Kerry crossed to her desk, and took her favorite perch on the corner, laying a hand flat on the wooden surface and leaning on it. ”I ordered you lunch. Maria’s doing a Chinese run.”

”Mm, wondered where she went,” Dar mused, putting her report down and giving Kerry a smile. ”Thanks.”

Kerry smiled back. ”Anytime. Listen, Michelle Graver was here.”

Dar nodded. ”I know, Maria told me,” she replied casually. ”But she said you were handling her so I figured it was under control.”

”Oh.” Kerry felt a quick jolt of surprised pride. ”Well, yeah, it was,” she confirmed. ”I mean, she had a problem, but I figured it out, and we got it fixed, so everything’s great.” She gave a satisfied sigh. ”I was worrying about dealing with her a little, but things turned out okay, and it all, um...it’s fine now.”

Dar smiled back. ”Good job.” She patted Kerry’s knee. ”I knew you could handle her.”

Kerry nodded a little, folding her arms across her chest. ”Yeah, it was...it felt good,” she confessed. ”And I think we sort of came to an understanding. Maybe she won’t be so nasty now.”

A dark brow lifted. ”Really?”

”Yeah. I talked things out with her, straightened out a few misconceptions she had,” Kerry replied.

”You did?” Dar asked, curiously. ”Like what?”

”Uh.” Kerry scratched her jaw. ”Well, that whole Orlando thing, Hurricane Watch

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you know,” she replied offhandedly.

”Oh...right...that,” Dar replied, at sea. ”Well, I’m sure you cleared everything up.”

Kerry remained contentedly silent for a moment, drinking in the warm confidence. ”Thanks for trusting me. I was half expecting you to come in at some point just to make sure she was behaving herself.”

Wide, innocent blue eyes gazed up at her, as Dar nibbled her lower lip. ”The idea never crossed my mind,” she told her, sincerely. ”I just came back here, and studied my reports without a care in the world.”

Kerry's eyes dropped to her paper. ”Really?”

”Yep.” Dar smiled.

Kerry gently reached down and turned the paper right way up, then she affectionately patted Dar’s cheek. ”You are so busted.”

Dar glanced down, then back up at her, like a six year old caught in the cookie jar. ”Uh oh.” Then she laughed, leaning back and relaxing in her chair, shrugging her shoulders with a look of endearing helplessness. ”But I stayed right here, doesn’t that count?”

Kerry tried to hold her scolding look, but lost it, and started laughing as well. ”Yes, that counts.” She leaned over and kissed Dar lightly. ”And, thank you.”

Dar sighed, giving her a sheepish glance over dark eyelashes. ”For being a nervous worry wart?” she replied. ”Even though I know better?”

Kerry put a hand on her cheek. ”For caring,” she answered. ”You weren’t worried I couldn’t solve the problem, were you?” She waited for the head shake no. ”You were worried she’d be nasty to me.” Now the head nodded yes. ”Well, she sort of was, but we got things worked out.”Dar scowled. ”Bitch.”

”Dar, she thought you were playing with her,” Kerry told her. ”I’d have been a bitch, too.”

”Mmph.” A grunt of grudging agreement. ”Yeah, all right. I can see her point.” Dar sighed. “I kicked everyone’s ass in the meeting.”

“I heard.” Kerry smiled. “Sometimes you end up in a stall in the ladies room at just the right time to hear people bitching.”

“Ahhhh.” Dar chuckled wryly. “You know what? I decided if Alastair wants a bastard in charge here, I might as well give him a bastard in charge. Wait until I throw a request for a multimillion dollar network upgrade on his desk. He’ll choke on his tie.”

Kerry nodded. “Well, let me go get back to work.” She stood up.

“I’m glad Maria went for lunch. I wasn’t looking forward to being the main course in the café today.”

“People talking?” Dar watched her expression intently.

“Yeah.”

“Bother you?”

Kerry put her hands in her pockets and looked out the window at 298

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the bright, sunny day. “I thought it would,” she admitted. “But you know I realized they all thought it anyway, Dar. We weren’t fooling many people.”

Dar chuckled softly.

“So what the heck.” Kerry shrugged. “I’ll deal with it.” She turned.

“It’s worth it to be able to order lunch for you and walk in together without feeling like a felon. That was really starting to get to me.”

Her partner nodded pensively. “Trade-offs,” she said, briefly. “I have my first board meeting tonight. I sent Alastair my acceptance and he didn’t waste any time.”

“I’ll get a ride home.” Kerry patted her on the shoulder and headed for the hallway door. “See you later.”

“Mm.” Dar slouched back in her chair, watching her partner leave until the door closed behind her, then she pulled over the two packets she’d taken from Mariana and flipped open the first one.

“Stevie.” Her eyes flicked over the contents. “What in the hell am I going to do with you.” She glanced through the stack of employment papers, running a cursory eye over the last sheet before she stopped, and reread it more carefully.

DAR LEANED BACK in her chair and closed her eyes, letting the argument over the speakerphone travel past her. The moon shone in her window, and she half turned to regard it, as she lifted a hand and rubbed the back of her neck.

Board meetings, when your board was international, were a pain in the ass. But Dar hadn’t been able to wiggle out of this one, since Alastair was using the opportunity to introduce her to the rest of the board members.

She sighed. Kerry had gone home hours ago, dropped off by a cooperative Mark, and she wished she could just hang up on the group and go join her lover.

”Don’t worry about it,” Kerry had said.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dar grumbled silently, closing her eyes and wishing she had some aspirin. She tried to put the headache out of her mind, and think about something more pleasant instead. Hot tubs, for instance. Kerry had definitely mentioned hot tubs for tonight, and a spicy chicken stir fry with noodles that was very, very tasty.

”Dar? What do you think about that?” Alastair’s voice interrupted her daydreaming.

Oh shit. ”What I think about that is...that it’s ten o’clock here in Miami, and we’re going rapidly nowhere. Why not schedule a meeting when everyone has their acts together?” There. Throw a few insults; see if that gets things moving. ”That’s what I think,” Dar added, for good measure.

She took a contented sip of chocolate milk as the soft hiss from the Hurricane Watch

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phone indicated a shocked worldwide silence. Another Dar Roberts legend in the making, I bet. She rolled her eyes, regarding her bare feet resting on her desk, crossed neatly at the ankles. “Regretting your decision already, Alastair? Next time, you’ll ask first, huh?”

A gentle clearing of the throat. ”Well,” Alastair responded. ”That would be a novel idea.” He sighed. ”Okay, so Monday after a disaster was a bad choice of times. Let’s reschedule for Friday, same time?”

Fine. She’d call in from her cell phone, while floating on the Atlantic. ”Sounds good to me,” she agreed, stifling a grin. ”I’ll have the proposal for the new networking center by then.”

”Good...good...all right then, good night, ladies and gentlemen.”

He paused. ”And Dar.”

It hit her unexpectedly, and she burst out laughing, hearing a rustle of sound as the rest of the group belatedly joined in. ”Good night.” She sighed, hitting the release button, and shaking her head. So much for my first board meeting, but at least it was more productive and less antagonistic than their usual staff gatherings. So maybe that was a good sign.It was very quiet in the office, with only the soft hum of the air conditioning, and the gentle, sporadic clatter of her hard drive to break the silence. With a sigh, she slipped her shoes back on and stood up, pulling her jacket over her arms and shouldering her briefcase.

The elevator ride was quiet also, and she was conscious of her own footsteps as she crossed the long, empty lobby and headed for the door.

The security guard met her and opened it, touching his head in a military type of manner.

”G’night, Ms. Roberts,” he remarked, politely. ”Late night, eh?”

”Night, Pete.” Dar gave him a smile. ”Same old, same old. You know how it is.”

”Yes, ma’am, but we haven’t seen you here at night for a while. I was wondering if you’d changed offices.”

No, just priorities. ”I’ve been here...just not late,” she commented.

”Take care.”

She walked across the parking lot and unlocked the Lexus, dumping her briefcase inside and getting in, exhaling as the cool, soft leather surrounded her. She closed the door and sat for a moment, resting her hands on the wheel, before she started the car up and pulled out of the parking lot.

KERRY WAS CURLED up contentedly on the couch, her head resting on the arm, and Chino tucked up in a ball against her belly. She let her eyes follow the action on the television screen, though she found herself watching the clock almost as much.

Oh well. She snuggled down further into the couch and watched the crocodile man try to trap a crocodile. He was just stringing his net 300

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up when the phone rang. She picked it up immediately. ”Hello?”

”Hey.” Dar’s voice sounded quiet over the dull roar of boat engines. ”I’m on the ferry.”

”So I hear,” Kerry responded. ”How’d the meeting go?”

”Bullshit,” the executive replied. ”It was mostly Alastair just blowing hot air across three continents. I finally called him on it, and he rescheduled for Friday.”