Captivated (The Verge Book 2)

by A. C. Thomas

  Theo batted his lashes fetchingly, endlessly amused when Jun actually blushed and glanced away.

  Her knives secured in their holster once more, Boom groaned at Theo over Jun’s shoulder. “This is all very disturbing and far more information about Park’s private life than I, personally, ever wanted to know, so if you could just. Not. That would be great.”

  Axel had to pitch his voice higher to be heard over the sound of his rapid typing and continued snacking, “Oh, come on, Boom. We knew. That scowl? That entire wardrobe of black synth-leather? Not to mention his raging, throbbing enthusiasm for being in command at all times.”

  “Axel. Airlock,” Jun barked out over the tail end of Axel’s list, his shoulders tense and cheeks still flushed.

  Axel raised one hand palm out while his attachment continued typing. “Sorry, sorry. It’s just, you’re not exactly subtle.”

  “As subtle as a hunk of iron,” Marco muttered darkly, then dropped something that rolled away from the com with a slowly fading rattle.

  Biting back a grin, Theo leaned his hip against Jun’s console and butted shoulders with the mortified captain. Stars, but he was cute when he was flustered. “He has a point, Jun.”

  Jun grabbed onto his shirtfront with one tight fist, forcing a gasp from Theo as he brought him up onto his toes. Jun’s eyes were dilated, his lips parted around heavy breaths. It was only by the greatest force of will that Theo didn’t climb him like a particularly grouchy tree. “Theo, if you do not shut your mouth, I swear you will not leave your bunk again until this entire mess is finished.”

  Sighing dramatically, Axel typed one last thing with a flourish. “See? It’s shit like that, Park. You’re calling yourself out, here.”

  Theo wound his hands around Jun’s straining wrist. He allowed his thumb to sweep a tiny circle over the trail of ink that curved across Jun’s wrist bone, and Jun let go as suddenly as he had grabbed onto him.

  “You’re staying here, and that’s final.”

  Boom appeared astounded at the giggle that escaped Theo at Jun’s proclamation. She seemed to think he ought to be intimidated. More fool, her.

  “Ooh, an ultimatum. I’m quaking in my spats, Captain.” Theo smirked.

  Jun took in Theo’s aforementioned spats with a slowly dawning expression of triumph. “You can’t go to the Wastes. Not dressed like that.”

  There had never been a time in Theo’s life when he’d been particularly receptive to criticisms of his wardrobe. A lifetime of bickering with his twin drew his spine up straight in affront. “Whyever not? I’m properly attired. I’ll have you know that my tailor is very well regarded in the most fashionable circles.”

  Axel broke in with a wave of his arm, attachment switched back to the pointer. “Well, first off, wearing that? Around here? You’re practically a walking advertisement for a kidnapping.”

  Theo smoothed down his admittedly rumpled shirt in a moment of contemplation. “Yes, I do seem prone to those.”

  The pilot’s chair squealed with rusty springs when Axel hopped to his feet. “Secondly, I’ve got something that would help you fit in much better.”

  Jun made a threatening noise in his throat as he whipped his head toward Axel, who blithely ignored him, too busy sizing up Theo.

  He swept a disdainful look over Theo’s outfit, which Theo personally considered to be unwarranted. His trousers were excellent quality velvet, and as Theo’s tailor had been quite intimately acquainted with his proportions, they were perfectly fitted. Horacio had been great fun, if a little too gentle for Theo’s tastes.

  Tailors had very nimble fingers, after all.

  Arms crossed tightly over his chest, putting both muscles and guns on display, Jun glared at Axel. “Don’t even think about it. Dr. Campbell wouldn’t be comfortable outside of his proper little Britannian clothing.”

  Theo would like to think that he tossed his hip out coquettishly, hair streaming over his shoulders in a waterfall of silk. The reality was probably closer to an awkwardly bent knee and an invisible yet tenacious strand of hair caught in the corner of his lips.

  He spit it out as discreetly as possible. “Propriety has always been nothing more to me than a monstrously heavy set of shackles, which I am more than willing to cast aside. It isn’t a particularly good fit for someone like me anyway. I would be glad to be free of it.”

  Boom latched onto that, pausing at whatever she was typing into Jun’s console. “Someone like you?”

  It was incredibly refreshing that she didn’t immediately know what he meant. That the entire Crew seemed to be at a loss. Theo wasn’t used to being considered proper in any way. Much to his surprise, he was kind of enjoying it. “Oh, I suppose you may not be aware, but back home, I am considered to be somewhat unconventional. Those concerned with propriety often find me off-putting.”

  Jun’s feet shuffled enough that his leg pressed against Theo’s, and rather than moving away again, he left it there. Just…touching. Such a small thing ought not to have any effect on Theo’s composure, but he found himself stifling a gasp at the contact. At the implications of familiarity. Intimacy.

  The light in Jun’s gaze only emphasized those implications, affection tinting his voice. “Unconventional’s one way to say it.”

  The prickling burn of a flush started in Theo’s scalp and washed down over his face. He waved his arms to distract from his undoubtedly pink cheeks. “Odd. Annoying. Dramatic. Overwhelming. Vulgar. Take your pick; I’ve heard it all. People have never suffered from a lack of things to say about me.”

  There was a moment where Jun pressed more firmly against him as if in support, and then he withdrew entirely. Theo barely restrained himself from reaching out for him in his retreat.

  To his shock and delight, Jun was the one who reached out, skimming his knuckles over Theo’s chin before he teased away the last strands of hair that were still caught in his mouth. “One thing you are not, is underwhelming.”

  He turned away so quickly Theo very nearly missed the blush that burned his ears. Nearly.

  Theo gave chase as Jun began to walk off of the bridge, dogging his heels. “Wait. Was that a compliment? Jun? Say it again.”

  Jun paused at the door to tap something into the panel. “No.”

  The combined forces of Jun’s blush and the embarrassed tone to his voice made Theo want to float to the ceiling with glee. “No, that wasn’t a compliment, or, no, you won’t be repeating yourself?”

  Jun didn’t answer, focusing instead on Axel with a severe expression. “Set our course for Drei X, and leave Dr. Campbell alone. Boom, follow me.”

  Theo held in his laughter at Axel’s silent mimicry of Jun’s face until Jun and Boom had left the bridge, but it was a very near thing.

  It wasn’t that he didn’t love Jun’s face and the effortless way he exuded a dark cloud of masculine rage; it was more that—

  Oh.

  Oh, dear.

  Theo loved Jun’s face.

  He loved—

  “So, you and Captain Park, huh? I was kinda joking before. But I gotta say, he’s not reacting as if it’s a joke to him. Park can take a surprising amount of razzing, but when you hit too close to the bone, he’ll bite your head off.”

  Theo avoided the question by locking up his pad with a noncommittal hum. Thankfully, Axel didn’t notice the slight tremble in his hands.

  Chapter Twenty

  Axel sauntered out into the corridor, paused, and then stuck his head back around the doorway to the bridge to call out to Theo. “Come on, legs, I’ll hook you up with the goods.”

  Reluctant to be left alone on the bridge with the multitudinous tempting buttons and his own dubious self-control, Theo followed after. “Do you know, I’ve dedicated my life to the study of language, and yet, when you speak, I am often cast to sea.”

  Axel leaned back against the interior of the lift, leaving plenty of room for Theo to join him. “I can’t understand half the shit you say, man, but I gotta admit, you say it
with style.”

  That sounded somewhat complimentary, so Theo decided to accept it as such. He had learned long ago to take praise wherever he could get it. They arrived on the second deck, and Axel took off in the opposite direction from Theo’s bunk, winding around the dimly lit curving hallway until he came upon a haphazardly decorated door.

  Printed images in various states of distress plastered the dented metal. Some were faded and scratched, while others appeared shiny and new. There was no rhyme or reason to the arrangement, just brightly colored images of everything from a scantily clad feminine torso to what appeared to be a ham sandwich overlapping one another from top to bottom.

  Axel didn’t comment on the decor as he opened the door to a room filled with much the same, with the addition of multicolored lights glowing along the edge of the ceiling.

  He bent to dig through a mountain of discarded clothing, then emerged triumphant with a bit of black cloth clenched in his fist. “Here, try these on. They’re too small for me, so they might fit your scrawny ass. They’re even clean, so you’re welcome.”

  He smacked Theo in the face with the cloth, which turned out to be a pair of exceptionally tiny black trousers. They were made of some kind of strange, stretchy material that had a metallic sheen to it.

  Axel threw himself back on the bed, dug through the rumpled sheet to recover a pad, and then pulled up a vid of some thumping musical performance with brightly flashing dancers in accompaniment. He focused on the screen, not even glancing Theo’s way. “Go on and get changed. I’m dying to see Park’s face when you walk out in those. Promise I won’t peek, Dr. Campbell. On my honor.”

  There was something there, in the way he dropped his voice to say that last bit, that made it clear he was poking fun at Jun. Theo couldn’t find it within himself to laugh.

  The door remained open, but Theo had gotten undressed in riskier situations, so he complied with a mental shrug.

  His linen small clothes were unfortunately too voluminous to fit beneath the trousers, so they had to go. He had also ceased wearing his stockings since he had gifted one of his garters to Jun.

  Consequently, there was nothing between the tight fabric of the trousers and Theo in his entirety.

  They fit more akin to stockings than proper trousers, faithfully hugging the lines of Theo’s body from just below the crest of his hip all the way to his ankles. He had never possessed something so snugly tailored in his life. A small smile graced his face as he thought of Ari’s no doubt scandalized reaction to such a garment.

  Followed immediately by a pang in his chest. He was really beginning to miss his quiet, straightlaced twin. Being scandalous wasn’t half as much fun without Ari around to scandalize.

  Theo turned to examine his backside with a critical eye in the smudged mirror stuck to the wall. He had to bunch up his shirt over his navel to see properly. “These trousers certainly leave very little to the imagination.”

  Axel’s pad landed on the bed with a thump, and he pushed to stand and study the fit, himself. “Yeah, I bought them a size too small, hoping to attract the ladies with the siren call of my bulge.”

  This was accompanied by a rather unfortunate gesture toward the front of his own closely fitted trousers.

  Theo winced. “Oh?” He made an attempt to be supportive and nonjudgmental, aiming for a light and inquisitive tone rather than openly cringing. (Ari would likely have fainted on the spot from sheer disgust.) “Did that prove an effective courting strategy, for you?”

  Axel made a face that wasn’t particularly confidence-inspiring, and then turned to hunt through the pile. He found a dull-gray sweater, which he thrust out at Theo insistently. “I got myself shot with a stun ray, so, no. But I did get the contacts for one super snarly dude first, so I thought they might work better for you. It’s not my thing, but snarly dude seems to be your type. Take off that blouse and put this on instead.”

  Theo started to work free his cravat, only remembering the marks Jun had left on his neck when it was too late. Axel’s bright-green brows shot up, but he thankfully refrained from making comment.

  “I can’t deny that there is something compelling about a man with a scowl on his face.” Theo’s shirt slightly muffled his words as he struggled to get it over his head without entangling his arms. “Makes me want to see what it takes to get him to smile.” He popped the sweater on, relieved to find that it had no odor, despite his fears. “I must inform you, however, that there is nothing of significance between your captain and me.”

  “Significance” being the key word, there.

  Nothing of any significance whatsoever. Just Theo’s nonsensical heart falling deeply and irrevocably in love with a man who wanted nothing to do with him outside of the occasional tryst.

  Par for the course with Theo, really.

  And entirely insignificant.

  The rude sound Axel made was anything but an agreement. “Are we still going with that? I don’t get why he’s hiding it; it’s not as if any of us care who he’s nailing to the wall in his free time.”

  Theo tugged at the collar of his new soft, slouchy top. He was suddenly a trifle warm at the unexpectedly welcome notion of Jun nailing him to the wall.

  A thought that required further study.

  Preferably while he was alone, in his bunk.

  Theo frowned at his reflection and fussed with the hem of the sweater. The garment was too short. It barely flirted with the waistband of his trousers, flashing skin whenever he moved in any direction. “I think it’s more that he doesn’t want me to get inflated ideas of my own importance. Doesn’t wish for me to labor under the misapprehension that I matter to him beyond my work.”

  He couldn’t decide if it was encouraging or disheartening that Axel’s face fell at that revelation. “Shit. That sucks, man.”

  Theo gave up on the hem of the sweater and, instead, pushed at the overlong sleeves that hung low over his knuckles. “It’s quite alright. I know my place; he doesn’t need to worry. I’m aware of the importance of my work here, as well as the unimportance of myself as a person.”

  If there was something Theo excelled at, besides languages and making an unholy mess every time he entered a kitchen, it was accepting his undesirability as a long-term romantic partner.

  It was a proven, tested pattern, after all. Ari would applaud his use of the scientific method to reach that conclusion.

  Actually, Ari would wrap Theo up in their softest blanket and acquire his favorite Turkish delight and sit with him while he cried. A steady, sympathetic presence Theo could depend on even at his worst.

  Which was also a proven pattern.

  Stars, he missed his twin.

  Axel tossed a pair of clunky black boots at him, narrowly missing Theo’s ankles. “Throw these on, and you’re ready to walk the Wastes with the rest of the Crew, Doc.”

  Theo gathered them up, surprised to find that he and Axel were of a size. He offered a soft, sincere smile of thanks. “I think these will suit rather nicely. Thank you for your assistance; you’ve been ever so kind to me.”

  Axel clicked through the attachments on his arm with a furrowed brow, avoiding Theo’s gaze. “That’s me, kindness and light itself. I basically shit rainbows.”

  Which was an exceptionally colorful idiom Theo had never come across before. He mentally added it to his inventory, to be used whenever it would horrify Ari the most.

  Axel seemed to be done with him now that he had garbed Theo in Outlier clothing; his body language screamed dismissal. Theo bundled up his things under his arm and stepped through the doorway.

  Axel stopped him with a soft sound, faintly audible above the constant low grind of the engines around them. Theo turned back, but the pilot was still avoiding his eyes. His hand was clenched around the wrist of his attachment, knuckles bone-white. “Hey, listen. I know I joke around a lot, but this shit is serious. This mission Park is on, it’s nothing to take lightly. People are gonna get hurt whichever way it goes. People alr
eady have. Just make sure you’re not one of them.”

  Theo opened his mouth to respond, but Axel had already hit the panel to slide the door shut between them.

  Thus, Theo found himself gaping at a cartoonish illustration of an ice cream cone with inexplicable cat ears.

  *

  By the time Theo made it back to the bridge, Jun was standing at his console, barking orders while multiple screens flashed information so quickly it made Theo dizzy just to watch.

  “I want engines running at half power even after we dock. We’re getting off this rock the second bay doors are shut behind us. And, Marco, I need you to— What are you wearing?”

  Jun turned to face Theo and froze, brows thundering down ominously even as his mouth hung open with surprise.

  Marco’s voice rang out through the coms in the sudden quiet of the bridge. “I don’t—like, shorts? And a shirt? Why, Captain?”

  Rubbing a hand over his face, Jun erased his shocked expression and replied, “No, not you, Marco. Go check our fuel supply, and see if you need to make a crystal run while we’re planetside.” His eyes narrowed at Theo as he made a sharp gesture to his body. “You. What is that?”

  Theo glanced down at his new Outlier apparel, and then struck a pose to best display the outlandishly close-fitted trousers. Jun’s attention fell immediately to the exposed strip of skin just above the low-slung waistband. “I’m dressed to accompany you. Incognito. I appear just as any other Outlier, wouldn’t you agree?”

  Boom remained focused on snapping metal cuffs onto her forearms that connected to the metal lines embedded in her hands. The click-buzz-click of each connection was hypnotically rhythmic. “Yeah, maybe. Until the second you open your mouth and a bouquet of roses falls out.”

  It was impossible to tell if the statement had been meant as an insult or a compliment, so Theo chose to hear it as a compliment.