“The gall. The fucking unmitigated gall…” Charlotte paced back and forth through the kitchen restlessly, anger driving her steps. “How dare he!”

Lila, who was sitting at the table not three feet from her friend, winced. “Calm down. You’ve been pacing for half an hour. If you’re not careful you’re going to wear a hole in the tile.”

“He was an asshole, Lila!” Charlotte continued, almost as if she hadn’t heard the blonde. “He told me that he needed to speak to Jackson to be sure that he’d made the right decision. What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Lila winced. “I’ll admit, it doesn’t sound good.”

“Of course it fucking doesn’t! He’s threatening me, Lila! Me and all I’ve worked for! How could he think...how could he want…” Charlotte trailed off, words completely deserting her. For the first time in her life, she found herself at an absolute loss to find a statement that adequately described how she felt.

Like something had been dangled in front of her and snatched away before she’d really even had a chance to nurture it. Both betrayed and more pissed off than she could ever remember being.

And, atop that, she was mad at herself. Because even after all the man had said to her - the imperious way he’d gazed down his nose at her, knowing that he held her very future in his hands, she was hurt he’d so easily brushed her off.

Why the hell should she care about the approval of a man like that?

“Lottie, I’m going to need you to take a deep breath for me.” Lila, ever calm, raised her hands in an attempt to get Charlotte to focus on something beside her anger. “Deep breath, ok?” For a moment, the redhead merely glared at her. Her braid had come undone, her lipstick had smeared, and the moment she got home she had unzipped the skirt that was all but choking her waistline. She knew that she had to look an absolute mess and the last thing she wanted at that particular moment was to breathe.

But Lila was trying to help. That was all Lila ever tried to do and Charlotte knew, from experience, that if she blew up on one of the only people that understood her in the heat of the moment, she’d regret it.

So, she forced herself to take a breath. In for a full five seconds, and then out. “Good.” Lila directed her in another breath. “Let’s go again.”

Charlotte felt rather like a petulant child being disciplined, but she obeyed. Unsurprisingly, after a few more breaths, she began to feel slightly calmer. There was, of course, still a hot river of anger and outrage coursing through her just below the skin, but she didn’t feel like she was about to destroy their kitchen anymore.

“Better?” Lila ventured cautiously, just before the elder woman dropped into a chair across from her.

“Yeah, slightly,” Charlotte croaked, before tugging free the remains of her braid. As her hair resumed its previous wild tangle of curls, Lila gave her a small smile.

“If you want to take your clothes off and stomp around the house, I completely understand.”

Charlotte snorted. “What I want to do is call Vladimir fucking Kensley and give him a piece of my mind.”

Lila sighed, taking a sip of the hot tea she’d made for herself. “I wouldn’t advise it. Especially since nothing has actually happened yet.

Charlotte eyed her incredulously. “So, him insulting me is nothing?”

Lila hurried to placate her before she could get amped up again. “He did insult you. I’m not saying that was ok. What I am saying is that we’ve already established the Vladimir isn’t the one with the last say where this building is concerned, is he? That’s his father’s call. And you haven’t heard anything from Jackson, have you?”

Charlotte opened her mouth, a retort on the tip of her tongue -before she realized that her roommate was absolutely right. She’d left Vladimir’s office in a full-blown rage almost eight hours ago - plenty of time for the man to do all he promised - to call his father and rant and rave about Charlotte’s design.

But Jackson hadn’t contacted her to tell her she needed to change anything. And, despite her anxiety, there was no hint of him firing her.

Which meant that the project was still on - for now.

The realization made her feel a little bit better - at least the part of her that was concerned for her job security. For the entire afternoon, Charlotte wondered if she had made a mistake- if she would have to go groveling back to her old architecture firm for a job after Kensley rejected her - but it appeared that nothing that serious had happened yet.

So, instead, she was left with the slightly lesser wrath of a woman spurned.

Exhaling hotly, Charlotte leaned against the table, eying Lila apologetically. “I really am off my rocker, aren’t I?” She inquired lowly, by way of apology.

The blonde smirked. “Completely - but you’re perfectly entitled to get mad. Everyone gets mad. Hell, I’d be pissed if someone insulted my artistic creativity. Trust me, I’m not arguing with you: Vladimir Kensley is a huge douchebag. But he hasn’t won, babe. Not by a long shot.”

Her words drew a small smile from Charlotte. “I guess not.”

Lila chuckled softly. Now that the tension between them had diffused, she was far quicker with her smiles. “I take it there was no seduction involved if you come home like this.”

Charlotte made a face. The last thing she wanted, at this particular juncture, was to seduce the man. She was pretty sure that her feelings for Vladimir had gone from lukewarm enthusiasm to downright hatred…. but if that was the case, why couldn’t she get over the little inkling of irritation that he had so easily rejected her. Would things have gone any better if she had flashed her boobs and batted her eyelashes?

Somehow, Vladimir didn’t occur to her as the type of man who was easily swayed by physical gestures.

And she certainly wasn’t that type of women. Though, if she was...it would certainly be a man like the younger Kensley who tested the limits of her self-control…

“Have they given you a date for the ground-breaking?” Lila’s question brought her back to the present issue, and Charlotte sighed, shaking her head.

“Not yet - but it’s supposed to be sometime in the next two weeks.”

“Can I give you a bit of advice?” Lila asked gently - carefully. Charlotte eyed her warily.

“I’m not sucking up to him. If he doesn’t like me, he doesn’t like me. I sure as hell don’t like him.”

“That’s not what I was going to say,” Lila replied with a barely hidden smile of amusement. “I was just going to suggest that you be polite. You two are bound to run into one another sooner or later whether at the groundbreaking or before - and it would help you if you were just polite. You are going to be working together, after all.”

“Yeah, if Jackson doesn’t fire me,” Charlotte rebutted under her breath in a resentful murmur.

“He’s not going to fire you,” Lila groaned in exasperation. “You said it yourself: Jackson Kensley knows what he wants, and if he wants your design, the building is going to constructed using your design. That’s all there is to it.”

At that point, Benny poked his head from the bedroom. He had come over to bring Lila some of her favorite sushi and decided to stay to nap before his evening shift. When he arrived a few hours earlier, he had taken one look at Charlotte’s enraged form and fled to Lila’s bedroom.

Now, the redhead greeted him with a sheepish smile. “Hi, Benny. I’m sorry about earlier.”

“Hey, no problem.” The doctor yawned, stretching his lean form and scratching his stomach as he ventured into the kitchen to look for the remains of the sushi. “I know how it is. Big contract and all.”

“The biggest,” Lila corrected, unable to help a smile as he bent to kiss her on the cheek. “She’s stressed, Ben. She didn’t mean it.”

“Hey, I don’t ask.” He held up his hands defensively with a grin. “As long as my head stays right where it is, I will do whatever I need to, to get out of the way.”

Charlotte flushed slightly in embarrassment. Before she could apologize again, however, Lila spoke again. “Actually, maybe there’s a way you could help, Ben.”

“Lay it on me.” He ran a hand through thick brunette curls as he rifled through the fridge. The blonde looked to Charlotte for a brief moment, as if asking her permission, before she continued. “Do you have any advice for this guy? I mean, I know you’re completely different people, but maybe you can give us a guy’s insight to what he’s thinking.”

“I’ll do my best.” Benjamin nudged the fridge closed with a thigh, turning back to them with a carton of juice and the sushi leftovers in hand. “But I need the lowdown on what happened. Is that ok?” He looked to Charlotte in cautious inquiry and she nodded. Though her first impulse was to believe there was nothing anyone could say about Vladimir Kensley that would make her view him as anything other than an incorrigible asshole, Benny was one of the few men she held in very high regard. If he wanted to shed some light on the situation, she supposed she wouldn’t be opposed.

Lila gave her lover the quick and dirty version and Ben listened in silence, nodding every so often. When the blonde finished, he was silent for a long moment before he answered hesitantly.

“Look, I’m a doctor - I have no idea what it’s like to run a multi-billion-dollar company, but if it’s anything like the stress of having people’s lives in your hands, I can imagine that, in some ways, he’s almost as frazzled as you are, Charlotte.” When her eyes narrowed dangerously, Benny hurried to continue before her ire could flare anew. “I’m not defending him, I’m just saying that you’re both probably under a lot of pressure - you just handle it differently. I don’t know much about this guy…” He took a swig of juice,” But from what I read in the papers, he’s not the best people person. Maybe just...don’t go into your next meeting on the warpath. If he has a heart at all, he will have realized he might have made a faux pas saying what he said.”

“And if he doesn’t?” Charlotte returned, a slight edge to her voice.

Ben shrugged. “Then you have my full permission to shank him when he’s not looking - only don’t tell the cops that when they arrest you.” Lila stifled a snort of amusement and even Charlotte found herself smiling slightly.

Well, if she had his permission…

But that wasn’t what it was really about. If she was going to be able to work with Vladimir Kensley at all, she was going to have to find a bit of tolerance somewhere - and with her career on the line, she was forced to admit that both Lila and Benny had valid points. She would have to curb her temper - and the next time she came face to face with her would-be employer, she would have to have the best poker face on the planet.

Or else.

 

**

Barely a week passed before Vlad was forced to admit that Charlotte Gardner had been right. Even though his talk with Lucas had encouraged him to try to see things more from her perspective, that hadn’t kept him from calling his father to discuss the design he’d decided upon for the Los Angeles building.

The conversation had been slightly awkward, to be sure. Though it was clear Jackson had expected his son to be surprised by the uniqueness of the design, he clearly hadn’t expected him to question him on it, and Vlad found himself scrambling to make it sound as if he had another reason for calling. It was clear within a week of Vlad’s first meeting with Charlotte that the groundbreaking was going on as planned.

And she had probably gotten wind of it as well. Of course, Charlotte hadn’t contacted him since the day of their falling out - and he hadn’t really expected her to. If anything, he should have been the one to call her with some semblance of an apology - but Vladimir had his pride. Besides, he knew he had his work cut out for him when they met again. He would have to somehow regain her trust if he didn’t expect this project to be a complete debacle.

Vlad followed his brother’s advice, doing all he could to research Charlotte, her work, and her methodologies. He found himself surprised that, despite the strange nature of her work, she was an up and coming name in the West Coast architecture field. Vlad supposed he shouldn’t be too shocked. Just because he found her work rather unorthodox didn’t mean that other people shared his opinion. It made sense that those on the west coast had a rather more open opinion of what defined the inside and outside of the box of conventionalism.

The moment he caught himself in that particular thought, he exhaled a long breath. Vlad caught himself many times over the past week lying in bed as he grappled with his opinion of Charlotte Gardner and her work.

On the one hand, he had never seen building designs like hers, and he wasn’t inclined to believe their outlandish nature would make construction easier. On the other hand, he had to admire her drive. As she had once told him, he wasn’t the first to think her work strange - and he wouldn’t be the last. The fact hadn’t seemed to cow Charlotte - offend her, certainly, but she hadn’t been intimidated by him. She had, in fact, taken her plans and sauntered off before he could investigate them more closely.

But that hadn’t been a problem. Once the plans were revealed, Jackson Kensley had no problem sending his son copies to look over.

If Vladimir thought that he might see more reason in the designs upon his second perusal, he was wrong. He was just as hard pressed to see why his father had chosen the design as he was the first time Charlotte had laid the blueprints out on the table before him.

Was he missing something? Something that everyone else but him could easily discern? Somehow, he didn’t think that was the case.

He tried to reassure himself in his insistence that he had no problem with the architect at all, but with the plans themselves.

As he showered on the morning of the groundbreaking ceremony, Vlad kept seeing Charlotte’s sharp expression - the way her cheeks had colored and her full mouth pinched into a tight line - in his mind’s eye. Even when she was angry, she was unspeakably gorgeous - as lovely in a pencil skirt and crisp white button up as she was in a loose green dress with her hair in disarray. Precisely why he was so attracted to her when she was like no woman he’d ever been with was beyond him.

Vladimir wasn’t used to his urges reigning over him. He’d never met a woman that he’d been unable to make rational decisions about - one whose sheer presence had clouded his judgement. While he wouldn’t say that Charlotte being in his office had made a huge impact on his reaction to her plans, the fact that she was so often on his mind almost two weeks later spoke volumes.

There was something about her...something he couldn’t put his finger on.

And it was driving him up the wall.

Part of him had hoped that, somewhere in his research, he would find the answer. While he had discovered a wealth of information about Charlotte herself, he found nothing to justify his inexplicable attraction to her. She had been raised by her father after her mother died, and had been through just about every gifted program that her town had to offer. Soon after graduating high school at the top of her class, she had gone to Berkeley for her undergraduate degree in design before heading to architecture school. From there, the waves she made had only grown until she reached her current position.

Designing for Kensley Enterprises - no small feat for a woman so young.

If nothing else, she deserved his respect, Vlad knew - and he would do his utmost best to be warm with her when they met. He promised himself that, if they were to work together on this project, then he was going to have to get to know her.

To understand her.

That was the only way they were ever going to see eye to eye. Now, the question was: was she going to allow him to get to know her? He knew he himself would be more than reticent if someone had insulted him the way he’d insulted her -however inadvertently.

Vladimir supposed he would find out soon enough.

As always, he dressed meticulously. He had always favored three piece suits where his father favored two piece, which amused Jackson immensely. His mother, however, had long complimented him on his dress sense. Insanely, Vladimir found himself wondering what kind of suits Charlotte Garner liked to see a man in.

He had to be losing his mind.

It was a brilliant early spring day - though Vlad didn’t know if he had ever found the weather in LA to be anything other than brilliant. In New York, he knew there might still be a chance of snow, but on the west coast, it was a balmy seventy degrees.

This time, when he left his hotel to the acclaim of multiple media outlets, he was fully prepared to shut them out. Vladimir made a beeline for the waiting car and slipped inside moments before the driver sped off towards downtown LA.  The ceremony was set to take place around ten in the morning, which meant that he’d be a good hour so early.

Thanks to the heavy security that encircled the site, he would almost certainly be able to get an eyeful of the lay of the land before people started to gather - and that was what he was after.

As they drove through the wide streets and he took in the numerous skyscrapers and office buildings, he marveled at how different the west coast was from the east coast. Besides the Kensley Manor, Manhattan was the only place he had ever thought of as home - and, despite Ethan’s teasing prodding, he couldn’t imagine relocating to LA. Things were so different here...the way places were spread out, the pace of life...if anything, it was the exact opposite of Manhattan, and that put him on edge.

Vladimir liked being in control - a character flaw he couldn’t control.

So when he arrived at the building site and found it already occupied, he was slightly perturbed. It only took him a moment, however, to realize that his company happened to be the object of his frustrations.

Charlotte Garner had arrived before him. Once he stepped out of the car, Vlad did a double take - but there was no mistaking her. All that fiery hair and that tall, lovely figure - today she wore a cream-colored dress that covered slender legs along with a navy colored blazer - and she looked like no architect he’d ever interacted with.

In fact, for a split second, Vlad was pretty sure it should be illegal that he was slotted to work with a woman as breathtakingly beautiful as she was. His father hadn’t thought to mention that when he sent Vlad all the way across the country - he hadn’t even mentioned how thoroughly different this project would be from any his son had ever tackled before.

But that was just like his father. Trust Jackson to test him without giving him so much as a hint to the nature of the test. Though, he had to admit, describing Charlotte Gardner in and of herself was quite the challenge - even if his Dad had attempted to define her, he doubted he would have understood.

He had hoped to come to the construction site early to get a little perspective on things, but now he found himself dealing with Charlotte far sooner than he might have anticipated. Part of him wanted to get back in the car and wait for the board to start arriving, but ultimately, Vladimir decided to put his best foot forward.

Better to talk to her now, when there was no one else around to watch him flounder, after all.

He checked that security around the building site was in place before stepping over the ropes and into a space that used to be a wide courtyard. The property they meant to use had actually been an old theater and courtyard about seventy years prior, and had never been renovated. It was still lovely in a dilapidated kind of way - with the sun coming in through various crevasses in the ceiling. Any evidence that the courtyard had once been carefully tended was completely overgrown, and he found himself stepping carefully through thatches of weeds and ivy.

Though he didn’t mean to sneak up on her, he was able to come within a yard or two of her before he spoke. “Nice to see you again. Miss. Gardner.”

She jumped about a foot in the air, whirling to gaze at him with a hand on her heart. “Goddamn it, don’t sneak up on people like that!” For the barest moment, her face was flushed and her eyes alight with alarm - and, inexplicably, Vladimir felt himself struggling against a laugh. He hadn’t meant to startle her - and he certainly wasn’t a prankster - but after all the anxiety he’d faced about confronting her, seeing her like this suddenly bolstered his confidence.

Just as quickly as Charlotte’s face had registered surprise, her mouth shrank into a thin line when she realized who he was. He watched her swallow thickly and open her mouth before shutting it. She was, he realized, at just as much a loss for words as he imagined he might be at this moment. After all, two weeks was quite a while for their last meeting to foment.

Vlad decided to break the silence. “I see you’ve come to the project site early as well. Checking your calculations?”

Charlotte’s eyes flashed dangerously, but she didn’t lash out at him as she had before. Instead, she spoke slowly - as if she were measuring her words to ensure that she kept her composure. “No, sir. I’m fairly sure my calculations are precise...I just came to take a last look at this old theater before they demolish it.” She lifted her gaze from his to stare at the crumbling ceiling above them and the overgrowth beneath their feet. “It would have been something to see it restored…” Her voice lowered slightly and Vlad could see on her face that she had travelled somewhere far away - seeing in her mind’s eye how the building might have been in its heyday.

When Vlad followed her gaze, all he could see was the dilapidated remains of crumbling brick and mortar. Of course, he wasn’t versed in nineteen forties architecture, so he had no point of reference, but any beauty this place held took a lot of imagination to recall.

Charlotte, he knew, could probably do it easily. That was, after all, what she did. She was the definition of thinking outside the box.

And he was her exact opposite.

God above, this was going to be harder, even, than he had imagined.

“I’m sure it was very fine, in its day. “It was as much as he could manage, and if the way Charlotte eyed him skeptically was any indication, he was sure he sounded far from genuine.  “In a way, the fact that your building will stand here will count as tribute, won’t it? Physical manifestation of the development of architecture.”

“Well, that’s the wonderful thing about architecture, Mr. Kensley,” Charlotte lifted her skirt, revealing a few tantalizing inches of creamy ankle as she stepped over a particularly thick patch of weeds. “You can use elements from any period and put them into any structure - people both pay homage to and combine aspects of older architecture even in this day and age. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.” She dusted off her blazer before picking a spider from the shoulder to toss gently onto the ground beside her.

Vladimir just stared at her, utterly transfixed. Here she was, standing in the middle of the ruins of a building probably infested with rats and bugs and covered in dust and she didn’t seem to care one single wit. Just another count on which Charlotte Gardner was like no woman he had ever known. “But that’s not what you do.” He spoke before he could stop himself, and inwardly groaned at his own impulsiveness. It was times like this where he wished his mother had taught him that verbal filter she had always warned him he was so dangerously lacking in.

Charlotte looked up at him, dropping a thick hank of red gold curls over her shoulder. Instead of being angry, however, she was smiling - that same mysterious, knowing smile she had graced him with the day they met at the airport. “No. It’s not. But that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate it.”

She gave him a cursory once over that spoke volumes of what she thought of him standing there in his impeccably tailored suit. “What are you doing here so early? I thought the speeches and revelry weren’t set to start for an hour or so.”

At that, Vlad arched a brow. “You assumed I’d just come for the speeches and revelry?”

Charlotte opened her mouth, then shut it with an incriminating look, and Vlad realized, with no small amount of surprise, that she was actually trying to censor herself. He would have thought her even more inclined to impulsive thoughts than he himself, but here she was, doing her best to be amiable.

Perhaps relations between them wouldn’t be so difficult.

Now, he supposed, was a better time than any to try and start over. “Charlotte, I owe you an apology.”

The redhead, who had knelt to pick up an intricately carved piece of what might have been molding or ornate ceiling, immediately looked up at him warily. “What for?”

Vlad exhaled a long breath. Lucas had warned him that women never appreciated empty apologies. They wanted to know exactly what the perpetrator was apologizing for, and they were especially sensitive when a man was the one doing the apologizing. How his youngest brother had gotten so savvy about all of this, Vladimir had no clue, but he was inclined to believe him. He, after all, had never been much of a people person.

“When we first met to discuss your designs, I was quite...dismissive. That wasn’t polite of me, no matter what I think of what I see before me. If my father chose you, well, I’m sure he did so because your design suits our ideals best. I’ll be careful to consider that going forward.”

For a long moment, the young woman merely stared up at him, her expression somewhat perplexed. Slowly, she stood to her full height to run fingers through her glorious mane of curls. “That is...without a doubt, the most analytical apology I’ve ever heard in my life.”

Perhaps it was, but it was an apology just the same - and all Vlad could do was hope she accepted it. “Do you mind if I ask you a slightly personal question?”

Well that was something that he hadn’t expected at all. Her question through Vladimir for somewhat of a loop and he found himself eying her warily. “What kind of question?”

But Charlotte didn’t seem interested in delving into specifics - she asked him just the same. “When’s the last time you apologized to someone?”

Now it was Vladimir’s turn to be speechless. Certainly, he apologized to his brothers and parents all the time - but they were halfhearted apologies that he only hoped would make up for his personality quirks. The last time he had well and truly apologized to someone...well...it had been a very, very long time. His father had told him to do his best to act in a manner that would require little apology - and Vlad thought he had been doing admirably in that arena.

At least, until he met Charlotte. Now, he wasn’t quite sure.

“Why do you ask?” It was easier to counter her question with a question - and in return, Charlotte merely smiled once more.

“Because you seem really out of practice.”

He should have been offended. If she were someone working in his Manhattan office, he would have been - no question about it. Here, in LA, where he felt completely out of place, Vlad only found himself strangely amused.

“I might be. Perhaps more than I’ve ever considered.” It was a strange admission to a woman he barely knew, and yet, here he was.

“Well, Step One is admitting the problem.” Now she was just teasing him, but Vlad found that the detail didn’t displease him. Quite the opposite, in fact.

“And what’s step two?” He found himself inquiring wryly.

“Admitting yourself to a clinic for apologists-in-training.” She returned, her expression as serious as her eyes were full of mirth. “And make a serious attempt at recovery.”

She was being completely and totally ridiculous - and yet he still struggled against a smile. “Does this mean you accept my apology?”

At his question, her eyes turned from teasing to contemplative in the space of a few seconds. “Do you accept my design?”

Goddamn it. Lying wasn’t, and never had been, one of Vladimir’s fortes. He was even worse at it than he was at understanding people - and so he avoided doing so whenever possible. The truth was: Even though his apology was sincere, he no more understood the validity of Charlotte Gardner’s design plans than he had the moment he first laid eyes on them.

But that was why he was talking to her now. “I’m doing my best, Miss Gardner.”

He didn’t think he’d ever spoken a truer statement. Charlotte’s honey colored eyes swept over him, and for a moment, he thought she meant to turn her back on him again. When she spoke, however, her words were surprisingly soft. “Well I suppose that’s all I can ask.” With that, she stepped forward, extending the piece of rubble in her hands to him.

It was half-covered in dust and God knew what else, but Vlad took it from her without hesitation. He looked down at it, wondering what on earth so entranced Charlotte about the weathered lines and aged material. When it occurred to him to ask her, however, he found that she had already moved away from him. He barely caught the flap of her skirts as she stepped out of the ruins and back into the morning sunlight.

Beyond the crumbling walls, he saw a large number of people had gathered and realized, with a start, that it was almost time to begin the groundbreaking ceremony. Had time really passed so quickly?

Sure enough, in the next few minutes, several overly burly security officers were inside the theater, looking for him.

It was time.

Though Marcy was back in New York, Vlad thought he’d done a  good job of writing his own speech - there were quite a few lovely lines about moving forward, company development, and how the new West Coast hub would serve as a launching point for the expansion of future endeavors. He had hoped to impress with it, but Vlad found himself distracted.

He was facing a crowd of well over two hundred people as well as many important figures. The president of the construction company they were using, as well as a master engineer who was one of the top in his field - but Vlad was overly aware of the woman next to him - her scent, the warmth of her body, the way the wind caught tendrils of her deep red hair so she had to keep tucking them back into place.

This couldn’t be good. He certainly wanted a good working relationship with her, but that would all be shot to hell if he couldn’t keep his wits about him when she was around. It wasn’t a problem he’d had to deal with before, and now Vlad found himself somewhat...perturbed.

But that wouldn’t put him off his plans.

A grand cheer rounded off his speech as the men he planned to work with shook his hand and slapped him on the back good-naturedly. When Charlotte approached him, he held onto her hand for almost certainly a bit longer than was proprietary, but she didn’t seem to notice. The loud rumble of demolition machines behind the podium drowned out everything else, and everyone present watched as wrecking balls began to work on the remains of the decrepit theater behind them. While almost everyone went wild when they began to destroy the crumbling walls, Charlotte merely stared at the piles of brick and steel beams with an almost longing expression.

“Miss Gardner.” She turned to face him, arching a brow in inquiry. Vlad forced himself to ask his question before he lost his gall. “Would you like to have dinner with me tomorrow night? To discuss plans for the structure, of course.” He wanted to leave no questions as to what the occasion was. He, more than anyone else, disapproved of intimacy in the workplace, and the last thing he wanted was Charlotte thinking he intended to take advantage of her in such a way.

“Alright.” He was surprised when she agreed after only a brief moment of contemplation, her eyes mischievous once more. “But I get to choose the place. I hope your tastes don’t run too expensive.”

It was the second time she’d slipped a jibe into their conversation - an insinuation that he was a man surrounded by luxury in his high castle.

How little she knew. “My tastes are varied - but they matter little. I’m supposed to be trusting your judgement, aren’t I?”

Her smile only widened. “I’d like nothing better.”

She was a sharp-tongued little thing - which he wouldn’t mind if it didn’t give him such an insistent urge to taste that smart mouth of hers. If this was going to work, Vlad could be on nothing less than his best behavior. It didn’t matter how drawn he was to Charlotte Gardner and her uniqueness - he was, and always would be, a professional - first and foremost.

And he had never failed to rise to a challenge.