Page 56 of The Spark Between Us

“But you learned something, right?”

He folded his arms across his chest. “Sure, I learned not to enter the science fair again.”

I smacked him. “No. You learned something about tin foil and the sun and heat and what it takes to make a slice of toast.”

“Sure. I learned I was glad we had a toaster.”

“Fine. Well, that’s all anyone’s doing here—trying stuff out and refining it until it works. And I’ll tell you, a lot of the time, it doesn’t.”

We stood outside a 3D printing lab where several monitors displayed images of rocket parts being made in the printers. He looked from the models to the screen, skeptical. “So what’s your point?”

“My point is that yes, there are parts of the lab that require high-level security clearance, but we’re not going there. I can still show you some pretty cool stuff.” I took his hand and started walking him down the hallway toward the National Ignition Facility. “This is where the first sustained, controlled nuclear fusion reaction was created.”

We walked into the room, which contained giant laser bays and a massive target capsule. I watched the expression on Braden’s face change from interest to obsession. His eyes got wide and his mouth fell open.

Expectations exceeded—goal achieved.

“I’m not certified to conduct an official tour. But we can go inside the target bay.”

The room looked like the inner workings of a futuristic computer, all gears and clean metals housings for wires, ladders, and circuit boards. The floor shone spotlessly and reflected everything in the room. “This is where it all happens. Pressures so extreme that the laser can compress something to one hundred times the density of lead. In some cases, it reaches a temperature of a hundred million degrees.”

“Holy fuck,” Braden gasped, shaking his head. “I have no concept of what that means, and I work with fire for a living.”

“Pretty much. The laser in here releases fusion energy, kind of the holy grail of nuclear science.”

“In regular person terms, por favor ...”

“The idea is to generate a greater amount of energy from fusion than the amount of energy that was there at the outset.”

He bit his lip and blinked, thinking. “You know, there are some parallels to fire science and how energy is created. There’s no fusion involved, but some of the energy concepts sound similar.” His smile broadened.

I nodded. “I had a feeling you might find something here you could chew on.” And I wanted him to understand a little bit of why I found the field so interesting.

We toured around for another half hour, and I made sure to show him the IBM supercomputer and the lab where our welding was taking place. Keith was still at work, geared up in a mask and goggles and working with an experimental laser.

Braden and I watched through the one-way glass. “So this is what you do all day?” He observed Keith, and I pointed at how he was aiming the laser’s beam at two squares of aluminum alloy and trying to get them to fuse. It still wasn’t holding the way we needed it to.

“Pretty much. We’re at the point where we know the lasers can accomplish part of what we need—getting the atoms moving fast enough that they begin to join. And what they’re doing is better than the friction tool that’s conventionally used. What we haven’t done yet is make that happen at the right temperature and at a cost that makes it viable.”

“But you’re making progress?”

“Yup. I feel confident, and we still have two months to get a prototype that a space exploration company could use. Obviously, it needs to be incredibly strong to withstand the G-forces of a rocket.”

He nodded, his mouth hitching up on one side. Then he leaned close to my ear. “Do you have any idea how much your brilliant brain turns me on?” His voice was a barely audible growl, but it ignited a delicious heat between my legs, and my heart started hammering.

I turned to him, not entirely sure if he was propositioning me or just trying to throw me off.

“Is that so?” I teased. I’d spent a good part of my week thinking that I’d like another night between the sheets with my roommate and his impeccably beautiful, hard body.

“It is so.” His whisper turned into a soft breath of a kiss beneath my ear, and I turned into a puddle of jelly.

Braden’s lips skimmed my neck lightly, sending tendrils of heat along the surface of my skin. A wisp of his breath made me gasp, turning my head to the side to give him better access. He didn’t dive in. His movements were luxurious and slow, taking me by the hand and turning me, so my back was against the wall in the empty hallway.

I knew there was a chance someone might walk by at any moment, but my body had gone limp, unable to harness the muscle strength to pull away from him. His lips met mine, still gentle and caressing.

I immediately calculated the shortest distance to my office, which had a door that locked. In my mind, I was already splayed out on top of the research reports on my desk.

I’d never felt nearly enough passion with men I’d dated to consider having sex in my office—or any office. I’d never fantasized about being taken on my metal university-issued desk on campus, let alone act on it. But there was a first for everything.

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