Other Worlds Than These

Star-Crossed-2

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 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 through him, 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 Appomattox was 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.

Xan stepped closer, as if the gulf between them meant nothing. His voice lowered to an intimate level that Reth still heard in dreams. “Miss me?”

Reth turned to frown over the food, preoccupied. “Well, you know,” he started, then because he didn’t know what to add to that, he popped a frozen strawberry into his mouth and concentrated on the icy chill that made his teeth ache. With a shrug he hoped looked nonchalant, he added, “I thought you said you were coming right back.”

“I did come for you,” Xan teased, emphasizing the word come. When Reth didn’t respond, Xan covered the hand reaching for another strawberry with his own. His smile slipped a notch. “I’m here, right?”

Reth sighed. He picked at the berries and refused to meet Xan’s unnerving gaze. Wasn’t he supposed to be over this guy already? “I meant—”

“What?” Xan asked. “You have someplace more private in mind?” Leaning closer, his breath tickling along Reth’s cheek where faint stubble darkened his skin, Xan lowered his voice to whisper, “Ask me again, Reth. I’m ready to come anywhere you want me to.”

He was tempted, God knew, and the fact that he wanted to hold this man in his arms again despite the way things had ended between them the last time made his heart ache. But he couldn’t blue-ball himself. He needed a man, yes. He wanted one, this one, but he wasn’t so desperate that he’d let Xan walk out on him again. He wasn’t the same starry-eyed cadet he had been that night all those months ago.

On the table Reth fisted his hand beneath Xan’s and shook off his touch. “I asked you once,” he said, finally raising his gaze to meet Xan’s. “You missed your chance.”

With an apologetic shrug, Reth turned and walked away.