AN: Bonus points to anyone who can identify the song.


Another Path

Chapter 3

Strictly Business

"I am not trying to seduce you, Commander." She let down her hair.

"I should hope not, Lieutenant; to attempt to do so would be highly illogical." He toed off his boots.

"I'll never understand why you hold logic on such a pedestal, especially considering your background." The zip to her uniform dress slithered down her spine.

"Just as I struggle to understand your consistent efforts to persuade me to neglect it." His operational blue shirt slipped up and over his head, tousling his hair. "I consider logic to be such an important constant because of my background."

Her underwear disappeared and his arms were about her, their warmth compensating for the lack of clothing. "Mmm, I love it when you speak reasonably."

He could not answer because his tongue was in her mouth.

This would be the third time since starting their five year tour that they had turned to one another for gratification. The first had been not long after her field promotion to Communications Chief; her new post on the bridge had put the two of them in close enough proximity to realise that the attraction that had formed between them during their time at the academy had lost none of its potency. They had been sharing a meal in the officers mess one evening after beta shift and during a lull in conversation, Nyota had looked at him.

"You look tense."

He raised an eyebrow. "I am acceptably calm, I assure you."

She spiked a chunk of re-hydrated brocolli on her fork and waved it at him across the table. "See, now that's how I know that you're not. You only ever make assurances when you're lying."

He bristled ever so slightly at the accusation. "Nyota, I do not lie."

Munching on the vegetable, she responded, "Yes, yes, I know the spiel by now, Spock, lying is illogical and all that." She swallowed and impaled another stalk. "I still don't buy it and you still look tense."

He fought the urge to sigh in exasperation at her persistance. "I will admit to the fact that I have been struggling to meditate effectively for the last three days. The constant yellow alert we have been operating under has affected my ability to detach and focus."

Nyota flashed a quick grimace of sympathy, she had seen first hand what a dragon Spock could become without time to clear his over active mind. At the academy he had once been forced to forego meditation for a whole week when the core processor for the entire computer programming facility crashed. He had worked round the clock with the engineers to fix it, leaving the bowels of the building only to sleep when he could no longer stand. The Spock she saw in class at the end of that week was so on edge that he almost appeared human. She had never told him that, knowing how mortified he would be if he knew.

She smirked cheekily at him, comfortable in their professional (and occasionally personal) relationship as it stood now. "There are other ways to relax, you know."

He resisted the impulse to raise his eyebrow again. He was already too lax with the control of his outward signs of emotion around her, and the relief that she might have an alternative to the-impossible-to-affect meditation was threatening to burst onto his face. "Indeed? I would gladly entertain any suggestion you care to make."

Nyota almost choked on her brocolli. She stared at him and found none of the subtle humour that often lit his eyes when they conversed. He was deadly serious. "Okay. Um, it-it's a little unorthodox - for you I mean..."

He cocked his head, intrigued by her sudden attack of coyness and what it could possibly have to do with helping him to relax. "Nyota? Is there something wrong?" She blushed furiously, refusing to meet his eyes and suddenly his human instincts sat up and elbowed his Vulcan logic in the figurative ribs.

She was suggesting sex.

His eyes widened to the point where the irises were surrounded entirely by white.

While Spock was experiencing his epiphany, Nyota was hoping for a quantum singularity to open underneath her chair so she could dive into it. Had she really just propositioned Spock? It looked like it wasn't just he who was suffering from an over active mind from the standby alert.

"I am amenable to this alternative."

Nyota swallowed her tongue.

After a quick bout of spluttering coughs, she managed to gasp out, "What?!"

Spock leaned towards her over the table, the better to keep his voice as low as possible. "Nyota, your suggestion is quite acceptable." His voice was pure, dark honey, never had she considered the word 'acceptable' to be seductive. "The endorphins that such an activity would produce would help to relax us both. I sense that you too are struggling under the constant state of alert."

He was disgustingly good at reading her, it really wasn't fair considering that her attempts at reading him felt like trying to decipher a brick wall. "Well, yes, but-"

"But I am certain that we would be able to conduct ourselves professionally following our intercourse. There would be no emotional entanglements to hamper our working together afterwards."

Again he was right. The regard that had been established earlier in their friendship had sustained itself quite nicely. But that was all it was. She had watched him working on the bridge, had admired his efficiency of movement and yes she had checked him out, but she no longer mooned over him as she had as a cadet and he certainly didn't gaze adoringly over his panel at her. She saw him now as an equal, a fellow officer.

A fellow officer who she could not help but notice filled out his uniform just right.

She sighed in sweet defeat and a slow smirk crept over her face. "Your place or mine?"

Nyota landed on the bunk, flat on her back, the body of her bed fellow following swiftly after, to cover her with his delicious weight. The soft impact stole her breath for a second and no sooner had she recovered it than Spock stole it from her again. The rest of his clothes had vanished and they were both naked, entangled and flushed.

The second time they had come together was not quite as spontaneous as the first. Spock's assurance that their encounter would not engender any emotional complications had been true to the word; they had managed quite successfully to scratch their respective itches and return to work refreshed and clear-headed. Thus, both found themselves considering the option of release again, this time after a fortnight long bout of negotiations with a trade planet new to the Federation.

Bartering and wordplay with intelligent, new races were some of Christopher Pike's favourite parts of being the captain of the fleet's flag ship. Unfortunately for Nyota however, Pike's enthusiasm had led to her having to put in several double shifts; he wanted his best linguist on hand while he worked in case something unusual came up that the universal translator couldn't handle. Spock had not been required to put in as many extra hours as Nyota while they entertained large parties of traders, but the presence of so many extra bodies in so small a space as the hallways and public rooms of the star ship had left him having to work harder than usual in order to maintain his mental barriers.

At the end of the trade negotiations, they crossed paths in the officer's mess, neither one of them missing the significance of the location for the new level of their friendship.

As they shared a table, Spock took the initiative and, mimicking the setup of their original interlude, said in a low voice, "You appear to be fatigued, Lieutenant."

Nyota had looked up from her plate of deep fried Andorian tuber root and raised an eyebrow at the body language accompanying his statement. His eyes were very slightly wider than usual and his breath was coming a tad more quickly than was normal for him.

She smirked at the signs revealed by his micro expressions and replied, "I'm a little tired, yes. This has been an exciting, exhausting couple of weeks." She took a bite of food, feigning nonchalance. "It's very kind of you to notice."

"I hope that you are able to find relief during your down time tomorrow."

Nyota licked her lips, partly to clean them of the grease produced by her highly satisfying, very fattening fast food, and partly to test a hypothesis. Spock's choice of wording had to be deliberate, this man did nothing accidentally. Just as she had expected, his eyes slipped from hers to follow the motion of her tongue.

Bingo.

"Spock, would you care to help me in finding some, ah, relief?"

His eyes flared and his knee brushed hers under the table. "I would be willing to assist in any way I can, Lieutenant."

Their the first time together had been a slow, careful learning of one another's bodies. They had explored and catalogued each other's responses, mindful that this could be a one time only thing.

This was nothing like that.

Assured that if it was happening for a second time, their coupling was not to be an isolated event, they flew at one another. Frantically tearing at each other's clothing they only managed to get halfway before the urgency of the moment took over and they fell down where they stood - in the middle of Spock's quarters incidentally - and screwed one another on the floor, their uniforms still half on and carpet burns rubbing into their skin everywhere gravity demanded.

In the here and now, for the third time of meaningless copulation he entered her slowly, unerringly, drawing a long, smooth, language-free mewl from her linguist's throat. Once he was sheathed fully inside her, he dropped down onto his elbows and buried his face into the crook of her neck, lapping esuriently at the fluttering pulse he found there.

Nyota's limbs moved of their own accord to wrap around him, her arms tangling behind his neck, her legs intertwining with his, drawing his feverish body even closer. She heard him hiss into her skin as he was pulled deeper and she threaded the fingers of one hand into the hair at the base of his skull.

With a low, very male, very alien utterance he began to move and she cried out, her brain shutting down and her body taking over.

The moment could have been confused with an exchange of love, but it was not. Far from it, they simply gave each other release; they were professionals, this was just for the sake of their jobs, the smooth running of the ship. It was strictly business.

Shuddering in aftershock, they lay entangled together, exchanging soft kisses, breathing each other's breath.

Tomorrow they would go back to their respective posts with no-one the wiser of what they had done, what they were still doing, what they would do again. Tomorrow they would go back to being cool and aloof acquaintances, colleagues, officers.

But that was tomorrow.

Tucking her head under his chin, he dropped a kiss onto the top of her head and they drifted to sleep wrapped in one another.


Next time: Pon Farr strikes and the rating goes up to a juicy M