Sunday Snippet: Powering Down

Whew. How about that Arrow finale? I'm pretty happy with season three overall and look forward to four. Now we'll find out what happens with The Flash and then patiently wait for Legends of Tomorrow. If you haven't seen the trailer, go find it and watch. :D

Orphan Black? So much love for the show. I was actually pretty thrilled to see some Paul and Sarah interaction. My fingers are crossed he stays firmly on her side. And the Helena one-liners were totally golden. On a freakish note, I'm really interested in what's going on with the women the Castor clones have slept with. I kind of want Gracie to be okay.

Bitten and Lost Girl are rolling right along. Looking forward to having Defiance and Dominion back on my television, and I hope Killjoys and Dark Matter prove to be good viewing fare. Nothing beats new episodes of my favorite shows in the summer months.

And last but not least, my mainlining of Teen Wolf continues. I'm up to the second part of season three and quite engrossed. Each season seems to be better than the one before, which always makes me happy.

So… enough TV talk. Tonight's post is from Powering Down, a sexy short where my main characters finally act on their attraction… with a little help.

Here's the tagline:

A little enforced downtime leads to a small power struggle between Nicia Bowen and Jett Vanatta. Nicia isn't thrilled when Jett picks someone else to be his second in command, but once Jett explains his reason—they're too close—she can't argue the point. Instead she decides to accept his excuse and get even more personally involved.

And a sneaky peek…

Jett worked the speedball, letting his mind wander over the stupid predicament he'd put himself in. Taking command of a warship—one of his life's goals—came with headaches. He understood the burden of sitting at the top of the chain of command. But he'd managed to slide past headache into migraine territory. He smacked the ball harder. Leave it to him to piss off one of his oldest allies.

Ally. Nicia counted as so much to him than a solid support system. Hence the reason he didn't make her his executive officer and put her in charge of his pilots as the CAG.

Too bad she didn't understand.

The autohatch slid open and the object of his thoughts stalked into the training room. Jett spared her a glance, hoping to gauge her mood. She rolled her eyes and crossed over to the heavy bag, giving it two good hard kicks before she started warming up.

Cranky with a side of bitchy. Awesome.

He stopped punching the speedball and turned to face her. "Out with it. You're already destroying my calm and you've been in here less than five minutes." He worked the tape around his fingers loose.

Nicia paused her warm up. "Not my problem you're tightly strung, Jett." She bent over to her right, stretching her left hamstring. "Maybe the stress of command is already getting to you." She straightened and met his gaze. "Or you second in command isn't pulling their weight." Her lips twisted into smirk.

Jett opened his mouth to reply but the locking sequence engaged on the autohatch and the lights flickered then sputtered out completely. "Dammit. I thought engineering had the relays fixed from that damned EMP the Axis assholes used on us last week." The solar backup kicked in, providing ambient illumination.

Nicia rolled her eyes. "Did the new XO tell you they had it fixed or did she actually file the report showing the work as completed?" She snorted. "Wonder how she'll deal with you being locked up in here until power is restored."

Jett balled up the tape from his hands and tossed it in the trash bin. "Karmony did both, and she's more than man enough to handle the outage. Don't doubt it, Nicia."

She made a growling sound. "Right. Miss Competent at Everything couldn't possibly have trouble. You've known her all of what? Three months?" A sneer marred her face. "Unlike me, who you've known for over a decade and used to trust with your life."

Jett crossed the space between them. "You know what, Neece? I've had it with the verbal jabs. State your problem in plain terms and we'll talk about it, but keep going with the veiled insults and pissy attitude and those ten years of friendship won't stand in the way of moving your ass off the ship." She never used to have any kind of issue telling him exactly how she felt.

Nicia snarled. "If you can't figure out why I’m so damned angry with you, you're dumber than I ever imagined." She punched the heavy bag. "I should be your XO, Jett. Not some upstart who drives everyone bat shit crazy."

And there he finally had everything laid out in front of him. He'd suspected Nicia felt slighted when he'd picked Karmony as his executive officer, but not because she didn't have the qualifications. No, Nicia disliked the other woman because Karmony cut right through the bullshit and didn't back down. In essence, she didn't let Nicia get away with anything.

Jett pulled a move from his XO's handbook.

Moving forward, he stood toe-to-toe with his CAG. "Enough is enough. Let me see if I can lay this all out for you." He held up one finger. "First, I command this ship. Don't ever forget that fact, Nicia." He added a second. "Next, you're the CAG for a reason and it has everything to do with our supremely long friendship." Another digit. "And finally, this is the important one and you, of all people, should know why." He waved his hand between them. "You and me? We're too close. If there ever comes a time when we cross the line, the entire ship would know in a matter of moments." Finished, he crossed his arms over his chest.

Nicia quirked a brow. "Cross what line?" Her eyes held something of a challenge.

Jett didn't take the bait—they'd left their relationship undefined for a reason.  "Neece, if I have to explain that one to you, you're hopeless." Because sooner or later, they would step across the boundary of professionalism into up close and personal.

He'd dare her to even try and deny the pull between them.

Nicia flattened her mouth, pondering his explanation, then her lips quirked. "Yeah, okay. I'm not sure I want to go to that particular relationship place right now." Her shoulder lifted and she looked away.

Jett heaved a sigh. "Finally. Can you lose the crappy attitude now?" He turned, ready to sit and relax until the power kicked back on.

He got several yards away when Nicia called out. "Hold up there, Mr. Bossman." She planted her hands on her hips. "If I have to lose my attitude, I should get something out of it." Her lips twitched. "After all, it's gonna take monumental effort on my part to be nice to your new XO."

Jett frowned. "Like what? I mean what are you thinking you should get out of this?"

Nicia lifted an eyebrow. "Jett, if I have to explain that one to you, you're the hopeless one." A slow, sexy grin spread across her face.

She could have punched him in the gut and he wouldn't be more surprised. Unless… she could be messing with him.

He cocked his head to one side. "Oh, you mean… like now?" He didn’t stop to consider how complicated the aftermath would be.

Not after finally landing on the same page for once.

Nicia rolled her eyes. "Yeah." She nodded. "Right now."

Jett said nothing else. He took a step forward and ended up meeting Nicia halfway, hauling her close, and crushing her lips with his.

Nicia and Jett are so much fun to write. I love it when my characters are so in tune with each other.

That's it for this week. Catch everyone on the flip.

ML Skye