Jude knows he isn’t relationship material. The entire population of Mars made it abundantly clear he’s damaged goods, and he agrees. His issues are why he works a remote job flying around the galaxy prospecting for metals, and why he ruthlessly quashes any feelings for Cal, his surveying partner.<br><br>Cal has been looking for an opening to suggest he and Jude could be more than friendly coworkers. When they crash on a tundra planet, the men have a lot of free time, and they put it to good use having sex. It’s fun, but Cal wants Jude as a boyfriend, not a friend with benefits.<br><br>Marooned on a hostile world, with Jude’s demons rearing their heads, Cal’s first task is to keep the two of them alive. His second is to convince Jude that, no matter how much he’s suffered, romance can still be in the cards.

Snowed In: Jude and Cal

Now he was getting some personal experience with snow, and if going outside in the storm didn’t make sense, he was at least going to watch it on the screen. Not the same, of course. It really was a shame about the frigid temperatures and low oxygen, or he’d have skipped the suit and gone out, gravity be damned.


“Too bad we’re not allowed to bring alcohol with us,” said Jude. “I could go for a beer or two.”


The company prohibited booze out of an understandable fear that people would get smashed and consequently negligent. This ban had never bothered Cal in the least. He’d seen his mom high plenty enough to know that mind-altering substances weren’t for him. And maybe he was slightly worried that addiction could be inherited, but it wasn’t the worst thing in the world not to go out and get drunk.


“Makes no difference to me,” he said. “I don’t drink.”


Chapter 9