Chapter Seventeen

Unfortunately for Theo’s raging libido, Jun remained focused on his plans for the rest of the day. He barely gave Theo a second glance despite his near-constant chatter.

Theo had resigned himself to resolving the issue through his own handiwork as he retired back to his bunk for the evening.

A tiny gasp escaped him when the door slid open to reveal the strong back of his captain, standing perfectly still in the middle of the modest chamber with his hands clenched behind his back.

He had stripped out of his long-sleeved knit shirt and stood now in just a fitted gray sleeveless undershirt, along with his tight black trousers and shoulder holster.

There was nothing overtly reassuring about his appearance, but Theo found it oddly comforting to observe Jun so exposed.

Even more ink climbed up his wrists all the way to his shoulders, disappearing beneath the edges of his top. Mostly black lines with tiny pops of color, Theo wanted to trace them with his tongue in a lazy, meandering path until Jun pulled him up by his hair and told him to stop.

Well.

There went any hope of concealing Theo’s desire. His fitted velvet trousers were not particularly suited for camouflaging his rising interest.

Jun spun in place to face him, fists going down to his sides as he regarded Theo for a long, silent moment, waiting for the door to slide shut behind him.

Theo opened his mouth to inquire about the nature of his visit when Jun rushed to speak first.

“This is me. Asking nicely.”

Asking?

Oh.

If Theo had possessed the power to dissolve his own clothing away with a single blink, this was the moment he would have done so.

Instead, he crossed his arms over his narrow chest and leaned back against the wall, allowing his gaze to sweep slowly over Jun from head to toe.

The fact that his feet were bare sent Theo’s heart into overdrive, for some odd reason. It was only the tiniest hint of vulnerability, but it was—

Enough.

“Asking for what, Captain? Something quick and casual? Impersonal? Am I allowed to call you by your name or am I to address you only by title? I wouldn’t want to act too familiar and cause offense.”

The tiny thread of hurt that wove itself through Theo’s voice surely gave him away despite his caustic words. He was usually better at hiding his hurt feelings in his affairs. Everything was just different, with Jun.

More.

Jun didn’t answer as he stepped closer. Theo soon realized he had pinned himself to the wall through his own posturing. Jun didn’t touch Theo so much as displace the air around him, a phantom pressure against his skin.

It made Theo tip his head back and drop his hands down to press against the wall behind him as Jun dipped to nuzzle into Theo’s throat with a harsh exhale.

“Say my name.” Jun brushed his lips against his skin. “Say anything you want. Just let me.”

He didn’t elaborate on exactly what Theo should let him do, but the particulars were immaterial anyway.

Because Theo would let Jun do anything he wanted to him. Including sweep him away across the galaxy after just a single glimpse of his heart-stopping face.

Theo had always been more prone to leaping than looking. He couldn’t even find it within himself to regret it, not while he stood here in Jun’s embrace.

Not while leather and ozone filled his lungs with each deep, greedy breath.

The humid heat of Jun’s open mouth slid across his throat as he nudged his open shirt aside to get to his skin. He latched onto the crook of Theo’s shoulder with blunt teeth and a muffled growl.

He pulled back when Theo made a soft, wounded sound. And Jun’s shining lips tugged down in a frown as he lifted one hand to trace over the mark. “I’m not—I don’t know how to be gentle. Not like you deserve.”

Theo let his hands drift slowly up Jun’s chest to rest over the thumping beat of his heart. “Yes, you do.”

Jun shook his head, scowl slipping into place like a well-worn blanket, familiar and comfortable and covering all of his softest parts. “No, I don’t. I never learned. I never had anything to be gentle for. Soft things don’t last very long, where I come from. They never held any appeal for me, before.”

The last was said sotto voce, as if Jun was speaking to himself, gaze drifting dreamily across Theo’s face.

Theo arranged it into a teasing smirk as he grabbed one of Jun’s wrists and led his hand down to Theo’s tented trouser front. “One could hardly say I’m soft, Captain.”

Jun gave him an obliging squeeze, just the right side of too tight, scowl fading from his face as Theo pressed up into his grip with a whine. Then he released him and lifted his hands to Theo’s hair, tangling his fingers in the long silken strands. “Soft. Pretty.” He tightened his grip abruptly to tug Theo’s head back against the wall. “Sweet.”

Theo shook his head, more to feel Jun tug harder against the motion than to express his opinion, the tiny pinpricks of pain shooting a thrill straight to his cock. “I’m really not. I’m a bit of a pill. Hard to swallow.”

Jun’s hand returned to Theo’s trousers, yanked open the button placket with a flick of his wrist, then slid inside. His warm, rough palm was devastating against Theo’s skin just as his warm, rough voice was devastating against his ear. “I think I’m up to the challenge.”

And then Theo nearly swallowed his own tongue because Jun just…dropped.

To his knees.

It was beyond unexpected.

Theo could count on one hand the number of times a man had gone to his knees for him. That was usually Theo’s role. Reciprocation had always been more of a hope than an expectation in his affairs. He yelped with surprise when Jun bypassed his cock entirely and instead, shoved Theo’s shirt up and rubbed his face against the pale skin of his stomach. “Jun! What are you—?”

Jun’s hands circled Theo’s ankles and yanked them apart until he had to grab onto the expanse of Jun’s shoulders for balance.

A shiver ran through Theo as Jun dipped a long, wet tongue into his navel, his sparse stubble scraping Theo’s skin. He dug his fingers into Jun’s shoulders as his head made an embarrassing hollow thunk against the metal bulkhead.

To his surprise and building distress, Jun stopped. He got to his feet and brought one hand around to rub at the back of Theo’s head, his eyes dark on his face. “No.”

Panic bloomed in Theo’s chest like an insidious weed, shooting out in all directions as he sensed his time with Jun slipping from his grasp.

That was what he got for acting selfishly, for letting a man like Jun lower himself to Theo’s level. “Oh, of course. Here, I’ll just—” But when he attempted to get to his knees, Jun caught him beneath the arms, burning gaze unwavering from his face.

“No. Not like this. On the bed.”

The “get” was implied, and Theo rushed to follow orders only to come up short, limbs flailing uselessly through the air and feet sliding across the floor when Jun didn’t release his grip.

The noise Theo made when Jun lifted him from the ground should never have been granted a witness. Certainly not one who smirked at the sound, walking steadily across the room with his armful of blushing, rumpled disaster.

To his delight, Theo discovered that his legs did indeed wrap quite nicely around Jun’s waist as he carried him to the bed.

A proven hypothesis at last.

Ari would have been so proud.

On second thought, Ari would have wanted to know absolutely nothing about this situation and would stubbornly plug his ears were Theo to attempt to tell him about it.

The thought made him giggle, giving Jun pause as he laid Theo flat on the narrow bed. A spear of anxiety shot through him at Jun’s puzzled expression. Theo had been punished all his life for laughing at inappropriate times, and he didn’t want to ruin this. “I was just—I didn’t mean—there is nothing amusing about this situation. I wasn’t laughing at you, and I beg your pardon.”

If anything, Jun only appeared more puzzled. He tugged Theo’s shirt off over his head, gaze hungry on his slender torso. “You have a nice laugh. I like it. Laugh all you want.”

Oh.

Many words had been used to describe Theo’s laughter.

Annoying. Incessant. Piercing.

But never, not once, nice.

The medical impossibility of Theo’s heart melting into his spine did not deter him from experiencing the sensation of it.

Jun’s face rubbing up his stomach and over his chest didn’t exactly help either. Nor did the loose grasp of his hands around Theo’s wrists.

Heart pounding against his ribs like it was demanding to be heard, Theo moved his arms slowly and deliberately up over his head, dragging Jun’s grip along. Theo crossed his wrists on his pillow, monitoring Jun for his reaction.

Jun’s breath whooshed out of him as if he had been gut-punched, unable to decide between focusing on his hold around Theo’s wrists or into his anxious face.

Theo’s confidence wavered as the silence stretched on, Jun frozen above him. He started to move his arms apart. “I suppose that isn’t what you wanted after all. I apologize if—”

He squeaked as Jun’s hands squeezed firmly around his wrists, pressing them into the pillow. His hard stare was all pupil, desire, and command reflected within.

And, something rather remarkable happened.

Every second of every day, Theo’s mind was a hornet’s nest, buzzing and stinging and throbbing with frantic activity. His gift and his curse, never quiet and never still. Always going full tilt, careening into ideas and notions and out again just as quickly, without a moment’s rest.

But, like this.

Like this, pinned beneath the weight of Jun’s regard, held solid under the steady pressure of his hands, Theo’s mind went blessedly still.

Quiet.

It was transcendent.

Jun finally opened his mouth to speak. “Good. That’s good.” His voice was low and crumbling around the edges. “You’re good, like this. Stay.”

Theo shivered as Jun took his hands away, leaving it up to Theo to decide whether to comply. It was nice and quiet in his head, Jun encompassing every thought, looming so large that he pushed out all the buzzing nonsense until Theo couldn’t hear it anymore. Until there was only the solid warmth of Jun’s body, all slim curves and harsh angles pressed tightly to Theo. The deep, dark scent of him coating Theo’s tongue when he swiped a taste of Jun’s throat, finally chasing one of those dark lines of ink up to his jaw. The harsh exhale against Theo’s cheek as Theo went limp beneath him.

The thrill of it sent bolts of lightning streaking through his body, cock aching in his trousers as he whispered up at Jun. “I’ll stay. As long as you want me to.”

Something complicated flickered across Jun’s face. Then he ducked his head and caught Theo’s nipple in his teeth.

Theo arched into the sensation, choking on a moan shaped like Jun’s name.

Jun sucked hard, only pulling off once Theo’s nipple was red and sore, giving it a swift lick, then granting the same treatment to the other side.

Theo twisted and writhed beneath him, wrists anchored to the pillow as if by some invisible force, simply because Jun had asked it of him. There was nothing Theo had given more gladly in his life.

He was a squirming, gasping mess as Jun trailed his plush lips down the thin skin over his ribs in long, openmouthed kisses. Jun took it slow, stretching out the moments until Theo felt as though he were floating, tethered to the bed only by Jun’s will for him to remain there.

It was enough.

Strong, ink-stained hands hooked into his waistband and tugged his trousers and small clothes off in one heavy yank that nearly dislodged Theo’s wrists, to his dismay.

He checked that they remained in place, nearly missing the gobsmacked expression on Jun’s face when Theo’s stockings were revealed.

His velvet trousers hit the metal floor with a heavy slap as Jun dropped them to focus on Theo’s garters. The fingers of his Valor hand traced over one of the red satin ribbons around his thighs. “Holy shit. What the fuck are these?”

Theo curled up into himself a little, bringing his knees up to press his stockinged legs together just in front of where Jun kneeled on the mattress. His wrists remained on the pillow. “They’re nothing. Standard practice, back home. I’m beginning to realize that the Outlier mode of dress is quite different from my own. Disregard them, please.”

Humiliation burned hot through him like a shot of liquor taken too quickly. Back on Britannia, everyone wore stockings as a matter of course. Some of Theo’s previous lovers had even taken an interest in gifting him with embroidered stockings or elaborate garters specifically designed for the boudoir. He wasn’t wearing any of those, of course. Just thin black cotton with his plain daily garters tied in a modest bow.

It was immediately clear by Jun’s reaction that out here, beyond the Verge, even this much attention to undergarments was considered peculiar. He didn’t say anything else, his attention never straying from Theo’s legs.

The silence jerked Theo into action, and he began to lift his wrists to take the garters off, himself. “I’ll just get rid of these, so we can—”

“No.” Jun was above him in a flash, both of Theo’s wrists in the grip of one hand, pressed back into place against the pillow. “Stay.”

Theo wasn’t sure he could have moved if he wanted to as Jun settled back on his knees.

And he really, really didn’t want to.

Jun’s hands slid up his legs from ankles to knees and further still, until he could hook his fingers behind both garters.

Theo gasped when Jun pulled his legs apart with a single, strong movement, the garters now digging into the soft flesh of his inner thighs. Jun released them only to untie each bow one at a time, slowly and carefully, until his palm was slashed in half by two red ribbons.

He turned his hand to consider them, the drape of red satin flowing seamlessly against the ink across his skin as if it were a part of it. Theo tried to stifle the fanciful notion of leaving his mark on Jun, of getting so far beneath his skin that Jun could never forget about him. Ridiculous, since Theo had once bumped into an ex-paramour whom he had entertained for some weeks, and the man had not so much as remembered Theo’s name. Theo was apparently not the kind of lover one didn’t forget.

A thick, dark fall of hair obscured Jun’s face as he dangled the ribbons until they skimmed over Theo’s spread thighs. He trailed them in a sweeping, curving line up Theo’s body. Theo cried out when Jun brushed them across his swollen nipples, and Jun made a harsh, satisfied sound in his throat, grip tightening around the ribbons.

Theo tipped his head back as Jun laid them across his throat; one firm thumb lifted Theo’s chin to get a better view.

“You’re unbelievable.” Jun’s lips barely moved around the words.

It was difficult to choke out a false laugh when Theo had sunk so deeply into this strange, beautiful place Jun was leading him through, but he managed. “Yes, so you’ve said. You can hardly believe a person such as I could exist, with all my irritating oddities.”

Jun traced the line of the ribbons as he shook his head, and he gathered them up in his fist once more to pull them away from Theo’s throat, following their path with his glittering gaze. “No, I can’t believe, just— The galaxy is so ugly, but here you are. So beautiful.”

His touch skated up the inner curve of Theo’s arm. “So soft.”

Red satin ribbons encircled Theo’s wrists. He focused on the bob of Jun’s ink-stained throat as he tied them loosely, and on the muscles rolling beneath his shirt.

Jun completed his work and sat back on his heels between Theo’s legs. His palm pressed flat and warm against Theo’s cheek. Theo’s breath hitched at the brush of Jun’s thumb over his parted lips, the deep rumble of his voice. “So sweet.”

Theo wanted to deny it, wanted to point out that he was anything but sweet, only—only it was so lovely to hear those words in Jun’s voice. Paired with the expression on his gorgeous face, it nearly made Theo believe him.

Jun tapped the ribbons lightly tied around Theo’s wrists, his face serious. “Do you want it like this? Tell me when I push too far.”

Not if. When. As though Jun was used to pushing until he ran up against a barrier, time and time again. Theo spoke over thirty languages, yet he didn’t have the words to tell Jun that he was liquid in his hands, that Jun could dive as deeply as he desired, and Theo would only flow around him, welcome him in.

So he used the words that melted off his tongue when he opened his mouth. “I want it like this. I want you like this, Jun. I’m under your command, Captain. Of my own free will.”

The first time Theo had left planetside and ventured into the stars, he had been transfixed by the view. The hypnotic swirl of sparkling light throughout the endless dark. There was something of that same view in Jun’s face just now.

The same beauty, only made sharper by the edge of danger within the depths. The same relentless, magnetic pull, like a hook behind Theo’s heart. The same sure knowledge that he would never be as he was before.

Jun spread Theo’s hair out over the pillow, then petted down to his throat and let his hand curl lightly around it. “Perfect.”

There had to be a limit to the amount of bliss that could flow through Theo’s veins at the sound of a single word. A body could only withstand so much.

Jun released Theo’s throat and rolled his sore nipples between relentless fingers, his attention never leaving Theo’s face as Theo whimpered and pushed into the too-sharp flare of pleasure. “Good.”

He swooped down to use his tongue, alternating between soft, soothing licks and quick, harsh flicks until Theo was leaking against his stomach, breathing out tiny little moans on every breath.

Jun discovered the small puddle as he braced against Theo’s heaving chest, holding him still beneath his attentions, and his wrist dipped into it. He lifted his shining wrist to his mouth, making sure Theo watched him as he licked it off with a satisfied hum. Then he swiped the rest up on his fingers and brought them up to trace Theo’s lips. He slid two inside until Honor was pressed up against Theo’s teeth.

Theo sucked them clean, trying not to think about how much he wished it was Jun’s tongue that filled his mouth, his lips on Theo’s lips. This would have to be enough. It was already so much.

Jun took his fingers away and shuffled back on the mattress. He began to remove Theo’s twisted, sagging stockings, unmoored without their garters to hold them in place. Theo kicked his leg to help, then cried out with shocked arousal when Jun admonished him with a light slap on his thigh. “No. Let me.”

Jun didn’t miss the way Theo’s cock jumped at the slap, and his teeth flashed in a rare, broad smile. He fell to his belly on the bed and threw Theo’s legs over his shoulders.

“Oh, gracious! Jun, you really don’t have to—”

Those flashing teeth sank into Theo’s leg in a gentle bite, and Theo was a live wire in Jun’s hands, twisting and moaning and begging for more. Jun soothed the bite with a broad swipe of his tongue, then turned his head to focus on Theo’s cock.

To his dismay, Jun skirted around it, laving at his belly, tongue slipping beneath Theo’s cock and barely skimming his shaft.

Theo tossed his head against the pillow, his wrists nearly slipping from their loose bindings. “Please, Jun! Don’t tease me.”

Jun gave a thoughtful hum as he sucked on Theo’s balls, rolling them on his tongue while his thumb pressed hard on the stretch of skin behind them. Theo was suddenly reminded of how achingly empty he was, how desperate to be filled. “Fuck me. Please, fuck me. I’ll be so good; I promise. I’ll even do my best to keep my mouth shut, to be quiet, please!”

A promise he was already showing evidence of being unable to uphold. It had been the primary complaint of his previous lovers, and Theo was determined to correct it if that was what he needed to do to have Jun.

Jun surged up with a fierce snarl, hooked the tips of his fingers behind Theo’s bottom teeth, and tugged his lower jaw down. “Keep your mouth open. I want to hear you.”

The tip of Theo’s tongue caught on those fingers as he answered quietly, muffled by Jun’s firm hand, “Yes, Captain.”