“What the hell was all that?” Mason rumbled as they stepped into the turbolift after they left the briefing room. He’d been through some tough debriefs in his time, but Captain Thorne had put them through the wringer and then some.

Right now though, he wasn’t bothered about that. The woman knew her stuff and as such, had his respect. He’d expected that after reading everything he could on her.

That wasn’t what he was interested in though. What he was interested in was the man next to him.

RJ slid him a sideways glance, his lips quirking. “What?”

He turned, his voice sharper. “Don’t you ‘what’ me. Where did all that come from in there?”

RJ just winked at him, which only made his temper rise more.

“I’m fucking serious RJ!” he growled, crowding the other captain. “You could have gotten yourself out of the shit months ago acting like that instead of…”

He turned away suddenly, shoving a hand through his hair. He’d kept RJ under his wing, shielding him from his own stupid decisions for months, and now… knowing that was underneath all the time. He felt like a damn fool. 

“Instead of what?” The question was silky smooth, and right behind him.

Mason whirled around, shoved the smaller man back against the wall and followed it up with a hard forearm in his throat. Pinning him to the wall as he glared down at him. “That man back in there. The capable one with his shit together. That one.”

He shoved a little harder, not missing the fact that RJ hadn’t moved to protect himself. Most people would have been freaking out right about now, but he just stood there, looking back with that damned irritating little look in his eyes. Like he was smiling. Like he was remembering the last time they’d been in this position.

It made him feel offset. And Mason didn’t often feel offset. He didn’t like to feel offset. His voice was lower as he spoke again, “And the fact I’m fairly sure you know at least three ways to put me down right now without breaking a sweat.”

The door pinged before it opened but neither of them looked away, their gazes still locked in a battle of wills.

There was a snort, then a female voice sneered.

“For fuck’s sake, Mason, get a freaking room would you.”

RJ watched as surprise flared across Mason’s face, chasing away the dark look in his eyes that had been there a second before. A second later he grunted slightly, the air shoved from his lungs as Mason pushed off from him bodily.

“Bennett,” the big man nodded as he turned to stand at the back of the lift, hands behind his back in the utter image of a former soldier as he stared at the wall to the side of the door. Interesting, he’d never seen the big man react like that before.

Getting his heartrate under control, he turned to look at the new arrival in the lift. Blonde, tall and muscular, she reminded him of images he’d seen of amazonians during his schooling. There was no way she wasn’t another Llanarian. And then…

“Did you say Bennett?” he asked, frowning as he looked at her. “Any relation to Dayne Bennett from the Resolute?”

Her hard gaze snapped to him and for a moment he was sure she’d say something like because he was human, did he know the Earth President or something but then she inclined her head, just slightly. “He’s my twin.”

RJ’s eyes widened a little at that. But then he saw it, they both held themselves the same way, something about set around the eyes…

“A pleasure to meet you,” he said, a smile spreading over his face as he stepped forward, offering his hand. “RJ Reese-Riggs. Observer on the Resolute.”

She nodded, stepping fully into the lift and ordering Engineering in a low voice before she reached out to shake his hand. It was a firm grip, but he hadn’t expected anything less.

“Vix Bennett. Canterbury CEO.” Chief engineering officer, like her brother. And she was about as talkative as Dayne. Unlike Dayne though, she seemed to be doing her level best to ignore Mason standing with them in the lift, just as much as he was her. There was history there for sure.

“It’s a real pleasure to meet you. You’re much better looking than your brother, that’s for sure.”

She gave a small noise, like a feminine version of Mason’s grunt. Perhaps it was something all Llanarian’s did? Like a species thing? Was that a response to his subtle flirting? But then, Mason and Dayne were both about as subtle as thrown bricks so perhaps she hadn’t registered it?

“Have you ever been on the Resolute to visit your brother?” He turned, leaning on the wall to watch her. She was the same height as he was, which was nice, he didn’t have to crick his neck looking down at her. “If you wanted, I’d be more than happy to show you around the ship.”

She slid him a sideways glance, and raised an eyebrow. “On a Rhode Island? What would that take, all of five minutes?”

He grinned. “Oh, I’m very good at making things… last?”

She gave him a look as the lift slowed at her stop. “Be careful, captain, I might just take you up on your offer.”

And with that, she left him alone in the lift with the silent monolith that was Mason. 

He turned and eyed the big man, “So… that amount of tension. Ex-lover?”