“You are,” he says.

He tugs off my shirt.

When we get to the bedroom, I lie down, he kneels over me, taking my breasts into his mouth.

He slowly moves his hand down to my panty line. Still dressed in my leggings, I wrap my legs around him, but he pushes me away.

“I'm going to need you to take those off,” he says and starts to roll my pants down my legs.

My breath gets caught in the back of my throat as I wait for his lips to touch my inner thigh.

The familiar warming sensation starts building at my core.

He runs his lips just at the top of my panty line and my breath slows down even more. Then with one quick motion, he pulls my panties down to my knees, helping them off with his feet.

I wrap my legs firmly around his torso and grab onto his strong, hard butt.

It feels hard, strong, and powerful like it belongs to someone who is not completely unfamiliar with physical activity.

Somehow, being underneath his body gives me strength that I didn't know I had.

I push him over and climb on top. His eyes get wide and then a big smile forms on his lips.

He runs his fingers up and down my stomach while cupping my breasts and after he slips on a condom, I get on top of him again.

At first, it feels like he's piercing me, separating me in half, but after a while, I get used to the pain and it feels good.

We move as one for some time, feeling every part of each other and reveling in each other's bodies. Then like a switch, something goes off and a throbbing sensation starts to build within me.

I know that I can't hold on much longer. I move my hips up and down and just as I get very close to it, I collapse on top of him and let him do the rest.

A little explosion goes off in my body, followed by a million more.

A few moments later, he moans my name and pushes himself into me one last time.

13

Emma

After we make love, I fall asleep in his arms. I have never been able to sleep well next to anyone, but Liam is different.

He gives me just enough space while still being there, cradling me.

My body fits perfectly with his and I allow myself to drift off.

When we wake up later that afternoon, it feels like everything that has happened this morning was a dream.

I keep my eyes closed for a long time, burying my head under the blankets and trying to prolong my sleep as long as possible. When I finally do open them, I see Liam sitting at the table working on his computer.

“Hey,” I say sleepily.

“Hey. I hope it's okay that I set up shop here, but I have a deadline and I can't miss a day of writing.”

“Don’t you work for yourself?” I ask.

“Yes, but that doesn't mean that I don't have deadlines.”

I'm about to say something in response, but he starts to type feverishly and I leave him alone.

Instead I pull on the clothes that I find on the floor and grab my own computer.

It's Saturday and for the longest time I've been trying not to work on weekends, but all those attempts have been futile.

Maybe… My eyes drift over to Liam who is totally engrossed in his work.

Maybe this weekend could be different.

In the past, my work was my security blanket. It was the place I turned to where everything made sense.

There were, of course, frustrations with Corrin and whenever I couldn’t write a story that I really wanted to or had to make changes that I didn't want to, but my work was something that I controlled.

My family, especially my parents and my sisters, have always been difficult to deal with. I love them but they also drive me nuts and my way of coping is to work instead.

When I first met Alex, I tried to turn my attention to him, but he was so busy with his own work that we just ended up working a lot together.

The few times that we didn't, we got into fights and again I turned toward my work to get me through it.

Going to my emails, I see one from Corrin. She doesn't usually email me and this one is marked urgent. When I scan the body of the email, my blood turns to ice.

Please give me an overview of the follow-up article on D. B. Carter by Tuesday at the latest. You said that you wanted to investigate the guy who gave you his address. We have some resources available to help you – a private investigator. His name and contact info are attached. Let me know what steps you are planning on taking to find out more about his past. If you can get another interview, that would be amazing. If we can get this article out in a week, we can publish it on our website and then run an expanded version in print. Keep up the good work.

I bite my lower lip and reread her words over and over again, forcing them to sink in.

Occasionally, I glance over at Liam and wonder how the hell I'm going to bring this up.

I like him.

I like him a lot.

But I also love my job. I have to get her the story, but the only way that I can do it is to get Liam to give it to me.

Closing my laptop, I toss it on the bed and go to the kitchen to make some coffee.

I walk past his table and see him hard at work, typing feverishly on the laptop. He's wearing noise canceling earphones and his mind is clearly somewhere else. Next to him on the table I see a timer. The clock is going down and there are eight minutes and twenty seconds left.

I make a pot of coffee and start the tea kettle. I don't know which one he prefers, so I just make both.

Mostly I pace around the kitchen trying to figure out how I’m going to ask him to do this.

While the water boils, I look at my phone and read Corrin's email one more time.

I look at the PI’s contact info. I know that if I call him without mentioning any of this to Liam, then whatever inkling of the relationship that we have started is going to vanish completely.

I have hurt him and lied to him once.

He has forgiven me.

The second time he won’t.

No, the only way that I can do this article is if he agrees to it.

But what if he doesn't? My thoughts go in circles.

If he doesn't agree to it, then I have to say no to Corrin and if I say no to this then… Could she fire me over this?

Even if she doesn't, even if by some miracle I keep my job, what kind of stories will I get to tell next?

I'm going to be relegated back to quizzes and rewriting celebrity social media announcements that no one really cares about it.

When I first got my job at Coast, I did everything I could to try to get them to change the content and to open themselves up to investigative stories like this one.

I argued and showed them examples from BuzzFeed and how they have become a majorly more profitable business by focusing not only on fluff but also on serious topics.

The thing about this story is that it’s so appealing and so shareable.

It’s a human interest story. It's an investigation. It's a story that has never been told.

Plus, since the magazine is completely nonpolitical, it's also something that can appeal to everyone.

Corrin and everyone else at Coast know this already, especially given the number of other newspapers and magazines that have picked it up as well as the number of retweets and hits that the story got online.

Everyone knows this except for the one person who can give me the okay for writing it, Liam.