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two months past. She knew it must have been either Kaden’s or Garcia’s, since Dr. Nevis would have been horrified at the thought of reading anything that didn’t serve a higher purpose. He definitely hadn’t made the last two months fun. She almost burned with regret that she’d wasted two months of her life here in this ship, working round the clock to prepare for the dig. Not that there’d be a dig now. All those hours practicing in Zero-G, building up her muscles and fine-tuning her movements to be able to expertly use her heavy-motor-skills equipment in deep space, wasted.
    A quick knock came at the door. Kaden entered, smiling at the sight of her in her robe, her feet propped up on the counter, his magazine in her lap. “Hello, pretty.”
    She felt her cheeks heat at his greeting. “Kaden.”
    “So formal,” he grinned, undeterred. “It sounded less stiff when you were screaming it last night—”
    “Thank you,” she said primly, interrupting him. She swung her feet back down to the floor, trying to ignore the hot blush on her face. “Are you trying to embarrass me?”
    “Absolutely not,” he said, coming in and thumping down on the other side of the table. He rubbed his head, and she noticed his hair was clinging to his scalp with sweat. “Just wanted to remind you we’ve moved past being strangers, is all. Thought we were closer than that.”
    She set down her coffee mug and gave him a faint smile. Why was she being so awkward about this? “We are.”
    He winked at her and grabbed her coffee cup, swigging the remains, then grimaced at the taste. “Did you leave any sweetener in the processor?”
    She shrugged. “Won’t do anyone any good in six days.”
    He grinned. “Might as well enjoy ourselves while we can. Live like hedonists until the last moment.”
    It should have been a grim statement, but the way he was looking at her made her pulse flutter, hard. As if it were an invitation to sin... with him.
    She reached over and brushed a damp lock of hair off his forehead. Zoey noticed him watching her with intense, hot eyes.
    “So how are the repairs coming?” she asked to distract him.
    “Slow,” he said, and she half expected him to grab her hand, but he didn’t touch her. That was disappointing. “Lots of cables to rejigger, and it’s pretty time consuming when I have to wait for the computer to run a diagnostic on each one. I can’t repair them and read the schematic at the same time, so it’s slow going.”
    She nodded. “I should probably prepare our records just in case, ready the upload.”
    He leaned in. “Why don’t you come with me? You can read the schematics while I work. Keep me company.”
    Zoey’s face flushed. How stupid of her. Of course she could help him. They both needed the comm unit back up, and here she was, off bathing and frolicking and eating breakfast while he worked. It was odd to think of her helping out with the ship. She wasn’t a mech. That wasn’t what science officers did when repairs were to be done—they laid around and waited. But it didn’t seem right, when it was just her and him. So she nodded. “I’d love to help.” At his beaming grin, she added, “But I need to get dressed first.”
    “You don’t need to get dressed.”
    She rolled up the magazine and thwacked him with it, lightly, playfully. “Yes, I do.”
    “I don’t know, nude repairs definitely fall into the hedonism category,” he said, eyeing her as she stood and belted her robe tighter.
    “Until you need a pocket,” she told him.
    His laughter rang through the small ship, following her even as she went back to her quarters, smiling.
     
    #
    It took several hours of schematic-reading and wire-maneuvering until everything was back in place. There had been one wire so badly stripped that even Kaden’s talented hands had been unable to salvage it, so they’d repaired it as best they could. Despite the delicacy of the work, they’d chatted and the time had passed