Page 29 of Competing Against Thor

"Seven feet and an inch," I said. "Good enough."

"How's the woodpecker coming along?"

"I've barely started," I admitted. "But now that most of the leaves are on, I can spend a lot of time on that tomorrow."

"I'm going to do the nest then too," he responded. "Right now it's just a hole."

"I did say that was a risk."

"You did," he agreed. "But I think it'll be fine. We've made good progress now."

Someone cleared their throat and we both looked over to see the cameraman by our station. "I'm clocking out now, you're supposed to be out of here in five minutes."

"Thanks," Thor said.

The man nodded and turned to leave us to it.

"There's a lot we could do in five minutes," I said. "But maybe it would be best if we got everything ready for tomorrow so we can just come in and get started?" We'd be arriving separately, so it made sense for us to at least talk it through so we knew what to do when we arrived at the studio.

"So we're going to be working on the birds tomorrow," he said. "We should prioritise them because if the apples don't go on, we can just pretend that they were never meant to be on there in the first place."

"Sneaky," I responded.

"And the perfect solution," he said. "They didn't say we had to have the fruit, but they did say that we had to have the animals, so we should prioritise."

"Yes, you're right. I would like a few more leaves on the tree, especially at the back, but they can wait until everything else is done first." There was something satisfying about seeing the sculpture come together like this. I'd never worked with another artist like this before. I'd done things with Danny, mostly related to holding the swords and other things he forged, but creating with someone was an entirely different process, and one that I was actually interested in trying again in the future. Maybe I could suggest that to Thor once we were outside the competition.

If he wanted to talk to me again afterwards. He'd said a lot of things that sounded like he was interested in knowing me better, but I didn't know how much of it was true and how much was just words.

I headed over to my station where the start of the woodpecker was sitting waiting for me. It didn't look like much yet, and I was starting to wonder if that was a mistake. We still had about eight hours of work time tomorrow, but I didn't know if that was going to be enough.

Except that I had to trust that we were going to get done. There was no reason to think we wouldn't, not with how well we were working together.

I turned around, bumping into him as I did. He reached out to steady me, a warm hand on my arm. My pulse raced in response. I looked up, meeting his gaze and seeing an intensity there that I hadn't expected. He leaned in and my eyes fluttered closed even as his lips met mine.

The kiss was demanding and echoed a lot of the desire I felt within me. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pushed my body against his, not caring in the slightest that we were in the middle of a TV studio, even if Ishouldcare about that. At least there weren't any cameras still rolling.

He pulled me closer with a hand on my lower back and I sunk into him, desperate formoreeven if I wasn't sure what more was.

Except that wasn't true. I knew exactly what I wanted.

I pulled back and met his gaze. "You said your hotel wasn't far from here, right?"

He nodded.

"Take me there." There was a small part of me that worried he'd say no, but the rest knew the truth. There was no denying the spark between us, even if we should probably at least wait until the competition was over.

"Gladly," he murmured.

"And maybe call your friend to make sure none of that actually airs."

He chuckled, the sound vibrating through me. "I'll do that before we've even left the studio, but I don't think anyone's filming now."

As if summoned by his words, a bell sounded, which I assumed was our sign that we were supposed to get out of there.

"I'll message Mel, you pack up," he said.

I nodded, excitement and nerves thrumming through me all at once as I thought about what was to come.