Page 27 of Death By Chocolate

I press harder for a moment, wanting to ensure the message sinks in, before stepping back. Rhys rubs his throat, eyes darting between Dani and me.

"I don't need you to fight my battles," Dani says, her voice carrying that professional distance that feels wrong after everything we've shared.

"No," I agree, turning to face her. "You don't need me to. “ She’s been fighting alone her whole life. “But that doesn't mean I won’t.”

The break room has gone deadly quiet. I see the conflict in Dani's eyes – appreciation warring with frustration, the womanwho craves protection battling the warrior who's built her life on never showing weakness.

"My office," she says finally. "Now."

As I follow her, I catch Rhys's reflection in the glass wall. He's straightening his collar, that smirk trying to resurface. But there's fear there now, too, an understanding that the power dynamic has shifted. The bruises on my knuckles are worth it. Every twinge reminds me of the satisfying crunch when my fist connected with Rhys's jaw, silencing his smug innuendos about Dani. She's more than what they're reducing her to – their snide comments about choosing me. Let him smirk. That man bitch better not say another fucking word about her. They don't know what I know – that Dani's strength isn't in never needing help but in surviving long enough to learn how to accept it. This woman put me first, above her own life. I’ll be damned to hell before I’m the last person to stand up for her.

The door to her office clicks shut behind us, and I brace myself for the conversation I know is coming. She'll tell me I've crossed a line, that I've undermined her authority. She'll be right.

"You have to handle your shit better than this." Dani's voice carries from the doorway behind me, pitched low enough that only I hear it. The controlled fury in her tone hits harder than any punch could.

I turn, expecting to see disappointment in her eyes. Instead, there's something worse – professional detachment. She's wearing what I privately think of as her warrior mask, all traces of the woman who curled into me last night carefully hidden away. The sight of it feels like a knife between my ribs.

"Those fuckers are disrespectful,” I say, keeping my own voice steady. “That shit Rhys and the bitches were implying—"

"Were nothing I haven't handled before." She moves past me to the single-cup coffee maker, her movements precise andcontrolled. Too controlled. "I've dealt with men like him my whole career. What I can't handle is my client undermining my authority in front of my team."

"Your client?" The words taste like ash. "Is that what we're doing now, Dani? Pretending this morning, and every night, I’m not balls deep in your pussy?”

She sets down her coffee mug with enough force that hot liquid sloshes over the rim. "What happens between us in private doesn't change who I am or what I do. I earned my position as head of The Governor’s security detail. You stepping in like that, makes it look like I got here on my back."

"That's not—fuck, you don’t even like being on your back,” I reach for her, but she steps back, maintaining that professional distance that's suddenly become a chasm between us.

"It is exactly what it looks like to men like Rhys or Torres and Chen. I've spent years building my reputation. I can't have you treating me like I'm some damsel who needs saving. Not here. Not on the job."

The rational part of me knows she's right. But seeing Rhys smirking, making those crude remarks to her face – something in me snapped. "So I'm supposed to just stand there while they target my woman? While that bastard who used to warm your bed makes jokes about—"

"Yes." Her eyes flash the first crack in her professional veneer. "That's exactly what you're supposed to do. Because I handle my own fights, Xeno. I always have."

"And what about us?" I move closer, voice dropping. "Where do you draw the line between Dani the warrior and Dani the woman who shares my bed?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out." She runs a hand over her hair, a rare tell of her frustration. "But I know this – if you can't trust me to handle myself professionally, then maybe we need to rethink both our arrangements."

The implied threat in her words – that she'd walk away from everything we've built – cracks something in my chest. "I trust you with my life, Dani. You know that."

"Then trust me with my reputation, too." She meets my eyes, and for a moment, I see past the professional mask to the hurt beneath. "Because right now, you're making me choose between being good at my job and being with you. Don't make me make that choice, Xeno."

I want to argue, to make her understand that my need to protect her comes from a place of love, not doubt. But I see the way she holds herself – spine straight, shoulders back, every inch the professional warrior she's worked so hard to become. My actions, however well-intentioned, have put her in an impossible position.

“Fuck if I give an apology for protecting you," I tell her finally. "But I won’t make your job harder. My word is bond.”

She nods once, accepting the apology but not softening. "Figure out where the line is, Xeno. Because I won't cross mine again." She picks up her coffee and heads for the door, briefly pausing. "And ice those knuckles. I don’t want you wincing when I’m riding your cock tonight.”

“That’s my sexy bitch,” I chuckle. Her laughter recedes, and I straighten. Rhys implied Dani’s attention to detail is impaired, but his words spark a memory about The Governor’s security breach.

I need to call in my favor with Corso DeLuca, and then I need my brother to violate his oath to, do no harm.

13

XENO

HIT BY A SMOOTH CRIMINAL

Rhys's words replay in my mind as I stride toward Corso's office. "Just looking out for the team's interests now that there’s another way to get you out of your super suit.." A throwaway comment, bitter and jealous, but it revealed enough. The way his voice had heightened with menace afterward, revealing his true threat potential – there's a plan in motion. Something meant to hurt Dani. The data breach, the airport attack, the gunman’s bullet striking Dani in her proverbially, Achilles heel. The place her Kelvar uniform didn’t protect.

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