He thrust faster. The water iced.
Fucking Nightheart. The Cyborg knew some of what Hysterian’s problem was, but not the full extent, just enough to pay the cost and develop a way to cure him. Still, it was enough to make sure the Questor had ample hot water. What kind of ship couldn’t keep the hot water going?
With another hard tug, Hysterian jerked away and leaned back against the bathing unit’s wall, glaring at the lack of steam filling the chamber. He turned the faucet off all while fucking his hand. The pressure was too much. Too much. His tongue snapped out of his mouth to hit the far wall. He drew it back in.
Disgusted, he came, spurting seed over the wet floor at his feet. Then it was gone, sucked into the drain. Breathing hard, he glowered. His cock remained hard in his palm.
Already, his systems were replenishing his seed, his secretions, everything. His body absorbed the moisture. He stopped ingesting liquids decades ago for that very reason. He squeezed his shaft as the bathing unit went awash in blue light.
He blinked, and the light diminished.
I need to upgrade the fucking water unit.
Hysterian leaned back again with a sigh, rolling his head to gaze at the ceiling. What I need is a sauna. He had one at his apartment in Oasis City. At the end of every cycle, he used it to sweat the day’s sins away.
The day’s druggies, the day’s vacant eyes of the enviable reaping that followed.
He pumped his cock slowly, thinking about it. The heat. The endless steam. The woman he imagined sucking him off within it, because he couldn’t see her. She swallowed his cock until it was lodged in her velvety throat, and from there she inhaled, squeezing him beautifully. She drank him down as if she were starved, dehydrated, needing only what he could give her.
He had so much to give. Too much.
His phantom female, that woman he craved, was always, always thirsty.
Hysterian closed his eyes, squeezing his shaft again. He could probably keep a woman alive on his body alone if he weren’t poisonous.
Black hair filled his head. Wet and long, plastered to dewy flesh. He pumped faster.
She was on her knees, gripping his root. He couldn’t see her face. He needed to see her face.
“Captain,” she moaned around his length.
Hysterian’s eyes shot open and cut downward. “Alexa?” It was her voice that rang in his ears.
Only his cock and his hand greeted him. Gritting his teeth, he got off one last time and fled from the lavatory.
Naked and dripping, he stood in his quarters, banishing Dear from his mind. He toweled off and dressed before he had a chance to grab his cock for another round. A half-dozen times was enough. It had to be. The day shift was starting soon. He didn’t know how he was going to focus on getting any work done. They weren’t due to land anywhere today, but his next job was only several days away. He was meeting with Titan’s ambassador about a problem with the local wildlife.
Giant bug-like beasts were killing locals who oversaw the mines. Titan requested allowance from the government to eradicate the bugs and clear the mines, but the government wouldn’t allow the locals to kill the creatures without first ensuring killing them wasn’t going to fuck up the ecosystem, or the resources they valued so much.
It was now his problem to assess and decide what was to be done. Including capturing and bringing back a female and male of this bug species for Titan’s scientists to study.
Hysterian shoved his collar up over his mouth and strode to the door, needing freedom from his space. But when he got to the barrier, he paused before allowing it to open.
If she’s standing outside my door again, I don’t know what I’ll do.
He already knew she wasn’t, but that initial surprise at seeing her there several weeks ago hadn’t left him. He was rarely surprised, and lately, he’d been surprised a lot.
There were secrets some of his crew were keeping from him.
Daniels had been in his room when Hysterian was picking up the vaccines with Horace.
Hysterian was also aware that Alexa had been here as well.
The ship’s cleaning bots could hide a lot, and if he’d been human, he might have missed the signs. When his door was triggered, he’d known immediately. He’d watched the whole thing from the security camera feed channeled into his head as it happened.
Daniels was a problem.
Hysterian hated problems.
Especially ones he couldn’t deal with adequately because he was stuck in the middle of space with witnesses. He’d planned to let Daniels go and force him to disembark on Luxor but had forgotten, losing himself in what was even worse…
Alexa Dear.
His mundane, worker bee stationed to oversee his living requisitions.
She blushed.
Her pulse had drummed in his ears the moment he’d returned, across the fucking room. He scented her fear, her anxiety.
Worst of all, he’d felt the heat her body gave off from those emotions. She was normally cold. It had stunted his mind long enough to forget about Daniels. His focus had been on Alexa.
Now his phantom woman had black hair.
Hysterian squeezed his brow, allowing the door to finally open. No one stood on the other side. He wasn’t sure if it was disappointment or relief he felt. A mixture of the two perhaps.
The bridge was empty. If he went there now, he could read his correspondence and review his new requisitions without watchful eyes. He could contact Titan and let them know he was several days away.
He could study the layout of the mines and the footage taken of the bugs.
Hysterian turned away and went in the opposite direction.
Reviewing the ship’s feed in his head as he walked, his crew was all where he expected them to be. Horace and Daniels were sleeping in their bunks. Pigeon was in the lounge ahead of him—the smell of cheap coffee in the air—and Raul and Alexa were in the menagerie.
Except Raul was already up and at his desk, and Alexa was still in bed.
I want to see her.
He crept past the lounge and descended the stairs toward the laboratory. A soft, gasping moan pricked his ears.
Hysterian stiffened, listening. The moans built then slowed, followed by a rasping breath. It sounded like sex.
Alexa and Raul? Angry, he strode into the lab.
He half-expected to see Alexa bent over her desk and Raul atop her. Even though he knew she still slept. His fingers twitched to tear the image in his mind and beat Raul’s head against the wall until there was nothing left. For a microsecond, it was real.
Finding Raul jacking off to porn, was, to say the least, a fucking relief.
With his back turned to Hysterian, Raul had no idea that his captain stood behind him watching him yank his cock, itching to shatter his skull.
Hysterian tamped down his anger as Raul’s arm jerked. Disgust filled him for the second time that morning. It wasn’t because of what Raul was doing—so out in the open as he was—but that Hysterian had been doing the same thing not a few minutes prior.
That, and Alexa was mere yards away and could stumble upon Raul in the act.
That she shared a room with him.
Co-ed rooms—with locked privacy screens—had never mattered in the past, but now it pissed him off. A screen wasn’t enough. Alexa shouldn’t have to worry about her crewmate. Hysterian swallowed the need to throw Raul against the wall and punish him for being a disgusting creep and stalked to his and Alexa’s quarters.