I pointed to the company logo on my chest. “With some prime-time advertising, apparently.”

His eyes widened with realisation. “Oh no.”

“Yeah. Anyway, my parents will be at my place when we get there. So that’s gonna be a lot of fun. I mean, it’s not the arse-reaming I had in mind for tonight. My father is pissed.” Not sure what else I could do, I stood up and ran both hands through my hair. “Fuck!”

Jeremiah stood up and took my hand. “Hey,” he breathed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t—”

“It’s not your fault. I lost my cool at those reporters. I was so fuckin’ mad for what they did to you. While I was wearing my father’s company name on my shirt.”

His brow furrowed as we studied my knuckles. “It seems a day for both of us to disappoint our fathers.”

Oh god. The phone call he had with his dad...

I sagged and pulled him into my arms. He slid against me easily, our arms holding each other like interlocking parts.

It felt so good.

His embrace, his touch, soothing away my pain and anger, was healing me in real time. I held him tighter, not wanting to let go.

Not now, not ever.

“Was your dad okay?”

He hummed a non-committal sound. “Same as always. He said it wasn’t my fault while also implying I should know better.”

“I’m sorry,” I murmured.

He tried to pull back, but I kept him held fast. “Mm-mm,” I mumbled. I wanted to help him forget the shitty morning we’d had, so keeping my arms around him, I sat myself down slowly on the console dash, leaning against it while holding onto him. It really was the perfect height...

“Hmm,” I hummed against his neck. “You could fuck me on this.” I lifted one leg as proof.

He chuckled and managed to pull back a little. His hips were still flush to mine, so I didn’t object too much. “Maybe if we didn’t have a life-threatening weather event aiming right at us.”

“Ooh.” I smiled. “That wasn’t a no.”

He gripped my other thigh and lifted it, pressing me hard against the controls. “No, it wasn’t a no.”

“Damn. Maybe we could see how many alarms we can set off and how many weather warnings we can issue across the Territory. We could keep a whiteboard with our different scores on it for each time.”

He chuckled, and our attempt at joking our way out of our miseries seemed to have worked. Him pushing against all my best spots didn’t hurt either. I didn’t even mind the buttons and switches pressing into my back.

He rested his forehead on mine and gave me a soft kiss. “Thank you for being here.”

I pecked his lips with a smile. “Don’t thank me yet. We have to get through dinner with my folks first. If you still want to thank me after that, I’ll take payment in sexual grati-fuck-ation.”

He smirked. “I’m almost certain that’s not how that word sounds.”

“Pretty sure it is.”

And of course, the data feed for something or other began to buzz, and after that it was a weather warning for the top east corner of the state with high precipitation forecast, and then it was an alert for cattle graziers in the bottom part of the Territory because of possible flash flooding in usually dry riverbeds.

It just never stopped. And it was for all of the Northern Territory, a land area twice the size of Texas. He had a lot to cover, and it wasn’t just the monstrous cloud band swirling its way toward us that he had to work around. It was all kinds of weather.

Needless to say, it was a busy day for him.

I just got to sit there and watch him be awesome. I fed him and kept him watered, and I texted intermittently with my brother who just loved that I was the one in my parents’ bad books for a change.

I was so not lookin’ forward to tonight.