He cut off as he finally heard himself, snapping his mouth shut in the face of Jun’s naked fascination. The man observed him exactly as one would a carriage accident in progress, with a potent mixture of horror and rapt attention.
Theo cleared his throat, his fingers busy with picking imaginary dust off the knee of his trousers. “My apologies. I do tend to chatter when I am nervous. This is my first abduction, you see. Not that one tends to experience multiple abductions, in the general course of things. Though I suppose this is very much out of the general course of things. I’ve certainly never met someone like you before, and—”
Theo dropped wide eyes to the tattooed hand covering his mouth. Jun’s calloused palm rasped against the sensitive skin of his lips.
It was decidedly not unpleasant.
Jun’s quiet voice boomed in the silent cockpit, his face sharp with warning. “I will gag you if you will not. Cease. Speaking.”
Theo’s eyes attempted to go even wider but met their limit. Jun removed his hand with a fleeting glance at Theo's lips and curled it into a fist by his side as he settled back into his chair.
Theo sucked in a noisy breath, lips tilting up with shocked glee. “Will you really? Goodness, I’ve read some rather fascinating stories where that happens, to various effect. Some much more pleasant than others. Though I suppose this isn’t that kind of story.”
Theo got the distinct impression that if Jun had been a cat, he would have hissed.
A strobing light brought Theo’s attention to the dash, half again as big and twice as complicated as the one on his and Ari’s little ship.
A clear dome with an open padlock covered a large red button just left of center. Theo stood, moved toward it, and lifted the dome. “What does this button do? It’s ever so tantalizing, isn’t it, under the little cloche? Shall I press it?”
Jun leapt from his seat and wrapped his hands around both of Theo’s wrists. “No! Sit down. Touch nothing.”
Huffing, Theo blew his hair out of his face. “What a nonsensical request. I can hardly ‘touch nothing,’ can I? For instance, my boots are touching the floor as we speak. Were I to sit in the chair, my derrière would be touching the seat. And, just now—” He turned his hand to brush against the bony protuberance of Jun’s wrist. “—I am touching you.”
Jun let go of him as though burned, eyes narrowed to dark, angry slits. His voice dipped into a lower register, sending lovely shivers down Theo’s spine. “Sit down and shut up.”
Theo cocked his head to the side and lazily stretched his arm out to hit one of the buttons on the dash.
Chapter Three
The tape was unexpected.
Theo had always pictured rope when he imagined this particular scenario. And considerably less in the way of clothing.
He pulled against the tape binding his arms to the chair, twisting his wrist in a thoughtless effort to fidget.
Sitting still and being quiet were not amongst Theo’s strengths. Or even amongst his capabilities, to be brutally honest about the matter.
Jun’s lips twitched as Theo jerked against the tape again. A shadow of a smile crossed his face like an errant cloud.
Well, at least one of them was enjoying themselves.
Theo kicked his feet against the base of his chair, delighting as Jun’s shoulders tensed at the noise. He kicked harder. “It might interest you to know”—he raised his voice to be heard over the boisterous clank of his spats hitting the dented metal—“that while you are certainly not the first to threaten to adhere me to my chair, you are the first to actually follow through.”
Jun smirked, just a little, the lines beside his mouth deepening on one side with a glint of amusement. He said nothing in response, only continued to adjust the flight controls by tiny increments. Theo could not help but notice it did nothing to correct the wobble.
Theo shook a tangled lock of hair out of his eyes and tugged his wrists against the tape with the compulsion to tuck it behind his ear. “Oddly enough, most people grow irritated with me in a surprisingly short amount of time.”
“I find that difficult to believe,” Jun muttered.
Theo sparked with joy, biting his lip against a happy curve. While he was fully capable and willing to carry the entire weight of a conversation, he derived much more satisfaction from eliciting a response. “Right? I think the problem is that people are never open to experiencing refreshing—”
Jun cut him off with a scowl as he swiveled his seat to grace Theo with the full-frontal view of his tightly crossed arms, which caused the thin leather straps of his holster to cut into the muscle of his shoulders.
The open vee of his worn-thin shirt fell away to one side, revealing the tantalizing curve of his strong chest and a continuation of the designs flowing down his neck.
Theo had to drag his gaze away to focus on his face as Jun spoke.
“No. I find it difficult to believe”—his deep voice rumbled through Theo until he felt as wobbly as the ship—“that there is any amount of time in which people do not find you irritating.”
Theo deflated, sagging back into his chair. His feet shuffled to an awkward stop against the floor. “Oh.”
The lock of hair fell back into his eyes, but Theo couldn’t muster up the will to blow it away again. He tucked his chin to study the bony knobs of his knees outlined by the fine brown velvet of his trousers.
Yet another social interaction up in flames due to his inability to
