"Don't bother to try to deny it."

"I'm not denying it. Ow! Shit! Quit it!"

"Sorry."

"You are not."

"No. I'm not."

"So neither of us is denying it, and neither of us is sorry."

"Right. Oh, god, I can smell her all over you. And you look a mess."

"Want to hit the shower?"

"No. I want you. Now. Like this." Malcolm Reed tugged Trip Tucker's undershirt, ripping it further. "She's on the ship, you know. You could go to her. You don't have to stay with me." His eyes glittered.

"Oh, I think I do." Tucker pushed Reed against the wall. "I can't go out like this. What would people say?" He rubbed his erection against Reed. "When we're done, then maybe I'll go to her."

"We won't be done for a while."

"That's what I like to hear, darlin'." Tucker leaned down for another kiss, but Reed turned his face away. "She's getting all settled in. T'Pol is taking care of her—showing her guest quarters and stuff."

Reed sounded like he approved. "Very appropriate."

"Look, can I take a shower? Please? You can scrub my back."

"Tempting. But no." Reed let Tucker pull the zip of his uniform down.

Tucker tried for another kiss, and again, Reed turned his head aside. Tucker settled for kissing and biting the side of Reed's neck. "I'm exhausted," he breathed into Reed's ear, putting his arms on the wall on either side of Reed's head. "Can you spend the night, darlin'? Keep me warm?"

Reed pretended to consider. "No, sorry," he said, not at all regretfully. "I have an early meeting tomorrow."

"Must be shipshape, Lieutenant," Tucker said as Reed tugged at Tucker's undershirt. Tucker's skin was filthy from rolling around in water, then dirt. He'd only been back aboard *Enterprise* for a few hours after his adventure with the spoiled princess, Kaitaama. Decon had been a bitch—he'd picked up a ton of microbes from the planet's soil. He'd also had to admit to Phlox that he'd had sex with an alien. Phlox had not been pleased. "You're all about saying no today, aren't you?"

"No," Reed said. "I'm all about saying yes." He helped Tucker pull his uniform down.

"Well, as long as you're not jealous or anything."

"I'm not jealous," Reed said.

Tucker kicked off his shoes and pulled Reed close as he walked backward to the bed, shedding his uniform as he went. "I wish you were," he said. "I wish I could touch you."

He was immediately sorry he'd said that, but Reed didn't seem troubled. Instead, he smiled. "You are touching me," he said, shrugging out of his uniform. He tossed the bedclothes back with one hand, his other arm around Tucker. Reed's muscles felt bunched and hard.

Tucker met his eyes, but Reed didn't say anything. Reed said he wasn't mad, Reed said he wasn't jealous, but his lean, strong body seemed angry to him. Maybe Tucker was indeed touching him. But he remembered the smirk on Reed's face when he and the rest of the away team had found him and Kaitaama half-nude at their crude camp, just after some exciting fisticuffs. It hadn't been the look of a disgruntled lover. It had been the look of one of his football-watching pals back home, on Earth—that "all right!" look. He'd seen Tucker and Kaitaama, he'd known what happened, and he hadn't cared.

Reed pushed Tucker back on the bed and lowered his lips to Tucker's. Tucker opened his mouth and tasted Reed as he slid his hands under Reed's briefs and worked them around Reed's erection and off. When Reed made to pull back, reaching for his undershirt, Tucker tugged on the shirt and pulled Reed back over him. He found Reed's mouth again and kissed hard as his hands made fists in the bright blue fabric. When Reed came up for air, Tucker ripped. The fabric made a satisfying roar.

In response, Reed pushed Tucker back against the bed, a little too hard, and splayed his fingers on Tucker's chest. His fingers looked clean and white against Tucker's grime. Tucker was sticky and dirty beyond description.

"Tell me about her," Reed said. He held Tucker pinned down as he grabbed the lube.

"What do you want to know?" Tucker put his arms behind his head. He noticed the way Reed's eyes focused on his body, on the way Reed's fingers smoothed through the hair on his chest. He liked that sense of power with Reed—just the sight of Tucker's body could make Reed want him.

"What she felt like."

Tucker thought back. He'd been too desperate the first time to pay much attention, but the second time had been better—slow and sweet. "Hot and wet. Tight. She liked it hard. I liked how she could squeeze me when I was inside. I like that about women. Being inside."

"We have something in common, then, you and I," Reed said, spreading lube on his cock as Tucker watched. "We both like to be inside." He tossed his destroyed undershirt to the ground, then lowered his face to Tucker's belly and rubbed. Tucker could feel the faint scratch of Reed's beard. Reed wrapped his slick fingers around Tucker's cock, smiled down at Tucker when Tucker took a quick breath in, and used his thumb to spread a bead of sticky come around the head of Tucker's cock. Reed's fingers gripped Tucker's hipbones hard, and he lowered his head to rub a cheek against Tucker's hot cock. "Oh, god," Reed said, and he sucked Tucker's dick into his mouth, lube and all. "You're dirty," he said a moment later, but he lowered his mouth again. "You taste like her." Reed's cock hardened further.

"I do not." Tucker gasped when Reed's teeth scraped. "I was—I was in the water afterward. She got all washed off."

"No, she didn't." Reed's tongue swirled. "Oh, no, she didn't." He pulled his head back and put his hands on Tucker's thighs. He was panting. Tucker knew that look. "You should have seen yourself when we found you," Reed told him. "It was so clear, so obvious what you'd been doing. And the thought of you with her—"

He paused. Tucker reached forward, grabbed Reed, and rolled him onto his back on the bed. He kissed Reed hard, and Reed had been right: she hadn't washed off. The taste, mingled with the familiar scent of Reed's body, with the familiar roughness of the beginnings of Reed's beard, sent a jagged lance of pleasure through his body.

"The thought of me with her what?" Tucker asked.

"I imagined watching," Reed told him. "And then I imagined joining in. I imagined you inside her, and me inside you."

Tucker closed his eyes for a second. He could imagine that too. The pleasure would be indescribable: inside soft warmth, with pointed pleasure deep inside him. "So do you like to watch?" he said. His voice didn't come out light, like he'd intended. It came out intense. It was because he was so hard, so excited. "Or do you like to join in?"

"I like to watch you," Reed said. His hand smoothed along Tucker's shoulder and down his arm. "I can't wait any more. I want you now. Right now. Roll over."

Tucker rolled onto his side. Reed was breathing raggedly. Reed took his own dick in his hand, and Tucker relaxed his ass as Reed slid the head of cock up and down his crack. Reed used a finger to find Tucker's hole, and a second later, he pushed himself all the way in, shoving Tucker almost onto his stomach. He held there for a second, then stroked in and out, then in again. He was panting.

"More," Tucker gasped.

Reed put a hand on Tucker's stomach and pushed in harder. "Oh, god, your scent," Reed said. He licked Tucker's shoulder. "Your taste. Her taste." His face rubbed against Tucker's back.

"More," Tucker repeated.

"No." Reed pressed his upper body against Tucker's. "Make yourself come." Tucker, breath coming in short gasps, moved his knees so he could free his hand to grasp and rub his cock. The pressure deep inside him didn't move. If Reed moved, he would come. "You're inside her, Trip. And I'm inside you. Imagine it."

Tucker closed his eyes and saw Kaitaama's face, exotically beautiful, transcendent, orgasm so close she could touch it, felt himself inside her. He imagined her nipples brushing against his chest, imagined Reed kissing him between his shoulder blades, imagined himself pressed between them. He felt his balls tighten, and his hand stroked more firmly.

"Imagine how hot she is, how much she wants you," Reed persisted. "Imagine her squeezing you."

And then, Tucker thought to himself, imagine Reed inside him at the same time, where pushing into Tucker meant Reed was, by proxy, pushing into her—Reed fucking Kaitaama through Tucker's body. Is that what Reed wanted? A princess?

And what did Tucker want? Tucker wanted Reed.

"Oh, Jesus, fuck me, Malcolm," he begged, ready to come, and Reed moved firmly. It was almost painful. Almost. There was a blaze of intense pleasure, and he came hard, hand working. He sobbed with release, not sure what he said, not caring, aware only of the pulse of his cock and the pressure of Reed inside him.

When he became aware of himself again, he could feel Reed's heart thudding fast. Reed's hand trailed through the sticky mess on Tucker's stomach, body heavy over Tucker's.

"Messy," Reed said, voice drowsy.

"You can take a shower with me later."

"I'd like that." Reed pulled out, and Tucker missed the sensation of being filled.

He felt the warmth of Reed's seed trickle out of his asshole as he rolled over onto his other side, so he was facing Reed, careful not to fall out of the tiny bed. Reed had picked up some of Tucker's grime, and the sheet under them showed streaks of dark dirt. The pillowcase was a disaster. "You like it dirty, huh, darlin'?" Tucker teased. He drew Reed in close.

"I do," Reed confirmed.

"Well, I'll do it again, just for you," Tucker promised. "There's a shortage of dirt on the ship. So I'll get stranded on some awful planet with an alien—but let's make a guy this time. He and I will fight and argue and beat each other up a little, just to show each other who's the boss, then fuck the living daylights out of each other." And then, he thought, but didn't say it out loud, I'll come back to you. And you'll want to hear all about it, and then you'll fuck the living daylights out of me.

Reed smiled. "No need to go to all that trouble just on my account, just to make me happy," he said.

"Malcolm, I like making you happy."

Reed snuggled in close. "Good," he said, satisfaction in his voice, and he turned up his face.

Tucker took the hint. He kissed Reed, and Reed kissed him back. They held each other close and murmured soft words, and for a while, Tucker could pretend that they loved each other. He could pretend that it didn't bother him that Reed didn't want him all to himself, that Reed didn't seem to need exclusivity.

With Kaitaama, there had been no roar when he came, no blanking out of his senses, no loss of his sense of self. There had been no sense, afterward, of having been moved. There had been need and lust, there had been the frantic desire for release, but nothing underlay it—just a little attraction, a little friction, a lot of sexual tension. It had been a long time for him since he'd had a woman, and he thought it had been a while for her since she'd had a man. She'd kissed him. He'd been surprised, and when she let him go, he'd grabbed her. He hadn't thought about Reed then. Then, afterward, he'd wondered if Reed would be jealous.

He looked at Reed, sated and spent in his arms. He'd had fun with Kaitaama, but he had known they'd each be going their separate ways. It was just sex.

He was terribly afraid that that was how Reed saw him.

"Ready for that shower?" he said a while later. "I may drop by Kaitaama's quarters after all."

Reed's eyes were steady as his hand settled on Tucker's ass. "Not just yet," he whispered. "We're not done. Come here."