Chapter 2
Then Reth was brushed aside. Xan stepped back, widening the gap between them. He ran his hand through his hair again, an obviously nervous habit. “I’ve got to…” He looked around, as if searching for something else to distract him. His gaze flickered over the balcony and into the night sky, but never settled on Reth. “I’ll be right back, okay?”
“Xan?” Reth reached for him. What the hell had just happened? One second they were this close, and now fear shone in Xan’s face, fear Rethhad put there. “Was it something I said? Listen, we can stay here if you want…”
Catching Reth’s hand again, Xan brought it to his lips. He kissed the fingertips, his gaze focusing on Reth one last time. “I’ll be back, I promise. Wait for me?”
Reth nodded, hesitant. With a wink and his usual sexy grin, Xan swore, “Be right back.”
Then he stepped into the light that fell from the banquet hall and slipped away into the crowd of graduates and family and friends. Reth leaned against the railing, staring out into the stars, replaying the evening in his drink-clouded mind. Was it the invite to his room that had frightened Xan away? Or was it all just too much too fast? Maybe the few stolen moments they’d shared meant nothing. But he said he was coming back…
Why didn’t Reth believe him?
* * * *
Seven months later, Reth was still waiting.
Not on that balcony, no—he’d given Xan a generous ten minutes to return but the flyboy never did. Reth, more than a little hurt but not the least bit surprised, had finished his jojobu juice and headed back to his room alone. In the morning, he packed his things and boarded a transport with the other grads joining Star Corps. Xan was not among them. When Reth moved into his quarters at Corps Central, he tried to put that interrupted tryst behind him.
He thought he’d succeeded. He’d had his share of lovers—nothing to write home about, but guys he liked, guys he slept with, guys who all seemed to have Xan’s carefree hair or cavalier grin. But when the USS Appomattoxsigned on for the Kressl ore run and Reth stood on the receiving deck beside the ship’s captain to welcome the new crew of gunners, only his Academy training kept his back stiff and his arm angled in a salute when he saw Xan among them.
Time seemed to fold in on itself, everything between then and now canceling out. Reth’s heart stopped in his chest at Xan’s bright laugh. When Xan looked at him, looked throughhim, Reth almost passed out like a lovesick schoolboy. He thought he’d moved on? Who was he trying to kid?
The flicker of recognition in Xan’s eyes ignited Reth’s blood, but there were too many people around and he had his reputation to think of, so Reth stayed at the captain’s side. He smiled on cue, and laughed when prompted. But as they mingled in the ship’s large ballroom, part of him kept tabs on Xan the whole evening. At all times, he knew where Xan stood in relation to himself. Each time Xan touched anyone, Reth felt that hand on his own body. Each laugh pierced him like a lepidopterist’s pin. And whenever he looked around, he found Xan staring back.
Reth suspected the USS Appomattoxwas not going to be large enough for the both of them. Just being in the same room with Xan made Reth’s skin warm and his mind whirl. His baggy flight suit threatened to tent over a slight erection that made standing uncomfortable and sitting unbearable. Any closer to Xan and Reth thought he might go nova.
When the captain announced the new gunners, raucous shouts and wolf whistles filled the air. They were a rowdy bunch—gunners usually were—but Reth could hear Xan’s voice rise above the others. With a glance at the new crewmembers as he sipped his cocktail, Reth tried to infuse enough alcohol into his system to justify speaking with Xan or slinking off to bed, one of the two. As the crowd applauded, he wandered over to the food table to pick at a display of chilled fruit. He couldn’t close the distance between himself and Xan—after seven months, a galaxy kept them apart. But he had to say something, didn’t he? Make it look like he’d moved on, even if he hadn’t? Show he was above—
A breathy voice sighed into his ear, startling him. “Hey, sexy.”
Reth jumped and took a step back, only to find himself in Xan’s quick embrace. For one delicious moment, he savored the strong arms around his waist again, the warm chin resting on his shoulder. Then he turned and bumped into the food table in his haste to get away. “Xan. Hey.”
“You remember my name.” Xan ran a self-conscious hand through his thick hair as he grinned. “And here I thought you might’ve forgotten me.”
How could I?Reth wanted to know. Those dark eyes still shone in the same infuriating manner, as if lit from within. Those lips still smiled as wide, Xan’s heady scent still aroused him like an aphrodisiac, and God, that hair! Still long, still tousled, still streaked with an impossible shade of blond.