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It had been 417 days since they had officially begun dating. Not that she'd been counting of course. (She’d marked it on her calendar the minute Thorne had asked her to make it official.)
She was ready. She wanted it.
You can do this. She told herself.
She took one more look in the mirror and threw on her robe as she exited the room. Their room.
They had started sleeping in the same room to help each other with their nightmares. She walked down the hall of the Rampion to the control room where Thorne was engrossed in an article about space travel. He looked up at her and smiled, then continued to read.
"Th-Thorne." She spoke up after a minute of silence.
"Yeah, what is it darlin’?” He asked, still very interested in his article.
"Can you join me in our room?"
"I'll be there in a few minutes," he replied. "Let me just finish this up."
"Thorne. It's pretty urgent."
That caught his attention. He looked up at her, back down at the article, and once again back at her. He walked over to her, his face etched with concern.
"Is everything alright, Cress?"
Instead of responding, she grabbed his hand and marched them back to their quarters.
"Cress?"
No response.
When they entered the bedroom, he took hold of her wrist and turned her towards him. She was averting her gaze.
"Cress, is everything alright?" He implored. "You're really freaking me out."
She took a deep breath. Told herself once again you can do this and brought her eyes slowly up to his. In an instant, the white robe she was wearing pooled around her feet.
--
"Aces," he breathed, holding her at an arm's length as he raked his gaze up and down her small form. She was wearing bright red lingerie on her body and a small smirk on her lips. He realized just a moment ago, she had looked like an angel in her white, fluffy robe. Now she looked positively sinful. Recovering from his initial shock, he brought his eyes back to meet hers.
"Do-do you like it?" Despite her confident smile, she was obviously feeling incredibly self-conscious.
He allowed himself his own signature smirk. "Do I like it?" He took a step forward, now towering over her. Their eyes locked. She inhaled unsteadily. "Cress, I love it," he whispered.
--
That was all the confirmation she needed. She took his face in her hands and crashed her lips onto his. Her small body pressed up against his well-formed one. After a few minutes of passionate kissing, Cress was out of breath so she decided to throw him down on the bottom bunk. He didn't seem to mind her weight as she crawled on top of him kissing him intently. Her heart was doing somersaults as he wound his arms around her; she could taste mint on his lips like he’d just brushed his teeth. A moment later he pulled away, their breathing heavy.
"Are you sure this time?" He asked, trying to catch his breath.
--
The first time she had brought up sex with Carswell Thorne had been an interesting experience. They had been staying at Benoit Farms for a weekend while delivering a batch of letumosis antidotes around the Paris area.
It was three months since they had started dating. Cress had been doing a little research on her own and discovered that this was about the time that many couples started having sex. So the morning of their three-month anniversary, she walked into the kitchen where Thorne and Ze'ev were sitting at the table eating breakfast, and Scarlet was doing the dishes.
"I think it's time for us to start having sex," she stated, no hint of shame or embarrassment in her voice.
Ze'ev choked on his breakfast while Scarlet let out a small laugh. Thorne just looked dumbfounded and if she was seeing correctly, more than a little red.
“Cre- wait wh- Cress” her boyfriend stammered, “I feel like this is something that we need to talk about…ya know, one on one? In private?”
Scarlet was still chuckling in the background, whereas Ze’ev had decided on leaving the room so as not to turn the color of his favorite food from secondhand embarrassment.
“Thorne, let me take this one,” Scarlet spoke with a smile as she walked over to Cress and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Why don’t you go help Ze’ev with the chores.”
“But- Cress is my-” he was cut off by a pointed look from the redhead. He muttered his acquiescence and left the room.
Cress had seen enough netfeeds to know what sex was, but she didn’t realize all of the intimacies and precautions that it entailed. It wasn’t something to just jump into because it’s what you’re “supposed to” do, Scarlet explained.
Scarlet’s talk with her made her realize that, in fact, she was not ready to have sex with Carswell Thorne.
Later that evening, she explained that she hadn’t known all of the details and apologized profusely for getting Thorne’s hopes up.
He held her in his arms and spoke softly, “there is nothing that you need to apologize for, well except maybe embarrassing the aces out of me.” He smirked slightly and continued, “never feel guilty about this, it’s your body. It’s your decision when we decide to… do this. I would wait a year, or ten, or one hundred, just as long as you’re ready.”
Cress’s belief that she had the best boyfriend in the galaxy had just been confirmed.
--
There was one other instance where Cress had nearly slept with Carswell Thorne. And it was a disaster.
There was a plethora of unopened boxes in the cargo hold of the Rampion that Cress and Thorne had left unexplored. One evening while Thorne went out to stock up on supplies, insisting that Cress stay aboard, as they were in a pretty rough part of Los Angeles, Cress decided to do a little exploring. She pulled a knife from the kitchen and set to work.
As she opened box after box, she discovered endless numbers of canned foods: peas, tomatoes, peaches, corn, pineapple. The list went on and on.
There were quite a few boxes filled with assorted firearms and ammunition. She picked up a handgun and that triggered awful memories from the Lunar revolution. Cress decided it best to stow all the weapons in the corner, just to be sure she wouldn’t be reminded of her painful past.
Most of the boxes had some sort of label, be it an official American Republic stamp or faded permanent marker scrawled messily on the top. As she had finished looking through most of the boxes, she came across one with the word “Fiesta!” scribbled on the side. Cress took out her portscreen to look up whatever that word meant in English.
“Party. Huh?” she muttered.
Within the box there were tens of bottles of varying shape and size, all with different colored contents. Cress picked up one of the more rectangular ones which held an amber liquid. She broke the seal cautiously and smelled the contents, nearly choking at how strong it was. She immediately put that one back. She grabbed another shorter, squatter bottle with another brownish liquid inside. She followed the same precaution she had with the first in opening the seal, and proceeded to take a whiff. Smelled like wood. Strong, acrid wood. That bottle went right back to its spot within the cardboard box.
Over and over again, she opened and smelled varying bottles and was never satisfied. At least not until she had found the pale pink one in the long skinny bottle. The color alone gave her hope. She cracked the seal, only to find that this bottle had a cork.
“What in the spades am I supposed to do with this?” she wondered aloud.
After five minutes of contemplation, she finally decided to push on the cork and hope that it would come loose. And it did.
“Thank the stars.”
By this point she had put more effort into this single bottle than she had with all the others combined. She hoped beyond hope that this one at least smelled good. Cress lifted the bottle to her nose and inhaled deeply. Very pleased with the results, she took another long, deep breath memorizing the delicious smell of the mystery drink. Intrigued, she placed the bottle on the floor and ran to the kitchen. She grabbed whatever cup she could find first, and headed back to the cargo bay.
Cress sat down on the floor, crossing her legs and fidgeting with excitement. She reached over and grabbed the bottle, pouring a small amount of the aromatic liquid into Thorne’s “I heart Luna” mug. She swirled the drink around, dousing herself in anticipation.
She sipped.
Aces.
She took a longer sip.
Aces and spades.
She finished what was left in her mug.
Aces and spades and stars.
This stuff was amazing! What was this called? There was no label on the bottle, which should’ve been suspicious, but she was too enamored with the beverage to care.
Cress quickly refilled her mug and downed it quite quickly. She mentally berated herself and told herself to slow down, otherwise she wouldn’t be able to enjoy this nectar of the gods for much longer, at the rate she was going.
She took a deep breath and decided to stow the knife she had been using earlier in the kitchen. After she came back, she would be able to reward herself. She stood up, and suddenly felt light-headed.
“Woah.”
She steadied herself and walked slowly back to the kitchen, urging her legs to move away from the cargo bay and towards the kitchen. When she arrived at her destination, she took a quick drink of water to hopefully help with the light-headedness.
Cress strolled back down the corridor, eager for another sweet taste of goodness. She sat down once again and began to pour more drink into her mug. Before she had hardly gotten any in the cup, she stopped herself. Screw it, she said to herself. And she began drinking straight out of the bottle.
The feeling of euphoria spread throughout her entire body as she drank. And drank. And drank.
When she finished the bottle, she was a little disheartened, but let out a small giggle when she nearly face planted after standing up. Man was she dizzy. She stumbled down the hallway almost falling over with each step.
Cress heard someone entering the ship and made her way towards the sound. She saw Thorne, ran over, and jumped on him.
“Aces!” He sounded momentarily frightened. Then she moved her hands under his shirt, unbuttoning as she went up the chiseled plane of his abdomen, sending a shiver down his spine. She began kissing his neck fiercely, and when his shirt was fully unbuttoned, moved down towards his abs. She was trailing her lips and tongue all over his chest. She felt him shudder. Giggling, she worked her way back up to his neck and began to give him a hickey.
“Stars, I should run more errands if this is how you’ll react when I get back,” he laughed shakily.
He moved his arms around her waist and rubbed small circles in the small of her back. A slight moan escaped her lips, and Thorne’s body stiffened. In an instant, she was dragging him down the hall to the cockpit. She threw him down in the pilot’s chair and whispered “captain is king,” completely undoing Thorne. Cress tugged her own shirt over her head and heard his small intake of breath, bringing a sultry smile to her lips.
She sat down on his lap, him obviously pleased with the situation, and resumed kissing his neck once again. His hands moved more deftly on her back and he even dared to take his hands a little lower, eliciting sounds of delight from each of their mouths.
Trailing kisses up to his face, she slowed down. She nibbled his right ear. Then his left. She brushed a kiss over his right and left cheeks. One on his forehead. One on the end of his nose. Then, after all the anticipation, she brought her lips to his.
She expected Thorne to react with delight and desire. Instead she was greeted with rejection. He quickly sat up, making sure she didn’t fall off his lap, but was still abrupt nonetheless.
“Spades, Cress,” he muttered. “You’re absolutely hammered, why didn’t I realize it sooner?”
“N-no I’m not.” She hiccupped, quickly covering her mouth hoping he hadn’t noticed.
“Alright, that’s it, I’m taking you to bed. And not in that way, you need to rest.”
She began to whine, “why don’t you want me? Am I not pretty enough? I can take off my-”
“No taking anything off!” he interrupted, his voice hoarse. She began to cry. He reached over and took her hand, immediately starting to trace little circles with his thumb. “Cress, you know I think you’re the most beautiful girl in this whole galaxy. I’d have to be blind not to see that. Stars, even when I was blind, I still knew that! Of course I want you, but not like this. I just don’t want to take advantage of you when you’re drunk.”
“But, I’m not drunk,” she sobbed, hiccupping at the same time.
“Darlin’, I could taste it on your breath. I’m not mad, spades, I didn’t even know we had alcohol on this ship,” he laughed, “I just need your first time to be special. Our first time.” His smile was hopeful, “now come on, off to bed. You’re going to have a serious hangover in the morning.”
--
Cress remembered these incidents with a slight cringe, eliciting a curious look from Thorne. She brushed it off.
“Yes, I’m ready Carswell Thorne, and for the record, I’m not drunk this time,” a small smile played on her lips.
“Just checking, Crescent Moon Darnel,” he said with a tone of slight cockiness.
Cress started unbuttoning his shirt slowly, while he nipped playfully at her ears and neck. It was driving her insane. But in a “spades, please never stop doing that” sort of insane. Her mind was working overtime as she tried to remain focused on the task at hand. Finally, she got the last button undone, and he sat up removing the shirt completely. She then set to work on his belt, anticipation building up. That was a much quicker task than her previous one and she was glad, because she had no idea how much longer she could contain her desire.
She wriggled his pants slowly down his legs and threw them on the floor. She sat there for a moment looking at his feet.
“Got a foot fetish there?” he smirked.
Scoffing, she said, “No! I was just wondering if I should take off your socks…”
“Rule number one: the socks have always got to go. No exceptions,” was his reply.
She tugged off his socks, and they joined his pants immediately. Cress crawled back up to meet his face with her own.
“I’m ready,” she breathed, “just please…be gentle.”
And he was.
--