Love on the Off Peak Shift

by Cora Brooks

Heat 3 / 5Novella · 12 chapters29,810 words2h 10m read~3h 19m listen

Aurora Space Station, Erendary System — hundreds of millions of kilometers from anywhere that matters, and tonight the cargo bay doors won’t open.

Maria Castaneda is good at two things: coaxing food from recycled light and water, and pretending she doesn’t notice the way her senior mentor Cassian Holt’s silver eyes linger a half-second too long. One dock-hold alarm changes both. When a hydroponic seed manifest fault slams bay three into lockdown and an orange maintenance tablet demands their dual biometric sign-off, Maria and Cassian are sealed inside together — no relief crew, no exit, and nowhere to put the thing that has been quietly humming between them for years.

Hours of close-quarters troubleshooting strip away every comfortable joke and careful distance. The manifest has cracks. So does Maria’s armor. Cassian’s scarred hands are a reminder of the accident she still blames herself for, and every time their shoulders brush in the narrow aisles between mag-pallets, the past and the wanting press in from both sides.

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