The balled-up bit of candy wrapper that Axel threw at him got stuck in his hair, leaving Theo to tease it out. Axel laughed at that, while Jun’s jaw just continued to tighten. “Sure thing, Doc. First lesson—stop talking like you know someone who owns a rusted castle.”
Theo winced guiltily.
Axel’s eyes widened. “No shit? You really do know someone with a castle, don’t you?”
Twisting the candy wrapper between his fingers, Theo gave a halfhearted shrug. “It’s more of a palace, actually. The battlements are hardly fortified, and I doubt the portcullis is even functional. My aunt married up, you could say. It’s not as though I’ve spent more than a few nights there; I haven’t even visited since I was fifteen. There may have been an incident involving an overpriced yet terrifically ugly vase and a third story window; although rumors of my involvement remain unsubstantiated.”
The entire bridge crew grimaced at the volume of Axel’s appreciative whistle. Theo just relished the novelty of being the least irritating person in a room.
“Damn,” Axel said. “A palace. Imagine that. Hey, they gotta have, like, loose valuables in a place like that, right? What was it you were saying about it wasn’t fortified?”
“Shut up, Axel.”
As Jun stared them both down, Axel leaned back in his chair, arms raised in surrender, and Theo sat up straight, hands folded on his lap, blinking back innocently.
Jun rubbed his temples with a low sound that made Theo want to bat his hands away and offer to rub there himself. And maybe other places. Just as a bonus kindness. Theo was nothing if not giving of himself.
“The drop. Axel. What’s our ETA?”
The numbers paused on Axel’s screen for just a moment. He screwed up his face in concentration. “Looks like it’s gonna take another cycle and a half, give or take a few hours.”
Chin dipping once, succinctly, Jun moved on. “Good. Boom?”
Solid heels were already clunking away from the console and out into the corridor as Boom tossed her answer over her shoulder. “On it.”
“I’m still only about three-quarters of the way through repairs to the combustion chamber,” Marco offered with an apologetic frown. “It doesn’t want to cooperate.” He held out his odd tube-riddled contraption as if it was proof of such.
Jun sucked his teeth, habitual scowl sliding back into place. “Damn. Do what you can to optimize fuel consumption in the meantime.”
Marco gathered his tools and left with a jaunty salute at Jun’s rigid back.
“Well, isn’t this cozy?” Axel’s attention bounced back and forth between Theo and Jun as if watching a tennis match, his mouth still chewing something. “Tell me, Dr. Campbell, do you have to manually remove the stick from the captain’s ass or does he prefer to leave it in?”
He flinched so hard that he fell out of his chair when Jun feinted toward him with a snarl. “Okay! Okay, I’ll leave you to it. It’s not like I work here or anything.”
One of his brightly colored snack packages fell from the pile in his arms when he stomped away, muttering in Patch.
Theo stooped to pick it up, puzzling over the sickly yellow font declaring them to be Power Blasted Fruit Nuggets.
When he turned to Jun to ask about them, he caught Jun’s gaze jerking away from his posterior in a move Theo had gotten most adept at picking up from a certain type of gentleman.
The type of gentleman who was interested in Theo.
Snack forgotten, Theo stepped closer, grinning when Jun backed up a step and crashed into the console behind him with a metallic ringing sound. Theo pitched his voice into a soothing purr, offering a sympathetic pout. “Don’t worry; I’m not going to climb all over you, Captain.”
Jun’s shoulders dropped incrementally, the harsh lines around his mouth softening a little. Theo leaned in closer to watch the lines deepen again, his own gaze falling to Jun’s supple lips. “Unless, of course, you asked me nicely.”
Never in Theo’s life had he witnessed someone appear so furious over their own arousal. Jun’s face contorted into a sneer even as his pupils dilated, and his attention slid down to Theo’s mouth, watching him lick his lips with a low growl. Theo found the reaction rather…
Motivating.
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
