Instead, he crossed his arms over his narrow chest and leaned back against the wall, allowing his gaze to sweep slowly over Jun from head to toe.
The fact that his feet were bare sent Theo’s heart into overdrive, for some odd reason. It was only the tiniest hint of vulnerability, but it was—
Enough.
“Asking for what, Captain? Something quick and casual? Impersonal? Am I allowed to call you by your name or am I to address you only by title? I wouldn’t want to act too familiar and cause offense.”
The tiny thread of hurt that wove itself through Theo’s voice surely gave him away despite his caustic words. He was usually better at hiding his hurt feelings in his affairs. Everything was just different, with Jun.
More.
Jun didn’t answer as he stepped closer. Theo soon realized he had pinned himself to the wall through his own posturing. Jun didn’t touch Theo so much as displace the air around him, a phantom pressure against his skin.
It made Theo tip his head back and drop his hands down to press against the wall behind him as Jun dipped to nuzzle into Theo’s throat with a harsh exhale.
“Say my name.” Jun brushed his lips against his skin. “Say anything you want. Just let me.”
He didn’t elaborate on exactly what Theo should let him do, but the particulars were immaterial anyway.
Because Theo would let Jun do anything he wanted to him. Including sweep him away across the galaxy after just a single glimpse of his heart-stopping face.
Theo had always been more prone to leaping than looking. He couldn’t even find it within himself to regret it, not while he stood here in Jun’s embrace.
Not while leather and ozone filled his lungs with each deep, greedy breath.
The humid heat of Jun’s open mouth slid across his throat as he nudged his open shirt aside to get to his skin. He latched onto the crook of Theo’s shoulder with blunt teeth and a muffled growl.
He pulled back when Theo made a soft, wounded sound. And Jun’s shining lips tugged down in a frown as he lifted one hand to trace over the mark. “I’m not—I don’t know how to be gentle. Not like you deserve.”
Theo let his hands drift slowly up Jun’s chest to rest over the thumping beat of his heart. “Yes, you do.”
Jun shook his head, scowl slipping into place like a well-worn blanket, familiar and comfortable and covering all of his softest parts. “No, I don’t. I never learned. I never had anything to be gentle for. Soft things don’t last very long, where I come from. They never held any appeal for me, before.”
The last was said sotto voce, as if Jun was speaking to himself, gaze drifting dreamily across Theo’s face.
Theo arranged it into a teasing smirk as he grabbed one of Jun’s wrists and led his hand down to Theo’s tented trouser front. “One could hardly say I’m soft, Captain.”
Jun gave him an obliging squeeze, just the right side of too tight, scowl fading from his face as Theo pressed up into his grip with a whine. Then he released him and lifted his hands to Theo’s hair, tangling his fingers in the long silken strands. “Soft. Pretty.” He tightened his grip abruptly to tug Theo’s head back against the wall. “Sweet.”
Theo shook his head, more to feel Jun tug harder against the motion than to express his opinion, the tiny pinpricks of pain shooting a thrill straight to his cock. “I’m really not. I’m a bit of a pill. Hard to swallow.”
Jun’s hand returned to Theo’s trousers, yanked open the button placket with a flick of his wrist, then slid inside. His warm, rough palm was devastating against Theo’s skin just as his warm, rough voice was devastating against his ear. “I think I’m up to the challenge.”
And then Theo nearly swallowed his own tongue because Jun just…dropped.
To his knees.
It was beyond unexpected.
Theo could count on one hand the number of times a man had gone to his knees for him. That was usually Theo’s role. Reciprocation had always been more of a hope than an expectation in his affairs. He yelped with surprise when Jun bypassed his cock entirely and instead, shoved Theo’s shirt up and rubbed his face against the pale skin of his stomach. “Jun! What are you—?”
Jun’s hands circled Theo’s ankles and yanked them apart until he had to grab onto the expanse of Jun’s shoulders for balance.
A shiver ran through Theo as Jun dipped a long, wet tongue into his navel, his sparse stubble scraping Theo’s skin. He dug his fingers into Jun’s shoulders as his head made an embarrassing hollow thunk against the metal bulkhead.
To his surprise and building distress, Jun stopped. He got to his feet and brought one hand around to rub at the back of Theo’s head, his eyes dark on his face. “No.”
Panic bloomed in Theo’s chest like an insidious weed, shooting out in all directions as he sensed his time with Jun slipping from his grasp.
That was what he got for acting selfishly, for letting a man like Jun lower himself to Theo’s level. “Oh, of course. Here, I’ll just—” But when he attempted to get to his knees, Jun caught him beneath the arms, burning gaze unwavering from his face.
“No. Not like this. On the bed.”
The “get” was implied, and Theo rushed to follow orders only to come up short, limbs flailing uselessly through the air and feet sliding across the floor when Jun didn’t release his grip.
The noise Theo made when Jun lifted him from the ground should never have been granted a witness. Certainly not one who smirked at the sound, walking steadily across the room with his armful of blushing, rumpled disaster.
To his delight, Theo discovered that his legs did indeed wrap quite nicely around Jun’s waist as he carried him to the bed.
A proven hypothesis at last.
Ari would have been so proud.
On second thought, Ari would have wanted to know absolutely nothing about
