VALERIA"I think that went well... or what do you think?" I asked Noah as he bowed the last person in the media team out of his office and shut the door.He turned to me with a smile. "Are you kidding? Well is an understatement. The meeting was perfect. It went without a hitch. With the conclusions we made with them this evening, the media is going to be all over the Rosy project like a rash."Noah's confidence was infectious and after a while, I found myself smiling too. Rosy was about to begin publicity for the project that week. Noah was in charge of handling the media. I was the one running around and handling things on Dimitri's end."I know it's going to get a lot of publicity of course, with you on the team."Noah inclined his head. "I must say, I am flattered by your faith in me.""It's just that I can't help worrying a teensy bit," I confessed.He nudged me playfully. "A teensy bit?""Okay. Maybe a lot more than that. I've invested so much in the project. I want it to go smo

VALERIA"Come see me again soon," Grandma Reese called as I walked to the door with Ivy. I waved to her. "Of course, gran. I will."It brought a smile to my face, looking at her and seeing how happy she was. Ivy and I had spent an hour with her. It has completely made her day. Ivy shut the door behind us, and the two of us were alone in the hospital's corridor. I took her arm and walked her to one of the lounge chairs provided."Your grandmother is positively glowing tonight," she said with a fond glance at the door she had just shut."Never mind about my grandmother. Let's talk about... you and Vance."I elbowed her in the ribs. She winced. My grin grew wider."What about me and Vance?" she said rubbing her ribs."You two are getting so close. It's almost like you are two halves of one whole."Ivy laughed and blushed. "Well...""Well what?" I started to nudge her again, but she evaded it this time. She held on to my hand. "Vance and I are close," she admitted. "He's actually very

VALERIAI knew who was at the door before I called 'Come in'. With a sigh of amusement and exasperation, I sat back to watch a smiling Alexis walk into my office with a folder held under his arm. "You came to see me... again."If Alexis noticed my emphasis on the word 'again' he gave no indication that he had done so. After hiring him, I had given Alexis a position with the tech team working closely with Dimitri. For some reason he was always coming to see me even though his office was two floors down from mine. Even with the elevators, it would still be tiring to keep constantly keep moving from his office to mine. Alexis did not seem though which was weird. Very weird. Just today, he had come into my office about six times and it was not even noon yet."Hi, how's it going?" he asked for what felt like the umpteenth time that day. "Fine. I guess." I waved him into a seat. "You have a question for me?"I wanted him to get straight to the point. He had a tendency to want to stop an

VALERIAI hid a grin as I stood by, watching Rosy giving instructions in terse, clipped tones to a member of her staff. The woman gave her a response which was obviously not pleasing to Rosy judging by how irate she was looking. The woman left, looking harassed. Rosy sighed, pressed a hand to her temples like a woman at her wits' end. She snagged a glass of champagne from a passing waiter. She barked an order at him. He hurried away, rather red in the face.I hid a grin. It was all very easy for her to tell me to always control my temper. Now she was having trouble doing it. It just showed you it easier to give advice than take it, though I had to admit that she had a legitimate excuse for her behaviour. Today was the day of the long awaited project launch. We had all been working around the clock for this day. We were all on edge in varying degrees, but Rosy looked like she was about to fall off the edge. For the past few hours, she had been biting off the head of anyone unfortunate

VALERIA"It was an absolute success," I said. "Of course it was," said Sasha, dropping into the chair next to Alexis. "There was absolutely no way the Rosy project launch could be have been anything less than a success, not with the work we have all been putting into it." She turned slightly to face Alexis. "You were not here in the early days of the project. We were all working like... machines. You won't believe how hard we worked.""I think have an idea of that. I worked my ass off the day before the launch," Alexis said, laughing. He armed imaginary sweat off his brow. "I take it the boss is pleased.""Oh yes. Of course he is." Sasha gave me a questioning look. "Isn't he?"Alexis looked at me expectantly too. I supposed it had become common knowledge that I would be the one in a better position to know of Dimitri's moods and thoughts."He is pleased," I assured them. "He couldn't fail to be, not with all the massive attention the project has been getting these past few days.""T