ANNA'S POV
His jaw clenched so tightly, the muscles ticked along the sides.
"What the hell is going on here?" he growled, his voice low and dangerous.
Joseph immediately dropped me as if I'd burned him.
"Mr. Domingo! This isn't what it looks like—" Joseph stammered, stepping back.
But Damien wasn’t listening.
He charged forward like a bull unleashed, his fist swinging with deadly precision. There was a sickening crack as it connected with Joseph’s jaw.
Joseph let out a pained grunt and collapsed to the floor, clutching his face.
I gasped, backing away, my entire body shaking.
Damien turned to me, his eyes softening instantly. He reached out, his hand surprisingly gentle as he grabbed my trembling wrist.
“I told you to call me if he ever lays a hand on you ever again!” He barked, looking furious.
I trembled, turning away from him.
"Come with me," he said as I saw him stretch a hand.
I didn’t think. I couldn’t. I found myself taking his arm and I just let him lead me out of the office, past stunned employees who gawked at us openly.
The moment the elevator doors closed behind us, I burst into tears. I couldn’t hold it in anymore. Everything, the fear, the shame, the humiliation, crashed down on me at once.
"Shh, it’s okay," Damien said, pulling me closer.
I sobbed harder, unable to stop.
When we reached the parking lot, Damien’s hand tightened slightly on my back, steering me through the rows of cars without saying a word.
He moved with a stiff, deliberate kind of energy, like he was holding back something violent inside him.
He stopped in front of a sleek black car. Without missing a beat, he opened the passenger door and held it, nodding for me to get in.
His hand brushed lightly against my arm as he helped me, and even that small touch made me flinch, the weight of everything crashing down all over again.
I sank into the seat, my body hollow and heavy at the same time.
Damien shut the door firmly, and circled around to the driver’s side. When he climbed in, the door thudded shut with finality, sealing us into a bubble of silence.
The engine was off. The world outside was distant, muffled.
Inside the car, the quiet stretched out painfully, thick and suffocating.
My shoulders started to shake before I even realized I was crying again. I buried my face in my hands, my breath coming out in broken sobs, the memories replaying over and over in my mind, the shouting, the bruising grip on my arm, the sick feeling of helplessness.
I tried to breathe, but it felt like there wasn’t enough air.
"Anna," Damien’s voice broke through the thick silence, low and rough. I felt his hand land gently on my arm, his palm warm through the fabric of my sleeve.
He didn’t grab or pull, just rested it there like an anchor.
"You're safe now," he said, his voice steady but burning with emotion underneath. "He won't touch you again."
I gasped on another sob, pulling my hands away from my face. Tears blurred my vision, but even through them, I could see how close he was.
His brow was furrowed, his mouth drawn tight with worry.
He looked at me like I was something precious. Like he was furious that anyone had hurt me.
"I—I'm sorry," I stammered through hiccupped breaths, shame curling up inside me. "I—I tried to stop him—"
"You have nothing to apologize for," Damien cut me off, his voice firm, almost fierce. His grip on my arm tightened slightly, grounding me.
I pressed the heels of my palms hard against my eyes, willing the tears to stop. But they kept coming, sliding down my cheeks, burning hot trails across my skin.
"I just wanted to do a good job," I whispered, my voice cracking under the weight of it all. "That's all I wanted."
"You did," Damien said without hesitation, like it was the only truth that mattered. "You're brilliant, Anna. It's not your fault he's a piece of trash."
I dragged my hands away from my face, blinking up at him.
For the first time, I really looked at him. His face was hard with anger, but there was something else too, a raw, protective tenderness he was struggling to hold back.
His hands flexed on the steering wheel, his knuckles pale.
His whole body looked coiled, like he was barely keeping himself from going back into that building and tearing Kosturos apart.
Without thinking, acting purely on instinct, I reached out and laid my hand on his.
The moment our skin touched, the air shifted.
Damien froze. His eyes locked onto mine, and I saw the exact second something inside him gave way.
His pupils darkened, his breath caught, and for a heartbeat, neither of us moved.
Slowly, like he was giving me the chance to pull away, he leaned in.
My heart pounded so loud it drowned out everything else. I should have stopped it, should have said something. But I couldn't.
Not when he looked at me like that, not when he made me feel like I wasn’t broken.
When his lips met mine, it wasn’t soft or hesitant. It was desperate, urgent, overflowing with everything I had been too afraid to say, too afraid to feel.
Damien kissed me like I was something he had almost lost.
His hands cradled my face, rough thumbs brushing away the tears that kept falling.
His mouth moved against mine with a need that matched my own, pulling me closer, grounding me, making it impossible to think about anything else but him.
I melted into him, my fists clenching the front of his shirt like I was terrified he might disappear.
Every wall I had built inside myself crumbled under the weight of that kiss, leaving nothing but the raw, aching truth between us.
And I kissed him back like he was the only solid thing left in a world that had shattered.