Here it is! The long overdue end to my smutty little romp through the Trek 'verse. My apologies for the delay. Now, onwards to complete Another Path!
Epilogue
Stumbling backwards, Nyota dimly felt her back impact with the wall of the office as her pristine, black mortar board tumbled from her head. Her arms were tangled in the voluminous, black fabric of her graduation robes and the hood had somehow managed to un-loop itself from her clothing to hang crookedly from her shoulder. From outside the stellar cartography building, the excited shouts of freshly graduated students filled the air with joviality. For a fleeting moment she thought of how nice it must be to be part of the heaving throngs of her peers.
Right now however, she had a more interesting kind of heaving to deal with.
A stitch popped, followed quickly by several more as eager hands practically ripped the fabric of her gown apart, their excitement to get to what was hidden underneath was so great. Long, dextrous fingers made contact with skin and Nyota gasped into the kiss that was holding her captive.
"So long... waited so long..." this helpless murmur was directed into her neck as the kiss was broken. She sucked in as deep a breath as she could manage, which was not much considering that the man quickly stripping her seemed intent on robbing her of it as well as her clothes. The ceremonial robes fell to the floor; as soon as her arms were free to move again she wasted no time in tearing into his charcoal uniform. The damn thing had stood between them for too long, it was time for it to go.
Exercising the sort of strength she had no right to, she flipped them around so it was he who was pinned against the wall. Clawing her fingers into the front fasteners of the instructor's jacket she wrenched it open and thrilled in the groan that tore from his throat. Shoving it violently down his arms, she let the sleeves bunch at his elbows then left it there, leaving him effectively immobile while she attacked his neck and slid her hands underneath the black uniform undershirt. He had begun to shrug the jacket the rest of the way off but tensed in pleasure as she touched the freshly toned muscles of his abdomen. He had been anticipating this day and had made the effort of fitting in some extra work-out time wherever he could in preparation. Feeling her grin against his throat as her fingers explored his tightly worked muscles, he was thankful that his efforts were appreciated. Her fingers explored higher, spanning over his engorged pectorals and he finally freed himself from the jacket, dropping it to the floor at their feet. Crossing his arms down over his torso he trapped her hands momentarily as he grasped the hem of his undershirt and pulled it up over his head.
Nyota pulled back from her attack on his long, sensitive neck as he pulled off the shirt and had to blink a few times to make sure she wasn't dreaming; in their time apart he had not been idle. She took another step back so she could take him in properly; she'd felt the change in his body, now she wanted to see it.
Spock stood before her, half naked and strong, his slender frame having been bulked with more lean muscle than the last time she had seen him like this. His arms stood out slightly from his sides due to his enlarged latissimus dorsi, his pectorals were defined and hard and they heaved as he breathed rapidly. The abdominals that she had discovered first, stood out proudly below his skin and his obliques formed a tantalizing 'V' shape as they disappeared into his trousers. Her eyes raked up his body, took in his tousled hair and kiss-swollen lips before finally coming to rest in the flaring heat of his human eyes.
That was all she had time for because he was on her again in an instant, his hands coming up to shed the rest of her clothing as his tongue plunged deep into her mouth. Staggering backwards and stepping out of her shoes as she did, Nyota felt the backs of her legs meet the office's sofa, which if she remembered correctly was nowhere near big enough to hold them both horizontally. Surely Spock knew this, why had he guided them here? Surely the desk would be better suited to their needs. She broke the mad kiss for a second and glanced behind herself, almost laughing at what she saw.
He'd replaced the sofa.
The comfortable, fluffy, overstuffed monster that now sat in place of the minimalist collection of pads that had made up the previous sofa was more than enough for them. It must have raised an eyebrow or two when it was installed in the otherwise austere office. Returning her head to face him, she took his jaw in both hands and kissed him lightly, laughing. "You certainly are prepared, Commander."
He managed to grind out, "Enough talking," before he took her head into the cradle of his hands and bit into a kiss so deep that his eyes rolled back in his head. He fell onto the sofa, holding her below him as he did. Wriggling free of the trousers still clinging possessively to his hips, he continued to attempt to suck his mate's very essence into his mouth as his tongue tangled with hers. Need you. Now.
Nyota gasped, her mouth breaking free of his as he finally ripped away the last remaining physical barriers between them. As her underwear fluttered into a shredded heap on the carpet, her arms and legs came up to wrap around him. His arousal pressed firmly against her pubis and he groaned hotly against her throat, "Nyota, please, do not make me wait any longer."
"I need to be sure of something first." Despite the fact that they were already naked and halfway to where they both wanted to be, she took his face in her hands and forced him to meet her gaze. His eyes had blackened to the point of ultimate dark and she had to steel her nerves - just in case she got the answer she didn't want - before she asked him, "It's been over a year, Spock. Have you... has there... um..." She trailed off; did she really want to know if he'd been with anyone else in the interim? He was hers now so did it really matter? A rare spike of insecurity lanced through her, what if she'd lost him by making him wait? What if this whole situation was just the lust talking?
As if reading her mind - in a way he was, the link was still present between them, but weak due to the lack of contact for eighteen months - he kissed her softly, stopping her rambling enquiry. Quietening the blazing ardour that burned within him, he murmured against her lips, "There has been no other, Ashayam." He moved to nuzzle his nose into the hair at her temple. "Even if I wished to forget you by losing myself in another, I would not. Such an encounter would be a meaningless diversion and therefore illogical."
She sighed, feeling ridiculous that she had questioned his loyalty and tingling all over as he used a very Vulcan term of endearment to address her. She chuckled, "Wasn't our original encounter supposed to be a meaningless diversion?"
His hands skimmed down her sides, smoothed over her hips and lifted her legs a little higher on his waist. "Are you questioning my logic, Nyota Uhura?" Opening her up a little more, he positioned himself into the prime location and shivered against her as she shifted slightly below him.
She arched, pleading with her body for him to complete the movement he had started. "I'll question anything you want me to, just move! Please!"
He moved.
Slowly.
Sinking into her with the sort of speed more appropriate for a snail, Spock shuddered. His eyes slid closed, his length slid home and his fingers slipped up to her face. As the weakened bond between them flared with renewed energy, his fingers twitched involuntarily against her temple and spread themselves into full meld position of their own volition.
Nyota sighed in bliss as he slowly drew out of her and his fingers caressed her face. As he sank back in again, a little quicker this time, she realised that he was shaking. It wasn't a delicate tremble of need, nor was it a delicious shiver of desire, this was actual, physical, going-into-shock shaking.
She opened her eyes to find his face, tightened in what looked like discomfort, directly above her. Alarmed, she whispered "Spock?" He twitched as she said his name, but didn't open his eyes. "Spock, what's wrong?"
Spock felt like he was going to explode, not in a good way and not in the proverbial sense. His entire being was screaming, screaming for him to take the final step and complete the bond that he had laid the foundation for so long ago.
He couldn't.
He sent the preliminary tendrils of telepathic touch - as was standard etiquette for the forming of a mating bond - into her mind.
Nothing happened.
He opened his eyes and blinked at her. Maybe she was incompatible for the mating bond; but that could not be, as they had already established a basic version and sustained it for a not inconsiderable period. He dumbly took his fingers off her face and put them back again.
Still nothing. A muscle in his eye twitched. The screaming in his head got louder.
"Spock?"
Her voice finally managed to pierce the haze; he stammered a reply, "I-I need to b-bond... need to com-complete what we s-started."
Nyota frowned. "Bond? What are you talking about?"
He squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath, in an attempt to calm himself. It didn't work. "You remember the-the touch, on the temples, that h-had an effect on us both?"
She nodded.
"When we did that, it established a weak m-mating bond." He swallowed the knot in his throat, missing her face flash briefly with shock. "Vulcans bond mentally when we mate with someone we care for." His eyes closed again with the effort of control. "I am trying to complete the process."
Nyota shoved him bodily off her and shot to her feet, uncaring of her state of undress. 'Livid' did not even come close to describing her abruptly established state of mind. He had worked some sort of weird Vulcan voodoo on her without asking her permission; she wanted to punch him. She grabbed her clothes and scrambled her way into the pieces that were still intact.
"Explain. NOW."
Spock propped himself up on one elbow, masochistically thankful that she was cross; if she had remained intoxicated by him he would not have been able to calm down enough to clarify. As she backed further away from him his mind finally started to clear enough for him to tell her about it.
"It is a natural part of intimate relations between two Vulcans, it enables us to become joined in mind as well as body." He looked away, no longer able to hold her gaze as she glared at him. "I thought, as we had already touched each other's minds, that I would be able to establish a full bond between us. I meant it as an expression of affection, Nyota, nothing more."
Nyota blinked at him, her lips pressed into a thin line of frustrated confusion. "So this 'bond'... it's like a sexual aid?"
Spock squirmed and pulled the sofa's covering throw over himself in an attempt to regain some modesty. "It is a little more than that. When Vulcans are wed-"
"OH MY GOD!" She cut him off, her eyes as wide as saucers as her heightened emotions made her make wild, leaping assumptions. "You were trying to marry me?!"
He flushed from his neck to the tips of his ears in mortification. "No, Nyota; when Vulcans are wed, they can form a telepathic bond, but this is not always a given. If the marriage is arranged and there is no affection between the two, then a bond can be almost impossible to achieve without help of the elders. Bonding is a natural, almost unconscious occurrence between partners who feel deeply for one another."
Nyota sneered, despite the pull in her heart at his mention of deep affection between them. "Bullshit. You were in my head from the first time we slept together."
Spock looked steadily at her; his full control now returning. "Yes, Nyota; as you were in mine. That was no coincidence."
She snorted and turned away from him, her arms coming up to fold tightly across her chest. "Love at first sight? Don't make me laugh, Spock; that was just lust, good, clean lust." She heard him moving behind her, rising from the sofa and dressing himself.
"Nyota, you are not listening." She turned to face him and his voice gained an edge; this woman was able to roust his emotions like no other. It was exhilarating. Snapping his ruined jacket onto his torso, his eyebrows pulled into a scowl. "This sexual bonding is natural for Vulcans. You spoke to me in Vulcan, you touched me in the way that Vulcans touch and you rutted with me as if we were a pair of animals; you cannot expect me not to respond to that as if it were nothing. You even welcomed the linking!" His voice had risen in anger. He took a long breath and re-established control of himself.
While her face flushed with rage at his attitude, acting as though she had asked for it, a small voice in the back of her mind whispered that she had, in fact acted irresponsibly in the first place by flinging herself at a member of a race she knew so little about. But then she remembered back to how, when she had questioned him about the touch to the temples and her body's reaction, he had been evasive, and the rage surged even higher. "You had every chance to tell me what I was getting myself into but you refused. To force your Vulcan customs onto your unsuspecting human partners is diabolical." She shook her head and moved swiftly to the door.
Spock stopped her.
"You cannot leave." His eyes had dilated to the point where they were almost black. His hands came up to hold her shoulders as he gazed deeply into her eyes. "I have waited too long for you." She blinked, so he pressed on, his body starting to respond to her again. "I made a mistake in not divulging everything from the start, but what I felt with you I have never felt before; not with a human, not with a Vulcan, not ever; I did not know how to act or what to share, all I knew was that I could not be apart from you."
Nyota broke his gaze and looked down; this heartfelt manner of speaking was not something she had ever expected to hear from him. He was so guarded, so restrained, so-
He kissed her.
She gasped a breath in through her nose and could not help but respond. Her fingers went straight for his temples, but instead of delicately transmitting her desire as she had before, she blasted her possession of him into his mind. He had controlled their emotional interactions for long enough.
It was her turn now.