"So, drugs huh?" Shepard asked, sitting on the edge of Aria's bed, the asari busy in her ensuite, grabbing medical supplies. She appeared in the doorframe and shot Shepard an amused look. "How did you get into that?"

"Well that's as privileged as information gets, and I don't know you nearly well enough to tell you that," she said, kicking off her boots and walking barefoot across the floor. "Short answer, mind your own damned business," she grabbed Shepard's still-bleeding palm and unwrapped the bandage she had applied. "Now, I'm guessing you don't have any medi-gel, didn't apply any?" Shepard made a non-committal noise, rubbing the back of her neck with her uninjured hand.

Aria squeezed the tube onto her hand and she felt a stinging hotness followed by an overwhelming cooling sensation. Aria ran her thumb over the closing wound and Shepard shivered.

She didn't think it had anything to do with the medi-gel.

"Drink, Shepard?" She asked, holding up her drained glass. They had shared a bottle of Serrice Ice Brandy, Shepard's first, and it had gone down well. So well in fact it had begun to grow dark before they had even tended to her injury.

"Sure, why not."

She followed Aria out into the kitchen and wandered around the small apartment. Barely more than a room, the door opened into a hallway, shared kitchen, and living room. Two doors fanned out into Aria's room, and one that must've been her absent roommate's; it reminded Jane of an aircraft.

She ran her hand over the well-stocked bookshelf, each datapad had a labeled spine, but they were all in an asari language she couldn't read. There were old rocks and obsidian coloured statuettes decorating the shelves. Before Shepard could open a datapad and translate she heard the clink of glasses being set on the small coffee table.

Aria was lounging on the plush red leather couch, at odds with the artifacts, books, and other worldly items. She patted the spot next to her and Shepard slid the tablet back into its place and sat, picking up her drink and taking a sip.

"Jesus, what is this?" She sputtered, resisting the urge to claw at her tongue.

"Ryncol," Aria laughed and downed hers, placing her glass on the table and letting her hand rest on Shepard's thigh. Jane looked at her glass, then down at Aria's hand, breathing deeply. Aria lifted her hand and took Shepard's in it; turning it over and looking at the spot where the cut had been, "healed." She looked at Shepard's face, "it looks nice." Shepard swallowed hard and took her hand back, rubbing it over her neck.

"That's cute," Aria nodded, "that little tell."

"Uh, I think I'm going to go," she said, making a move to stand.

This chick…

Aria moved like water, she was straddling Shepard before she knew what was happening.

"I can see you're drawn to me, Shepard, but it makes you uncomfortable," she wiggled closer, their bodies pressed close. "Who else is in that spinning mind of yours, I wonder?" Jane didn't answer, simply removed her hand from the back of her neck.

"So, Shepard," she drawled, "what do you study here?" Aria ran one finger along her jaw, up to her earlobe. "Politics?" She leaned in closer, tugging her ear in punctuation. "Art?" She grabbed Shepard's hands and ran her own over them, "no, your hands are too rough." Shepard rested her hands on Aria's thighs, unsure where else to put them- knowing exactly where she wanted to put them. Aria placed hers over them and began to run both sets up and down the leather. She tilted them inward and Shepard could feel her heat through the fabric. "Please, tell me, if I'm… getting close."

"Galactic History," she choked out.

"Hmmm."

Aria slipped Shepard's shirt up over her flat stomach and Shepard whimpered as she stripped off her gloves with her teeth. She ran purple hands up along the human's ribs, under her shirt, and Shepard leaned back into the couch, inadvertently raising her hips to meet Aria's. Aria took a deep breath through her nose and met Shepard's eyes. Those pale eyes were something.

Not Liara something, she thought, but something. She shook it away.

The friction of their hips meeting nearly undid Shepard. It was maddening and terrible and wonderful and she was wet. She let out a moan and in that instant she knew was done for, this severe asari was going to reduce her to a quivering puddle without even removing her clothing. All thoughts of leaving, well, left.

Aria leaned forward and took her in a searing kiss, all teeth and tongues; she tasted the sharp Ryncol and the sweet brandy, and under it something distinctly Aria – gunpowder and nutmeg, she thought absently. Steel and cinnamon.

Aria took her bottom lip between her teeth and almost drew blood with her fierceness, grasping both sides of Shepard's face with her hands. Shepard wrapped her arms around her and ran them down her back, up under the hem of her corset, and grasped her ass in her palms, squeezing, feeling Aria's moan through their kiss.

Aria tilted back, and began to undo the clasps on her corset, smacking Shepard's hands away when she tried to assist; Shepard grabbed her hips instead and Aria began to rotate them slowly, grinding their pelvises together.

Shepard looked down to where their bodies met and felt fire in the pit of stomach, the rise of desire. She wanted to see all of her, wanted her hot skin against her own.

As the corset fell open Aria grabbed her own breasts and crushed them with her hands, before dropping them with a bounce and peeling Shepard's shirt off her back. Shepard struggled out of it and lowered her head to a dark purple nipple, flicking it with her tongue. Aria surged forward and hissed, fisting Shepard's hair in encouragement.

As Shepard switched to the left breast Aria's hand flew between where their bodies pressed together and rubbed the seam of her jeans, rough enough to feel hot damp, and Jane bucked up into the touch as she kissed her way up the asari's chest, nibbling on her neck and tracing the jagged purple marking on Aria's cheek.

They rolled their hips in tandem, gasping into each other's mouths as they met again, and Aria let out surprised laugh, swollen lips parting, as Shepard lifted her in her arms and laid her on the couch, licking her way back down her neck, chest and stomach.

Aria wrapped her legs around Shepard's and swayed forward, hands on Shepard's shoulders, using her momentum to rock them upright before pinning Shepard under her. Shepard wished she had removed her pants, wanted to feel Aria's wetness on her stomach.

As she ran her hands along the asari's muscled abdomen Shepard tried to sit up and take one of those heavy breasts in her mouth, but Aria slammed her shoulders back down on the couch, rubbing Jane's stiffening nipples in circles through the fabric of her bra. She looked down with hooded eyes and nimbly stepped out of her position, holding one hand out to Shepard.

"Come."

She wasn't sure if it was an order or a request, but she obeyed, letting Aria lead her down the hallway, one hand in her own, the other trailing against the wall.

Aria dragged her into her room, kicking the door closed behind her and shoving her onto the bed with a surge of blue biotics. She stripped off her jacket and draped it over the back of her desk chair; she let her corset fall to the floor with a shrug of her shoulders. Shepard ached run her tongue over those collarbones. Stepping out of her pants Shepard saw she was wearing nothing under them; it was her turn to worry her bottom lip with her teeth. She removed her Omni-tool from her wrist and placed it on the bedside table.

Aria turned and flicked on music; something with swelling strings and a heavy kick, the beat seemed to be in time with the throbbing between Shepard's legs.

Reclining on the bed shirtless, she watched as Aria sauntered across the room, her dark skin highlighted by the streetlamps outside. Aria bumped out her hips in time with the music as she came closer and Shepard could see the glare of slickness between her legs. Her mouth both salivated and became very dry in the same instant.

Shepard looked down the bed at Aria, who had begun to undo her belt with tantalizingly slow hand movements. She lifted her hips as Aria dragged her belt through the loops, and her mouth dropped open as she began to pull it back and forth between her own legs; it was about the most erotic thing Shepard had ever seen. Dropping the belt, she grabbed Shepard's jeans and removed them with the same 2 slowness, leaving her white cotton underwear and bra.

She climbed onto the bed with the movements of a cat, dark tendrils beginning to swallow the colour of her eyes, and ran her hands up Jane's stomach, who trembled and let out a long groan as Aria dragged the flat of her tongue up the inside of her thighs, over the soaked spot on her panties.

"Ah…"

Aria looked up at her and drew them down over thigh, knee, and feet, and Shepard broke out in goosebumps.

Purple skin flushed, Aria dropped her head between Shepard's legs and placed kisses and bites along the top of her pubic bone, down her right leg and up the left one. She finally dipped her tongue into the enflamed centre of Shepard, who thrust her hips up with a cry and grabbed the back of Aria's crest.

"Ohhh, fuck-"

"That's the idea," Aria said when she removed her mouth, kissing her way up her stomach. Shepard sat up and unhooked her bra as Aria climbed into her lap, long legs wrapped around her back. As she threw it off the bed Aria grabbed her breasts and leaned into her neck, sucking gently on her earlobe, "touch me, Jane," she breathed against her head. "Fuck me."

It was the use of her name that unraveled her. A pale hand shot between Aria's legs as she took her mouth in a searing kiss, dipping her tongue past her lips, tasting herself on them. Aria crashed into her at the same moment, eyes black, mouth parted, and they rocked back and forth on each other, all sighs and moans, biotics flaring around them. Shepard's Omni-tool buzzed, forgotten, next to the lamp.

Soon it wasn't enough and Aria untangled herself from her lap, straddling her hips as Shepard reclined on the pillows. She lowered herself slowly onto Shepard's outstretched hand, purring loudly in her throat as she took her in. She rocked back and forth, rotating her hips, and Shepard could feel silky heat around her fingers, could see breasts bouncing, could smell their combined arousal in the air. Aria leaned back, bracing her weight on her arms, and as her movements became wilder Shepard's other hand shot between her own legs, making up for the loss of the asari's.

Not to be outdone, Aria inclined forward and brought her mouth back to Shepard's, biting down on her lower lip and pulling it back with her teeth as she pushed her long fingers into her Jane, matching her own rocking movements with each thrust.

"Look at me," Aria panted.

"Aria, please… ah, yes…"

"Don't stop, don't you dare stop-"

Foreheads together, they locked eyes, a fine sheen of sweat covering their bodies. Shepard felt Aria tremor around her fingers - knew she was on the edge - and curled them inside her. Aria bowed backwards, back arching and going still as she swore loudly in Asari; Shepard fell over the edge with her, clenching around her hand, hips coming off the bed with a scream. They collapsed into each other and Aria rested her head on Shepard's chest while she gasped, trying to catch her breath. She rolled off her and into the crook of her arm, which Shepard wrapped around her shoulder, tracing a finger along her collarbone.

"Where are my pants?" Shepard finally said, looking around. Aria raised her brow but reached down to her right and grabbed them, tossing them over Jane's face.

She reached into the pocket and pulled out her cigarette pack and lighter, holding it out for Aria. "Smoke?"