The thought made him giggle, giving Jun pause as he laid Theo flat on the narrow bed. A spear of anxiety shot through him at Jun’s puzzled expression. Theo had been punished all his life for laughing at inappropriate times, and he didn’t want to ruin this. “I was just—I didn’t mean—there is nothing amusing about this situation. I wasn’t laughing at you, and I beg your pardon.”
If anything, Jun only appeared more puzzled. He tugged Theo’s shirt off over his head, gaze hungry on his slender torso. “You have a nice laugh. I like it. Laugh all you want.”
Oh.
Many words had been used to describe Theo’s laughter.
Annoying. Incessant. Piercing.
But never, not once, nice.
The medical impossibility of Theo’s heart melting into his spine did not deter him from experiencing the sensation of it.
Jun’s face rubbing up his stomach and over his chest didn’t exactly help either. Nor did the loose grasp of his hands around Theo’s wrists.
Heart pounding against his ribs like it was demanding to be heard, Theo moved his arms slowly and deliberately up over his head, dragging Jun’s grip along. Theo crossed his wrists on his pillow, monitoring Jun for his reaction.
Jun’s breath whooshed out of him as if he had been gut-punched, unable to decide between focusing on his hold around Theo’s wrists or into his anxious face.
Theo’s confidence wavered as the silence stretched on, Jun frozen above him. He started to move his arms apart. “I suppose that isn’t what you wanted after all. I apologize if—”
He squeaked as Jun’s hands squeezed firmly around his wrists, pressing them into the pillow. His hard stare was all pupil, desire, and command reflected within.
And, something rather remarkable happened.
Every second of every day, Theo’s mind was a hornet’s nest, buzzing and stinging and throbbing with frantic activity. His gift and his curse, never quiet and never still. Always going full tilt, careening into ideas and notions and out again just as quickly, without a moment’s rest.
But, like this.
Like this, pinned beneath the weight of Jun’s regard, held solid under the steady pressure of his hands, Theo’s mind went blessedly still.
Quiet.
It was transcendent.
Jun finally opened his mouth to speak. “Good. That’s good.” His voice was low and crumbling around the edges. “You’re good, like this. Stay.”
Theo shivered as Jun took his hands away, leaving it up to Theo to decide whether to comply. It was nice and quiet in his head, Jun encompassing every thought, looming so large that he pushed out all the buzzing nonsense until Theo couldn’t hear it anymore. Until there was only the solid warmth of Jun’s body, all slim curves and harsh angles pressed tightly to Theo. The deep, dark scent of him coating Theo’s tongue when he swiped a taste of Jun’s throat, finally chasing one of those dark lines of ink up to his jaw. The harsh exhale against Theo’s cheek as Theo went limp beneath him.
The thrill of it sent bolts of lightning streaking through his body, cock aching in his trousers as he whispered up at Jun. “I’ll stay. As long as you want me to.”
Something complicated flickered across Jun’s face. Then he ducked his head and caught Theo’s nipple in his teeth.
Theo arched into the sensation, choking on a moan shaped like Jun’s name.
Jun sucked hard, only pulling off once Theo’s nipple was red and sore, giving it a swift lick, then granting the same treatment to the other side.
Theo twisted and writhed beneath him, wrists anchored to the pillow as if by some invisible force, simply because Jun had asked it of him. There was nothing Theo had given more gladly in his life.
He was a squirming, gasping mess as Jun trailed his plush lips down the thin skin over his ribs in long, openmouthed kisses. Jun took it slow, stretching out the moments until Theo felt as though he were floating, tethered to the bed only by Jun’s will for him to remain there.
It was enough.
Strong, ink-stained hands hooked into his waistband and tugged his trousers and small clothes off in one heavy yank that nearly dislodged Theo’s wrists, to his dismay.
He checked that they remained in place, nearly missing the gobsmacked expression on Jun’s face when Theo’s stockings were revealed.
His velvet trousers hit the metal floor with a heavy slap as Jun dropped them to focus on Theo’s garters. The fingers of his Valor hand traced over one of the red satin ribbons around his thighs. “Holy shit. What the fuck are these?”
Theo curled up into himself a little, bringing his knees up to press his stockinged legs together just in front of where Jun kneeled on the mattress. His wrists remained on the pillow. “They’re nothing. Standard practice, back home. I’m beginning to realize that the Outlier mode of dress is quite different from my own. Disregard them, please.”
Humiliation burned hot through him like a shot of liquor taken too quickly. Back on Britannia, everyone wore stockings as a matter of course. Some of Theo’s previous lovers had even taken an interest in gifting him with embroidered stockings or elaborate garters specifically designed for the boudoir. He wasn’t wearing any of those, of course. Just thin black cotton with his plain daily garters tied in a modest bow.
It was immediately clear by Jun’s reaction that out here, beyond the Verge, even this much attention to undergarments was considered peculiar. He didn’t say anything else, his attention never straying from Theo’s legs.
The silence jerked Theo into action, and he began to lift his wrists to take the garters off, himself. “I’ll just get rid of these, so we can—”
“No.” Jun was above him in a flash, both of Theo’s wrists in the grip of one hand, pressed back into place against the pillow. “Stay.”
Theo wasn’t sure he could have moved if he wanted to as Jun settled back on his knees.
And he really, really didn’t want to.
Jun’s hands slid up
