BLOODLINE
Chapter 2
"Mind if I cut in?" came the voice of her savior as Ricki was smoothly extricated from the grip of the odious little Bolian senator. The man didn't look happy at all to loose his lovely dance partner, and bristled further when Tom gave him a wink as he expertly twirled the young Frenchwoman away.
"Thank you," she sighed with relief, leaning her head into his shoulder as Tom guided them smoothly to the other side of the dance floor in the huge marquee, moving to the strains of a vaguely familiar 20th Century romantic classic being played by the orchestra. "That man has hands like an octopus."
Tom grinned. "I would've got to you sooner, but I was having problems of my own." He was referring to the tortuous time he'd spent caught up in one mind-bogglingly boring conversation after another with his father and his cronies, or being not-so-discreetly groped on the dance floor by the middle-aged sex-starved wives of the Starfleet brass.
With another few elegantly executed moves, Tom maneuvered them outside and onto the terrace - candle lit now as dusk approached. Ricki paused a moment to take in the breathtaking view of San Francisco Bay, while Tom snagged two glasses and a bottle of champagne from a passing waiter.
Quite a few of the other wedding guests had ventured outside on this balmy evening, though there was still a sizeable crowd inside the marquee.
Ricki took a sip of her champagne "Wasn't it a beautiful wedding," she remarked conversationally as Tom led the way across the terrace to a ornamental pergola situated in a slightly more secluded part of the garden.
"Sure was," came his soft response as they settled side by side on the wooden bench. Tom gave them both a refill, before placing the bottle on the ground at their feet. Then he gently bumped glasses with Ricki's. "Here's to Kat and Joel."
Later, neither of them could recall with any certainty who exactly made that first move, but suddenly they were kissing, their lips brushing - tentatively at first; just tasting, tongues exploring - but then the kiss intensifying to a point where they were both almost lost in each other's essence. Their raging chemistry an undeniable thing. Tom's hands moved up and down the slender form, while one of Ricki's hands snaked behind his neck, trying to deepen the contact if that was at all possible.
"Thomas!"
It was Admiral Paris's harsh commanding tone from somewhere across the garden that finally broke the spell, the two young people pulling apart reluctantly. For a moment or two all they could do was stare dazedly at each other as they tried to steady their breathing.
"Thomas!" the voice snapped impatiently once again, getting closer now. "You have exactly one minute to get your butt out here."
"The old man always did have an impeccable sense of timing," Tom snorted with amusement as he stood up and held out his hand to gallantly pull Ricki to her feet and into his arms. "Ah well, duty calls."
More than a month later Tom and Ricki were pretty much an established couple, though trying to find quality time to spend together had been a major stumbling block.
Ricki was pretty much a free agent until she got word to join her father in Australia. Though the Laresa VI was now docked in Cairns, the expedition couldn't get fully underway until the GEA funding was formally approved, though that was just a matter of time now.
But Tom's circumstances were entirely different. Not only did he have his Starfleet Academy duties to contend with, but the developing relationship hadn't gone unnoticed by Admiral Paris who had made a number of unsubtle attempts to stop him from seeing Ricki. At first Tom reveled in his father's blatant disapproval and was even vaguely amused, but as time wore on and his feelings for the young woman deepened he grew seriously weary of the 'game'.
Even in such a relatively short space of time Tom had realized how important Ricki was to him, and knew that if he wanted to hold onto her or any dreams for a possible future together then he needed to make a stand against the old man.
And a golden opportunity was offered to him on one of the visits with Ricki to see her father, Yves Lefevre, in Marseilles before the Laresa VI disembarked.
Tom and Yves had hit it off right from the start, with the big easy-going Frenchman warming to the younger man's charm, enthusiasm and obvious devotion to his only daughter. It was Yves who actively encouraged the Starfleet cadet to test pilot one of the Laresa's state-of-the-art submersibles; a slick stream-lined vessel nick-named 'Fifi', after one of his many girlfriends - or so Yves claimed
A natural and gifted pilot, it took Tom no time at all to master the controls and he was soon putting the 'sub' through her paces out at sea. Though designed by Yves primarily to operate underwater, Fifi was also just as effective in the air as Tom demonstrated when he launched into the clear blue sky in a wide arc, giving Yves, Ricki and the watching crew an improvised aerobatics display - much to their awed delight - before taking the craft down and gracefully diving into the depths of the ocean.
Yves was there to greet him enthusiastically when he eventually - and reluctantly - brought Fifi back to her docking bay. Looping his arm around the young man's shoulders as he started walking with him across the upper deck.
"Tom my boy, I have a little proposition for you."