With This Ring - Chapter 3
Good food, good company, and excellent Scottish ale all merged to give Jim a damn fine buzz. He leaned back in the wooden booth and lent half a lazy ear to Scotty and Keenser as they discussed a new theory about something called quantum filaments. The theory suggested these filaments might affect the warp core's magnetic containment field.
Jim closed his eyes for a moment and soaked up the heady atmosphere with his senses. He really loved a good bar-always had-even when the bar was disguised as a pub. The Witch's Teat was a British pub with a decidedly Scottish ambiance. Leave it to Scotty to know the perfect place where a man could find the best fish and chips and porterhouse steak side by side on the menu. The ass-kicking ale was just the cherry on top.
Scotty and Keenser had remained on board the Enterprise for two weeks after the ship was space-docked in order to oversee special refitting of the intermix chamber, a device that monitored and adjusted plasma pressure within the warp core.
Jim smiled. The Starfleet Engineering technicians were not at all pleased with Scotty's presence or his blatant disregard of their requests for him to stop looking over shoulders during repairs. Jim received increasingly hostile daily complaints on his PADD about his Chief Engineer over the course of the two weeks, but he didn't care dick about that. The Enterprise was as much Scotty's Lady as she was his, and they both loved her fiercely.
The Starfleet team installed the final component late that afternoon, so his two engineers would head home in the morning. He wouldn't see them again until the wedding rehearsal on board the Venus Rising.
Well-fed and pleasantly buzzed, Jim allowed his mind to drift to his upcoming wedding.
Hanna, true to her word, sent the wedding invitations out three days after they called her family with the news. She and Alima must have held a marathon session to pull it all together. Jim certainly never expected to receive a draft of the invitation for approval so soon:
Razi and Alima Uhura request the honor of your
presence at the marriage of their daughter
Nyota Aziza Uhura
Lieutenant, U.S.S. Enterprise
Starfleet
to
Captain James Tiberius Kirk
U.S.S. Enterprise
Starfleet
on Friday, the eighteenth of December
two thousand two hundred and sixty
at five o'clock
The Neptune Ballroom
U.F.O.P. Venus Rising
Reception will follow ceremony
The invitation arrived on his PADD in the shape of an ivory male lion, with Invitation to a Wedding engraved across the body in gold lettering. When he clicked within the body of the lion, it unfolded and became a square piece of elegant ivory paper ... very chic. He consulted with Nyota and they approved it and responded to Hanna right away.
Although Nyota opted to wear a gown, they decided upon a military wedding and Honor Guard with Alima's blessing. She found the notion of the bride and groom, and the wedding party, walking down the aisle under raised sabers after the ceremony both charming and fitting. They had a harder time dissuading her from her dream of a large wedding for her daughter. They stood firm and agreed to only the Best Man and four groomsmen, and a Matron of Honor and four Bridesmaids. They worked harder still to convince Spock and T-Pring to be a part of their ceremony. However, once the ceremony was explained to them, T-Pring agreed to be Matron of Honor and Spock agreed to be a groomsman. Chekhov, Scotty, and Sulu would round out the groomsmen, while Christine Chapel and three of Nyota's cousins would be the bridesmaids.
Jim suddenly realized that it was quiet at his table. He cracked open an eye and found Keenser and Scotty scrutinizing him.
"Had a wee bit too much, have yew now laddy?"
"Scotty, my man, this shit is lethal and utterly buzz worthy."
"Ocht, it's mild as mother's milk." He held up his tumbler. "Now scotch, that's a man's drink."
Keenser's shinny black eyes flicked from side to side. "I use it to strip grease from gears."
Jim laughed.
Scotty ignored them both and raised his glass. "Here's to your bonnie lass, Captain Kirk. May all your bairns look like their mother."
"Gee, thanks."
"You're welcome. She's a match for yew, none better."
"Pretty and smart," Keenser said with a nod.
"And not afraid to whack Yourself upside the head neither. Now, there's a lass!"
"How-how do you know about that?"
"Well, I've been sort of keeping company with Lieutenant Wallace, Megan Wallace, that is ... a good Scottish lass even though she's generations away from knowing the truth of it. Anyway, after your engagement announcement, Megan gave me a bit of history. It seems she was in the lifeboat the day Uhura whacked your noggin. Now, my mind was on other matters at the time as we were about to, you know ... but from what I gathered, the girls all thought Uhura was jealous because you and Rachel Thompson were hot and heavy and at it like rabbits."
"What? No, we were only together that one night."
"Aye, there was Uhura clutching the oar mad as a tick, and there was Rachel Thompson looking like a cat in the cream, with yew in between the two of them, bleeding like a stuck pig. Wish I'd been there to see it for me self."
"Scotty, you're not hearing me, man. It was only one time."
"Sure and that's why yew kissed her like a man sucking his last breath."
"No, no ... she kissed me!"
Keenser shook his head with a frown. "Two women you like, together in one boat? Captain is not a smart man."
Jim slammed his glass on the table and shouted. "I only fucked her once!"
The pub went deadly silent, and then exploded with applause.
The next evening Jim visited Nyota at her townhouse in Bernal Heights and slipped a four-carat, three-stone ruby and diamond engagement ring onto her finger. The gold ring, with an oval cut diamond nestled between two ruby hearts, had been custom made especially for her.
She looked at the ring in awe. "Starfleet was supposed to buy the rings," she whispered.
"Yeah, well ... this will probably be the only time I'll ever do this, so I figured ..."
They shared a look ... a moment.
"It's beautiful, but you didn't have to buy me an engagement ring."
"I know, but I wanted to."
"This must have cost you a fortune! I can't ... Jim, you can't possibly afford this."
"Yeah I can," he chuckled. "When we made it back to Earth after the Nero incident, I found a letter waiting for me at the Academy from a legal firm. It seems that I came into a Trust when I turned twenty-five. My Mom was the sole beneficiary on my Dad's insurance policy when he died; but he had a caveat in his will that called for an equal share of the funds to be set aside in a Trust for any children not named at the time of his death. The credits in that Trust sat in a bank for twenty-five years, Nyota. Believe me, I can afford this."
"Oh. So that's what your mother meant about your piggy bank."
"She probably thinks I gambled half of it away and spent the rest in a house of ill repute. The truth is, you, bones, and Admiral Pike are the only people I've told about the Trust."
Nyota gave him a keen look. "Admiral Pike is your father figure, isn't he? Not Jake."
"Jake's always been more like a big brother to me, even when I was young. Admiral Pike? Yeah, he's exactly what I'd like to think my Dad would have been."
Nyota smiled, then glanced down at the ring on her finger. "I'll take good care of it and give it back to you once this assignment is over."
"Nah, it's yours to keep."
For the second time in his life, Jim offered his heart to a woman, even if she wasn't aware of it. It was a scary-ass feeling, considering the emotional scars he had from the first time.
"Jim ..."
Then again, perhaps she was aware. The way she said his name and the look in her eyes encouraged him to lean in for a kiss.
The moment their lips met, the kiss deepened. Her throaty moan elicited a deeper one from him. When she stroked her tongue against his soft palate, he pressed her against the nearest wall and slid down a tad so that he could rub his throbbing hardness against her mound. The reaction to that was so intense, they both slid to the floor ... clinging and clutching, rubbing and palming, grinding intensely, desperately. He had just enough strength of will left to flip onto his back, clutching her on top of his body, kneading her ass.
Their need made them clumsy. The attempt to undress each other only yielded her top and bra and his shirt, with his tee shirt hanging precariously off his left shoulder. She moaned his name and anchored her legs around his thighs when his hands and mouth found her nipples. Her hands wove patterns of liquid fire on his skin ... his arms, his chest, his neck, and his face. Her sensual mouth suckled and licked his lips like pieces of ripe fruit and her tongue schooled his in a new rhythm. The dragging motion of her swollen Mons and against his swollen length was sweet torture, even through their clothes.
It had been a while for both of them-not since Spock for her, and not since the last shore leave, five months before, for him. The hard fast grind was far too intense to last. When her orgasm hit, the hot, wet zinging suction of her mouth at a spot just beneath his right ear pushed him over the brink as well. They rode an intoxicating wave through an eternity of labored breathes, stinging pleasure, and soul wrenching mews and moans.
Finally, Nyota pushed herself up onto her hands and knees and crawled away from him.
"Jim ... James, you've got to go," she said.
The rich silky sound of her voice, like a sated purr, made him hard again. It took him a moment to comprehend what she had said. "Huh? What ... why?"
"You have to leave. My family will be here in the morning."
"So," he teased. "We're two consenting adults, and we're engaged." His voice held a moon-kissed Jack Daniels purr of its own. He smiled as her body reacted to it, then he sat up and reached for her.
She moved further away from him. "No, we're two Starfleet officers pretending to be engaged."
He glared at her, the mood broken. There was no sense in saying he was only pretending to pretend. She already knew that. "Oh you are so not gonna get away with denying what just happened!"
She lifted her chin, and suddenly she was Miss Priss and Manners again. "I am not denying the chemistry between us, but this was ... it shouldn't have happened. I'm sorry."
"Yeah? Well that's a strange assessment, considering the wet spot you left on the front of my pants."
"Captain ..."
"Okay!" He grabbed his shirt and slowly got to his feet. "You want me gone? I'm outta here."
"Thank you," she said primly.
"Hey, no problem!"
His intent had been to leave, but he paused at the door and looked back at her, really looked at her; huddled on the floor with her back against the wall, clutching an accent pillow from her couch against her chest like a lifeline. He couldn't leave it like this. He would not allow her to slip back into the armor she wore for protection against him, and him alone.
"You think it's all been about the chase, don't you?" He leaned by the door with his hands in his pants pockets, acutely aware of the sticky wetness cooling against his groin. He smiled at her when she looked up at him with those large, doe-soft brown eyes. "My hard-on for you hasn't got dick to do with the chase, and everything to do with you. Good night, babe."
"Jim?"
He stopped again and turned to face her.
"Two years ago, even last year," her eyes raked his face and body, "you would have used those wicked blue eyes, that clever mouth, and those talented hands of yours to force the issue and seduce me into letting you stay." Her sultry look turned to one of wonder. "You really have grown, haven't you?"
He gave her a pained look. "Yeah, I'm a real prince."
"No," she shook her head and smiled. "You're a Starfleet Captain and a gentleman."
Jim winked at her and walked out the door. He was on his motorcycle and half-way back to the Academy before he realized it was raining.
Nyota laid in a fetal position with a pillow between her legs, wishing it were Jim. Her bed seemed bigger and colder than usual. She could still smell him and taste him. And oh, God in Heaven, his eyes ... his eyes were like pools of hot, blue lava. She could drown in them.
The heat between them was, she knew all too well, rare, and intoxicating. She couldn't let her guard down around him again ... could she? He was still the same man who fucked his way alphabetically through half the girls in their class at the Academy ... wasn't he? In all fairness, she knew he hadn't really slept with as many girls as people thought. He had become sort of an Urban Legend at the Academy, and she suspected people embellished or invented many of the tales she'd heard about him.
She had always been attracted to strong men. If Spock was a maelstrom, a violent whirlpool beneath a placid ocean surface, then Jim was a perfect storm; that uncommon and unusual occurrence of warm air from a low-pressure system, cool air from a high-pressure system, and tropical heat. When combined together, these three elements created a storm so violent it raged both above and below surface and destroyed everything in its path. Both men were strikingly masculine without effort, the strong sun that Nyota's Bibi said encouraged women to open their petals to the light.
She had loved Spock, but not once had she felt inclined to pick up something and whack him. That urge couldn't be good ... could it?
That night she met Jim at the roadhouse bar she sensed he was a wild, impetuous man on a harrowing roller coaster ride through life; but what she never imagined was that one day she would want to take the ride with him ... but would she? Could she really trust him that way?
He was bright as hell, gifted and brilliant in a nonchalant manner that humbled her. They had a rather intense rivalry at the Academy. She destroyed the bell-curve for half their class, and Jim destroyed it for the other half. He still humbled her with his intelligence in small ways. Once they were sitting in the recreation room and she had just pulled up the Sunday New York Times Intergalactic Puzzle on her PADD, ready to settle in and work on it for a couple of hours. She got up to replicate some tea, stopping to say a quick word to Christine on the way back, and when she returned to her seat, the puzzle was finished. She stared at Jim in shock and he gave her a 'what, like its hard?' look. It was the freaking Sunday New York Times Intergalactic Puzzle!
She turned over in bed and punched her pillow. She still couldn't believe he had actually been screwing Rachel Thompson at the same time she thought he was waiting for her. She didn't want to believe it at first, but Rachel showed her a photo she had taken with her PADD of Jim lying naked and asleep after they'd made love, and then he had the nerve to put on that shameless display in that lifeboat. She turned over and punched her pillow again. What was she thinking? Men like Jim didn't change ... did they? She flipped onto her back and said 'lights' so that she could look at her ring.
If only he had waited ...
(to be continued)
