Ashley's housing was a cramped cubicle called an apartment. It had room for a cooking station with overhead storage, a small eating table, a full-sized bed, a footlocker, and a closet-sized bathroom with only a toilet and sink, but Shepard really didn't care. She was currently focused on the woman removing her vest and working on her belt buckle.
Cara pulled back from the deep kiss they were in long enough to help with the belt, then she returned to the delicious lips from which she had parted. Her own hands traced along Ashley's sides and across shoulders, feeling the soft flesh and toned muscle beneath. She met resistance in her search for more of the stunning soldier in the form of a plaid button-down. Shepard immediately worked on pushing it from the firm, strong shoulders and down arms that rivaled her own sculpted ones.
Cara felt herself being led backward and gave ground easily. The backs of her legs hit the edge of a surface, and she collapsed backward onto it, taking Ashley with her. Cara's hands teased the hem at the back of Ashley's t-shirt, fingers barely grazing the warm skin beneath. She felt Ashley arch into her touch and took that as a sign to pursue further.
One hand, held Ashley close, while the other slipped under the cotton fabric and worked its way up, mapping the contours of the soldier's back. Cara's hand traced toned muscles until it reached another layer of cloth. She skimmed her fingers along the edge of the Alliance issued bra, following it around to the front where the clasp was located. Shepard gently grazed the underside of Ashley's breasts with her knuckles through the material, eliciting a low moan.
Her fingers changed direction, Cara whispered them down a feminine stomach with the barest hint of definition, feeling the muscles clench and twitch beneath the tips of her fingers. At the feeling of the exquisite body above her, Shepard groaned as want further flooded her being. She broke from the hypnotic lips to taste along Ashley's jawline and nibble at an ear. Good gods, how she wanted this woman.
Ashley broke away to remove her t-shirt, allowing Shepard to see the toned, soft tanned skin beneath. She then reached for the hem of Shepard's shirt and pushed it up and over the woman's head until it trapped Shepard's arms in place above her head. Ashley heard and felt the woman groan beneath her, hips bucking up into her. She watched Shepard's face as desire darkened grey eyes sought out her own, and their eyes locked, neither moving, lost in the moment. "God I want you so bad," Ashley's whispered words broke the silence.
"Then take me," Shepard said, knowing those words meant so much more on some unconsidered, undiscovered level of her being.
Ashley leaned down again to take control of Shepard's lips. The kiss started gentle, teasing, increasing in intensity every second. Ashley's tongue traced soft lips until they parted eagerly, accepting her into the depths behind them. Tongue grazed against tongue, intertwining and battling for a dominance neither really cared about. All the while Ashley's hands traced maddening patterns over Cara's abs and up her torso, closer and closer to her covered breasts.
Ashley pulled back from the kiss when they were both breathing heavily, and worked her way along Cara's jaw, nipping and tasting her way until she reached an ear. She pulled the lobe into her mouth, sucking for an instant before releasing it and working back down Shepard's jaw, then throat, stopping to suck and nip at Shepard's pulse point and then other points that caused Shepard's breath to catch and hitch. She made it down to the defined collarbone and followed its path to one shoulder, and then back across to the other, leaving kisses and bites along the way.
Shepard's body squirmed at every touch, and her thoughts were everywhere at once, but at the same time, acutely focused on everything the passionate woman above her was doing to her body. Every sensation shot through to gather in a warm expanding knot below her stomach. Her gasps and whimpers only encouraged Ashley's exploration of her body.
When Ashley's lips grazed over a cloth-covered nipple, Shepard cried out in pleasure - a guttural cry, closing her eyes to try and control the pleasure coursing through her - and arched into Ashley. The same was repeated to the other nipple and a corresponding cry was released. She heard Ashley chuckle above her before she felt cool air hit her exposed breasts - the simple strapless bra Shepard had worn removed with ease.
Hot breath engulfed Cara's left breast seconds before a warm wet mouth covered the erect nipple. Shepard arched into the glorious feeling, wanting more. Ashley sucked in, laving around the pebbled nipple with her tongue before flicking it with the tip.
"FfffUuuuCK!" Shepard half yelled half groaned, bucking into Ashley above her.
Ashley released the nipple long enough to say, "Not yet, but soon." She pressed her own hips down into Shepard, and both moaned at the feeling. Ashley bent to take Shepard's right nipple into her mouth but was unexpectedly flipped onto her back.
With their positions exchanged, Shepard straddled the hips of the confused but quickly recovering soldier. Shepard removed the top that had been keeping her arms trapped. She bent down and took Ashley's bottom lip in her own before the soldier could fully recover and bit down, not enough to draw blood, but enough to cause a hint of pain. Shepard heard Ashley cry out and felt the body beneath her shudder. She gently licked the lip to soothe away any lingering pain then captured Ashley's mouth in a dominating kiss.
Shepard's hands traced the forearms of her lover until they reached the hands around her waist, holding her in place as they ground against each other. She took them in her own, joining their fingers as she brought them to rest on either side of Ashley's head. Shepard held them in place as she continued her dominating kisses. She pulled back, taking another sharp nip at Ashley's bottom lip, feeling the shudder beneath her again.
A smirk played across her lips as she looked into the darkening eyes of the woman below her. "Hmmm," Shepard said, glancing between their bodies to admire the still covered but heaving breasts below her. "You're wearing too many clothes still, but if I try to remove them, I feel the tables will be turned once again."
Ashley gave Shepard a mock scowl and tugged at her pinned arms.
"Unless you promise to be good," Shepard said, raising her eyebrow in both a question and a challenge.
The scowl disappeared, and a leer formed on Ashley's face. "Oh, I promise to be good. Can you promise the same?"
"I can guarantee it," Shepard said, keeping eye contact, while, in the same moment, collecting both of the soldier's wrists in one hand.
Before Ashley knew what was happening, mesmerized by the pure sexuality oozing from the woman above her, she found her hands bound above her head. The warm tingling told her biotics were being used. Every fiber in her body screamed at Ashley to get herself loose, but the smokey eyes above her were soft and questioning. They still held that hint of dominating presence that Shepard exuded without thought. A subtle nod of her head let Shepard know she was okay and the night continued.
As Cara's gazed burned over her body, Ashley tested the biotic binds, finding that with a little pressure she could break free when she wanted. Ashley looked to see that Cara was staring at her with a smirk. Ashley returned it with a bashful grin. The blonde woman winked and set forth to remove the Alliance issued bra that still covered Ashley's chest.
The night ended with two exhausted women cuddled into one another. After their bodies could take no more, Ashley had thrown an arm over Shepard's exposed hip and placed her head under the woman's chin snuggling into her. Shepard had wrapped her arms around the woman and pulled her close, both falling asleep with smiles on their faces.
A buzzing at Shepard's wrist roused her from sleep. She felt a warm body pressed along her front and a strong arm held her close. The night before flashed through her mind and she smiled before the buzzing caught her attention again. Her smile turned to a frown, and she tried to ease herself away from the gorgeous woman who held her captive. Ashley grumbled a bit, grabbing for Shepard, who was no longer there. A still sleeping Ashley found her other pillow and pulled it close to her face, inhaling deeply and falling back into a peaceful sleep.
Shepard quietly dressed, doing her best not to wake Ashley. She checked herself out in the bathroom mirror and fixed what she could. The marks would fade.
As she grabbed her vest from the table, Cara knocked off a couple of datapads beneath them that she hadn't noticed the night before. She caught them before they fell off the table, but her finger triggered one of them and a schedule popped up on the screen. A guard schedule - for an important Prothean artifact. Shepard glanced over at the bed at the still sleeping woman. She scrolled through the information. It was routes and times and numbers of guards deployed.
She glanced again at the woman in the bed. This is what she had come for, this information. Did it matter that Shepard liked this woman? That Shepard felt she could be more than a conquest, or random bed partner? But, she had people depending on her. With one last glance at her sleeping lover, she downloaded the data pad's information to her omnitool and placed it back on the table, shutting it down. She left a simple message on the other datapad that was blank and left the apartment.
It was still very late, or early if one preferred to wake up at ungodly hours. Shepard checked her omnitool, it was a message from Jack. It read, No one's heard from you, and you missed check-in. Something better have fucking happened, or I'm gonna kick your ass when you get back. She grimaced as she read the message. With a job like this one, missing check-in wasn't good. She typed up a quick response and sent it to allay everyone's fears.
Outside, the sun still slept, and no hints of its arrival were on the horizon. Shepard was one of two people on the tram. The other looked like he could be a dock worker, heavy boots were on his feet and thick gloves rested in his lap. Shepard figured he was asleep when he didn't look who else had entered the tram. She waited the four minutes it took to traverse the rail back into the settlement, remembering last night. She shook her head when the tram stopped and exited it with a glance at the man to see if he was still breathing. Satisfied when his chest rose and fell, she left him behind on the tram, and walked back to the ship.
She arrived at the Night Fox as the sun began to peek above the horizon. She scanned her omnitool at the airlock door then entered when it opened. Waiting for the airlock chamber to finish decontamination, Shepard thought about Williams again. How would Ashley react when she woke up? Did she expect Shepard to stick around? Would the message she left help? But the question Cara kept coming back to was, would Ashley figure out it was her who took the artifact? Ashley seemed like an intelligent woman, so there was a good possibility. The airlock door slid open to the main part of the ship, where a very unhappy Jack was waiting.
"You're an asshole," Jack said. Jack pushed off from the wall she was leaning against and approached Shepard. Stopping right in front of her, Jack crossed her arms and glared.
"Look, I'm sorry. I know I messed up. It was all kind of sudden. One minute we were just talking the next, well the next..." Shepard trailed off, not wanting to finish the thought in her regular, vulgar manner.
"We didn't know that," Jack said. "Sloane said you disappeared without letting them know you were leaving. One second you were there, the next gone." Jack was pacing now, and her words were sounding more and more distraught as she spoke. "Then, when you missed check-in..."
Shepard felt like shit. She had to calm Jack down. Cara waited for Jack to make another loop in her pacing then stepped into the path of the woman with her arms open. Jack could do nothing but run into Shepard, who wrapped her arms around the upset woman. Jack fought the hug at first, but Shepard held on until Jack calmed and awkwardly hugged Shepard back, trying to hide the relieved trembling that overcame her at Shepard's embrace.
"Sorry, Jack," Cara whispered, "I'm really sorry. I fucked up. Got my head unscrewed and off focus. But," and she pushed back to look at Jack. She ignored the tears in the younger woman's eyes, saying, "I did manage to get something helpful. Should increase our chances by a lot."
Jack turned away from Shepard and wiped at her eyes, "I'm still gonna kick your ass, CJ. But I'll wait 'til the jobs over." She turned back around to see that Shepard had pulled something up on her omnitool. "So, what have you got?"
"Guard shifts and routes. Current ones," Shepard said with a smile, tilting the omni's screen towards Jack.
"No shit," Jack said, looking over the information.
"No shit," Shepard said. "What do you say to a few hours of sleep, then we can rouse the rest of the gang and plan out a snatch and grab for sometime tomorrow night."
"Yeah, sure," Jack agreed, feeling the adrenaline from her anger drain, "I could use a couple of hours."
As Shepard turned towards her room, she felt biotic energy surround her, and she was thrown into the wall with enough force to knock the air from her lungs. She was then held there for a moment before she was released. "What the hell, Jack?"
Jack chuckled and walked by, patting Shepard on the shoulder, "Wasn't me." She pointed behind her and went to her room.
Shepard turned to see La'Dauna, eyes narrowed at her, and arms crossed. "Where have you been? No, never mind, we'll talk later. Go get some rest." And without another word, La'Dauna turned on her heel and returned to her quarters.
Shepard got to her room and collapsed. She was asleep before her head hit the pillow. Her dreams were weird again. She was once more living a life that was not her own. Events unlived played behind closed eyelids, then a familiar face. A beautiful face, scowling and angry, calling her the Commander Shepard.
Cara shot up in bed with the final image of Ashley, arms crossed and glaring daggers at her, burned into the back of her mind. She pushed herself back against the wall and bent her legs in front of her so she could rest her forehead on her knees.
Shit, damn it, fuck , she thought. Her head thumped against her knee to punctuate each curse. What the hell was going on with her?
That first dream she thought was just the effects of stress, but it appeared that wasn't the case. Now, Cara knew that Ashley was the person in her first dream. Was she suddenly psychic? She blew a raspberry at herself with the thought. A sudden dread settled in the pit of her stomach, but what if? She was almost sure that had been Eden Prime, and it was being attacked by machines. What if there was a bit of truth to her dreams? Maybe she should talk to La'Dauna. She might be able to help.
Shepard uncurled from her spot on the bed and stood, stretching and wiping the sleep from her eyes. She checked the time on her omni; it was mid-morning. First, a shower was necessary. Then, she needed to call a brainstorming meeting with the new information and to see what anyone else found. Shepard would talk to La'Dauna after the meeting was done and a plan was in place. She gathered her clothes and entered her personal bathing chambers.
As she undressed, Cara examined the marks left on her body. Good grief, there was a lot. Her neck wasn't as bad as it had been the night before; now that they had had time to heal. She smirked at the thought of the adventurous and rough and tumble lover that was Ashley Williams. Her smirk faded. Well, Cara was pretty sure she would never see her again after tonight. Why was she so bothered by that thought?
Shaking her head free of the upsetting thought, she turned on the shower and got in under the steaming hot stream. She let her body soak for only a minute under the refreshing deluge before washing and rinsing. She dressed, feeling cleaner, if not better. There was still a hint of that unsettling dread that lingered. Pushing it once again to the back of her mind, she left her cabin.