CHAPTER FIFTEEN: THE RECKONING OF A MONK
The boardroom smelled of expensive leather, coffee and sharper ambitions.
Lou Yan sat at the head of the polished mahogany table, his fingers steepled before him as the CFO droned on about quarterly projections. The numbers should have held his attention—this merger would position YanTech as the undisputed leader in neural-interface technology—but all he could think about was the way Syra had sighed against his mouth that morning.
"It's just... a lot."
Her tears had nearly undone him.
Across the table, Ming cleared his throat subtly. Lou blinked back to the present, catching the tail end of the CFO's sentence.
"—which gives us a 17% advantage over competitors."
Lou nodded. "Good."
His voice came out rougher than intended. The entire board—twelve of the most powerful executives in Shanghai—paused to study him. He never spoke in monosyllables. Never lost focus.
Ming's eyebrow twitched. Are you ill?
Lou straightened his cuffs and forced himself to breathe. "Run the numbers again with the Singapore team's adjustments. I want margins, not estimates."
The room exhaled. This they understood.
But beneath the table, Lou's thumb traced idle circles on his palm—the same motion he'd used on Syra's knuckles. The memory burned through him like wildfire.
---
The car ride to his next meeting was worse.
Enclosed in the silent luxury of his Mercedes, with no one to perform for, Lou finally surrendered to the storm in his head.
He had kissed her.
Not the careful, restrained peck he'd imagined a thousand times. Not the chaste brush of lips befitting a former monk.
He had devoured her.
The memory played behind his eyelids in vivid detail:
The way her breath hitched when he first touched her hair.
The soft sound she'd made when he deepened the kiss.
The feel of her fingers twisting in his shirt, pulling him closer as if she couldn't bear the space between them.
Lou pressed his forehead to the cool window. He had spent years mastering control—of his body, his desires, his very breath. Yet one taste of her, and he'd nearly lost himself.
What frightened him wasn't the intensity of his want.
It was the fear that he might never get enough.
---
The medical lab was sterile white and buzzing with quiet urgency.
Dr. Wu greeted him with a tablet and too many words. "The seizure prediction algorithm is performing at 98.7% accuracy in trials. We're ready for FDA submission."
Lou nodded absently, his gaze catching on a young artist sketching in the observation room. The boy's hands moved with the same quick, sure strokes as Syra's.
Does she think of me? Does she regret it?
"Mr. Yan?"
He blinked. The entire research team was staring.
"Proceed with Phase Three trials," Lou said, forcing his voice to its usual calm. "Double the participant pool."
As Dr. Wu nodded eagerly, Lou's phone vibrated. A text notification lit up the screen:
Syra: Forgot my charcoal at your place.
Simple. Casual. As if they hadn't crossed an irrevocable line mere hours ago.
Lou's thumb hovered over the keyboard. Every fiber of his being screamed to drive to her studio, to press her against the nearest wall, to learn every noise she made when—
He typed back with measured precision:
Lou: I'll have Ming deliver it.
Then, after a deliberate pause:
Lou: Unless you'd like to retrieve it yourself.
The three dots appeared immediately. Disappeared. Reappeared.
His pulse spiked.
---
By evening, the sky had turned the color of a fresh bruise.
Lou stood at his floor-to-ceiling windows, watching rain sheet down the glass. The penthouse was silent save for the occasional chime of the elevator in the building's core.
He should be reviewing contracts. Should be preparing for tomorrow's investor call.
Instead, he was counting minutes.
18:47. The time she'd texted.
19:03. When Ming confirmed delivery of her supplies.
19:22. When she'd read his last message but not replied.
The elevator dinged.
Lou stilled.
The chime came again—not from the building's central shaft, but from his private elevator. The one only three people had access to.
The doors slid open.
Syra stood in the entryway, dripping wet from the rain, her arms wrapped around the same sketchbook she'd carried that morning. Water darkened the shoulders of her thin jacket, plastered her curls to her forehead. She looked flushed. Uncertain.
Alive.
Lou crossed the room in six strides.
"You came," he said, his voice rough with disbelief.
Syra lifted her chin. "I wanted my charcoal."
A lie. They both knew it.
Lou reached out slowly, giving her every chance to retreat, and brushed a raindrop from her cheek. Her skin was cold beneath his fingers. "You're shaking."
"Not for the reason you think."
The air between them crackled.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, the monk whispered caution. The man ignored it.
Lou stepped closer, close enough to feel her breath on his lips. "Tell me to stop," he murmured.
Syra's eyes looked misty—not with desire, but with something far more devastating. Uncertainty. A fragility that made his chest ache. Her fingers hovered near his shirt, trembling slightly, her gaze searching his as if looking for answers to questions she couldn't voice.
In that moment, Lou felt something primal awaken in him—an instinct so fierce it stole his breath. The need to protect her. To shield her from anything that might cause her pain.
Even from himself.
He froze.
Her lips parted. "Lou—"
That single syllable, whispered with such vulnerability, shattered him.
Gently—so gently—he cradled her face in his hands, his thumbs brushing away the rain and something warmer, saltier, from her cheeks. "We don't have to—"
Syra pressed her forehead to his collarbone, her hands fisting lightly in his shirt. Not pulling him closer. Just holding on.
"I'm scared," she whispered.
Lou closed his eyes, breathing her in—the scent of rain and oil paint and something uniquely Syra. His arms came around her carefully, giving her space to pull away. "I know."
They stood like that for what felt like an eternity, the storm raging outside, their hearts beating in quiet synchrony.
When Syra finally lifted her head, her eyes were clear. Resolved.
"Show me," she said softly.
Lou didn't ask what she meant. He simply took her hand and led her to the couch, where they sat side by side, fingers entwined, watching the rain paint the city in silver.
No grand declarations. No passionate kisses.
Just this—the quiet understanding that some loves were built slowly, brick by careful brick.