Matthews found himself wondering throughout the next day if Kent would turn up. His stomach was already churning in anticipation. When he heard him at the door after the evening meal, he had to force himself to relax and appear calm; the last thing he wanted to do was to scare Kent again. He invited him into the room then shut the door behind him and set the privacy seal on it. “I don’t want anyone coming in unannounced,” he stated reassuringly. He could see that the Lieutenant was wound tight with tension.
“Have a seat,” he offered casually, choosing a chair himself that was at a respectable distance.
“I was thinking we should set a few ground rules,” he continued, handing Kent a cup of coffee and giving him a chance to settle himself. “Firstly, no ‘Captains,’ ‘sirs’ or orders when we are... er... off duty,” he smiled tentatively. “I was way out of line yesterday.” He had a sudden thought and grinned widely. “If we get to the stage in our personal relationship that we want to change that, we’ll work out some new rules later!”
Kent nearly choked on his coffee when he realised what the Captain meant. He flushed.
“Another thing,” Matthews continued smoothly, “Don’t hesitate to tell me if you don’t like or feel guilty about anything I do. Just tell me and I’ll stop. All right?”
“Okay.”
“And, one last thing, call me Luke.”
“I’ll try... Luke. This feels really weird, sir!” Kent burst out.
“I’m not surprised. This is going to take a fair bit of adjustment, for both of us. Are you still sure you want to try this?” Matthews offered reluctantly.
“To be honest I’m not sure. What about you?”
“I’m willing to keep trying if you are,” he replied lightly. In fact Matthews had never been so certain of anything in his life, but he didn’t want to scare off his quarry.
“We won’t do anything tonight except talk,” he continued quickly, before Kent could decide to leave. “Tell me a bit about yourself, something I wouldn’t already know.”
They talked for about an hour, ranging over different subjects from family to sport to favourite places to holiday. Gradually Kent found himself relaxing and actually managed to address the Captain as Luke a couple of times without noticing, before he left for the evening. “Richard, will you come again tomorrow night?” asked Matthews at the door.
Kent hesitated for just a second. “All right.”
The next day the Captain couldn’t help noticing that Kent was careful to keep him at a distance, treating him more formally than usual. Was the other man having second thoughts? He tried not to worry but when Kent came to his cabin that evening he couldn’t help looking relieved. “I thought you might have changed your mind,” he offered, opening the door.
“I thought it would be a good idea to keep our private and public relationships quite separate,” Kent explained.
Matthews relaxed, unaware until then how tense he had been. “Yes, of course. I should have thought of that myself. Come in, will you?” He waited until Kent was inside then set the privacy seal again.
“I thought tonight I could give you a back rub,” Matthews suggested casually. “You can leave all your clothes on if you like. I just thought you could get used to me touching you, in a non-sexual way.” He looked enquiringly at the other man, who was looking nervous again. “Just lie down over here,” he gestured to a thickly piled rug on the floor. Kent was still staring at him uncertainly.
Matthews quickly hunted for a way to break the tension. Perhaps he should just say it straight out. “Don’t look so worried, Richard!” he laughed, “I promise I’ll keep my hands above your waist. It’ll probably kill me to do it, but I give you my word, back rub only. And then tomorrow night, you can reciprocate.”
The unexpected suggestion brought a quick smile to Kent’s face and he stretched out on the floor, his arms folded beneath his head. To his surprise, he rather liked the thought of having the Captain under his hands.
Matthews knelt down next to Kent and then proceeded to vigorously massage his shoulders and back, digging his thumbs into the sore spots just like a gym masseur would have done. Only after he could feel the muscles relaxing under his strong hands, about fifteen minutes later, did he soften the strokes to more of a caress. “Relax, Richard,” he murmured, “The man in the gym does this to you every week.”
“Not like that, he doesn’t!” Kent protested half-heartedly, but he didn’t ask him to stop. The Captain kept going for another quarter of an hour. “I think that’ll do for now,” he said, reaching out a hand to help Kent to his feet. “My turn tomorrow night—if you’re free, that is?”
Kent nodded, “I’ll be here.” Matthews could barely wait.
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