By Leyenn

It's quiet. Peaceful. Serenely dark and the stars streak endlessly towards her, infinite white-light rainbows on black, and she would be standing there with her nose pressed to the viewscreen like the little girl inside if she didn't so much love the feel of this chair.

She can't give an order - there's no one to give orders to. It's long past midnight, heading into morning, but still she can feel the party still rolling on ten and thirty-six decks below her feet.

Feel something else, too, a little closer in the grand scheme of her starlit universe as the turbolift casts a swathe of light over the floor.

Will speaks after a single step, an easy, happy grin in the words that he's found her and because there's obviously no one else to hear.

"What are you doing up here?"

She turns, to watch him walk partway down the ramp and then plant one foot up and step over the curve of the rail, dropping casually down into the center of the bridge. "Someone had to have the shift," she points out, already smiling.

He seems surprised; it's a quick, cool flash of silent sound against her senses. "You volunteered?"

She doesn't rise from the chair. "Don't you read your crew rosters any more, Commander?"

He slips into the seat at her left - her seat, and it feels a little strange to watch. Strangely good, in point of fact, that still new reversal of authority, although she won't say it but he knows. And grins. "Where's everyone else?"

"It's Christmas Eve. Everyone else is busy being off-duty." She smiles. "And since I don't celebrate..."

He isn't convinced, she can see it. "You did once or twice."

"Everyone does at the Academy."

"Before that."

Her smile deepens; it's not dark enough up here to hide her blushing just a little. "Is that why you came up here?"

"I missed you at the party."

Her eyes sparkle at that. "I know."

He turns his chair a little towards her, leans forward to lay his hand on the console inset in her own. "It's never quite the same without you."

She laughs, amused and more than that, pleased that he admits it so quickly. "That is why you came up here."

Will smiles, mischievous, pulling her hand into his. "If it is?"

"You shouldn't have had this much to drink, Will, your emotions are leaking." She's teasing; he knows that and she knows that he knows, because his eyes dance with laughter as they meet hers.

"Maybe they're leaking because I want them to, did you think of that?"

"Yes."

That she doesn't even try and deny it makes him smile. He grips her fingers as he stands, pulling her from the chair. The endless stars can't draw her away from that seat, but she's willing to leave it behind for the touch of Will Riker's hand and the promise of mischief in his eyes. He pulls her up, pulls her close and it isn't really a kiss when they just come together naturally in the center of the bridge, stars streaking forward even as she closes her eyes.

"Will," she murmurs his name into his mouth, a breathed laugh. "I'm on duty..."

He chuckles. "I promise your commanding officer won't mind."

She lays her hand on his chest, lightly pushes him and isn't surprised or upset that he doesn't move away even then. "What about Worf?"

He manages to look a little at ease, even though she hears the lie louder than the words. "What about Worf?"

She fights the smile on her lips. "Well, he and I..."

Feral, the look in his eyes then, and she delights in it with a glitter of pleasure that's hardly secret: his mouth on hers is fierce, hungry, and it's the deep sound of him in her head that makes her gasp. *I made a mistake. He can't have you, not while I'm still here.*

She wants to want to bite his tongue for that, to pull back and push him away and it will be her back in that chair and Will standing there, letting the stars rush past, knowing how much he could have said in that kiss and knowing he got it wrong.

But the heat of Will's mouth on hers is intoxicating, and no he has it *so right*, she can't deny it when he feels so clear inside her head. The words are nothing, simple forms that burn away to leave the truth behind, that he loves her and the feel of her and the need for her and *this is right, I'm such an idiot, this is the only thing that is.*

She's laughing as she breaks her mouth from his - needing to breathe, needing to see the look in his eyes. "You took long enough. I thought I'd have to batter you over the head with it for a while there."

"I'm an idiot. I'm sorry." He manages to plead even with that confidence in his face. She can't help but smile.

"I think I deserve to be shown how sorry you are."

The look in his eyes is pure fire, even as he grins. "Is that an order?"

"I am still on duty," she says in return, primly and amused, without protesting the feel of his fingers already between hers or the loss of heat when he steps away. His hand in hers won't let go as he tugs her to the Ready Room door, despite the way she looks up at him when he's dragging her inside.

The door slides closed as his arms slip around her waist, already pressing her close. She laughs.

"Will!"

A hot, teasing mouth on her neck makes her shiver, "Don't tell me you've never thought about it," breathed into her ear. She laughs again.

"Lock the door."

He lifts his head, grins against her lips. "Why...?"

She wraps a hand around the back of his neck and buries her fingertips in his hair. The kiss is hard, passionate and wonderful. She nibbles at his lip, pushes into his mind, willingly swallows the groan breathed from his throat at the feeling of her there and smiles wickedly in his thoughts. *Because you're about to fuck your duty officer on the Captain's desk and I'd rather he never knew?*

Will laughs, then, into her mouth until she lets him pull away; she watches the way he swallows, tighter than before, and the shiver under her fingers on his neck as he orders the computer in a voice most definitely less than command tone. He tugs her backwards and turns her around: his grin widens when she reaches back and the smoothness of Picard's desk is under her fingers.

She and Worf haven't done anything, of course, nothing beyond a half-almost-maybe-kiss and a Klingon attempt at Human dating, and Will knows it. That, she can see in his eyes as his fingers move under her hair, one hand tracing her collar to her throat - Will knows how to take a Betazoid lover where Worf would never imagine it to be different, knows that she could never touch Worf's mind the way she can be in his and nothing less than that can be enough.

Will Riker *knows* that, because he knows her, better and deeper than anyone else can.

*Deanna,* he murmurs, deep enough to make her breath catch and it have little to do with the way he's pushing her uniform past her shoulders, trailing casual kisses down her neck. He wants more than quick, more than playful, and she reaches to his waistband in absolute agreement. She's always felt comfortable in this uniform; the way it glides over her figure and she can't help but garner appreciative looks more occasionally than she probably should, so many of them from the blue eyes smiling at her now as he strips that uniform away.

She kicks off her boots, steps out of the blue-and-black pool that gathers at her feet and offers him a glittering little smile. <i>And you,</i> as her hand slips comfortably under loose fabric. There's nothing else beneath but the warmth of skin and coarse hair; she smiles more, mischievous when she cups her hand around him and lifts her head. *Mmm. How long since you've been inside me?*

*Too damn long...* He'd kiss her just for the delicious feeling of her hand there, that perfect pressure around his cock just <i>right</i>, but yanking his shirt over his head is too much in the way. She slips her hand free, tugs his pants down in a single, smooth movement and he hisses, quiet and sharp, a twitch of pleasure that threads into her mind.

*Too long, much too long.*

Which of them agrees that in words, she isn't sure... isn't sure that either of them can be. "Will..."

"We could be in so much trouble." He grins and captures her mouth, hard and slow, biting softly at her lower lip. Fingertips on her skin and she moans in her throat, squirming towards that caress. There's relief in her quiet sigh as her underwear slips down with his touch and follows her uniform to the floor.

*I don't care... I'd let the Captain watch right now as long as you touch me.*

Somehow his kiss becomes a trail of kisses, gentle nibblings along her jaw. *Would you notice?*

"No." She giggles that, delighted that it's the definite truth. Even the idea is intoxicating; her skin prickles from just the graze of his fingers against her hip and his teeth gently closing on her earlobe. "Mmmm..."

Will's hand wraps around her thigh and lifts, pushing her back, smiling that she's the perfect height to slide onto the desk and wrap her legs around him. He leans down for another kiss that bends her back onto the desk - smooth and cool suddenly spread across her back, her nipples already dark and tightening at the sensation, and she arches against the heat of him as his tongue thrusts into her mouth.

*Will, please...* She wants him so much, the hard length of him there hot against her thigh - wants him thrust inside her and filling her, so deep, because she remembers how incredible that feels and if she were just to remind him, in this moment, she knows, he would be <i>there</i> before she can even breathe.

Instead she holds onto that thought in the back of her mind where he can't see it, not yet; only lets the softest of moans escape into his kiss, because Will Riker has her spread naked on their Captain's desk and he wants to play.

He breaks the kiss and lowers his head, and she smiles at the tickle of his beard and the grin he's pressing against her neck.

"Imagine if he knew..." That whispered into her ear makes her moan louder. Will's fingers trace the full curve of one breast, trace around her nipple, tease her as she arches up and begs for more. "If anyone knew, imzadi - how many times I've thought about doing this, taking you right here whether the Captain was watching or not..."

She laughs, throaty, half a gasp at the way his hips rock and his cock twitches even at the idea. "If it turns you on imagining that, feel free."

His grin is wolfish; she can feel it in her head, hot and erotic. Will drops his head lower, traces his own name across the swell of her breast with his tongue as one hand dips between her legs; she feels a shudder run through him at the graze of his own wrist on his cock and presses him closer to her, rocks her hips with the thrust he can't help making. He dots the i with a bite on pale skin that makes her cry out softly - and then louder, because gentle fingertips surround her clit, spread her open for his touch, and she cannot, *cannot* help imagining Picard sitting in that chair and seeing this.

"Oh *God*," and it's quiet and groaned from Will's mouth, so she knows that image isn't hers alone. She'd laugh, except for the finger pushing into her, curled just a little that means she can't do anything but gasp his name.

"Ohhhh, *Will*..."

"If he knew," *how wet you are right now, Counselor...* the last has to be unspoken because he's biting her nipple with gentle teeth, tracing his tongue around the tip of it and making her moan as his thumb rubs around her clit.

"Willll... please, more... I need... *please-*"

Another finger slips inside her; he sucks sharply at her nipple, and there's a soft growl in her head. *If he ever knew you could sound like this...* and she doesn't question when he became someone who isn't Picard, or when this teasing became the growl that claims her for his. *If he ever felt you like this, how you feel inside -*

There's no air in the room, none at least that will reach her lips. "*Ohgodplease-*"

His fingers slip out of her body; she whimpers at the loss, and at the touch of wet fingertips at the small of her back - and then darkened, tender eyes fix on hers and she can only try to breathe, shaking, waiting... until he sheathes himself in her, slow and simple, and she sighs past the soft gasp in her throat at the pleasure of it.

"Ohhh..." This is the only way it should be, Will buried inside her, groaning softly against her skin as she sinks into his mind. *Oh yes, Will...*

*Deanna...* He hardly thinks her name before the world falls apart, before there's nothing else to her except the feel of them together, body and mind and soul. There are the walls she feels around his mind during the day, and the walls of her own she keeps held firm everywhere but here beneath him - and then Will's kissing her hard and hungry and they fall, all of it falls...

*Imzadi* burns in her mind, lights up her soul like a brand as he starts to thrust inside her, so thick and full and she can *feel it* - how she feels so good, so hot, wet, beautifully tight around his cock and he has to push into her again, he has to be there, right there inside her -

*God, you feel so good...* He thrusts harder, swallows her moan into a ragged kiss and his palm cupped under her breast, fingers pinching hard at her nipple. *Do you want that?*

*Please, *yes*... It's so good, so good, a shock of pain that only makes her clench tighter around his thrusts. *Deeper... don't stop, don't even think-* The black surface is hard and slick with sweat under her back as she rocks with him, reaching up, clenches her fingers around his arm and throws her head back to try and breathe. *Will - please, please touch me again...*

He pushes into her and straightens his back - and with her eyes closed she can see herself lying there across their Captain's desk, all flushed skin and arching hips and his hands on her, stroking, pinching a dark nipple and then he looks down and pleasure burns in her throat as she watches through his eyes.

He slips the other hand to where her body envelopes his and watches his own hand as he touches her; two trembling fingers that bare her clit for a third to touch, gently - rub her own wetness there in slow circles, and press harder when she whimpers and twists her hips. "*OH* - oh gods, *don't stop doing that-*"

He rubs harder, faster, cups her breast in his palm with another thrust, and the pressure of his fingers makes her shudder. *Oh, Will, soclosesocloseplease-*

She can hear the breathe he takes and then he pulls out of her, so far that tears stand in her eyes in frustration. His hand searches, fingers lock with hers, tight enough that it will hurt, later, when he's not circling her clit with fast fingers and she isn't on the edge of orgasm, so close, so <i>close</i> that he can taste it in her mind.

*Take me,* he whispers in her head, shuddering and desperate. *Please, Deanna-*

She growls at the feeling of her name and her fingers squeeze, fingernails digging into his skin, and that plea of consent is enough that she doesn't care if it hurts when she plunges deep into his soul and does, take him, the way he wants so much that no one else can know. Her touch in his mind takes over and he has to thrust forward, impale her body so hard that his head falls back and he pulses into her, groaning release as her orgasm hits and everything disappears except for Will coming so impossibly hard inside her, every muscle so tense that she can't breathe and the incredible white fire of falling... lights burn behind her eyes and time stops and she screams, bright ecstasy inside two halves of this soul, briefly reforged in one. OH GOD - GODS - IMZADI!*

When the world comes back it only holds Will, hot and heavy and shaking, pressing her down and kissing her with gentle, wet fingers still trapped between them, and her own trembling as he traces slower circles around her clit.

Her voice shakes. "Will..."

"Hmm..." He smiles against her lips and stops, quietly lets his fingers rest. "Battering me over the head with it, huh?"

She smiles at that. "Inside your head, anyway."

Pride always feels warm and familiar from his mind, and his own smile shines in his eyes. "Does that mean I win?"

Her laugh is muffled by the weight of him. "You do seem very sorry..."

Somehow his hand is still in hers, fingers still entwined; he squeezes gently, smiles at the soft ache they both feel. "Happy Christmas, imzadi."

"I should still be on duty," she reminds him, and if there's a wicked suggestion in her eyes she isn't about to deny it.

Damp fingertips fumble a little onto the desk until he finds Picard's console, and she thanks the Gods, he's enough Starfleet even now to remember the right codes. He grins down at her, hooks their pile of clothing with a foot, taps the comm panel while she smothers another laugh and tries to keep his voice level.

"Commander Data - report to the bridge..."

Deanna giggles: he lowers his mouth to hers to hide it as his fingers brush the panel again, and it's already a hungry kiss as the transporter beam takes them away.

[END]