The train to London that night was slow, and caught in a dimension with no gravity. I wished Africa would have driven me like she always did. I had been hesitating to take her car myself, but I didn't want to die, not now that I was on the edge of eternity. I kept smelling my hair obsessively, to check if it still had the scent of the shampoo I had used in the two-hour shower I had taken after my conscience came back on the loathsome carpet.

Luke was waiting for me at Paddington Station, with a gaze that broke the spell of the train and put me back in a world where attraction forces did exist. I wasn't sure about gravity, but there was definitely something pulling me towards those green eyes.

The tube floated to London Bridge as I got lost in his neck, and we run to Guy's Campus while we sewed our souls together with unbreakable kisses. We entered the classroom using a key I had asked Luke to get from Professor Abbey's coat. I could've waited until the next day, but I wasn't sure I was prepared to work on that in front of the rest of the group. And, apart from being anxious to finally find answers for my endless question, being secretive with Luke thrilled me crazily.

When I got to the electronic microscope, my body trembled so much I almost wasn't able to turn it on. Luke tried to help me but rubbed his body against my behind in doing so, turning me on together with the microscope. We hadn't switched the lights on, so that the janitor wouldn't note our presence, and therefore I saw Luke's lips' contour similarly to Saturday night. I turned around and kissed him hard.

"God, Tess, how can you turn me on so much... just by kissing me for a second?"

I bent backwards on the microscopy table. He ran his hands along the curvature of my back as he lay on top of me. He grabbed my butt and started to bite my neck gently, and then more strongly, as if he wanted to eat me entirely. We were in an acrobatic position that reminded me of the sexiest Dirty Dancing scenes.

"This feels so great." I said, gasping.

"And you know what the best thing is?" he said, looking directly into my penetrable-as-ever eyes. He managed to break through their few fragile shields. "We could have it forever."

Hearing him say those words, I felt like the luckiest person in history. My face lighted up and I got up from my cambré, slowly, curving my back into its anatomic position again. My hips enclosed his pelvis and he took my thighs in his arms and sat me on the table.

"I so wish you weren't wearing anything under that white coat..." he whispered into my ear, as he loosened the first buttons and kissed my bare cleavage.

I had to ask him to sit at the other end of the room, because he made it impossible for me to focus on the microscopic anatomy of our bodies. I gave him the report on my work so far, as I checked the loose ends of my theory and did my best to tie them up. I wrote things and crossed them out over and over again. I started to brisk walk from the microscopy table to the lab room every five minutes. Luke looked at me nervously every time I did that, and continuously asked if I needed any help. I didn't. I just needed some more inspiration.

"What are you missing?" he asked me after I had been standing still between my two work tables for ten minutes.

My brain had hoarded all the activity in my body. As my thinking became more and more rapid and hyperactive, my body fossilized, resembling an oyster; fixed. I couldn't think that fast and move at the same time. I just wished my diaphragm and other respiratory muscles would keep moving coordinately. Even my vocal cords were paralyzed, so I didn't answer Luke's question. I could just manage to see the concern in his face. He was afraid of my high-strung trance. He moved his eyes continuously from my report to me, as if trying to decipher my thinking.

Unintentionally, I blurted out some words:

"Which... genes..."

"Which genes for what?" asked Luke, trying to wake me up. "Are you still wondering about DNA-protectors? The ones you've designed, the ones you explain in here... they're perfect. You've got it, Tess."

I shook my head aggressively, trying to fight against the shudder that had gotten over my body. I kept spilling words, going over a check sheet, so that my mind wouldn't block due to excessive usage.

"Antioxidants, telomerase, CDKs..."

I felt overwhelmed, out of myself, caught in a nightmare. I wanted to talk, I wanted to move towards the microscope, check things, discard some options. And suddenly, it was as if a thunder landed in the middle of all the neuronal connections in my mind, cleaning my brain from all that information and rush that did nothing but hide the important things I had known all along. The thunder went back through the tons of books I had read over the last week, and highlighted the useful information. The key. With it in my hands, I felt strong enough to move towards the microscope, but my legs seemed to be slower at waking up from transfixion, and didn't respond. I fell on the ground and Luke run towards me.

"Tess, Tessa! Please, you're scaring me! Say something!"

"I've got it, Luke. The perfect mutation-recognition formula." I managed to say before I fainted on the cold floor.

I recovered my senses and breathed in his scent. He was very close to me. He was hugging me.

"Damn sleeping pills. They don't make me sleep but make me faint instead."

"Tessa! You're back!"

He hugged me harder.

I stood up and explained my final theory to him. Saying it out loud, I bore it out. Then I pulled him close and did a cambré on the microscope table again. He leaned in to kiss me, but when he was already very close to me, brushing my nose with his, he pulled me back again into a standing position.

"Tessa... what I said to you at the hill the other day... The "I like you" part... It isn't true."

Fear got hold of my whole body, and I started to shake again. He covered my back with caresses, moving his hands up and down, slowly, barely touching me. Those touches prevented me from fainting once again.

"I don't just like you, Tess." he sighed deeply, and added. "I love you."

My heartbeat accelerated to its maximum speed. I looked into his unfair gaze. It was unfair that it controlled me. It was horrible knowing that I would do anything to keep looking at those eyes that undressed me, just by looking at my mouth and then back at my eyes again. I stood there, contemplating him, trying to memorize him even more than I already had. I moved closer to smell the scent of his body, and to feel how much he wanted me, how much he loved me. I memorized the small dark patch over his upper lip.

I collected all the courage inside of me, because I needed it in order to answer to him. I didn't want to say I loved him too. Because I did. Because saying it would make it true definitely, and because something inside me told me there would be no taking it back, that I wouldn't be able to lie to myself and believe I was truly independent when I pronounced it out loud. But I didn't care about being independent anymore. I was certain I had never felt anything that intense, that real, that unstoppable, that urgent.

I looked up from his lips, across his nose, and met his undeniable gaze again. And his eyes told me he had never felt anything that vehement either.

"I love you too."

He smiled broadly and pulled me closer. Then, he whispered into my ear.

"Could you say that again, Miss?"

I kissed him, exploring his mouth, and he moved his hands down my back. London was magical at the other side of the window. I could almost imagine stars like the ones we had seen on the hill that clear late autumn night. We were still standing very close to the microscopy table. I wanted him so badly.

"I love you, Luke Clayton." I picked up a lot more courage from the sizzling corners of my body, and added, blushing beyond dark red: "Please make love to me right here. Right now."

What did you think of this chapter? Do you think Tessa and Luke's relationship will last? Let me know in the comments! I am entering the Wattys2016, so, if you enjoyed it, please don't forget to vote :)

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