Romancing The Ice

Two dudes. A sleeping bag. An island full of penguins.

I’ve waited years for the amazing opportunity to study Adélie penguin chicks on a remote Antarctic island.
I have waited even longer — ten years — for Sam Beckett, the older, stoic Alaskan boat operator who taught me everything when I first arrived from Russia. He has been driving me crazy with his dark eyes and his silence and his complete refusal to feel anything.
I’ve known I want him since I first met him, but Sam? I wouldn’t know what Sam wants. He never says.
I guess I should just settle on being friends.
But cooped up in a tiny tent in the middle of heavy rains, sharing the only sleeping bag we have left, in the middle of a colony of chaotic penguins, I start to see fractures in the man who never cracks.
The colder it gets, the bolder I become. When a medical crisis threatens my life, it shatters him.
Even the icebergs eventually melt. Sam is only a human.

Tropes:

Ten years of pining
One sleeping bag
Friends to lovers
Age gap
Chaotic sunshine / stoic older man
First time
A steamy, low-angst, fun standalone short read of 19,000 words with HEA.