Javier Fernandez is a climate scientist living in a research station near the South Pole. Since his husband was killed in a car crash, he’s preferred to be alone, and is less than thrilled to have a junior scientist thrust upon him by his rich patron.
Col Steele is a trans man fleeing a bad break-up, ready for the next step in his career, who is ready to spend Christmas anywhere but at home. When a crack in the ice separates the two men from safety, they are forced to come to terms with their own losses and each other.
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The Bettencourt modules were efficient at gathering energy and storing heat. Maybe too efficient.
Of course, that wasn’t the only reason he couldn’t sleep. It was his first night in a strange new place, and his mind was still working through all of the new stimuli.
He hardly ever slept well anymore, in any case.
There had been a time when he could just lay down and be asleep almost instantly. When he would slept the whole night without waking to go to the bathroom, without tossing and turning, thoughts about the day past and the day still to come running rampant through his brain.
A time when Christmas had meant something, too.
Col turned on his side, staring at the circle of light that surrounded the window hatch. There would be no darkness outside that night.
He got up and pulled the window cover down, blocking out the sunlight.
He could still feel where the Professor—where Javier—had brushed against him when he’d helped Col pull down the table.
Col lay back down on the bed, closing his eyes and willing sleep to claim him.
His left hand brushed one of the scars under his pecs, feeling the slightly raised ridge of skin that ran across his chest.
What would Javier think of them? They were a part of his journey, and he wouldn’t wish them away, even if they did mark him for what he was. They didn’t define him.
Javier was rugged, handsome, exactly Col’s type. Just like David.
Col pushed away the blankets, sitting up in bed, feeling aroused. Agitated.
He needed a cold shower.
He padded to the small bathroom cubicle. It was efficient, like a bathroom on a cruise ship, but Col was thankful to have his own inside his room.
He opened the shower stall and turned on the water. It heated up surprisingly quickly.
Col slipped inside the narrow space and turned down the heat until the water ran lukewarm over his slender form.
He would never be stocky like David—or Javier—he’d given up on that vision of masculinity a long time ago. Genetics was what it was, and he’d learned to be happy in his own skin.
He turned his face up, feeling the shower splash across his cheeks.
His ardor diminished under the cold water.
After a few minutes, he turned off the water and got out to dry off.
Javier was his boss, even if there had been a spark between them at dinner.
He hung his towel and picked up the picture of his mother. “Mamma, what would you do?”
Her warm eyes stared back at him, but she didn’t say a word.
He went back to bed, pulling the covers over his chest, and fell asleep almost immediately.
Scott lives with his husband Mark in a yellow bungalow in Sacramento. He was indoctrinated into fantasy and sci fi by his mother at the tender age of nine. He devoured her library, but as he grew up, he wondered where all the people like him were.
He decided that if there weren’t gay characters in his favorite genres, he would remake them to his own ends.
A Rainbow Award winning author, he runs Queer Sci Fi, QueeRomance Ink, and Other Worlds Ink with Mark, sites that celebrate fiction reflecting queer reality.
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