His arms tighten around me. “Then let’s stay in it a little longer.”
So we do.
We stand there in the steamy bathroom, wrapped in towels and each other, pretending that tomorrow doesn’t exist.
That there’s no satellite dish to clear, no PhD dissertation meetings to face, no impossible gulf between our worlds to bridge.
18
Sorrel
Iwake up with the dawn light streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the great room.
Today’s the day.
The roof mission.
The end of our little survival bubble where I’ve somehow fallen completely and catastrophically in love with a billionaire mining magnate who represents everything I’m supposed to hate.
And yet...
I extract myself carefully from Gregory’s arms. He’s still asleep, looking unfairly gorgeous as usual, that messed up hair of his somehow perfect on him, and quietly pull on my underwear and thermals, and slip on his Columbia hoodie that I’ve basically claimed as my own at this point.
Then I slide on warm socks and distractedly note that the fire is burning low. I toss in another log without really thinking, then pad to the kitchen.
Oatmeal.
I’m making oatmeal.
Because honestly, if I don’t do something with my hands, I’m going to spiral into a full-blown panic attack about what happens between us after we get rescued.
So.
Oatmeal it is.
I’m stirring the pot on the gas range when I hear him moving in the great room behind me. My entire body does this involuntary thing where it just... lights up. Like every cell remembers exactly what his hands felt like on my skin last night.
Jesus, get it together.
“Morning,” he says, and I nearly drop the spoon because... thatvoice.
I turn around. He’s wearing jeans and nothing else, with all those ridiculous muscles on display, his hair sticking up in every direction, and looking at me likeI’mbreakfast.
My face immediately goes beet red.
“Hi,” I manage, eloquent as always. “I made oatmeal. The exciting kind with... oats. Revolutionary culinary achievement happening right here.”
He crosses the room and kisses me. Just walks right up and kisses me like it’s the most natural thing in the world, his hand cupping the back of my neck, and I melt against him. For a moment I almost forget that today everything changes. Or whenever the rescue team arrives. Assuming the Starlink dish actually works after we clear it.
Wouldn’t that be nice if it didn’t and we were trapped here forever?
When he pulls back, I can see it in his eyes, too.
The knowledge that our time is running out.
“We need to talk about today,” I say quietly.
“I know.” He doesn’t move away though, just stands there with his forehead resting against mine. “But... let me check my laptop first.”
