Delilah Langston didn't speak again for the rest of the meeting. Not when her father outlined the security protocol. Not when Lucien was handed access badges, building schematics, and clearance codes. She just stood there, nodding occasionally, her gaze fixed somewhere far beyond the walls of her father's penthouse.
Lucien didn't push.
He had seen it before—fear that wrapped itself so tightly around the mind it became second nature. But Delilah's wasn't irrational. No, hers felt earned. Like she had counted the dangers of the world more accurately than most.
When Nathaniel finally left for the office, Lucien remained.
She didn't seem to know what to do with him. She lingered by the window, laptop now closed, fingers worrying the hem of her sleeve.
"I don't need you to watch me breathe," she said quietly, not turning around.
"I'm not watching you breathe," Lucien said, his voice calm. "I'm watching the windows. And the doors."
She turned her head slightly. "Same thing."
Lucien leaned against the far wall, arms crossed. Not close. Not looming. Just... present.
"Your father hired me to keep you safe. That doesn't mean I'm here to hover. You set the boundaries."
She blinked at that. "Really?"
"Within reason."
Delilah turned, hesitant. The way a rabbit might look at a hand and not know whether it's offering food—or about to strike.
"You don't talk much, do you?" she asked softly.
Lucien gave a small shrug. "Most of what I've got to say doesn't help until bullets start flying."
The corner of her mouth tugged up. Barely.
"Well, there probably won't be bullets," she said. "Just boardrooms. Conference calls. Whiteboards full of equations no one wants to understand."
Lucien didn't smile. But something in his shoulders eased.
She moved across the room and picked up a leather satchel. Her movements were tidy, precise—everything in place before she stepped out the door.
"I'll be at the research wing most of the day," she said. "You can... stay in the back. Or outside. Just not too close."
Lucien nodded. "Copy that."
Langston Innovations Research & Development Wing was a fortress disguised as a lab. The staff were all cleared, the hallways were quiet, and the glass walls gave everything an air of transparency that Lucien didn't trust.
Delilah walked through it like a ghost.
No one spoke to her.
Lucien followed at a careful distance—three paces back, eyes alert. He kept himself unobtrusive, but even then, he could feel the shift in her when she sensed him. Shoulders tight. Jaw clenched.
She stopped at her lab. Slid her badge across the scanner.
Before she went in, she glanced back at him.
"I know it's irrational," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "But when I feel people behind me... I can't breathe."
Lucien studied her, his expression unreadable.
"Then I won't walk behind you," he said.
Her eyes met his, startled. Like she hadn't expected him to understand. Or care.
"I'll post by the main door," he continued. "You work. I'll watch the exits."
Delilah hesitated, then nodded. It wasn't trust—not yet—but it was the smallest crack in the wall between them.
She disappeared into the lab.
Lucien took his place by the entrance, arms crossed, back straight.
He didn't know exactly what haunted her. Not yet. But he knew the look of someone waiting for the worst.
And whatever Delilah Langston was afraid of... it was close enough she could feel it breathing down her neck.
Later that evening, Delilah sat curled up on the corner of the sofa, legs tucked beneath her, laptop humming on the coffee table. Her eyes flicked toward Lucien every so often—still uncertain, still suspicious. But not afraid.
Not of him.
"Did you always want to be... this?" she asked quietly.
Lucien looked up from his post by the window. "This?"
She gestured vaguely. "A bodyguard. A... shadow."
Lucien leaned against the frame, his voice a low rumble. "I used to be worse. This is the upgrade."
She blinked. "What were you before?"
"Something people needed when things went very wrong."
She looked down at her tea. "You still are."
Lucien didn't respond. But he stayed where he was, watching the door, the windows, and the skyline beyond.
In the quiet, with the lights dimmed and the city blinking below, Delilah allowed herself a moment she rarely did.
She relaxed.
Not completely. Not all at once.
But for the first time in a long while, someone was standing between her and the rest of the world.
And for once, it didn't feel like a cage.
It felt like a shield.
YOU ARE READING
The Algorithm of Us
Romance**She never meant to be seen. He never meant to stay. But something between them refuses to let go.** Delilah Langston has spent her life hidden behind glass walls-brilliant, sheltered, and quietly drowning under the weight of expectation. Shy by na...
