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His hand closes around my wrist, firm enough to stop me from moving away. His fingers wrap around the delicate bones, and I can feel the calluses on his palm, the strength in his grip.

I look up at him. His eyes are pale in the dim emergency lighting, and there’s something in them I can’t name. Something that makes my breath catch and my pulse quicken.

He’s looking at me the way he looked at me in the holding room, when he asked if I’d ever had a boyfriend. Like he’s trying to solve a puzzle he didn’t expect to encounter.

“Maxim.” My voice comes out quieter than I intended.

He doesn’t respond. He just holds my wrist and looks at me, and I can feel the tension between us shifting. It’s not anger anymore. It’s not fear. It’s something else entirely, something that makes me want to move closer instead of pulling away.

I should move back, but my body won’t let me. I’m sitting here with his hand around my wrist and his face inches from mine, and I’m not doing anything at all.

The moment stretches. The code on the screen scrolls past, unheeded. The sounds of the estate stabilizing fade into the background.

Then Maxim lets go.

He steps back, creating distance between us, and his expression closes off. Whatever was in his eyes a moment ago is gone, replaced by the controlled mask I’ve seen before.

“Finish the analysis,” he says. “I need to know how to prevent this from happening again.”

I turn back to the screen, my wrist still tingling where he held it. My heart is pounding, and my hands are shaking slightly as I type. I can feel him behind me, not touching anymore but still close, still present.

I work for another twenty minutes. I find the vulnerability, I patch it, I document the attack vector for future reference. I do everything I’m supposed to do, everything that’s expected of me.

I’m not really thinking about the code.

I’m thinking about his hand on my wrist. His breath on my cheek. The way he looked at me like I was something he hadn’t anticipated.

When I’m done, I stand up and step away from the terminal. Maxim is on the other side of the room now, looking at something on his phone. He doesn’t look up when I move.

“It’s fixed,” I say.

“I see that.”

The silence between us is heavy. There’s something unspoken hanging in the air, something that neither of us is willing to name.

“The vulnerability is patched,” I continue. “Even so, you should have your team do a full review of the backup protocols. There might be other side channels they can exploit.”

“I’ll have them do it.”

I wait for him to say something else. Maybe to acknowledge what just happened.

He doesn’t. He just stands there, looking at his phone and acting like the last hour didn’t happen.

“Can I go back to my room now?” I ask.

His gaze flicks to me, then away. “Andrei will escort you.”

I walk to the door. My hand is on the handle when he speaks again. “Davina.”

I stop but don’t turn around.

“You did good work tonight.”

It’s not an apology, but it’s something.

“Thank you,” I say, and I leave before I can say anything else.

Chapter Twelve - Maxim