Theo gasped when Jun pulled his legs apart with a single, strong movement, the garters now digging into the soft flesh of his inner thighs. Jun released them only to untie each bow one at a time, slowly and carefully, until his palm was slashed in half by two red ribbons.
He turned his hand to consider them, the drape of red satin flowing seamlessly against the ink across his skin as if it were a part of it. Theo tried to stifle the fanciful notion of leaving his mark on Jun, of getting so far beneath his skin that Jun could never forget about him. Ridiculous, since Theo had once bumped into an ex-paramour whom he had entertained for some weeks, and the man had not so much as remembered Theo’s name. Theo was apparently not the kind of lover one didn’t forget.
A thick, dark fall of hair obscured Jun’s face as he dangled the ribbons until they skimmed over Theo’s spread thighs. He trailed them in a sweeping, curving line up Theo’s body. Theo cried out when Jun brushed them across his swollen nipples, and Jun made a harsh, satisfied sound in his throat, grip tightening around the ribbons.
Theo tipped his head back as Jun laid them across his throat; one firm thumb lifted Theo’s chin to get a better view.
“You’re unbelievable.” Jun’s lips barely moved around the words.
It was difficult to choke out a false laugh when Theo had sunk so deeply into this strange, beautiful place Jun was leading him through, but he managed. “Yes, so you’ve said. You can hardly believe a person such as I could exist, with all my irritating oddities.”
Jun traced the line of the ribbons as he shook his head, and he gathered them up in his fist once more to pull them away from Theo’s throat, following their path with his glittering gaze. “No, I can’t believe, just— The galaxy is so ugly, but here you are. So beautiful.”
His touch skated up the inner curve of Theo’s arm. “So soft.”
Red satin ribbons encircled Theo’s wrists. He focused on the bob of Jun’s ink-stained throat as he tied them loosely, and on the muscles rolling beneath his shirt.
Jun completed his work and sat back on his heels between Theo’s legs. His palm pressed flat and warm against Theo’s cheek. Theo’s breath hitched at the brush of Jun’s thumb over his parted lips, the deep rumble of his voice. “So sweet.”
Theo wanted to deny it, wanted to point out that he was anything but sweet, only—only it was so lovely to hear those words in Jun’s voice. Paired with the expression on his gorgeous face, it nearly made Theo believe him.
Jun tapped the ribbons lightly tied around Theo’s wrists, his face serious. “Do you want it like this? Tell me when I push too far.”
Not if. When. As though Jun was used to pushing until he ran up against a barrier, time and time again. Theo spoke over thirty languages, yet he didn’t have the words to tell Jun that he was liquid in his hands, that Jun could dive as deeply as he desired, and Theo would only flow around him, welcome him in.
So he used the words that melted off his tongue when he opened his mouth. “I want it like this. I want you like this, Jun. I’m under your command, Captain. Of my own free will.”
The first time Theo had left planetside and ventured into the stars, he had been transfixed by the view. The hypnotic swirl of sparkling light throughout the endless dark. There was something of that same view in Jun’s face just now.
The same beauty, only made sharper by the edge of danger within the depths. The same relentless, magnetic pull, like a hook behind Theo’s heart. The same sure knowledge that he would never be as he was before.
Jun spread Theo’s hair out over the pillow, then petted down to his throat and let his hand curl lightly around it. “Perfect.”
There had to be a limit to the amount of bliss that could flow through Theo’s veins at the sound of a single word. A body could only withstand so much.
Jun released Theo’s throat and rolled his sore nipples between relentless fingers, his attention never leaving Theo’s face as Theo whimpered and pushed into the too-sharp flare of pleasure. “Good.”
He swooped down to use his tongue, alternating between soft, soothing licks and quick, harsh flicks until Theo was leaking against his stomach, breathing out tiny little moans on every breath.
Jun discovered the small puddle as he braced against Theo’s heaving chest, holding him still beneath his attentions, and his wrist dipped into it. He lifted his shining wrist to his mouth, making sure Theo watched him as he licked it off with a satisfied hum. Then he swiped the rest up on his fingers and brought them up to trace Theo’s lips. He slid two inside until Honor was pressed up against Theo’s teeth.
Theo sucked them clean, trying not to think about how much he wished it was Jun’s tongue that filled his mouth, his lips on Theo’s lips. This would have to be enough. It was already so much.
Jun took his fingers away and shuffled back on the mattress. He began to remove Theo’s twisted, sagging stockings, unmoored without their garters to hold them in place. Theo kicked his leg to help, then cried out with shocked arousal when Jun admonished him with a light slap on his thigh. “No. Let me.”
Jun didn’t miss the way Theo’s cock jumped at the slap, and his teeth flashed in a rare, broad smile. He fell to his belly on the bed and threw Theo’s legs over his shoulders.
“Oh, gracious! Jun, you really don’t have to—”
Those flashing teeth sank into Theo’s leg in a gentle bite, and Theo was a live wire in Jun’s hands, twisting and moaning and begging
