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.I ll work on that. Lacroix, you have good moves, but you telegraph them.If Grah had watched your bodylanguage at all, she could have flattened you.Move quicker.Don t spend so much timethinking about it. One of Lacroix s braids had come undone so he had hair hanging loose on one side and abraid on the other.He ducked his head and all that black hair bobbed. Yes, sir.I ll work onthat. Zeke continued, Dary, you did an excellent job once you focused.You do not have toapologize for getting in a hit.Schreiber dropped his guard, and you did your job, and you didit damn well.Congratulate yourself for that. Thank you, sir, Dary nearly whispered.Jacqs rolled his eyes.She couldn t even take acompliment without sounding all weepy.Schreiber helped her to her feet and supported herweight as Zeke spoke to him. Your moves are stiff, overly rehearsed.You need to work on flexibility and speed.Lay offthe weights and get on some speed drills to limber you up, and Dary won t get in another hitlike that.You have the right stuff, but it s looking a little rusty. Yes, sir.I ll alter my workout schedule. Schreiber didn t sound happy, but he didn t soundlikely to mutiny in the near future. Permission to help Dary to infirmary for someregenerate? Of course.Go, Zeke said with a shooing motion.Schreiber helped Dary hop off, hersprained foot not looking all that bad to Jacqs. So, what about me, seeing as how I kicked your ass? Jacqs asked.Zeke spun around to look at Jacqs as if startled to find him still there. I think& you re justfine. Zeke closed his eyes a second. You know how to survive, Jacqs, I don t think that s anissue. Without another word, Zeke suddenly fled.Now normally Jacqs would hesitate tocome to that conclusion, but the way Zeke darted off with a wild look in his eye, fleeing didcome to mind.Lacroix laughed. Do not bite my head off, but damn that man has it bad, he said as he cameover and sat on the other end of the bench from Jacqs. What? Jacqs looked over. The commander. Lacroix used this tone of voice like he thought that explained everything.When Jacqs didn t answer, he and Grah traded concerned looks. The commander wants you.Actually, the commander is tied up in knots because of his case of Jacqs lust, Lacroix said. And while I may be het, for that man, I might consider changing my orientation. You would not, because I am a jealous bitch, Grah pointed out.Coming over, she stoodnext to Lacroix and rested a hand on his shoulder. That you are, he agreed. But you have to admit that the commander has a certainmagnetism, a charm that s pretty hard to ignore. He also has horrible taste in men, so he wouldn t even be interested in you, Grah argued. Your claws are showing. All the better to claw you with. Lacroix caught her hands, and Jacqs watched with a sort of detached horror.He knew Zeke had said something about having some interest, but Jacqs had put it down to the way Jacqshad a passing interest in all sorts of folk.He could lust after someone in general ways withoutseriously wanting to put his boots under anyone s bunk.But Lacroix was suggesting thatZeke was well beyond the generic sort of interest where you noticed that someone wasattractive and well into the crazy end of the lust pool.That& that didn t make sense. You stink, Grah said, and Jacqs realized he d missed some bits of conversation while hewas nursing his shock and confusion.Lacroix laughed. That I do, but you stink worse, so we re even. Then let s get cleaned up together, Grah suggested with a salacious wiggle.Jacqs cock gave a good twitch over that, but his brain was still stuck on thoughts of Zeke,and this was all kinds of confusing.Lacroix and Grah got up to leave, and Jacqs was left inthe empty deck staring at training mats and wondering what it meant that he felt this littlespark of pride at having caught Zeke s eye.There was something seriously wrong with him,that s for sure.He didn t like it when men lusted over him.Jacqs thought on that.He truly did not want Taylor lusting over him.He d likely bust the manin the mouth if he said one thing to Jacqs face.But the feeling he had when he consideredZeke s lust& that was not revulsion.That wasn t even on the same ship with revulsion.Infact, Jacqs didn t rightly appreciate how certain parts of him were reacting.Damn.Considering that Jacqs hated change, he was having entirely too much of it in his liferecently.It was all Zeke s fault, and still& still, Jacqs couldn t bring himself to want thingsback the way they were.That left Jacqs trying to figure out how to move forward.Unfortunately, that wasn t a skill hereally excelled at.****CHAPTER NINEJacqs nearly knocked Taylor down as he got off the lift. Need to talk to the commander, Jacqs said, cutting off Taylor before he could reach the door to Zeke s office. I have an appointment, Taylor complained loudly.Jacqs stopped and gave Taylor a real unfriendly look.For a second, Jacqs thought thatTaylor was going to make an issue out of it, but finally he threw up his hands. This hadbetter be good, and if you re not done in ten minutes, I m coming in anyway.I have eightmonths of performance reviews to get caught up on. Jacqs snorted.He didn t much care about that, so he d take as long as he took.He justdidn t feel any need to point that out to Taylor.Without knocking, he pushed the door toZeke s office open.The man stood with his back to the door, stripped to the waist. Give me a second, Taylor, Zeke said without turning.He was doing something on his chest,and unless Jacqs missed his guess, the something in question was using soothe gel onsome bruised muscle.Jacqs felt a weird sort of satisfaction a certain warmth in the pit ofhis stomach.Yesterday he would have attributed that to pride in having given a worthy opponent a real beat down.After Lacroix s little announcement, Jacqs was starting towonder if he wasn t having another kind of reaction.Jacqs gave Zeke s back a real good looking over.He had strong shoulders, and the sort ofstrong muscle Jacqs had always admired.A roadmap of white scars led a merry trail acrosshis back, disappearing under the waist of his pants, and Jacqs brain just sort of stopped atthat point.While Jacqs was starting to think he might be attracted to Zeke above the waist,he wasn t particularly comfortable thinking about what he might have below the waist.Zeke turned and the expression on his face froze as he spotted Jacqs.Fingers still tracingthe edge of a red mark on his bruise, Zeke stood staring.His chest had patches of skin slickwith gel, but Jacqs found himself more interested in the well-defined muscles of his chestand stomach.Zeke opened his mouth a couple of times without actually saying anything.Eventually, he grabbed a shirt off the back of his chair and pulled it on, or tried to anyway.Hegot one arm caught up in the neck hole and ended up cursing as he got himself rightedagain. I need to talk some things through, Jacqs said.It wasn t the most honest line he d evermanaged, but this was hard on him.Worse, he wasn t entirely convinced that he hadn t losthis mind.Maybe he was having some irrational reaction to not having sex with anyoneexcept his right hand for too fucking long.But then, that warm feel in his gut told him that hewas suffering more than frustration. I understand that I went too far, Zeke said, and in my defense, you do make it very difficult.That said, you have every right to complain and you are excused from any combat trainingwith me since I m clearly an idiot with a dick I can t control. You can t control your dick around me? Jacqs blinked in surprise.Hell, he d never had thatsort of effect on anyone.That was& that was real complimentary. Clearly not. Zeke sank into his seat
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