Chapter 13. #3
“I don’t usually do this,” she said, “but I saw you on the news and… you seemed different. Not like the other rich guys. I just wanted to say hi.”
They talked for a few minutes about nothing important… local traffic, the weather, the ridiculous price of rent. She was cute in an unpolished way, earnest, and clearly starstruck. When she left she squeezed his forearm gently and told him to come back sometime.
The third was the one who kissed him.
She was younger than the others, maybe twenty-three, with light brown hair pulled back in a messy ponytail and a constellation of freckles across her nose. She had been watching from a corner table with two friends. When she finally walked over her cheeks were already pink.
“My sister works for your company,” she said without preamble.
“Administrative assistant on one of the lower floors. She says everything is better now. People aren’t scared of losing their jobs for no reason.
Managers actually answer emails. She told me if I ever got the chance I should say thank you. ”
Before Brian could answer she rose onto her toes and kissed him… quick, soft, and surprisingly sweet… right at the corner of his mouth. Then she pulled back, eyes wide as if she could not believe she had done it.
“She says everything is better now,” she repeated in a whisper, and then she was gone, hurrying back to her friends who were already laughing and covering their faces.
Brian stood very still for a second, beer in hand, the ghost of the kiss still warm on his skin. She had been cute. Not in the devastating, polished way Constance or Holly or even Dani could be, but in a real, everyday way that somehow landed differently.
Dani’s voice was low and dry beside him. “You’re collecting them tonight, Boss.”
Brian huffed a quiet laugh and took another drink of his beer. “I’m just standing here.”
“Mm.” Dani’s storm-gray eyes scanned the room again. “Standing here and getting kissed by strangers. Very subtle.”
More people came. More hands to shake. A retired welder who had seen the Tina Unling statement and wanted to say that protecting a contractor’s family like that mattered.
A young guy who worked night security at one of the smaller Dranning properties and simply wanted to shake the owner’s hand.
Two women from a local bakery who had started supplying pastries to one of the tower’s cafés after the previous exclusive contract was opened up.
Brian stayed at the bar for nearly two hours.
He bought more rounds. He listened to stories.
He laughed at bad jokes. He let the ordinary noise of the place settle into his bones.
Every so often Dani would shift slightly, repositioning herself, but she never interrupted unless someone got too close or too loud.
When he finally finished the last of his second beer and set the empty glass down, the bartender came over one more time.
“You’re welcome here anytime, Mr. Thomson,” the man said. “And I mean that. Next one’s on the house if you come back.”
Brian slid a generous tip across the wood… more than enough to cover every round he had bought and then some. “Appreciate it. I’ll take you up on that.”
He turned toward the door. Dani moved with him, already coordinating the exit with the small team waiting outside.
As they passed the bar she quietly gathered the four napkins that had been left near his glass…
each one carrying a name and a phone number in different handwriting.
Brian never noticed. She folded them once and slipped them into her jacket pocket without breaking stride.
Constance would get them later. That was how these things were handled.
The bar was still noisy, still warm, still full of the smell of old wood and honest work as they stepped out into the night air. Brian drew another deep breath, rolling his shoulders once against the cooler temperature.
For a few hours he had been just a man having a beer.
It had been exactly what he needed.
Dani stayed closer than usual on the short walk to the waiting limousine.
Brian was suddenly very aware of her… the controlled way she moved, the quiet confidence in every step, the faint clean scent of her that cut through the lingering bar smells.
When they reached the open door her hand settled lightly against the small of his back, steady and professional, guiding him inside.
The touch lasted only a second or two, but it registered deeper than it should have.
She followed him in and, instead of taking the seat across from him the way she normally did, sat directly beside him on the long bench seat. The door closed. The limousine pulled away from the curb with a soft surge of power.
In the low interior light Brian could feel the warmth of her leg where her knee brushed lightly against his. Once. Then again as the vehicle took a corner. She did not move away. Neither did he.
Maybe it was the two beers. Maybe it was the residual heat of the bar, the flirting, the simple relief of having been ordinary for a couple of hours. Whatever the reason, the awareness settled low in his gut and stayed there. He wanted her. The thought was clear and unwanted and completely honest.
He did not make a move.
He knew exactly what it would mean. One step across that line and Dani Kano would no longer be his personal shadow.
The professional wall she maintained so carefully would come down, and with it the clear-eyed protection she gave him every hour of every day.
He was not willing to take that from her…
or from himself… on the back of a couple of beers and a moment of quiet tension in the back of a limousine.
So he sat still, knee brushing hers, the heat of her presence close along his side, and said nothing. Dani remained equally silent, her storm-gray eyes forward, her posture relaxed only on the surface. The city lights slid past the tinted windows in long streaks of gold and white.
Neither of them spoke for the rest of the ride back to the tower.