Mal dropped down into his bunk, having rushed through his meet and greet with their new client. Almost embarrassed by how eager he’d been to get back to Serenity before the night cycle began, he looked carefully around his personal quarters with a critical eye. He was a neat man by nature, having been the only son of an ever-vigilant mother. Even so, he quickly inspected the room, wiping all the flat surfaces to remove the thin layer of dust that had settled there.

Quickly stripping the bed of the sheets he’d slept on since Miranda, he stuffed them into the small hamper he kept in the bottom of his closet. He hastily re-made the bed with a second pair of sheets, ruefully noting they were threadbare in spots. Maybehaps Inara wouldn’t notice if the lights were dim enough, he thought. At least they were clean.

He hadn’t specified a time for her arrival, but he was confident she’d wait until the rest of the crew retired for the evening. With River manning the helm, Simon and Kaylee would most likely be in the passenger dorms, he figured, as he’d had occasion more than once to complain about the noise of their coupling in such close quarters. Making a mental note to show some restraint in that department, he felt his pulse quicken at the thought of actually spending the night having to suppress such sounds from his own mouth.

Stripping off his sweaty clothes, he turned warm water into the sink and scrubbed his skin vigorously with the coarse soap he generally used. He took great care to shave closely, remembering the faint signs of irritation appearing on Inara’s cheeks and chin from his early morning stubble. She hadn’t complained, and it had been artfully concealed by the time she’d mingled with the crew at lunch, but Mal had no wish to cause her any discomfort.

Realizing that he was primping like a school girl before a dance, he shook himself out of his reverie. Quickly cleaning the sink and pushing it back into the wall, he donned fresh clothes and climbed out of the bunk for his nightly wal