Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Liam
I couldn't stop thinking about last night. The way Emerson had come apart in my arms, all those walls finally crashing down completely.
The sounds she'd made, raw and real and honest. Christ, my skin still hummed with the memory of her touch, like some kind of phantom electricity running through my veins.
For a moment—one perfect, incredible moment—I'd seen her. The real her, stripped of all those protective layers she wrapped around herself. Thought maybe she'd finally let herself feel what was building between us, this thing that was so much bigger than just physical attraction.
But then the walls had slammed back up so fast I got whiplash. She'd practically shoved me out the door, and now... fuck. Now we were back to this. The harsh fluorescent lights of the lab buzzed overhead, the sound boring into my skull like a dentist's drill. Everything felt too bright, too sterile, too fucking fake.
Emerson sat at her workstation, organizing papers with the kind of precise, measured movements that made it clear she was trying to hold herself together.
Those little lines between her eyebrows were deeper than usual. Her shoulders looked ready to snap from tension. Every time I tried to catch her eye, she aggressively avoided me.
I played my part. Nodded at the right moments, discussed the patterns we were seeing in the brain scans. But my eyes kept tracking her movements, catching all those tiny tells she probably thought she was hiding—the slight shake in her hands as she sorted papers, the way she curved inward like she was trying to make herself smaller.
The space between us felt massive, charged with all the things we weren't saying. Every breath seemed to echo in the fucking silence.
I wanted to cross the room, to take her face in my hands and make her look at me. Really look at me. To crack open that brilliant mind of hers and understand what the hell was going on in there.
But I stayed put, watching her build her walls higher, wondering how the hell we'd gone from last night's intimacy to this massive distance. And trying to figure out how to bridge this growing chasm before it became too wide to cross.
“I know you’ve got a lot on your plate, but I just want to make sure you’re alright.”
She hesitated, biting her lower lip in that way that always drove me crazy. “I’m fine. Just focused on the work, that’s all.”
But the words sounded hollow.
I pressed gently, my concern for her smashing through any fear of overstepping.
“Doc, you know you can talk to me. I’m here for you, not just as a colleague but as someone who cares about you.”
For a second, it was like the mask slipped, and I saw the real Emerson underneath.
She sighed, her shoulders slumping slightly. “It’s just... there’s been more and more pressure from Jasper. He’s expecting big results from this study, and I can’t let him down.”
“Fuck Jasper,” I said, the words slipping out before I could stop them. “You’re brilliant, Emerson. And you don’t have to carry all this weight by yourself.”
She gave a small, miserable laugh. “Easy for you to say. You’re not the one with the funding riding on this.”
My skin itched with the need to move, to do something. She was right there, close enough to touch, looking so goddamn beautiful it hurt. The fluorescent lights caught the gold in her hair, made her look almost ethereal. Fragile.
Like if I breathed too hard, she might shatter.
"Listen." The words scraped rough in my throat. "You're not alone in this." God, I needed her to understand. "We're a team, and I'm not going anywhere. If Jasper's giving you shit, we'll deal with him together." I swallowed hard. "But don't shut me out. Not after last night."
Something flickered in those eyes of hers—quick, like lightning, there and gone before I could name it. Hope? Fear? Both?
"Last night was... intense." Her voice came out so soft I had to lean in to hear it. The memory of her beneath me, around me, flashed hot through my body. "But I can't afford to get distracted right now."
"Distracted?" The word tasted bitter. I stood and stepped closer, drawn to her like a magnet. My pulse pounded in my ears. "Is that what you think this is? A distraction?" Anger and hurt tangled in my chest. "Fuck that, Emerson. We're more than that. I feel it, and I know you do too."
She looked up at me then, really looked, and for a second I saw everything—all the fear, all the want, all the conflict—churning behind those beautiful eyes.
My heart squeezed. Let me in , I silently begged. Let me help.
But then I watched it happen in real time—walls coming up, her expression shuttering closed.
"I need to focus on the work, Liam. That's all that matters right now."
"Yeah, I get it."
I didn't. Not really.
"But we're making real progress here. The data's looking damn good, and your insights are fucking brilliant. We'll nail this together."
I reached for her hand before I could stop myself. Just needed to touch her, to ground us both in this moment. Her skin was so soft, so warm—and then she yanked away like my touch burned, her eyes darting around the lab like a trapped animal.
The rejection knocked the air from my lungs. Christ, had I imagined all of it?
The electricity between us these past months, the way she'd look at me sometimes like she wanted to devour me whole, then pulled back so fast it left my head spinning?
The rational part of my brain said to back off, give her space. But my heart—my stupid, hopeful heart—kept insisting this was real. That what we had wasn't just chemical reactions or convenience or whatever the hell she was trying to convince herself it was.
I'd never wanted someone the way I wanted her. Never needed anyone like this.
And watching her build those walls higher, knowing I couldn't break through... it felt like something vital was being ripped out of my chest.
“What the fuck did I do wrong?” My voice was barely a whisper, afraid that if I spoke any louder, my thoughts would come pouring out like a broken dam.
Emerson shook her head, her lips pressed into a tight line like she was physically holding back what she wanted to say.
“It’s not you. It’s just...” She took a deep breath, her chest rising and falling in a way that made my heart clench. “With the pressure from Jasper, I can’t afford any emotional drama.”
“Our relationship hasn’t been a distraction. If anything, it’s made us a stronger team.”
She looked at me, her voice strained and full of a sadness that twisted the knife in my chest. “Liam, we need objectivity. Getting too emotional... it clouds judgment. It’s a risk we can’t take, at least I can’t, not with so much at stake.”
I listened, my heart sinking with every word. The conviction in her voice told me she’d thought this out, but I knew, fucking knew, she was letting fear drive her.
“Doc,” I said, my voice cracking, “you’re letting Jasper and the pressure get to you. We’re more than just colleagues. We’ve built something real here, something that goes way beyond the lab. You can’t just shut that off.”
She looked at me then, really looked at me, and for a moment, I saw a flicker of the vulnerability she’d shown last night. The way she’d melted under my touch, the way her body had responded to mine. I wanted to feel that again, to make her feel that again.
I wanted to strip away her defenses and show her how much she meant to me, how much I wanted her.
“Liam, I have to. I can’t afford to let my feelings interfere with my work.”
A surge of frustration clawed at my insides.
“So that’s it? You’re just going to shut me out?” The words came out harsher than I intended, but I didn’t care. I was past caring.
Her eyes softened, just a fraction, but her voice was as firm as ever. “I’m not shutting you out, Liam. I’m protecting us and our work. If we let our emotions take over, we risk everything we’ve worked for.”
“That’s bullshit, and you damn well know it,” I snapped, unable to keep the anger out of my voice. “Our emotions, our connection, it’s what makes our work better. It’s what drives us to dig deeper, to get to the next level.”
She shook her head, a sad smile playing on her lips. I wanted to wipe it off with a kiss that would make her forget every goddamn reason she thought we couldn’t be together.
“I wish it were that simple. But it’s not,” she said. “I can’t risk it. Not with Jasper breathing down my neck, not with the future of our research on the line.”
I wanted to argue, to fight for what we had, but the look in her eyes told me it was futile. She’d made up her mind, and no amount of pleading or reasoning was going to change it.
A hollow ache filled my chest with the pain of losing something I hadn’t realized meant so much to me until it was slipping through my fingers.
“Emerson, please,” I begged, my voice cracking with the desperation I felt. “Don’t let outside pressures define what we have. The bond between us... it’s real. It’s worth fighting for.”
My eyes bore into hers, trying to telegraph all the unspoken thoughts coursing through me—the happiness, the electric connection, the laughter, the mind-blowing sex. It was all worth fighting for, wasn’t it?
But Emerson’s resolve was a fucking fortress, even if I could see a glimmer of unshed tears in her eyes, betraying at least some turmoil in there.
“I’m sorry, Liam. But this is how it has to be. We need to focus on the work, on the data. Anything else is just... a liability.”
Liability, my ass.
Our connection was the only thing keeping me sane in this mess of a project. I wanted to grab her, shake her, make her see sense. But all I could do was stand there with the weight of her decision crushing me from the inside out.
The shrill ringtone of my phone cut through the silence like a fucking siren. I glanced at the screen, my stomach tightening as I recognized the number. Someone I’d been avoiding, someone I owed money to that I’d rather forget.
Emerson noticed my reaction, her concern momentarily overriding her emotional distance.
“Is everything alright?” she asked, her voice softer, concerned.
God, even in the middle of this shitstorm, she still managed to look so goddamn beautiful.
But the persistent ringing couldn’t be ignored. I hesitated, torn between the urgency of the call and my need to break through her defenses and make her see reason.
“I... I have to take this,” I said, my voice heavy with reluctance.
Stepping out of the lab, I answered with a sinking feeling in my gut, knowing that the voice on the other end could only bring more trouble to my already complicated life.
“Hello,” I said, my voice strained.
“Liam, you son of a bitch,” the gruff voice on the other end spat. “You think you can keep dodging me? You owe me, and I’m done waiting.”
I sighed, rubbing my temples as the weight of my financial situation bore down on me.
"Three months, Liam." Oscar's voice had lost the warmth it used to have when we'd pull all-nighters during grad school. "Three fucking months of dodging my calls."
I pressed my fingers against my temples. The guilt was almost worse than the fear. Almost. "Look, I know I promised?—"
"Yeah, you promised a lot of things. Like paying me back before Sarah left and took half of everything. Remember that? ‘Just hold on, Oscar, I swear I'll have it next month.’ Well, I held on. Now I'm living in my sister's basement, and you're still feeding me the same bullshit."
The bitterness in his voice made my stomach twist. We'd been friends once—real friends. He'd loaned me the money without hesitation when everything was falling apart.
“I know, Oscar. I’m working on it. Just give me a little more time. As soon as I get my next paycheck?—”
"I don't care about your fancy research job. I care about the money you owe me. My kid's starting school; I can't even afford to buy her new clothes.” His voice hardened. “Time’s up, Liam. I want my money, and I want it now. You have a week. If I don’t see the cash, you’re going to wish you’d never crossed me.”
The threat hung in the air like smoke, choking me with possibilities.