Theo never could resist edging closer to beautiful, dangerous things.
Energy crawled over his skin as they drew nearer and nearer, colored light twisting and snapping in lightning-hot flashes in every direction.
Every muscle in Jun’s body tensed as he gripped a sturdy lever on the dash, his knuckles white beneath the ink.
He glanced over at Theo, then slammed the lever forward, sending the dinghy careening straight into the barrier. The ship shook so hard that the bolts holding Theo’s chair to the floor rattled and whined beneath his feet.
Debris started to fall all around them. Small metal pieces pinged against the floor, and wires draped down from the ceiling as panels shimmied open.
Jun’s teeth clenched over a low roar as he brought his fist down hard on the dash to force the lever the rest of the way. It fell into place with a quiet click, and then they were jerked back against their seats, energy crackling with a frequency Theo could feel in his teeth as the dinghy finally punched through.
Alarms shrieked overhead as the ship wobbled and somersaulted away from the barrier. Yelling out curses, Jun slapped blindly at switches and buttons until silence fell, and the ship was righted once more.
A silence that was immediately broken when Theo’s chair teetered, tipped on its base, and crashed to the floor with a bang only surpassed in volume by Theo’s undignified yelp.
The floor shook and juddered beneath his cheek where he lay pressed against the cold metal, wheezing a little as he gasped for the air that had been knocked out of him.
Jun’s cursing took on an entirely different tone, softer and lower as he clicked out of his harness and dropped down to extricate Theo from his.
Strong arms wrapped around his back and hooked behind his knees. Theo’s view tipped again as Jun lifted him with a quiet huff, placed him gently into the pilot’s seat, and fastened the harness that required a great deal of tightening to fit down to Theo’s leaner frame. “Are you hurt?” Jun asked, his words strained.
He ran his hands over the air surrounding Theo’s body like he wanted to touch but was unsure of his welcome.
Theo tried to speak but only managed a cough as his lungs struggled to fill.
Cupping Theo’s chin in his fingers, Jun turned his head to inspect the sore spot throbbing high on his cheek. Jun’s face darkened at whatever he saw, and he brushed his thumb softly, just below the spot. He’d just parted his lips to speak when a static-slashed voice came over the ship’s com.
“Can’t believe you made it back here in that piece of shit, Captain. I was taking bets we’d be scraping both you and the dinghy off the Verge with a rusted spatula. You just lost me a stack of chips, you dick.”
Jun’s hand fell away from Theo as he leaned over the dash. He brought up his screen and tapped rapidly. “I’m sending you my location. Pickup in ten. My ship better be exactly the way I left it, Axel.”
The voice laughed, a pleasing light tenor in distinct contrast with Jun’s rumbling bass. “I think Marco’s got her running even better than she was before you left. We all behaved ourselves while Daddy was gone; don’t you worry.”
Jun pressed a despairing hand to his face, muffling a groan. His ears glowed ever brighter over hunched shoulders as he growled his response. “If you ever call me that again, I will let Boom use your best arm for target practice.”
He muted the com as Axel’s voice started to come through again. Leaning over the dash with a deep breath, Jun turned to face Theo and frowned at his gleeful expression.
Theo tried not to laugh, but, like most efforts to contain himself, he failed miserably.
Jun stomped past him into the main cabin, grabbed his coat off the seat, and pulled it on. He returned to loom over Theo. “You’ll meet the Crew when we rendezvous with my ship. They might be a miserable bunch of assholes, but I can personally guarantee your safety among them. While you are here, you are my responsibility. I take that very seriously.”
Theo nodded, impressed with the speech and the intimidating figure Jun cut in his sweeping coat, with his forbidding scowl firmly in place.
He chewed on his lip, questions bursting from him in a shoulder-quaking fit of laughter.
“So, the Daddy thing—”
“Don’t.”
“Is it a universal ban or—”
“Stop.”
“—is it up for negotiation?”
“I will flush you out of the airlock,” Jun gritted behind clenched teeth, every line of his face a threat. Every line of his face a study in masculine beauty.
Theo held up both hands. “No, you won’t, for several reasons.” With a shark-toothed smile, he ticked items on his fingers as he listed them: “First, this ship isn’t equipped for it. Second, you’ve already shown your hand, and I know you need me alive and well. Third, I think we both know you would miss me too much.”
He added a flutter of lashes to the final point, causing Jun to snarl as he made his way back to the main cabin. From there, the sounds of panels opening and items crashing to the floor were underscored by dark muttering in Patch.
The dinghy jolted, caught in a loading beam, and Jun hit the wall with a shout as Theo rocked securely in his harness.
He didn’t know whether to be frightened or thrilled over this next step into the unknown. Given his options, Theo decided to go with thrilled. Life was much better that way.
It took less than five minutes for Jun to load the dinghy onto the much larger ship and then lower the ramp down into a cavernous cargo bay stacked high with metal crates.
Three pairs of curious eyes peered up at them.
Chapter Nine
The first one to speak was a young man with spiked green hair and so many
