VALERIAThe satisfaction I felt at yelling at Dimitri was extremely short lived, even though the look on his face when I had defied him was priceless. By the close of work that day, I thought I had made a mistake. The next morning at work, I was sure that I had made a mistake.Everyone seemed to be staring at me, from the doorman to the other staff that went ahead of me into the building. It was like I was a bug under a microscope. At the reception, Ellen was talking in hushed tones with a girl from the HR department. I wasn't sure, but I thought I had seen her on my floor when I was arguing with Dimitri yesterday. As I walked through the door, their eyes darted to mine. They exchanged a look and the girl hurried away."Hi Ellen," I greeted, like I always did.Her corresponding 'hello' was a little strained. I almost continued upstairs anyway, but my experience of office gossip was that it only got worse if it wasn't addressed. I changed direction and draped myself over her desk."Wh

DIMITRII kept an eye on Fiona, the truck and her goons as they loaded up the truck. They worked fast and it took only a short period of time for them to finish. Fiona went on her way and the truck went it's way. It took a lot of self control for me not to hurry to my car and follow them myself. Silas was on it. He had others on the job as well. They would give me results.When I had given them a five minute headstart, I made my way to my car. I kept my ears and eyes open in case there were any more of Fiona's people in the vicinity. Then I got into my car and drove out of the area. I stopped the car in a restaurant's parking lot. Silas's response would determine where I went from here. I looked out of the window, staring at the people who went in an out of the eatery, but not really seeing them. I drummed my fingers impatiently on the steering wheel as I waited for news. Once, I dialed Silas' number, but he was on on another call, so I forced myself to wait a little longer. My phone

VALERIAI tugged harder and this time, my foot slid out of Dimitri's lap. I felt hurt, confused, angry, all at the same time. Summer was moving into this same house? What on earth was Dimitri playing at? If he knew that he had plans of moving in with her, why then had he insisted on me staying at his place? She knew how cruel Summer could be towards me. Didn't he know that the baby and I didn't need this sort of stress at this time?I bit my lips hard to keep from asking him all these questions. Right now, Summer's attention was mostly on Dimitri, but give her the opportunity and she would turn downright nasty, especially since I had just had my foot in her fiance's lap. I glanced impatiently at Dimitri, wanting him to say something. One word from him about having made this arrangement with Summer, and I'd be on my way to my own house, and to hell with him! Slowly, Dimitri got to his feet until he towered over her."What did you say?" he asked slowly.Summer, refusing to be intimidate

VALERIAI drummed impatiently on my desk. The thought of going home filled me with trepidation as I glanced at the clock. It was a few minutes to closing time. I wondered what other nasty surprises Summer had in store today when I got to Dimitri's house. My trepidation finally gave way to a sudden burst of anger. Wasn't the whole point of moving in with Dimitri to reduce my stress levels? And wasn't the whole purpose sort of defeated if I faced more stress at home than I did at work?I heaved a sigh. I had almost reached my elastic limit when it came to Summer. At the house, she never allowed me a breathing space. She constantly drove me nuts no matter how much I tried to ignore her. To make all this worse, Dimitri wasn't as firm with her as I had expected him to be. All things considered, I toyed with the idea of going to my own house after work. I didn't really have to put up with Summer's attitude after all, but then maybe I could manage to avoid her today.When I got to Dimitri's,

VALERIAThe sound of the door of Dimitri's study closing was very loud in the silence of the house. He kept staring at me. He was standing so close that I wondered if he could hear my heart beating. Breathing suddenly became very hard to do with him in such close proximity, so I stepped away from him and went to stand by his desk."So er- what did you want to talk to me about?" I asked him.Dimitri slowly stroked his jaw. His continuous stare first made me cold and then warm on the inside. I felt a flush invade my cheeks, a flush that had nothing to do with embarrassment and everything to do with the way the riotous sensation his look coaxed from my body."Tell me... where did you go to after you left the office?" he asked with a return to his earlier brusqueness."I went out," I said.There was no way I was going to tell him that I had been with Noah. I didn't want to have another row with him."Out?" he repeated, stretching out the word, probing for an explanation that I wasn't goi