Theo was definitely charmed.
“No. And if you’re not going to stop asking stupid questions, I’d honestly rather you shoot me.”
Theo tried to school his features into something half as serious as Jun’s solemn face, reining in his wild curiosity to focus on gaining pertinent information. “Where are you taking me?”
It seemed Jun would refuse to answer, but he appeared more comfortable with questions regarding Theo’s abduction than his own personal details. He answered quickly and quietly, “To my ship.” His mouth barely moved as he tracked every minute movement of the gun and continued to inch forward.
Theo’s arm drooped, his shoulders sagging with befuddlement. “But we’re already aboard your ship.”
“This isn’t my ship; this is just the dinghy.” Jun moved dangerously close, hands out and ready at his sides.
Theo scooted backward until he bumped up against the bulkhead, gun raised but not in the least ready. “I’m afraid I’m not familiar with the term.”
Jun didn’t slow his approach, stalking Theo with the hard eyes of a single-minded predator. Theo felt a slight tinge of concern for his own mental state that he found it so devastatingly attractive. His survival instincts really were appalling.
Jun’s voice was clipped with the sharp edge to his accent that had originally fascinated Theo. He wanted to analyze every soft phoneme and clipped consonant until he could pin it down.
Until he could pin Jun down.
“It’s a single-person craft for making short trips planetside,” Jun said.
The space between Jun’s chest and Theo’s gun was closing rapidly.
“Oh.” Theo’s voice was small as his hands began to shake.
Only a few feet between them now. Jun bit his lip as he stared at the gun, every muscle tense and his words almost too low to hear, dropping into a growl. “That, and it’s dingy as fuck.”
Theo jumped, knocking his head against the wall as Jun snatched the gun away and continued to move closer until he pressed Theo into the bulkhead with the entire length of his body.
His eyes held Theo’s for an endless moment, his breathing so harsh that his chest brushed against Theo’s lapels on every exhalation. Theo refused to turn away despite his trembling, fear and arousal sending his body into a tailspin of hormones until he was drunk on them. Jun’s gaze fell to Theo’s quivering lips just before he stepped back with a dissatisfied grunt.
“I shouldn’t have released you from the rusted tape.”
Chapter Six
Jun shoved away from Theo to stomp across the length of the cabin and slam his hand against a security panel. The upper half of the wall slid away after a series of beeps.
Hidden behind the wall was an impressive collection of weaponry, neatly displayed and ranging from items as small as Theo’s little finger to launchers he suspected he would not be able to lift.
He dared to walk closer, stopping a few feet away at Jun’s baleful glance. “You had all of these other weapons at your disposal? I can’t imagine why you were so concerned when I took one little ray gun. You could have simply outgunned me at any point. It appears to me you made a fuss for nothing. Bit of a tempest in a teapot, really.”
Jun snapped the gun he had taken back from Theo into the wall. He considered for a second before choosing a larger pistol, equipped with bio-locks, which he quickly set to his hand, then muttered his answer, “Wouldn’t you be concerned if an orangutan picked up a gun?”
With a gasp, Theo pressed a hand to his chest, knocked back a step by the force of his offense. “I beg your pardon. Are you comparing me to an orangutan?”
The lock clicked shut on the panel as Jun closed it. Then he secured the new pistol in his holster as he aimed a pointed look at Theo’s hair.
Theo hastened to brush through the tangled mess with his fingers, longing for a mirror and comb and bemoaning his unusual coloring. He and Ari had certainly endured more than their share of schoolyard taunts about their red hair, but orangutan was a new one.
Jun’s lips twitched up as he watched Theo’s frantic efforts. He pitched his voice low and dry as he walked past Theo toward the cockpit. “I would have felt safer with the monkey.”
Theo remembered the small, cracked mirror over the sink in the washroom and made his way there to remedy his hair. Jun didn’t seem in a hurry to produce more tape, and Theo didn’t feel inclined to press his luck.
He groaned darkly when he caught sight of the mess on his head, setting it to rights with little more than his fingertips and a judicious application of muttered threats. It was almost lying correctly when he was startled by the sound of metal smashing in the cockpit.
Hair forgotten, Theo scrambled his way to the cockpit to be greeted by the sight of Jun destroying a small section of the dash with his fist, cursing loudly all the while.
Theo slid into the copilot’s seat, being careful to give Jun a wide berth. “Are we experiencing technical difficulties?”
Jun declined to answer. Instead, he buried his fist into the ruined section with a roar of fury, pulled out a handful of busted wiring, and tossed it to the floor at his feet.
Clucking his tongue, Theo tucked his own feet underneath himself on the chair to avoid the sparking wires spilling from the ragged hole in the dash. “Well, if we weren’t before, we certainly are now.”
Jun turned to him with clenched teeth and bloody knuckles, stormy face daring Theo to say another word.
Theo never could resist a dare.
“Does that usually work for you? This type of extreme percussive maintenance? It certainly seems an imprecise method at best. I can’t imagine that it has ever proven to be effective. Whatever was the problem in the
