This week had it's ups and downs. *sigh* Mostly downs, if I'm being honest. On top of that, the weather's being true to it's April-reputation and with all that thrown together I'm really feeling like throwing in the towel, packing up and moving down to Oz or NZ (Europe, and West in general, are starting to stink). Even though it's Autumn there. Hopefully I'd get work somewhere, but with my recent luck I'd run out of money and be stuck in a foreign land with no family, no friends, no job and no place to live.
*shaking the dark cloud away* Sorry, guys, didn't want to bring down the mood.
On a brighter note, your responses to the first part of this story really cheered me up and convinced me that perhaps I'm not kicking against a rock wall with this one after all. Even though you know who you are, I'm still giving you my explicit thanks, Michi uk, Vesja, carolfd, Lynnp and starryeyes12.
Perhaps I am getting a little too enthusiastic in this chapter with it, but I am a guy and the way Tracy looked like in that towel... Well, I tried to edit-out most of Harm's impressions and thoughts on the matter, but without them the story just didn't flow as nicely. Which means you're stuck with them and I do apologise for any annoyance and hurt sensibilities they may inspire in you, dear readers.
Btw., the understroked text is a direct transcript of this very scene from the show.
So, go read it! :)
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It was exactly what she'd needed, a nice hot shower to wash off the grime and sweat of her half a day of transit.
The entire bathroom was fogged-up and humidity the like of a rainforest weighed heavily in the small room as the petite woman wrapped a towel around her slim body and stepped out of the cubicle.
Releasing her lush hair from the clip she mourned the fact she had to prevent it from getting wet, she simply didn't have the time to dry it. But it sure would've felt nice... because right now she would've been feeling like she'd been reborn.
' Oh well, you can't have everything.' was her thought as she ambled, barefoot, through CDR Rabb's hotel room towards her suitcase to retrieve clean clothes. Even though Rabb wasn't there it still felt somehow wrong, she still felt exposed, walking through his hotel room almost naked and she longed to put something on.
Suddenly, without warning, the front door opened and the man himself stepped inside, automatically putting his cover on the armoire by the door.
She stopped in her tracks, shocked at being caught red-handed.
"Commander!" she exclaimed, hugging herself in an unconscious attempt to hide the sight of her body from him. If she'd felt revelead just seconds ago she felt doubly so right now. Right that moment she felt naked.
She wasn't the only one not having expected this situation, Harm was so stunned he'd forgotten to close the door, his hand still holding on to it "Commander?"
She brushed her towel-covered stomach before her arms found the classic defensive posture of being crossed over her chest "Good morning, sir, I'm sorry to startle you."
Harm was still clutching the open door and motioned towards the world outside "Am I in the wrong room?"
"No, this is your room, mine wasn't ready so I talked them into giving me a hotel key just so I could shower. I couldn't wait and uh... I know we don't have much time, I'm sorry."
Inwardly she cursed herself for babbling like an awkward teenager, but it simply couldn't be helped. She hadn't experienced this kind of panic ever since her parents had caught her in her family's home with Bobby MacGee's hand down her pants. Only an open window had rescued Bobby from death by her enraged father, while she'd been grounded for the next three years aka the remainder of her time in High School and much of College (since she'd signed up for the one in her home city). What two years of forced social isolation had done to her reputation at College is best not mentioned.
Seeing her standing there in his room, still moist and dressed in nothing but a towel, his towel from his bathroom and his hotel room, an old, almost-forgotten feeling of possession rose up in him, against his will and against the fact that he had no right to feel that way. She wasn't his, she was merely in his room naked, wearing his towel. Yeah, she wasn't his and he didn't feel a thing at seeing her there, like that.
Oh, who was he kidding?!
All these facts combined had awakened the primal part of him and made his loins stir to life. He couldn't help himself, he had to run his eyes over the prize, very much liking what he could see of her.
Her attractive facial features had drawn his attention the first time he'd met her, followed closely by her intellect and personality.
Beautiful olive skin, thanks to her Asian ancestry, dark almond eyes, thick hair the shade of the finest mahogany and below the towel the most exquisite legs Harm had seen in his life.
Period, no quarter given.
They weren't the long, model-thin-with-no-muscle-tone and-only-bone-and-skin type of legs Mac possessed, in fact they were better. Much, much better. These were the legs of a runner or a dancer. Not the legs of a woman who looks like a man trapped in a woman's body; her thighs and calves had the muscles that could only be descibed as graceful and utterly and completely feminine.
If the rest of Tracy would've been hidden from sight by something, there would've still been no-one in the world that would identify the owner of those legs as anything but a woman, a woman with a fantastic figure no less.
He could imagine so clearly the experience of having them wrapped around his waist as he gripped her tiny waist, and this inspired in him a reaction he barely managed to suppress before it became visible to the female officer in question.
Okay, so Harm appreciated a woman having nicely sculpted legs. There's nothing wrong with that, is it?
Tearing his eyes from the pilars of perfection he met her dark pools again, too lost in admiration to control his tongue or even be aware of what was tumbling out of his mouth.
"No, that's... that's fine, Commander. I'm glad you're here."
Only too late did he realize what he'd said, evoking in his mind the mental image of putting a foot into his mouth.
Tracy couldn't conceal her smile, her anxiety draining out of her at seeing him so flustered and affected by her. He was just so damn cute, standing there, stuttering, trying to dig himself out of the hole, incapable of meeting her eyes. Funny thing, since she'd clearly seen him check her out just seconds ago...
Unaware of his partner's amusement Harm tried to recover the situation before it became any more awkward "I mean in Naples, not in the... uh, my hotel room..."
Looking away in embarrassment he was about to make his escape when the gorgeous woman shocked the living daylights out of him.
"That's truly regretable, Commander. I was hoping you'd be happy to find me here... Naked, except for this towel." she told a white lie in the name of the cause, her head facing the afore-mentioned towel as she fingered it with one hand, and looked up at him through her lashes.
The little minx knew exactly what she was doing to him; she'd known it'd drive his imagination wild with images of that towel coming off if she played with it and the look thing? Seduction pure.
This was a turn of events Harm hadn't expected, so he was too surprised to react properly, nor did he have an already thought-out and rehearsed reaction stored away for such a situation.
What do you do when you find your coworker in your bedroom, almost naked, who then starts apologizing, but suddenly changes tunes and is doing her level best to seduce you?
Sure, he'd always been aware women found him attractive, he'd lived his entire life with this knowledge, but he'd never expected COMMANDER MANETTI to do something about it.
Tracy's eyes glittered with satisfaction and awakened lust when, satisfied Harm either didn't want to run or was too stunned, she decided to close the distance...
Reviews are love, give me lots of love. *pathetic whining:* PLEASE.