12: Somebody’s Watching Me“Open your mouth and say it. I know it’s in you.” Fox’s chest thundered. Frixm was a step away from having him beaten—perhaps an entire step, if he was lucky—but then, he’d taken much worse for far less reason.

  Frixm tucked his handkerchief away in the breast pocket of his uniform. No white showed. “If you imagine I’ve never dealt with an angry guest before, Rev Liedan—”

  “I don’t imagine anything, Frixm, but I do know you’ve never dealt with me.” His voice was hotter than he’d expected. Pull back, he told himself, pull back, it’s too much, but if no one higher than Frixm was in attendance tonight, he was already in serious trouble.

  “I’ve heard that before, too.” Frixm smiled thinly. “From a hundred guests who think they’re something special. You believe you’ll make trouble for me, but—”

  “I do believe that. I will make it a personal mission to cause you nothing but misery unless you fetch your captain now.” He’d made a bitter enemy in Frixm tonight. He lifted his hand and made a quick shooing gesture: go on.

  Commander Frixm appeared to have had some sort of paroxysm. He stiffened—but it wasn’t anything Fox had said. At his side, Jatus had stiffened too. Someone higher is listening. Finally! As if he hadn’t noticed, he said, “What’s the matter, Frixm, nothing to say to me? But you were so willing to tell me no just a moment ago, and in so many ways!”

  “Good evening, Rev Liedan,” slid over his ears in a buttery voice. The most painfully average man he had ever id eyes on nudged Frixm gently aside.

  Beneath his average dark brown hair were piercing dark eyes. “My name is Itef, and I am the captain of this ship. What can I do to make your stay with us more pleasant? I would value your feedback.” Only the voice set the captain apart—and the forest of bright insignia on his bck coat. At least if this scheme had required attention on Fox, it had borne rich fruit. Neither Jatus nor Frixm rexed.

  Fox raised his chin a hair higher and opened his shoulders. “Your continued requests for my feedback are incredibly tiresome, Captain, as are the little snakes with which you surround yourself. Speak with me in private or not at all.”

  Captain Itef raised an eyebrow. His strange eyelids flicked; his eyes traveled Fox’s body with a familiar hunger. “Is that so, Rev Liedan? And what will we discuss all alone together?”

  Fox had dressed hoping to find this particur weakness, in someone else if not in the captain; this one in particur was easy for him to exploit, but now that he’d found it, he shuddered at the thought of carrying it to the end.

  “My compint.” He would rather die, but the princess had no such luxury of choice. He pressed his face into a perfect, inviting smile. “For a start.” So many ears were listening, Fox could hardly expin the whole of it anyway. The truth, necessary to obtain his objective, must nonetheless be concealed; that Katie was mortal would hardly be a matter for a general audience. “What about it?” He would rather die.

  Itef looked no more than commonly pleased. He smiled at Fox, almost genuine, inclining his ordinary head. “Very well, Rev Liedan. Come and walk with me a while, and we’ll see if we can’t get your little problem straightened out.”

  “Certainly.” Now that he was getting what he wanted, he rewarded Itef with a brighter smile. He unfolded as gracefully as he knew how, rising on the lovely white stilettos he’d found in the closet. Even he had to admire the clothing. The shoes brought his head well above Itef’s, so the man could hardly avoid seeing his body.

  Itef extended his arm, turning and offering it to Fox.

  “So sorry, darling,” he said, taking it—with a tiny wave over his shoulder at pale, shaken Jatus. Her expression might have given him pause, but it was too te. “Must dash.”

  “Have a lovely time, Rev Liedan.” Somehow she managed the sarcasm beautifully. Her tone held every shade it needed to.

  That one, he decided as he turned his attention to Itef and made sure it appeared full. I’ll need that one. The noise of the lounge didn’t rise again; when would they all return to their conversations? Perhaps Jatus was right, and he’d drawn too much attention, but it had worked.

  The captain caressed his hand, a subtle expression of the man’s greed; already, he thought he owned Fox.

  Wearing the heels, Fox had half a head on Itef, but the Revanar statement seemed lost on this being. Fox kept pace, hoping it looked simple from the outside—at least, simpler than it felt. He found the rhythm on their way through the open ovoid in the side of the room. “Will you show me your office, then, Captain?”

  “I thought you might enjoy a stroll in the conservatory, Rev Liedan.”

  “You must call me Fox.” He followed Captain Itef farther into the tallest egg he’d seen yet, as high as Father’s throne room at Shirith, if not nearly so wide. When he’d passed through before, it hadn’t been quite as empty or as dark. Now the expanse of space, faintly distorted toward rainbows by what surely must be a force field, showed through above. He shivered as Itef led him on, out across one of the many catwalks, shaggy with the shadows of pnts. Empty space seemed to open on either side.

  “Are you cold… Fox?”

  “A bit,” he allowed, because he wouldn’t admit to the shiver any other way, and shifted his weight into Itef’s side, testing just the same as the captain. The pale, manicured hand, neatly square, drew subtly tighter at his waist. “Is this the center of your fine ship, then? Frixm mentioned the resort, as if it were a separate—”

  “You know I find you beautiful, but please, Rev Liedan, don’t take me for your fool.” Itef separated from him deftly, marooning him in the center of the broad walkway—in the deep shadow of a broad intersection above. The captain stepped backward into the low light. “I’ve seen for myself with whom you’ve chosen to associate.”

  “And that’s a problem for you?” Fox stepped out of the shadow, spreading his hands as if to dispy, and strutted on to show the rear view. “Well, I suppose at least you know what I’m after. Scratch my back, Captain, and I’ll run my nails down yours in return.”

  “So explicit,” Itef murmured, following him as if carried on fragrance.

  Whatever you think, you aren’t immune. This pce full of shadows would have been even more perfect for Eagle to come to him, come and carry him away—but Fox saw no fairy harbingers, and he knew Eagle wouldn’t come. Somehow, he kept walking, hands caught in front of him as though he carried a filmy wrap.

  His neck was bare in the starlight. He slowed and rubbed it, making sure Itef saw.

  “What will you do for me?” The captain was close behind him, and the buttery voice slipped low across his ears. At the touch on his waist, he so nearly flinched. “Tell me. I want to hear from your sweet mouth.”

  “There are better uses for my mouth than talk.” He ought to know, surely; hadn’t he been told so from the first? “I could tell you what I mean, or I could show you.” When he turned, it was into the captain’s arms; an embrace closed him in. One cmmy hand spread on his back. The glitter there would stick to Itef’s skin, but Fox had known it would.

  “Tell me.” Itef csped his upper arm in the free hand. The eyes searched, gleaming in the darkness.

  “Give me what I want,” Fox said, sending his voice just as low, “and I’ll let you bend me over whatever strikes your fancy.”

  Captain Itef gave a silent shudder of pleasure. The moment seemed to hang; Fox was caught by whatever would come next, but what would it be?

  “What else?”

  “I can show you that right now, if you come back into the shadow…” Fox murmured, tugging lightly on the front of Itef’s coat.

  Itef cut his eyes back and forth, as if checking no one watched them, before he moved swift as a snake. He seized Fox’s nape and dragged him into a swift, bruising kiss, more a smash than anything else. Fox’s heart rate went higher than the ceiling.

  Itef backed him into the shadow after all. “If I could take you now—but I won’t,” the captain whispered. His voice caught on a thick rasp of want. In the dark, all it cked to be Father was the heat. Fox shut his eyes. “I can’t promise I’ll do what you ask, and it would be terribly ungentlemanly of me to take what I want and offer you nothing in return…” Though I could, Itef did not say.

  “You beautiful thing,” Itef husked, crushing him against the tall, ft support of the walkway above. “You beautiful brazen thing. If you were Matil—”

  “If I were Matil,” Fox whispered, “I would never say I’ll suck you right down my throat.”

  “I’ll see what I can do about your princess. In the meantime—” Itef fttened himself against Fox, pressing him between support and body—only a faint bcker outline in the bck. The hands crept, csping intimate spots, and Fox found it quite impossible to think any longer.

  Eagle wasn’t coming.