To Theo’s dismay, he took his boots away too. He then pushed to stand and stepped away as he tucked himself back into his trousers.
The chill of the room hit Theo with a slap, goose bumps erupting over his exposed skin as he wiped the back of a shaking hand across his mouth.
Jun picked up his coat, and Theo turned away, staring at the rumpled dent on the bed as he waited to hear the sound of the door.
He squeaked in surprise as the heavy warmth of black leather fell across his shoulders in a cloud of Jun’s scent. Strong hands lifted him up onto the bed, and Jun tucked him into the folds of his coat.
Dark eyes studied him closely as Jun pushed Theo’s hair off his face, broad thumbs brushed against his cheeks.
Without a word, Jun turned and went through the open doorway into the small attached washroom. He returned with a damp cloth and wiped Theo’s mouth like he was cleaning a porcelain vase, his face set with concentration.
He cleaned the rest of him with the same focus, then swiped Theo’s mess from the floor and tossed the cloth back into the washroom.
Theo melted against him as he sat beside him on the bed, posture as rigid as ever but breath still ragged in his chest. After a moment, the weight of his mouth pressed to the top of Theo’s head. Theo lifted his face for a kiss, only for Jun to turn away, fisting his hands on his knees while he faced the wall.
“No kissing. Not on the mouth.”
The odd request was one more jarring piece to this puzzle of a man, sending Theo careening into uncertainty. He sat up, holding the coat tight around his shoulders. “Whyever not? That’s a fairly ridiculous place to draw the line, considering what else you would allow our mouths to do.”
Jun’s gaze flitted to Theo’s swollen mouth with a flare of heat. He shook his head and looked away. “If we do this—”
At Theo’s inelegant snort, Jun’s mouth snapped shut into a frown. “Oh, I would say ‘if’ has quite flown past the view screen, wouldn’t you? We are well past ‘if’ at this point, Captain. If anything, we are plotting a course for ‘when.’ Perhaps toying with a detour through ‘are.’”
Jun continued with a brief sigh, his voice as stiff as his backbone. “If. We do this. We need to keep it casual. Impersonal. This can’t interfere with my work. With our work.”
Theo thought the bitter taste of Jun’s semen lingering in the back of his throat was rather personal but refrained from commenting on such. Because he was a gentleman.
He focused on the slight movement of Jun’s hands, the tattooed fingers trembling ever so slightly against his thighs. “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”
Staring at the wall as if waiting for it to move, June rubbed his Valor hand across his Honor knuckles. “I lost sight of it once. Never again.”
Theo leaned close, running his hand down Jun’s arm to cup his knuckles where he seemed to be trying to rub away the ink. “Lost sight of what?”
Breathing in deeply, Jun pulled his hand away and got up from the bed to step toward the door. He paused there, arms crossed tightly over his chest.
“Of what’s important.” He said it in such a way that Theo was acutely aware the term was not meant to apply to him.
Jun kept his gaze averted. The pattern of triangles shaved into the right side of his scalp shone pale and alien in the artificial light of the bunk. “Stay here. I’ll bring your work to you.”
Theo stood on shaky legs. He dropped the heavy coat from his shoulders and threw it at Jun, hitting the back of his knee with a satisfying slap. He didn’t bother trying to cover himself, stood naked and brazen, glaring at Jun’s broad back. “Is that a suggestion or a command, Captain? Am I allowed to move freely about the ship, or am I your prisoner here?”
Jun reached down slowly, picked up the coat, and held it over his shoulder. He hit the door panel, his voice as hard and impersonal as the polished steel walls of the ship.
“Stay.”
Chapter Ten
The description had been accurate: pale, thin, male, green eyes, red hair. And yet Jun felt misled.
There had been nothing in the initial description of his search to prepare him for the reality of Dr. Theophrastus Campbell.
Nowhere had it mentioned that he was achingly young, and brimming with boundless babbling energy, and devastatingly beautiful.
Jun had been struck down by the reality of him, completely unprepared. That was the only explanation for his behavior.
Explanation. There was no excuse.
Theo had looked up at him with those big green eyes and long red hair; hair that was just begging for a firm hand to wrap around it and pull, and Jun was…
Jun was done. With that part of his life. He had to be. He didn’t have time to take a beautiful brat like Theo in hand.
Theo was sweet, but he wasn’t meek. It was the sharp edges that pulled Jun in like a loading beam. Made him itch to see Theo on his knees.
Holy shit, but he’d been gorgeous on his knees.
Sonnets could be written about the way Theo looked on his knees. Jun wouldn’t read them, but he knew poetic beauty when he saw it.
Despite rumors circulating in certain pockets of the dark, Captain Park was only human. He sometimes found it necessary to make an occasional stop, drop by a bar and find a warm body for the night. But this? This was something entirely different. He couldn’t do this.
He couldn’t lose focus.
Theo was the definition of a distraction. Shining with temptation, drawing Jun’s attention like a magnet.
Ripe and sweet, needy for direction and guidance and love.
Jun just couldn’t be the man to give it to him. The thought that this meant
