It Starts with a Kiss is my standalone sci-fi office romance novella originally published by Kyanite Publishing in 2019. It’s a bit of a love letter to the underestimated women in technology, who I hope now in 2024 are more appropriately regarded.

Celeste is the she in today’s snippet, a bright and somewhat naïve engineer who doesn’t mind her dead-end job at what’s basically a post office on the edge of the Solar System. She just wants to get stuck into work alongside her colleague and unrequited-love interest, Owen.

Cider—all over the desk, pooling around the base of the gift and spilling into her lap. Her desk, her clothes, her room—everything—smelled of sweet, musty apples.

“That’s what I get for not being a workaholic tonight,” she muttered into the empty room.

She set the gift on a shelf and peeled the fabric away from her soaked, goose-fleshed legs. Gingerly, she undid her uniform and began to disrobe.

As she stepped out of her clothes, thermals and all, she thought of Owen with his top half down, walking casually around the function room. God, it would have been nice to have him up here. He had a trim figure—agile and fit for purpose. Not quite the big kind of guy that Tahnee went for, but not the slender, androgynous kind that Katie liked.

Back home, he would have been a surveyor or an ice climber. In the transient colonies, with their mishmash of standard gravities, he might have been a hauler. But he was just an engineer from Mars, working and bunking in a mail drop-off on the outer edge of Sol’s Aries sector. Who would have thought someone like that could look so good?

She should have said yes when he offered her a hand. She should have let him in here and sat him down. Would he be as good with gift-wrap as he was with his consoles? Or would he have just sat on the bed making smartarse remarks while she cut into the paper and ribbon?

That message would have come in. She would have let it go unanswered. Maybe she still would have spilled her cider and he'd sit there, watching while she got her kit off.

Maybe he’d offer her a hand and, this time, she’d say yes. He’d pull her top down—all the way down, not stopping at the waist. With a hand on his shoulder for support, she’d step out. She’d feel his breath on her thighs—that’s how close his face would be. Warmingly close. Awkwardly close.

Except, it wouldn’t be awkward. He’d crack a joke. She’d laugh and fire one back. They’d banter like they always did, but she’d be smooth instead of nervous. They’d collapse on the bed and he’d kiss her—softly at first, then deeply—while his hand traveled up her leg.

Read the rest of It Starts with a Kiss

Celeste is a talented engineer who doesn’t realize her job’s going nowhere fast. She’s a little naïve. She’ll cut code and solder cables forever as long as Owen’s around. Owen, on the other hand, knows exactly how badly things suck—he just doesn’t care. Sure, his skills aren’t what they used to be, but they’re still better than what Halcyon Aries deserves.

Then it happens. The company’s toxic management team finally cross the line. As both techies race to upgrade the station and to free the team from their oppressive contracts, they come to learn that life—and love—can only ever be what you make it.

Strap in for a steamy office romance in space, because sometimes It Starts With a Kiss!

This novel is available in ebook from a bunch of retailers.

Is it warm in here or what? …

This post is part of a hot and bothered blog hop. Keep stoking that fire …