Lila

When the others finally left the office, the lawyers hunched and muttering, Chris storming out with fists clenched, and Dane leaning on his desk, his shoulders heaving, Lila almost left too. That would have been normal, to run from him. To be angry. She had a statement to take to Tish for the press. It needed to be done. But she couldn't leave him there like that. He was destroying himself—and he was going to take this entire empire down with him if he didn't find a way to get it under control.

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So, instead of following Chris down the hall, she closed the door behind him and turned the lock. To hell with Dane's rules.

Then she walked quietly over to the desk where he stood, breathing heavily.

She slid her hands up his back to his shoulders. He tensed, but didn't pull away. So she began kneading them, right at the spot where his shoulders met his neck. He was so tight she was surprised he could move.

"You can't keep doing this Dane. You know I'm here. You know Chris won't leave. But the staff…the lawyers…they're all under pressure too. There's only so much they can take. And if they're getting from the public and from you…"

"I know," he ground out. "I just…"

"Maybe you need to take a break? Work from home for a few days?"

He snorted and turned his head, though he didn't move from under her hands. "Are you going to work there with me?"

Her heart sped up. "Maybe. Some. I mean, there's things we need to plan, right?" she said softly, though a flicker of frustration burned in her chest. And fear. How was he going to get himself under control?

He straightened and turned, pulling her into his arms. But she put a hand to his chest when he started to lean down. "I'm not kissing you right now, Dane. This is serious."

He went rigid under her palm. "You think I don't know this is serious?" he ground out.

She held his cold gaze, but shook her head. "I know you know it. But you also know what I mean. You can't keep doing this. It's only going to work against you. And we can't…we can't let ourselves get distracted by…this." She flapped a hand between them. "It does us no good to fall into each other if the rest of your life is burning down around us."

"I can't control what people say about me. I learned that a decade ago."

"No, you're right. You can't. But you can control what ammunition you hand them."

His eyes narrowed, but she made herself hold his gaze. After a moment he let her go and stepped away to pace the carpet beside his desk, raking a hand through his hair, scowling. But he still didn't say anything.

Lila swallowed. "I'm going to take the statement to Tish to get out to the associated press. You're going to apologize to Chris."

"Like hell I am, he put his hands on you."

"He wanted to present a united front." Even if she did wish he'd done it a different way, she knew there was nothing in it. And jealousy was only going to make Dane even more crazy. "Don't let your fear eat you up, Dane."

He snorted, but there was no humor in it. "That's like saying don't breathe."

She sighed, but refused to touch him, to soothe him. He needed to snap out of this! "We can't work this way. Either you go home and get yourself together, or we figure out a new plan. Because if we have another day like this, you're going to end up losing this fight just because you piss too many people off—people who would usually help you."

His lips pressed thin. He paced the line three more times before he stopped.

"Fine. I'll work from home for the rest of the week. But you're working afternoons with me. We'll have Chris come in too, and the lawyers, just to make it legit."

She shrugged, though her heart lit up at the idea. "Okay. Just for this week. And only if you do…whatever it is you do to relax. You need to decompress, Dane. Or you'll beat yourself so you father doesn't have to."

"I know," he muttered.

"What do you do to relax?" she asked curiously.

Dane stopped pacing and met her eyes.

The heat in his gaze made her feel alive.

She had to fight a smile when he came toward her, stalking like a cat. "Oh no you don't!" she whispered. But his grim smile promised that she wasn't escaping. "Dane, we can't! I have to get this statement out and you—"

He swept her up in his arms, until her feet dangled, and he kissed away what she'd been about to say, kissed her so thoroughly, she forgot she'd been speaking. Instead she wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned in.

"This," he whispered against her lips. "This is how I relax. Being close to you is the only thing in my life right now that…" he trailed off and she gripped him harder, kissing him back with the intensity she felt whenever he was close.

Then she broke away, groaning. "We can't do this, Dane. Not now."

He dropped his head back and muttered a curse, but let her slide down his body until her feet were on the floor again. His thumb stroked her cheek and she gazed back up at him, torn between wanting to see more of that warmth that was finally creeping into his gaze, and not putting them at risk of being caught. At least the door was locked.

"We can't do this now," she repeated, "but I say you tell Chris and the team that after nine o'clock tonight you're offline. Unless they find Becky, they don't disturb you until morning." She raised her eyebrows and his gaze sharpened.

"But that will leave me with several, uninterrupted hours," he graveled out.

"Time to relax," she whispered back.

Dane smiled for the first time since they'd woken next to each other that morning. "Sounds like an excellent plan."

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