um…”

“You don’t want to stay?”

I finally opened my eyes again. “I didn’t think…”

Will tilted my chin up. “Stay. Please.” His words and his eyes were soft. I yawned.

“Yeah. Okay.”

He smiled and I wondered if he’d let me stay all week. Then he kissed my nose. “Good. Because I promised you a bath.”