Surprise!

Lila

True to Dane's word, they were getting in the car thirty minutes later. It seemed silly to Lila, the office was only blocks away. But Dane insisted, and she wasn't going to do anything to tempt him into a rage today. She had to get him to the office in as good a mood as she could.

Once they were moving, her nerves trilled. She hoped he'd enjoy what she'd planned. And she prayed the staff showed up. She'd stayed late last night to prepare the room, but Tish was in charge of getting everyone there.

She looked across the backseat of the Mercedez car to Dane. He'd put on jeans and a sweater that clung to his chest in a way that made her mouth go dry. His long legs were bent up even in the spacious car, and he leaned down to look out the window. He wasn't talking, so she left him to it, but used the opportunity to stare. He really was a beautiful man.

Then his expression sharpened and he leaned forward, twisting to look out the back window of the car with a deep frown.

"What is it?"

"Just checking something," he murmured distractedly.

His long limbs took up all the room with him twisted around like that. But there was no humor—not even anger—in his tone. Instead of drinking in the sight of him so close after those weeks, her alarm sparked at his focus behind them.

"No, it's okay, they're there," he said suddenly, and relaxed, returning to face the front.

"Who?"

"The back up car."

"Back up car for what?"

"For us," he said, looking ahead as if this were normal.

Lila gaped. "You have a back up security car for a six block trip to the office?"

"Of course," he said, his face irritated as if she were the strange one.

She waited, but he hadn't registered her surprise. "Dane, you know that's not normal, right? Like, I get that you live in a world where you have to plan for people to get attacked, or whatever. But…you really think there's a genuine risk of someone, what, hijacking our car between here and the office?"

His jaw tightened. "I'll explain later," he said absently. He glanced at his phone, but they were already pulling into the parking lot of the office building, and she remembered she wasn't supposed to be challenging him right now.

The driver opened the door for them in the basement and they rode the elevator up to the office floor. Lila held her breath, but thankfully no one was in the hall and there was no sign of their plans as they stepped into reception.

"I just need to put my things in my office," she said to him as they crossed the marble floor. "Do you mind?"

Motioning for her to go first, he followed without a word. She hated the stillness between them. The quietness. So she hurried up the hall to her office, his long legs eating up the space easily, as if he usually slowed to walk at her pace.

She got the door open and led him in, dropping her purse on her desk and digging through it for her phone. After a few seconds she growled a curse and Dane huffed from the doorway. "Problem?"

"I can't find my phone," she growled. She knew it was in there, but it was hiding behind all her things as it often did, and she didn't want to make too big of a deal about it. She'd have to find it later.

She had to distract him for just a minute, so she threw the question out as if it were no big deal. "So, do you want to explain the back up car?"

Dane stood in the doorway of her office, his shoulder leaned on the frame, one foot crossed over the other as he waited for her to finish up. She hoped everything had gone to plan down the hall since she wouldn't know until they got there.

Dane hadn't answered her by the time she rejoined him at the door, so she'd assumed he wasn't going to. But as she approached, he started talking.

"You heard some of my story," he said cautiously. "The thing you have to realize is that the reason I'm good at this business is because I learned the need for it before I had the resources to do anything about it."

"I…I'd like to hear the story someday. If you want to tell it. You must have been so young."

His jaw twitched as they stepped into the hallway, their pace much slower than earlier. "When you experience threat without any answer to it, it makes you appreciate what's really important in life."

"Which is what?"

He turned to look at her, his eyes deep with shadows. "Anyone precious."

She swallowed, but she couldn't break the gaze.

"And you start to understand," he continued, "that if you have what's needed to keep people safe, there's no price you wouldn't pay to keep it that way."

She swallowed and his eyes dipped to her throat, then back to her eyes. "Well, sure."

His lips thinned. "It's not just words to me, Delilah. I had to sit back and ask myself if someone I cared about got hurt would I care if I had another million in the back?"

They were halfway up the hall. She had to keep him distracted. "Oh, I believe you," she chuckled. "Apparently, you even use back up cars for pushy employees who embarrass your brother, and drive you crazy."

They were only feet from the door into the conference. If he'd been paying attention he would have seen the flash of a metallic balloon through the window in the door. But to Lila's surprise, at her words he stopped walking and pulled her to a stop next to him, turning so his back was half to the door.

"It's no joke, Delilah. I want you to be confident of that. No matter how angry I get, or…anything else." His eyes locked on hers. "You can be confident I'll still do anything in my power to ensure you walk through your day without harm. There is no dollar in this world that's more valuable than your safety."

His intensity stole her breath. And he was so close. She wanted to place a hand on his chest, to reassure him. "I-I do know that, Dane. It's what I saw in you. Why I wanted you to communicate with the world. Because I knew it was real for you. I'm sorry I joked. I didn't mean it."

His frown relaxed, but he didn't move right away, and for a second he seemed to rock closer to her. Her heart raced and one of her hands started to rise on its own.

"Good," he said suddenly, biting off the word. Before she could react he'd turned on his heel and started for the door. "So, what was it you wanted to show me?"

He had a hand on the door, looking back at her over his shoulder and she saw the tension in him.

"Dane, wait—"

But it was too late. He'd swung the door open to be greeted by a roar of SURPRISE! along with people jumping up and down, balloons and…was that confetti?

It didn't matter. Dane's face twisted as, lightning fast, he whipped around, his arms out and back to push her behind him as he crouched, clearly expecting an attack.

"Dane! No! It's not—" she gasped, but she couldn't get around the rigid cage of his arms as he very clearly put himself between her and what he thought was real danger, his face a mask of shock and fear.

*****

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