sense of pride. I never knew how good it would feel to be the recipient of it.
I opened my arms, and she stepped into them. “Just don’t stop being proud of me, all right?”
I could handle anything as long as she was in my corner.
Parker
One of the reasons I grew to love science and engineering so much was how theories could be proven and knowledge could be gained in this tangible way, uncomplicated by emotion or contradiction.
Life outside of science was messy and definitely contradictory. After Theo died, I wanted nothing but to avoid it.
Yet, if we’re honest, there are contradictions in science too. Take the moon, for example. Using uranium-lead dating, geologists dated fragments of the moon and determined it was 4.51 billion years old. But if you calculate the rate at which it is moving away from the earth and then reverse it, the moon would have been sitting on top of the earth only 1.55 billion years ago. A direct contradiction to the big bang cosmology.
So there were contradictions in life everywhere. Even in my beloved world of academia. I just hadn’t wanted to admit it. I wanted it to be safe from that. Yet, you can’t hide from life. It was messy and convoluted and emotional, and I was done cowering behind excuses.
Which was why I cycled to work the day after I confronted Rhys about Marcy with a dreamy expression on my face but an ache of guilt in my chest.
Since then Rhys and I did more than just have hot sex. Sometimes he made love to me. I knew it, lying beneath him as he gazed into my eyes and moved inside me. It was magical and stunning and stole my breath. So, of course, every time I thought about those moments, I couldn’t help my goofy goddamn grin.
However, I’d also every now and then get an image of the hurt on his face when I told him we were from different worlds. My guilt was real. I shouldn’t have had an entire conversation in my head about our relationship without him out of fear, and I’d spent the last few weeks since that night trying to show him that I wasn’t afraid to throw myself into this relationship.
As Rhys’s training intensified, there wasn’t a lot of time to revel in our newfound certainty in each other this past week, but I was there to show support—like I did when he so cleverly made his proposal to developer Kyle Garret—and to help with any last-minute details for the charity event.
Which was now upon us.
Tomorrow was the big fight, and I had prehistoric-sized butterflies in my belly about it.
Rhys had been avoiding Fairchild for the last few weeks and so far, the billionaire had not made any moves toward killing my career. There had been some coverage about him in the news lately that he was under possible investigation for tax evasion. Rumor had it, there was more to it than just that. The word “fraud” was being tossed around. My hope was that Fairchild would stay too preoccupied by his troubles to bother us.
However, I was still sick with worry about it and attempted to hide that concern from Rhys. He had enough on his plate. Somehow, he knew anyway, assuring me every now and then that me losing my job was the last thing he’d allow to happen.
But Fairchild using Rhys and making him feel worthless was the last thing I’d allow to happen either.
It was messy.
Complicated.
And waiting for that ax to fall was not fun.
My headspace was full as I rode my bike into the underground parking beneath the office that morning. It was so full, it took me a second to feel the prickle of unease on my neck. I locked my bike to the rack and straightened, unnerved by the sensation of being watched.
Turning, I scanned the space. My heart turned over in my chest.
Franklin Fairchild.
He stood near a black sedan, a driver visible inside the car.
Heart pounding, I could do nothing but wait as he slowly walked toward me. Sweat gathered under my arms as I forced myself to meet his cold gaze.
I shivered at the look in his eyes, and I knew he was here to do more threatening.
Just like that, I went from afraid to majorly pissed off.
I was worried about Rhys. My insides churned not only with that concern but with the fact that this man held my career in his tiny hands. I was sick