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That empty place inside him no longer felt void and cold, because her presence altered his state of being. God, he loved her. Knew it in a flash, right then,
Concern marked her expression but it quickly broke when she caught sight of him. “Draco,” she called out, darting toward him.
He moved fast, closing the space, unwilling to let her see beyond the desk to the warren of gloomy corridors behind him.
“Hey.” He captured her in his arms. “What the hell are you doing here?”
She looked up at him, her eyes glazed with tears. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” He lowered his voice. “Don’t worry, you’re not implicated. I kept you out of it.”
“I don’t care about that! I’ve faced up, told my dad I hired you I told him everything.”
Confused, he stared at her. “Christ, Lara, you didn’t need to do that.”
She shook her head, her hands clutching at his shirt. “I’m so sorry. I never should have dragged you into this. It was a stupid idea and I—”
“Shush.” Tears slid from the corner of her eye and he wiped them away with his thumb. He couldn’t believe she was there, and more than that, he was having trouble processing what was going on. Charges had been dropped, which was good, but she’d confessed to her father. That was bad news. He didn’t want C.S. to know he’d been hired as a hacker. He wanted to be seen as her friend.
He figured Compton Senior must have realized Lara would be in trouble too, unless he dropped the charges. Draco was annoyed she’d exposed her involvement, but he couldn’t bring himself to be angry with her. Not with her looking so tenderly beautiful, so concerned about him, with such yearning in her eyes.
How was it he could have gone from hell and back in the space of twenty hours, believing he’d lost her? He took her hand and made ready to leave. “Let’s get out of here. We need to talk.”
“No. Let’s just sit here a minute.” She held onto his hand, but rooted herself to the spot, halting him.
“You want to talk…here?”
“My dad’s outside, in the car. He’s waiting for us. We need to talk before we go out there.”
Draco turned back and grasped her by the shoulders. “He’s not come down on you, has he?”
He noticed how tired she looked. There were shadows under her eyes, and she wore the same clothes as the day before, her hair awry. There was sadness in her eyes. She’d been awake all night as much as she had. Bloody hell, what a mess.
She reached into her pocket and pulled out a tissue, dabbing her nose with it.
Draco realized just how upset she was. Her eyelashes glistened.
Lara shoved the tissue back in her pocket, then grabbed and embraced him.
Draco responded in kind, drawing her closer still, seeking out her mouth. Their kiss was tender, tentative. It was all he could do to hold back from making an exhibition of them both, showing her just how relieved he was she was there and willing to touch him.
As she drew back, she pulled his tie from his jacket pocket and stood up his collar, blinking away tears as she did so. With a tentative smile, she nodded at him. “Let’s get you tidied up.”
Realizing he likely looked a mess, Draco smoothed back his hair the best he could with his hands. Meanwhile, Lara did his tie and adjusted his collar. Sheepishly, he thanked her. “How do I look?”
“You’ll do.” She looked at him with fretful eyes. “I don’t know what he’s going to say. Just listen. All we can do is hope for the best.”
It was a warning. He held her hand and took it to his mouth to kiss it, before they made their move to the door.
Outside, Lara led the way across the crowded street to a black stretch limousine parked opposite. The rear windows were tinted. A uniformed driver sat in the front seat, window lowered, observing them as they approached. When a break came in the traffic Lara opened the door, and climbed in to the plush cream-colored leather interior. Draco paused long enough to take a deep breath, and then followed.
Lara took the seat next to her father and nodded at the seat opposite. They had their back to the driver, and he was facing front. Immediately Draco noticed Lara kept her eyelids lowered and her lips sealed.
Tension crackled in the atmosphere.
Compton Senior looked informal in faded jeans, with a sweater under a tweed jacket that suggested he might be going golfing later. He observed Draco from under hooded eyelids, his expression stern. Lara pulled her seatbelt on, but Draco wasn’t sure he was going to be in the car long so left his undone.
Compton Senior knocked on the glass between them and the driver, and the car pulled out into the stream of traffic a moment later.
