Jun shrugged and dropped a double-barreled pistol into the duffel carelessly, heedless of the clatter it made. “You get used to it.”
There was a tone to his sardonic voice that was very nearly fond, and it did something rather absurd to Theo’s heart. So much so, he began to wonder if the fanciful organ had decided to take up jump rope.
Marco offered a shy smile. “I like it.” He spoke in a soft tenor Theo would never have expected, considering his large build. “I think you sound nice.”
Such a small, strange thing to send a lump to Theo’s throat. He struggled against it in expressing his thanks to Marco, who accepted with a slight nod. People back home were not usually so friendly to Theo. So effortlessly kind.
His reputation usually preceded him.
Axel sidled closer with a comical leer. “Need me to show you to your bunk, Doc?” He spoke far too loudly to be addressing Theo, who was right beside him. “Get you tucked in for the night? Looks like the captain’s busy, so I don’t mind stepping in as a friendly gesture.”
The duffel bag crashed to the ground behind Axel, which only made his face light up with glee.
Jun stalked over and grabbed Theo’s upper arm in a firm but gentle grasp. He steered Theo away from the crew without a word of parting, weaving through the stacks of crates and out an open door into a wide corridor.
Theo stumbled along behind as they made their way through a makeshift dining hall and cluttered galley, past closed doorways, and down another corridor into a sparsely appointed bedchamber fitted with a bolted-down bed, a minuscule metal desk and chair, and little else.
Jun shut the door behind them with a flat palm against the panel, locking them in with a quiet beep.
That ever-present charge snapped and buzzed in the space between them, just as thick and inescapable here as it had been on the dinghy.
Theo was almost relieved by the constancy of it.
The reassurance that he had not imagined the intensity.
He took deep breaths to combat his racing heart as Jun waited silently, hands fisted at his sides. “Well, your crew seems lovely. I hope we can get to know one another better over the course of my work here. Develop a positive relationship as colleagues. Not that I’ve ever had a particularly positive relationship with my colleagues before, but it never hurts to make the effort.”
Jun took a step toward him, the generously sized bunk growing smaller with the closing distance. Theo found himself backing up until the mattress pressed against the back of his knees.
Jun dragged his gaze in a scorching trail up Theo’s body, landing on the pale sliver of throat exposed above his cravat. He took another step forward, and Theo’s spats slid back until he scuffed his heel against the metal leg of the bunk. He would have spared a thought for the ruined polish if there had been a single thought to spare.
All of Theo’s thoughts were much too busy screaming lewd suggestions.
He might as well have said them aloud, for the way Jun’s expression darkened and burned.
“This is your bunk.”
Theo didn’t bother to check his surroundings. There wasn’t much to see. Just a standard ship’s bunk without a single shred of personality or decoration. Jun was by far the most fascinating thing in the room. Theo fiddled with his cravat as he tilted his head to give Jun his best angle, lashes lowered to a calculated degree. “How lovely of you to provide such charming accommodations. May I make one small request? Something that would improve the space markedly?”
It seemed Jun couldn’t tear his gaze away from the movement as Theo loosened his neck cloth to a scandalous degree. “What do you want?”
Theo trailed his hand down his throat and across his chest. He popped open the buttons of his waistcoat. “I’d prefer a bit of company. I’m afraid I’m not used to living alone, and that bed appears exceedingly empty. Do you have any suggestions for how I might fill it?”
Inhaling sharply, Jun closed his eyes, his hands now rolled into restless fists at his side. His brow furrowed briefly before he pinned Theo with a gaze so hot it burned. The air between them crackled with energy. “Take it off.”
His rich, deep voice stirred things hidden in Theo like pieces of a shipwreck breaking the surface of the water.
“Take what off, precisely?” Theo asked breathlessly, his fingers already returning to pull at the fabric wound around his neck.
Jun’s face was stark with hunger, muscles tense. “All of it.”
Theo’s clothing practically melted away, tossed aside in careless heaps around the previously tidy room.
Tracking every piece as it was pulled away, Jun trailed his eyes over Theo’s naked skin so heavily they might as well have been hands.
Jun shrugged out of his heavy coat and dropped it onto the bed, then stepped around Theo and sat on the edge of the mattress.
He reached out, snagged a small pillow, and tossed it to the floor between his splayed ankles. “On your knees.”
Theo fell to kneel on the pillow as though his strings had been cut, his heart hammering in his chest and skin tingling with the charge between them.
Jun cupped his jaw, angling Theo’s head to expose the bruise blooming along his cheekbone from his misadventure with the chair. Jun traced the edge of discoloration with careful fingertips, his face unreadable. “Do you want me?” His voice was unexpectedly, achingly gentle. “You’re free to say no.”
Theo pressed his cheek into Jun’s rough palm with a helpless moan, shivering in the cold ship air. Tongue loose with desire. “Yes, I want you. Very much. More than I should, I’m sure. I so rarely do as I should anyway.”
Jun released him to lean back. He opened his trousers and pulled out his cock. “Alright, then. Show me.”
Tattooed fingers stroked from root to
