I received a prompt on tumblr for Thane giving Shepard a massage - and taking the opportunity to explore her human body.

Mass Effect and all associated characters belong to Bioware. I make no money from this fanfiction.

"I bet you Thane gives great massages, Commander," Kelly Chambers said quietly, not without a wink and a smirk as Shepard approached the Commander's terminal behind the galaxy map. "Don't act like you've never thought about it. I see the way you look at him."

Shepard arched a brow at the yeoman. "Nosy as ever, Kelly," she said with a smile.

Kelly grinned. "It's not nosy if you're practically shouting it for the whole ship to see. Everyone is talking about you two. I'm just trying to help things along."

"Who says I need helping along?" Shepard said with a grin of her own.

"I'm just saying… lifelong assassin, with perfect memory. Sure thing he knows where to put his hands to kill someone, but I'm betting he knows a thing or two about how to use those hands for other purposes."

Shepard's hands stilled on the keyboard.

"Anyway, I'll let you get back to it," Kelly said dismissively, turning away, but not quick enough for Shepard to miss the smirk on her face.

Shepard finished her task quickly and hurried down to the crew deck.

"Yeoman Chambers seems to think you would give a great massage," Shepard mentioned casually as she walked into the Normandy's life support housing.

"Does she?" Thane was stoic as ever, but he wasn't able to stop the twinge of his lip at her sudden assumption.

"Yep. Care to prove or disprove this theory? My back is just aching from that last mission." Shepard stretched with great exaggeration before him.

"Perhaps, if you would desire." Desire. The word sparked a wild thought i his mind. There was no mistaking the way she looked at him, no mistaking her concern for himself to be anything but genuine. There was affection between them, he was sure. But this would be an excellent opportunity to test the waters. A chance to learn Shepard outside of her role as a leader, and even outside of their frequent but chaste conversations.

She finished her stretch and smiled widely. "Where should I set up?"

It wasn't his goal to be so forward, but the most ideal place for a massage wound up being in the most forward place imaginable - Shepard's personal quarters, on her bed.

She was laid out on her belly when he entered the room, stark naked with only a towel to conceal her nudity. Thane stilled his nerves and approached her, removing his jacket so his hands would be free and draping it neatly over a chair. She said nothing, only smiled and wiggled her toes in contented anticipation. Perhaps he had been wrong about her affection after all - either that or she was so comfortable in his presence that there was no visible tension in her body. Her beautiful, gorgeous, unblemished naked body. He swallowed quietly and climbed on to the bed.

"I will admit, Shepard, I have no experience with massage as it pertains to a human body. You will be my first."

She chuckled. "And I have no experience with drell outside of combat. But if what I've seen you do with your hands on the battlefield is any indication, I don't think you'll have trouble here."

Her arms were drawn up, hands tucked beneath her head despite the abundance of pillows on her bed. The position offered him a gorgeous view - the sinuous stretch of her spine, slender waist, strong shoulders, and the soft curves of her breasts pushed into the bed beneath her - to say nothing of her creamy, enticing skin. Thane's fingers ached to touch her. What a privilege he was here to do exactly that.

"Drell and humans share a very similar muscular structure," he said, schooling his voice to remain nonchalant as he climbed across her hips. "The muscle itself, however, is much denser on a drell. I need you to let me know if the force is too much."

"You're not going to break me, Thane." There was something about the way she wiggled her hips beneath him that felt a little too good to be accidental. "Lay it on me."

He hummed his acknowledgement, setting his hands on her for the first time to apply lavender scented lotion, which she had provided. The aroma reminded him of an oily plant native to Kahje, commonly regarded as a weed among gardeners. On Shepard, it smelled positively divine. The consistency allowed his scaled palms to glide luxuriously up her back and over her shoulders. She was so wondrously soft.

He hadn't expected her to .be vocal. The moment Thane began to really push his fingertips into her skin, her eyes slid closed and she gasped, groaning under the pressure of his hands. The sound shot straight from his ears to his groin and he clenched his jaw, focusing every ounce of attention to his hands in attempt to ignore the heat rapidly infusing certain parts of his body.

Channeling memories from his younger days, he settled into a rhythm of kneading and rubbing her skin. Losing himself in a memory blocked out her soft sighs of pleasure, but the feel of her human skin beneath his hands was so far removed from his memory - marine colored scales - that it was difficult to maintain the illusion that the woman beneath him was not his Commander.

One particularly skilled press of his thumb into her shoulder pulled a gasp from her throat, air racing from her lungs in such a way that he felt it all the way up his arms. Just like that, he was ripped from his memory.

"Yes-" she groaned. "Oh yeah, right there, that's perfect." He repeated the motion and her verbal assault on his libido continued, with a strained "Don't stop."

He found himself leaning over her body, torso pressed along her back for what he 'reasoned' was better access to her neck and shoulders. She sighed quietly, aware of his close proximity and showing it in the most subtle ways - deep inhalations of breath punctuated by slow rolls of her bottom against him. With a raspy sigh of his own, Thane accepted his defeat. His erection was hard and insistent against her backside.

"Siha," he whispered, close enough for her to feel his breath on her ear. She hummed quietly at his voice. "Perhaps we should stop." Her body language suggested she wanted the exact opposite, but he wanted to be sure, wanted free reign of her body with her absolute consent - so he wouldn't have to stop. "I am growing less concerned with your massaging your back and more interested stimulating… other parts of your body."

There was a pause, followed by an arch of her spine, pushing herself quite firmly into his clothed arousal. "Don't ever stop, Thane." Her voice was breathy and hoarse.

Thane's answering groan rumbled in his throat before he slid himself into a more upright position. He dragged his palms down her sides, allowing his fingertips to brush the tempting swell of her breasts.

"I'm beginning to think you've been plotting this all along," he said quietly.

"Now why would I go and do a thing like that?"

He shimmied down her body, straddling her legs to massage the small of her back. "I've seen the way you look at me, Shepard. I don't doubt your concern for me is real, but behind that, your lust is evident." With deliberate slowness, he removed the towel covering her backside and smoothed his hands over her newly bared skin. The flesh was soft and yielding against his palms.

"Looks like you caught me red handed, then. There isn't much I wouldn't do to get your hands on me."

"I'm happy to take advantage of the opportunity." Thane pressed a kiss into the center of her back. He dragged his hands over the curve of her backside and down the backs of her thighs, thumbs straying deliciously close to where he knew she wanted his touch. Her arousal was evident, a heady scent of pheromones hanging in the air and mingling with the aroma of her lavender body lotion. This was a new side of her, with only a trace of her 'Commander' aura remaining on her crumbling exterior. Everything about her was suddenly irrefutably erotic.

Shepard whimpered as he parted her thighs and his fingertips dipped low to trace the pinked skin he found there. Her flesh was wet and hot, delectable beneath his fused fingers. This time, when she sighed, it was with a different kind of pleasure. Her eyes drifted closed and she pushed back on his fingers, urging him inside, nearly up on her knees as he stroked her heat.

Thane didn't think he would ever tire of her softness. Her skin was supple all over, but between her legs she was outright silky, enticingly warm and slick against his insistent touch. He flattened his thumb into her crease and was rewarded with a shameless moan when he circled it around the firm head of flesh he felt there. Thane bit his lip. He burned to bury himself in her heat, to fuck her until she screamed his name and came harder than she'd ever known, but he was committed to his slow exploration. Like unwrapping a gift, every inch of skin was a delight to touch, and he wanted to savor every moment. No, he wouldn't rush this. There would be ample time for rushed liaisons later. For now, he wanted to know her body as well as she did.

With some reluctance, he withdrew his hand and urged her on to her back, crawling between her thighs to finally grace her lips with a kiss. She returned it with roughness and wanting, pink tongue pushing into his mouth with need as her arms encircled his neck. Her taste was new and foreign - and undeniably intoxicating. An indescribable flavor he savored, pulling her lip between his teeth as their kiss escalated from needy to desperate. He moved against her with renewed vigor, grinding his straining hardness against her thigh as she drew her legs around his hips.

However much he may have craved release, his own need paled in comparison to his desire to touch her, to tease and exploit every inch of her body until she was thrown to a breathless climax. Admittedly he knew very little about human sexual anatomy, but Thane was a quick study, and if her response thus far was any indication, he was learning just fine. One hand drifted up to palm her breast, fingertips brushing over its stiffened peak and drawing another quiet gasp from her throat. He smiled against her mouth and tweaked her nipple between his thumb and forefinger, rewarded when she ground herself against him, whispering into his lips, "Don't stop," as if he had even entertained the thought.

It didn't take long to reduce her to a trembling mess. Her head fell back against the pillows as he rendered her unable to think. With his mouth otherwise unoccupied, he lowered his head to her breast and flicked one eager nipple with his tongue, smiling when her whole body went tense against his own. A hand slid down her belly and between her thighs to the center of her pleasure and only moments later his name flew from her lips in a breathless cry of ecstasy. He could feel her body tensing and releasing at every point of contact, thighs tightening around his hips as she finally succumbed to a sensational climax under his careful hands.

As her body relaxed and sank into the mattress below him, Thane smiled.

"I suppose you will inevitably tell Yeoman Chambers of my massage skills?" he asked as she caught her breath.

Shepard laughed - a short, throaty sound born of genuine amusement. "Absolutely not. I'm keeping you all to myself. Although next time," Thane gasped as her hand moved boldly over the bulge in his pants, "I'd like the experience to be less one-sided. You're wearing too much."

He leaned in for a lazy kiss as she began divesting him of his clothing. "Anything you desire, Siha."

Thank you for reading!

If you enjoy my fanfiction, please consider entertaining yourself on my drell-centric tumblr, where I reblog and post fanart and fanfiction. My username is zet-sway.