Red Is My Color

Posted on Tue Aug 9th, 2022 @ 9:41pm by Lieutenant Commander Lyra Cassiel & Lieutenant Commander Andrei Petrov
Edited on on Wed Oct 19th, 2022 @ 5:12am

Mission: S1 Episode 3: Phage
Location: Cassiel's Quarters
Timeline: Mission Day 3 at 2345
4090 words - 8.2 OF Standard Post Measure

After a few non-romantic stops on Vengeance, Andrei made his way to Deck 5 with a gift-wrapped box in hand. He had long unzipped his uniform jacket and was walking around as casually as the uniform would allow. With the red and gold box under his arm, he rang the chime to Maddie's room. He expected she might be asleep, but he didn't even consider trying again a different time.

“Computer, who is outside the door?” Madeline asked with annoyance in her voice.

“Lieutenant Andrei Petrov.” Came the just slightly too upbeat reply.

With a sigh and roll of her eyes, she turned around in the shower to finish rinsing off. He could wait another moment. Once she was clean, she turned off the water and opened the door. The cool air hit her and made her shudder and sigh; it was a feeling she enjoyed though many usually found it unpleasant. Picking up her commbadge, she tapped it and spoke. “Cassiel to Petrov. I’m going to let you in, but behave.” He didn’t get a chance to reply and he would hear the door unlock. Not trusting him to do just the opposite, she quickly wrung out her wet hair and patted herself dry-ish before throwing on her robe.

As soon as the door was unlocked, Andrei walked in with a stride that suggested he’d been there a thousand times before. Placing the gift on the coffee table, he lowered himself onto the couch and relaxed, folding his arms under his chest and letting his gaze wander about the room. If he didn’t hear the sound of running water from the bathroom, he would have thought he was alone. On the table he noticed two wine glasses, meaning she had at some point had a guest.

Andrei would have been treated to the same view as her guest earlier; abstract color artworks favoring reds, the throw on the back of the couch in the black, red and white pattern, a picture of Madeline with a younger man and a boy sitting on either side of her, the picture of the older couple, and finally the display of weapons situated proudly over the small now closed cabinet on the far wall. The soft smell of ginger and cinnamon hung in the air only enough to be pleasant and not cloying in the slightest. When he didn’t actually rush in further, she took a moment to dry her hair and body a bit more. She ran a brush through her long hair like she would any other time after a shower. Once the area was neat and tidy, she walked out to the living area wearing nothing but the robe around her.

She paused at the frame of the door and leaned against it; she crossed her arms under her chest. “Hello there.” She greeted and just looked at him with a quirked brow. The robe around her was a deep blood red and appeared to be some sort of satin-like material with its slight sheen. Her arms were covered, but it offered Andrei more skin than he had ever seen her bare otherwise. Her long, athletic legs were exposed up to her middle thigh and the neckline of the robe exposed a surprisingly ample amount of cleavage. He could see beads of water still rolling down her bare skin when they shimmered in the low light of her quarters.

“What brings you here at this hour?”

“Hello..” he responded, his eyes rather shamelessly moving over her smooth skin, traveling the paths of her collar bones deep into her cleavage and then traversing the tempting journey between her tan feet and her thighs. In public he would have restrained himself without hesitation, but here, he showed his interest without words or pomp. Then he met her gaze, his eyes filled with an intense and comfortable challenge. “I go where my interests take me…and I see I’ve made the right choice of destinations.”

He leaned forward and gestured to the gift-wrapped box sitting on the table. The box was rather large and gave no signs of what it might be. His eyes found her again, following that same trail again up to her deep brown eyes.

“I brought you something you’ll find very interesting.”

As Madeline stood there, her eyes shifted to the box with a brief, passing curiosity, but when they shifted back to Andrei it became much more intense. Intimate even. She displayed no annoyance at or inclination to shy away from his appraising gaze of her body. She let him look. Whether he consciously knew it or not he had likely come here at this particular hour with hope of something just like this being the case. She was also positive that wasn’t the only reason. She could have turned and retreated to her room for at least a few more articles of clothing but instead she walked out toward him with a comfortable ease. Her hips swayed, accentuated by the shimmering red fabric sliding over her softly tanned skin. Without hesitation, she sat down with him on the couch, but kept a respectful distance from him. She crossed her legs, bringing the fabric up even higher on her thigh so nearly everything was revealed but not quite.

“I’m very interested.” She spoke in a silken voice, her dark eyes full of secrets never once leaving his gaze in favor of the box.

He watched her hips in their hypnotic sway as she moved down and sat close to him. The stolen glance at the nearly exposed space between her thighs lasted but an instant as he was lost in her eyes again. Her proximity brought the smell of her shower-gels.

"You are. That's good; it's what I'd hoped." he said with much feeling, though his face let off very little of how he was really feeling. "There's something about a wrapped gift that just grabs the mind, isn't there? The mystery of life and a game of chance; one never knows what is being concealed from them. It's the chance for a great or terrible surprise."

He turned his head slightly, scooting toward her in an obvious and unapologetic way, though he still left a reasonable gap so that they weren't touching. His eyes still rested on hers, but his body was relaxed and easy.

"In that silken red, Maddie, you look something like a wrapped present." he said, his eyes traveling toward the meeting of her thighs, barely obscured by the fabric of her robe. "I'd kill to see what is underneath."

“It seems you’d do an awful lot of killing for me, Andrei.” She all but purred and a slight smirk appeared on her face. “For my secrets, my body, my my.” Her eyes never left his unless he looked away and even then remained on his face. “Red is my color.”

"Well then I picked the perfect wrapping paper," he declared. "And the perfect gift."

“Did you?” She asked and finally looked away from him and to the gift on the table. A few stray beads of water rolled down her neck slowly. “It does look quite nice.” She finally reached out to pick up the box and drew it into her lap then looked to Andrei and quirked a brow to see if he wanted her to open it now.

He shook his head subtly. An indication that he didn’t think it was time. Then he leaned forward, placing his hands on either side of the box, his finger resting over hers. He was close now, his eyes meeting hers at an intimate distance.

“You told me a short while ago about the importance of patience, did you not? Waiting until the right moment to strike.” He smirked devilishly. “Good things can wait. Or, do you rather think it’s time for us to open our presents? Red gift wrapping is so tempting after all.”

Madeline leaned in closer, her lips not far from his but still just out of reach. “Yes, it is very important.” She slid one hand out from under his and brought it up to rest against his cheek, her thumb brushing over his lips in a tender fashion, but there was so much more there. She looked into his eyes, that darkness in her own glittered with both amusement and anticipation. “Be patient, darling.” Her voice was low, full of desire. “I have the perfect moment in mind for you, but not quite yet.”

“When I was five, I had mastered the art of sneaking around the estate without being caught. One day, after sweet talking a maid, I was told where my parents kept my birthday presents. I went to the closet and I studied those packages for days. Then, one night soon after, I snuck into the room and painstakingly unwrapped every one of them to see what they were. I wrapped them back, exactly as I’d found them. A few days later, my mother placed a plastic toy bracelet I was always wearing on the breakfast table in front of me and told me I lost it. Like a child, I had accidentally left it in the closet. Otherwise, it had been the perfect crime. Strange enough, I think my mother was proud of me that day.” He said, and then looked at her with raised brows. “Clever children always sneak a peek, don’t they?”

He grabbed her wrist with his, his grasp strong but not meant to give pain. He kissed her fingers slowly, one at a time, his eyes still locked on hers. When he moved the hand down, he did so slowly, and maintained a more gentle grasp on it. He leaned forward slightly and put his lips on hers gently. It was barely enough to be called a kiss, but it lingered there for a while. It was a temptation; an invitation. He wondered what she would do.

Madeline smirked at the story and pictured a young Andrei doing just that and being quite pleased with his success until he was caught. Even at a young age she could imagine that the incident only drove him to better himself. She thoroughly enjoyed the way he grabbed her wrist and kissed her fingers, her eyes dancing with his with interest and restrained desire. When he pressed his lips to her own, she couldn’t help but smirk slightly. He liked to press.

So did she.

She brushed her lips against his but in the same moment, her body shifted with a surprising swiftness and he found her now straddling his lap. She leaned her body into his, her chest pressing into his and pinning him back against the couch. Her hands grabbed the back of the couch over his shoulders and in this position she was sitting taller than him, looking down into his eyes now. “Who would you kill for one of my secrets, Andrei?”

As she straddled him, the present shifted beside them and he instinctively pressed it back to the table. He was doing the peeking first. With her on his lap, he felt a swell of adrenaline and desire, and blood rushed to his manly parts. His hands found her hips even as a bulge started and elongated under his uniform pants which would be unmistakable to her. He smiled and breathed heavily, ignoring her question for an instant and kissing at her still-moist neck, quick pecks at first and then deep kisses. Eventually, however, he answered her question, his lips pressed against her neck, casting warm breath.

“I rather think you want to do this one yourself, but I would gladly take your place.”

He kissed her neck again, his erection now fully extended beneath her in his uniform pants.

“But you might name any name, Mad Maddie. As long as I don’t need them alive.”

Madeline didn’t pull away from him. She allowed his hands on her hips, his lips against her neck. Allowed. She gave, he didn’t take. She closed her dark eyes, tilting her head to offer up more of her long, toned neck to him. A pleasured sigh escaped her lips. She did nothing to reciprocate anything in this moment. When he finally answered her question, she knew what he was talking about and gave no answer other than a smirk and slight shake of her head. That was for her and her alone. When he was done, she pulled back just enough to look down to him again, that unsettling amusement playing in her dark eyes; it wasn’t directed at him specifically, it was something she was genuinely sharing with him.

She said nothing and instead suddenly turned and sat in his lap, leaving his erection now firmly pressed against her toned, rounded backside. She grabbed his gift from the table and leaned her back against his chest while she began to pull at one of the ends of the ribbon. Even the way she did this was intimate, suggestive in the way she deftly unwound the shimmering gold band from the red package.

He wrapped his arm around and rested them in her lap, looking over her shoulder at the gift being slowly unwrapped. There was always a guessing game with a gift, but this one was harder to give still. Risky and, if he was wrong about her, she would run screaming. He decided to take the chance. What was life in not one great adventure; one incredible test? He grinned, imagining her, for a moment, without that robe. It was thin and silky, and he could feel her warmth and the contour of her body.

“Let’s see what we’ve got.” He said in a low voice.

“Mmhm.” She hummed her agreement and dropped the ribbon down beside them on the couch. Her fingers slid under the edges of the paper, popping them open with precision. There was a time to tear into things, but this was not one. The still immaculate paper joined the ribbon next to them and she was left with the box resting on her toned thighs. Her fingers brushed against it to just feel the texture, then she finally opened it while looking with intense curiosity.

Inside a Talaxian dagger sat strategically placed, silver and gleaming except for the dried blood caked on the blade. Beside it sat a short, dead finger with pale spots on it. On the finger, just above the bloody severed end, was a ring of dark silver with an exotically shaped ruby encrusted at the top.

“I thought you might look better in this than she did.” He said, lifting the lid completely off for her. “Red is your color, after all.”

Given she was sitting in his lap Andrei would have been able to feel any visceral reaction she might have had to his grim gift, but she continued to sit there just as at ease as she had been when she had been unwrapping it. If she was revolted or terrified, it was impossible to tell. However, given the curious tilt to her head and the way she unreservedly picked up the severed finger to pull the ring off, this seemed perfectly par for the course to her. Without hesitation, she let it slide down the index finger of her right hand where it seemed to fit quite nicely. “How lovely.” She mused and smiled as she lifted her hand up and out in front of her to better look at the gleaming ring.

He watched as she lifted the ring and slipped it onto her finger. It was just as fetching as he'd imagined. He smiled and grabbed her hand, pulling it back and kissing it again.

"The dagger is yours as well. She said it is ancestral in her family." he mused, and then shrugged slightly, moving her hand back down again. "Or it was."

“Well if she wanted to keep it, she should have learned how to use it better so she didn’t lose it.” Madeline shrugged and picked up the blood stained exotic looking dagger to inspect it. “Was she just a little too feisty to be useful? Or did lopping off her finger make her more inclined to obey?”

"Well that would be more than a peak at the present, now wouldn't it?" he asked rhetorically. He looked at her thin neck, watching how it trailed down into her cleavage. It was a journey he very much wanted to travel. He restrained himself, however, and settled for nuzzling at her neck again and enjoying the view. His hand moved to her thigh and sat there menacingly, making no move besides to dance subtly in one spot. "Questions questions, Mad Maddie. Use your imagination. What do you think happened?"

“I hope she begged.” She purred in a strangely aroused way and looked at the ring again. For a beat she was quiet and then shifted so she could turn and look back at him. “How thoughtful of you. Is this what I get for not letting your little kitty friend turn that lovely face of yours to ribbons?” She asked with a smirk and leaned in to brush her lips against his in a brief kiss.

"This is what you get for being magnificent. I got it for you to make you smile." he said with a surprising degree of genuineness. "I have a different reward in mind for your assistance on the planet."

He kissed her on the lips, much deeper than last time, but very quickly and pulled back, a playful look on his face. He held her tight, his notably strong body pressed more firmly against hers. He was playing with fire and he knew it, but he had no intention of getting burned. He moved his hand up to the middle of her thigh and squeezed just a bit too hard and for the briefest moment. He watched her closely, like a show was going on.

"She begged, she pleaded, and she offered to do anything I asked," he said. "But in the end, it didn't matter. I had one goal in mind. I wanted to see that ring on your finger."

He liked to press. So did she.

Madeline was still holding the dagger in her other hand and when he squeezed her thigh, she smirked and brought it up to trace just the very tip over his jaw. There wasn't enough pressure to make him bleed and he could see in her eyes she had no intention of actually hurting him with it. Instead she put the point under his chin to get him to tilt his head up so she could kiss him deeply again. The dagger was removed and she held it loosely to her side and behind. "And so it is."

He felt the sharp tip of the blade on his skin. Dangerous. He liked dangerous. As she kissed him back, he felt a very unsubtle ache between his own legs. He hadn't been so attracted to someone since puberty and, in some ways, he found it reinvigorating. He was hungry for her, and every bit of that desire was obvious in his eyes. He moved his hand up underneath her robe and rested it across her inner thigh with his index finger resting on the transition between leg skin and the skin of her womanhood. She was warm down there and he could feel her increased heartbeat pumping away between his fingers. He sat there again, his finger playing subtly with the outer wrapping of that present he so wanted to open.

"So tell me, Maddie...do you still like the waiting game?" he asked, his lips close to hers. "If you like, I could bring you a head next time. Or..."

He moved his finger inward a bit, resting it on the soft skin of her pubic area, dancing in the short, trimmed hair still damp from her shower.

Maddie licked her lips and gave a soft, breathless chuckle. "You are a devil, aren't you?" She teased and kissed him again. Her hand slid down his body slowly. She wanted him and that was obvious from the warmth he could feel between her legs and the look in her eyes; it was so, so very tempting. "I can't say I like the waiting game but, Andrei," her eyes locked with his in earnest. "I promise it will be so very, very worth it in the end." She paused for another kiss as her hand continued to trail down. "And the only head you'll need to bring me is yours." As she said the words, she groped his manhood firmly through his pants, her eyes immediately lidding as she felt the size even through the fabric. He watched a smirk slowly curl onto her lips.

“I’ve brought that already.” He said with a broad grin, his finger wandering over her most sensitive parts, but in a casual and suggestive way, rather than truly probing. “But I fear I should leave before I consider getting what I want regardless.”

He removed his hand like he was taking it from a strong magnet, with a force of will, and looked at her even more longingly than before. He had the look of a man who was half animal on the inside, rather like how Sovas had looked at her earlier. She might not have been sure if he intended on waiting at all anymore. Then, after a short moment, his face eased and he lowered her robe. He offered a warm expression that was strangely innocent.

She didn't balk from him nor the subtle threat from his words; instead she simply looked into his eyes and smirked at the feral look she saw deeper within. When he pulled his hand back and let her robe fall back into its place, her smirk gentled into a smile and she leaned in for another kiss. There was passion there, but it was restrained, and as she kissed him she ran the back of her right index finger down the side of his face so he could feel his gift to her and the skin of her finger against his flesh. Her dark gaze held her promise; her gift to him would be sweet when the time came. One more stolen kiss and she finally pulled away, standing and stepping back from him to finally allow him up.

"Goodnight, Andrei. It was lovely to see you as always."

He stood, his protrusion obvious. With his hand, he moved to make an adjustment, a rather difficult task. He removed his uniform jacket and wrapped it around his waist. He looked stupid, but far better than exiting her quarters with a noticeable erection. He gave her a wink and a grin.

“Hope it wasn’t too late.” He said, even though it was obvious it wasn’t a problem, and if it had been, he likely wouldn’t have cared.

"Well when you bring me such lovely things, how could I deny you?" Madeline smirked and flipped her hair back behind her shoulder. She displayed no real annoyance at the hour he had shown up, though obviously she had already been awake.

Fighting the desire to steal another kiss, Andrei set a course for the door. She had left him with a project to take care of in his pants, and he suspected he had done the same to her. He paused at the door and looked at her.

“Perhaps next time I should get here just a bit earlier and get here at the best part of the shower.” He said, offering a cocky grin, and then he turned and was gone.

Madeline watched him go and then turned to head back into her bedroom. Tumbling down into the bed, she gave a long sigh as she rolled on her back and just stared at the ceiling. He was trying to press her buttons, trying to wrap his mind around her and learn her secrets. He was interested, so was she. She lifted her right hand above her head and regarded the sparkling alien ruby inset into the ring. It was a good gift. It had made her interested… among other things. Sighing again, she lowered her hands to her thighs and slid the silken material of her robe upward.

“Computer, lights off.”

END