Atlas had a very particular scent. She hadn’t noticed it before she spent a good half hour pressed up his body being subjected to humiliating punishment, but now she did. It was masculine and alien all at once, like a rock and a wild animal synthesized into smell.
“Time for you to report for duty,” he said, hands behind his back, eyes blazing down at her from that great height.
“What duty?”
“You’re a lieutenant now. That means you have more to do than sitting in your quarters, waiting for the ship to stray into danger.”
“What do I have to do now, then? My role requires me to be perpetually ready. I can’t take on other responsibilities. That is the whole point of being a DSN.”
He lifted a brow. “The whole point, is it?”
“Yes. Literally.”
“What I have in mind for you won’t take you away from the controls if you need to be there.”
“So, what then?”
“Let’s go to your quarters.”
She felt her ass get tense at the suggestion of being in there with Atlas.
“Why….?” She drew the question out in a very uncertain manner.
“You’re not in trouble,” Atlas reassured her. “Unless, of course, you fail to obey me, in which case that disobedience will be dealt with before your assignment begins.”
She swallowed hard. The way he’d dealt with her last night was going to be with her for quite some time. Once he was gone, she’d been left with the ache in her ass and in her chest. She’d felt lonely, and small, and impossibly sad. She’d wished that he would come back and comfort her, even as she’d known that would never happen in a thousand years.
“I’m coming,” she said as he quirked a brow at her, as if asking if she intended to get herself into trouble or not.
“Good. Let’s go.”
She followed after him, trying to manage her nervousness. She didn’t understand Atlas. Sometimes he seemed kind. Most of the time he seemed utterly cruel. Over the past twelve hours he had made her the unhappiest she’d ever been, and then the happiest. He’d fucked her like she was the hottest woman he’d ever laid hands on, treated her like a little brat barely worthy of being a cadet, and then recommended her for promotion. She wanted to ask him what was going on, really going on, but she didn’t know how to form the question.
He led her into her room as if it were his. She supposed it was, really. Nothing on this ship was truly hers. The room was assigned, but it wasn’t hers. The things inside it might have technically been her possessions, but she wouldn’t have been surprised if they were confiscated. Being part of the Authority meant submitting to the Authority. It meant having nothing.
Her room was still a mess, though if she didn’t know better, she would have thought some of it had been tidied up a little. A few clothes folded and put away. The clutter on the desk moved into piles, as if someone very orderly had started tidying and then given up partway through—or perhaps stopped themselves halfway through because they weren’t supposed to be picking up her quarters at all.
But the tidiness was not the most stunning feature of the room. There was a stack of books next to her bed that was almost as tall as she was.
“There is your next task,” he said.
“Books?” She stared at him. “Books. That’s what you want me to do. Read books?”
“Not just books. I want you rotating through the library, the kitchen, and…”
“The kitchen? Why?”
“You need to learn how to cook, and more important, how to eat. Your food choices are those of an unsupervised teenager. A lieutenant shouldn’t be appearing on the bridge with a melted candy beverage and scarfing down trans fats. You should eat regular meals at a regular time, and those meals should be nutritious…”
She stopped listening and just watched his mouth move. Junk food was a staple on the ship. There were vending machines on absolutely every floor, and not one of them contained anything remotely healthy. The kitchen made salads that nobody ate.
“Then you’ll be taking classes with the ship’s diplomatic corps…” She started listening again just as he changed the subject.
“I know I don’t actually get a choice in any of this, but why?”
“Because it will be good for you. You need a further education, and I intend to ensure you get it.”
“Do you take this much of an interest in every member of the crew?” She asked the question already knowing the answer. There was no way he did. There was something between them. Something she didn’t understand because it didn’t feel like any of the male attention she’d received before. Usually once men fucked her they were done with her.
“Only the ones who need it,” he said with one of his rough smirks. “Read the books. Start at the top. Work your way down. Recycle them as you complete them. They’re all contained in the digital archives, but I’d prefer you read them from paper. It’s a more organic experience, and you have a tendency to lose yourself in digital space.”