One, Two, Three

The door to the bridge slid aside. Commander Charles Tucker III entered the room, passed Captain Jonathan Archer with a lopsided grin and headed to the station of Lieutenant Malcolm Reed.

He rested his hands on the silver metal bar that circled the station and leaned forward to talk to the armory officer.

Jonathan turned towards them and his heart skipped a beat. Trip was off duty and therefore he didn't wear the bulgy, crude uniform but something more comfortable.

His irresistible butt was clad in a pair of tight blue jeans that fitted it neatly and Jon had a marvelous view at it.

He suppressed a sigh as the Southerner had the nerve to move it from side to side almost unnoticeably. 'He is doing this on purpose!' the captain thought and took a deep breath.

Enterprise's CO stood up from his chair and walked over to the commander. As if by accident he brushed his hips against the younger man's backside and bent down a little to whisper softly into his ear.

"One more movement with you cute ass and you're done, Commander!" Loudly he said: "Commander Tucker, in my ready room, please!"

He led the way, Trip on his heels. When the door shut, they closed the gap between them and kissed passionately.

"How often have I told you not to do this?" Jonathan asked while catching his breath. "It drives me mad to see you like that!"

The blond man smirked. "And that's exactly why I do it! I'm really waitin' for the day ya finally lose it, Jon!"

The captain punched him playfully. "And I can't believe Malcolm doesn't stop you!"

Again the chief engineer grinned broadly. "He loves to watch ya face when I do it! He says ya look so cute when ya try to keep ya composure!"

Archer walked over to the comm system. "Archer to Lieutenant Reed! I'd like to see you in my ready room immediately!"

Only seconds later the panel slid aside again and a smiling Brit entered the small chamber. "You wanted to see me, Captain?"

Jon waited for the door to close, walked over to Malcolm and smooched him. "So, I look sexy when I try to keep calm while watching the little games you and Trip play?"

The tactical officer wriggled from his grip. "Well, my exact words were 'very cute', but 'sexy' sums it up as well!"

The three of them grinned at each other.

Jon kissed first Malcolm and then Trip and pointed at the door. "Back to work, you two! Tonight at eight, dinner in the captain's mess?"

The tactical officer and the engineer nodded. "If my boss doesn't make me work overtime!"

Malcolm ducked away under Jon's hand which was about to slap him, kissed Trip and left the ready room. The Southerner winked at Jon and followed the Brit.

Archer stayed behind, looking out of the window at the passing stars. He smiled. Sometimes this ménage a trois was too much for him.

* * *

That evening they sat together, enjoying one of Chef's creations and joking about the incident earlier that day.

Trip took a look at his watch. "Sorry, guys, my shift's about to start! Gotta go!" He smacked both of his lovers and left with a regretful expression on his face.

Jon and Malcolm looked at each other. "So, Mal, what about us? What do we do now?"

The Brit's face lit up with a broad grin. "Well, I could think of a few things we could do, but not in here!"

He walked over to the captain and kissed him lecherously. "My quarters or yours?"

Jon smirked. "Yours, Porthos is kind of bad-moody today!"

Malcolm just nodded and left the mess hall.

They had made it an unspoken agreement never to leave the captain's mess together when they were off duty in order not to attract the crew's attention, it was hard enough as it was with the whole bunch of 80 people gossiping about them.

* * *

The captain looked up and down the corridor and opened the door to Malcolm's quarters.

The lieutenant sat at his desk, wearing nothing but a pair of black jogging pants. Jon's gaze lingered on the muscular chest of his tactical officer as the younger man stepped towards him.

"You never look me in the eyes anymore, Jon, do you know that?" His tone was teasing.

Jon deliberately didn't raise his face but kept staring at Mal's impressive pecs. "Well, you've got to have priorities!"

Laughing the Brit pulled down the zipper of Jon's uniform and started to unbutton the black shirt he wore underneath it. "I have mine, too! And they say: Get the captain out of this damn uniform!"

He freed Archer's arms out of the coarse fabric and bent down to place a line of warm wet kisses on the older man's chest. He relished the sound of the captain's moans deep down in his throat.

Suddenly the Brit felt the captain's hands in his hair, pulling him up gently. They started kissing, very tenderly at first, their lips almost not touching, leaving just the hint of a caress.

Then they moved faster, their tongues circling each other, their lips sucking. Their hands wandered up and down their bodies, stroking muscles and soft skin.

Archer let his hands wander down to Reed's butt, sliding his fingers under the seam of the soft pants. "No skivvies, Lieutenant?" he mumbled while nuzzling at the Brit's earlobe.

"Do I need them, Captain?" Malcolm asked while sucking at Jon's neck and leaving a love bite there.

The captain yanked back. "MAL! What have I told you about love bites? The collar of the uniform isn't high enough to hide them! At least not the ones up there on my neck!"

Enterprise's tactical officer pouted. "You take all the fun out of this, do you know that?"

Suddenly they both turned around hastily when they heard the door to Malcolm's quarters opening. Quickly they let go off each other, trying to put something on to hide their partial nudity.

"Why haven't you locked it?" Jon asked through clenched teeth. Malcolm raised his arms. "I forgot! Normally nobody dares to open my door except for ..."

Before he could finish the sentence a blond head appeared around the corner. "Hey, ya two!"

The captain and his armory officer relaxed and exhaled audibly. "Trip, what the hell are you doing here?"

The young Southerner grinned broadly. "Well, I kinda felt like switchin' my shift with Lieutenant Hess! I somehow couldn't concentrate! ... Did I interrupt somethin'?"

Malcolm and Jon smirked at each other and the CO winked at his chief engineer. "Yes, you did, but I think you can make up for that!"

The three closed the gap between them. Malcolm tossed the shirt that he had been about to put on in one corner of his quarters and Jonathan tucked Trip's white t-shirt out of his pants and pulled it over the younger man's head.

The armory officer stepped behind the captain and rubbed his hips against his back while the chief engineer pressed against Jon's chest and kissed him passionately.

"Malcolm, before we go on with this, please lock that damn door!" Jonathan said huskily.

* * *

'Had I known that Trip would switch his shift I would have suggested my quarters!' Captain Archer moved carefully in order not to disturb his sleeping lovers.

Malcolm and Trip both had quarters to themselves but they only had narrow bunks. His privilege as captain was a king size bed and on the rare occasions they all had a night off together they used his rooms. But this small bed was pretty uncomfortable.

His back hurt and he had been stabbed in the face by an elbow more than once during the short night.

He sat up and looked at the two men. The blond chief engineer with the broad chest and the slightly smaller framed dark haired armory officer didn't seem to be disturbed at all, they were sleeping like angels.

Jon smiled, brushed a strand of hair out of Malcolm's forehead and traced Trip's chubby baby cheeks with his thumb. Okay, this ménage a trois wasn't too much for him, but they definitely had to work on the sleeping situation.

fin