Chapter 8 - Chapter Eight: Boundaries We Burn

I hadn't seen him in two days.Not since the Miranda call.Not since I shut the door on him in the Hamptons and slept with a pillow between us, cold and silent and burning.Damian Cain wasn't the kind of man who begged.But he waited.Every morning since then, there was a message on my phone. "Still here. D"Short. Simple. Unrelenting.And then, the third morning… nothing. Panic is not something I'm familiar with. It's not something I allow myself. But that morning? It crawled under my skin like a virus, relentless and consuming.I paced my apartment like it was a crime scene. Called his phone. No answer. Called again. Voicemail.By noon, I was at Cain Tower.He wasn't in his office.His assistant said he'd flown to D.C. for a meeting. Unannounced. Alone.That wasn't like him.Something was wrong. That night, I got a call.It wasn't Damian.It was his lawyer."There's been a breach," he said."A breach?""In the company. Internal. Financial. Mr. Cain suspects someone close to him. He's investigating it personally.""Why didn't he tell me?"The silence on the line was deafening."He didn't want you involved."My throat closed.So now I was being protected? Or shut out?Either way, I hated it. I didn't sleep that night. I couldn't. Every creak of my apartment, every flash of my phone, made my heart jump.Was he okay? Was he safe?Or worse was he pulling away?The next morning, I went to work like normal. Smiled at people. Sat through meetings. Took notes.But inside, I was unraveling. When he came back three days later, I was waiting in his penthouse.I don't even remember letting myself in. The doorman knew me. The code hadn't changed.He looked like hell.Wrinkled shirt. Unshaven. Exhausted.But still, when he saw me, his jaw tightened like he'd been holding something in.I walked straight up to him.Slapped him.Then kissed him.Hard.Desperate.Angry.We didn't speak.Not with words.Our mouths did the rest.He pushed me up against the wall, his hands rough on my waist, his mouth claiming mine like punishment and worship rolled into one.He didn't ask if I missed him.He showed me. Later, when we lay tangled in silence, I stared at the ceiling."You shut me out.""I had to.""No," I said. "You chose to."His fingers traced lazy circles on my thigh."I couldn't risk dragging you into this.""I'm already in it, Damian. You dragged me in the first time you kissed me in that damn elevator."He turned to face me, his eyes dark and tired."I don't know how to do this.""Then learn." He told me the details slowly. Someone inside the company had been leaking financial data. Sensitive acquisitions, board member shifts, strategic mergers.It was sabotage.And the worst part?The trail led to someone in his inner circle.Someone he trusted.And now, he didn't know who to believe.Except me.He looked me in the eye."You're the only person I know for sure isn't playing me."That truth felt heavier than a vow. That night, we didn't make love.We didn't fuck.We clung to each other like the world was burning around us.And maybe, in a way, it was. The next day, he asked me to come with him to Boston. Another meeting. Another round of silent stares and whispered suspicions in boardrooms.This time, I said yes.He needed me.And God help me I needed to be needed by him. Boston was colder than expected.But the hotel room wasn't.I wore silk that night. The kind that slid off with a sigh.He didn't say a word when he blindfolded me.Didn't say a word when he kissed his way down my body.But his hands?His hands confessed everything.How afraid he was.How much he wanted me.How badly he was trying not to fall apart. And when I took control pushed him back on the bed, straddled him, whispered his name like a prayer he let me.Damian Cain never let anyone lead.But that night, he followed.And when we finished, when we were breathless and trembling and sticky with need, he said the words I'll never forget."You're not mine anymore."I looked at him, startled.He brushed my hair from my face."I'm yours."And just like that, I knew.We were past the point of pretending.We weren't playing anymore.We were falling.Hard.