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

Jude looked at him with clear astonishment. “Everything I told you, the way I’d have let the panels be destroyed, and you still think I’m relationship material?”


“You’re crazy to sign on for my issues.”


He ignored the diss. It was really Jude not thinking he had enough to offer as a boyfriend, and that was nonsense. Cal’s feelings had been developing for a couple of months by this point, and the shit hand Jude had been dealt didn’t change his interest at all.


“You’re not your brother, and you don’t need to spend the rest of your life paying for his crimes.”


“It’s not that I think I need to because I deserve to suffer. It’s just been inevitable.”


Chapter 18