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 Appomattox signed on for the
Kressl ore run and Reth stood on the receiving deck
