Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The glowing monitors cast a soft, blue hue across the security operations room, contrasting sharply with the pitch-black night outside.

Marcus stood perfectly still, his breath hitched as he watched his boss.

He was waiting for the inevitable explosion of his rage, the corporate orders that usually followed a breached schedule or a wasted fortune.

Shutting down L’Étoile had cost a lot of money, and the Darius had never tolerated inefficiency.

Darius, however, remained completely captivated by the sleeping girl on the screen.

"You are dismissed for the night, Marcus," Darius spoke softly, his eyes never wavering from the monitor. "In fact, take the next two days off. Turn off your corporate phone. Go spend time with your family."

Marcus blinked, his mouth parting in absolute shock. For a second, he wondered if the man sitting in front of him was an impostor.

In the five years he had served as Darius Smith’s right hand, he had never been given a spontaneous holiday.

Darius was a workaholic tycoon who demanded twenty-four-hour availability because he gave the exact same merciless dedication to the company.

"Sir?" Marcus stammered, his professional composure fracturing. "Are you certain? The merger meetings with the offshore banking faction are scheduled for tomorrow morning"

"I will handle them," Darius interrupted, his tone shifting into a quiet command that called for no further argument. "Leave the tablet on the desk. You have done well today, Marcus. Get some rest."

Realizing his boss was entirely serious, Marcus bowed respectfully, placed the master security tablet on the obsidian desk, and quietly backed out of the room.

The heavy steel doors sealed shut, leaving Darius alone in the absolute silence of the cold office.

Darius picked up the tablet, his long fingers tracing the edge of the screen where Celine was curled up under the duvet.

A strange, heavy pull tugged at his chest. For the past year, his life had been a blur of steel skyscrapers, aggressive stock buyouts, and the sterile walls of his executive office suite.

He could not remember the last time he had stepped foot inside his actual private residence, a secluded, ultra-luxury penthouse complex located three floors beneath Celine’s current apartment.

He practically lived, ate, and slept in the concrete fortress of the Smith Enterprises headquarters.

But tonight, the cold corporate office felt entirely suffocating.

Standing up, Darius took the tablet and walked out of the operations room, taking the private, encrypted elevator straight down to his own residential quarters.

When the doors opened, the vast space was dark and completely silent, smelling faintly of expensive leather and oud. He did not bother turning on the chandelier lights.

He stripped off his heavy tailored suit jacket, unbuttoned the top three buttons of his black dress shirt, and threw himself onto the massive, king-sized mattress.

He placed the security tablet on the pillow right beside his head, propping it up so the live stream of Celine’s bedroom was directly in his line of sight.

Through the lens, the room was peaceful. Celine had shifted slightly, her cheek pressed against the soft fabric of her gray loungewear, her dark hair scattered wildly across the white pillows.

The camera was high-definition enough that Darius could see the slow, steady rhythm of her shoulders moving with every breath she took.

In. Out.

For the past twelve months, ever since the near-fatal car crash that had almost taken his life, Darius had been plagued by vicious, agonizing insomnia.

Every time he closed his eyes in his corporate suite, his mind would replay the twisting of metal, the smell of burning rubber, and the suffocating darkness of that ditch.

His brain was constantly on high alert, fighting off enemies, predicting Kayden’s next underhanded move, and managing a multi-billion-dollar empire. Sleep had become a battlefield.

But tonight, as he lay in the dark, staring at the tiny screen, the chaotic noise in his mind began to quiet down.

He tuned out the distant hum of the city traffic.

He tuned out the bitter rivalry with his brother, the manipulative demands of his mother, and the sting of his ex-fiancée's betrayal. Instead, he focused entirely on the soft, rhythmic sound of Celine’s breathing bleeding through the tablet's audio receiver.

In. Out.

It was the most grounding thing he had ever experienced. The sheer vulnerability of her lying there, completely safe from the loan sharks, safe from the medical board, and safe from the rest of the world under his roof, acted like a soothing balm to his nerves.

Darius closed his eyes, letting his head sink deep into the pillows.

For the first time in a year, sleep did not feel like a chore or a battle. He did not have to force his mind to shut down.

The steady, peaceful breath of the woman sleeping three floors above him gently pulled him into a deep, restful slumber, easing his mind into total silence.