Orin’s face softened, his hand making an aborted motion toward Ari’s arm before falling into a loose fist at his side.
“And you’re beautiful just as you are, honey, I’m just trying to keep you safe. Pretty thing like you is liable to get eaten up out here, and not in a good way.”
Ari crinkled his nose, mouthing good way behind Orin’s back as he slid past him to walk out into the main cabin.
Orin leaned against the galley cabinets, arms folded over his chest. The manner in which his pose caused his biceps to swell made a thin sheen of sweat break out on Ari’s scalp. He scanned Ari up and down again, something Aristotle was shocked to discover he was getting increasingly accustomed to. Orin tilted his head.
“Lose the jacket.”
Ari complied, folding it neatly and placing it on the table.
Orin nodded thoughtfully. “And the vest. And the neck…thing.”
Ari rolled his eyes as he slid the buttons free on his waistcoat; he then lay it atop his jacket before moving to work on the complicated knot at his neck.
“It is called a cravat.”
Orin hummed an acknowledgement and bobbed his head distractedly, attention glued to Ari’s fingers at his throat as he unwrapped the length of fabric before folding and placing it atop his waistcoat. The way Orin stared at the exposed line of his throat made Ari acutely aware he was standing there in his shirtsleeves, barely decent. He swallowed and looked away, resisting the urge to cover his neck with his hand.
Orin pushed off of the cabinets and approached close enough to take a pinch of Ari’s sleeve between his fingers.
“Never seen something so fine.”
While clearly referencing the shirt, Orin’s focus remained stuck on Ari’s face, gliding down to his exposed throat as Ari swallowed once again.
Ari took a halting breath. “Will I pass muster, Mr. Stone?”
They both reacted to the name, a sudden flash of heat crossing Orin’s face as Ari’s eyes dropped to his lips, remembering his admonishment on using his surname in the bedroom. But they weren’t in a bedroom, they were in the main cabin, Ari attempting to calm the odd feeling rising up his spine at the thought. It was like panic, but sweeter somehow.
Orin stepped backward, rubbing his fingers lightly over his lips as he gave Ari a once-over. Ari wished he wouldn’t, it was difficult enough to stop thinking about them without the encouragement.
Orin nodded slowly in approval. “Think you’ll do just fine for now. We’ll get you turned out nice and proper when we get there.”
Chapter Six
Ari peered around the settlement as they walked from the docks. The sky had an artificial blue-green tinge that only came from manufactured atmosphere, the air leaving a metallic aftertaste with every breath. Deserted dirt roads spread out in cardinal directions, flanked by squat buildings. The entire town appeared to have been constructed from debris.
One building sported a fraction of a woman’s painted face on a large wooden fragment of some advertisement, patched together with metal and wooden planks of every color and size. The next building was a variation on the same theme, the small overhang covering the front porch supported by mismatched copper pipes.
Aristotle had never seen anything like it.
Orin slowed as they approached a building trimmed by a raised porch equipped with rocking chairs. A fresh coat of whitewash minimized the uneven surface of the mixed planks forming the exterior walls.
A creaking wooden sign swung in the breeze, cheerfully painted with Sally’s Sundries at a charming slant.
Orin’s boots rattled the spindly metal banister as he tromped up the front steps, Ari following close behind.
The front door, cut from a chunk of perforated metal ship flooring, clanged shut behind them loudly, letting sunlight stream in a dotted pattern across the concrete floor.
A young woman puttered about behind the counter, wrapping a parcel with twine to be stacked with others off to the side. She appeared tired in the way Ari had noticed seemed to fall on all Verge women, but she was clean and pretty nonetheless. It was simply that the lines on her face didn’t match the age in her eyes. Her ill-fitting dress threatened to fall off one shoulder as she worked, the faded floral fabric cinched in at the waist with a man’s thick leather belt, which sported, of all things, a holstered pistol.
Ari made his best effort not to stare at it.
Orin sauntered up to the counter with his thumbs in his leather braces.
“Hey there, sugar! You surely are a sight for sore eyes!”
The woman lifted her head, the smile on her face revealing her youth.
“Why, if it isn’t Orin Stone himself! I haven’t seen you in a dog’s age!”
Orin tucked his chin to flirt up at her through his lashes, dimples on display. “And I been pining away for you all this time, Sally, honest truth.”
Sally blinked dazedly, no more immune to Orin’s relentless charm than the next poor soul, Ari noted wryly.
She leaned her chin on her hand, bony elbow planted on the counter between them, the tattered lace cuff of her dress splayed out over the surface.
“What brings you back to my humble establishment?”
Orin traced the fabric on the countertop, swirling his finger gently over the lace.
“Maybe I just wanted to see your pretty face again, Sal.”
Her eyes narrowed as she pulled her arm away, batting Orin’s hand off her cuff, lips curled in to suppress her smile.
“Been a long time, but you’re still shoveling the same shit, Stone. Why don’t you just go on and tell me what you need so I can get you out of my hair?”
Orin’s face lit up as he nodded slowly.
“Alright, alright, I gotcha. Sally Mudd is off the market. When’d you find a man to settle down with, Sal?”
The light wash of pink on her cheeks revealed a flash of the way she could have been, primped and pretty beneath a parasol back on Britannia. She patted her hair shyly, tucking mouse-brown strands back into the loose roll at the nape of her neck.
“’Bout two years back now.”
Orin leaned in, one hand resting on his holster, face drawn into a forbidding scowl. “Nice fella? He treat you right?”
She threw back her head with a tinkling laugh, slapping the solid arm Orin kept by his holster hard enough that Ari flinched.
“No call for all that bluster, he treats me just fine.”
Orin’s scowl melted into a wide grin. “Good to hear. Listen, darlin’, I got a new ship on my hands, pretty little explorer vessel, barely opened up, never even had a real pilot at the controls. I’m wanting to do her up right, all the bells and whistles you got. I’m talking premium fuel crystals, the works.”
Sally pursed her lips in a long, low whistle.
“The royal treatment, huh? Sounds like you’re in love already.”
Orin’s face stayed turned toward Sally, but Ari saw his gaze flick in Ari’s direction from the corner of his eye. His grin tilted up at one end as Ari blushed and turned hastily away.
“Something like that. We’re still getting to know each other; she’s a shy little thing.”
Sally nodded like that made any kind of sense.
“I’ll get her fixed up proper, don’t you worry, hon. Anything else?”
Orin nodded, tipping his head back in Ari’s direction.