The sun was shining bright when Tori woke up the next day. She’d overslept. There were ten messages in her voice mail about three meetings she’d missed this morning and a reminder to be on time for the preliminary hearing this afternoon. Tori ignored all but that last one. There were some things she simply could not skip, no matter what happened in her life.
A lot happened just last night but Liam sleeping over was not one of them. Tori wasn’t that far gone. But she was seeing him again. Soon, she thought.

Ryan appeared in the kitchen just as she was pouring herself a cup of coffee. Odd, she hadn’t called him. “Have you enjoyed your evening?”

Tori’s cheeks flamed as if she’d been caught cheating. “Yes,a ctually.” It was nice to have had company.

“Your guest put in a request for a personal access code. Such requests need the owners approval and security clearance. Shall I issue a code?”

“No!” She had to backtrack in her mind to make sure she understood. “Wait, what?” Liam requested an access code? That basically meant he wanted keys to her house, didn’t it? And he asked Ryan for them? “He asked you for the code?”

“The request was logged in last night. As you requested not to be disturbed, it was not processed until now.” His tone was a little more clipped than usual.

Tori tilted her head a little. He was motionless, looked the same as always, but something about him just said he disapproved. An impossible suspicion surfaced, one she hadn’t considered before – which was blatantly stupid and irresponsible on her part. “Ryan, tell me your system specifications.”

“Hearth Global Virtual Home Assistant is a fully integrated house monitoring system composed of five subsystems controlled by a central unit. ID number 150639-42G, owner Victoria Marlow. Classified Model 6-GX Beta.” He rattled off the specs without pause and although it was still the same voice, it suddenly sounded artificial, as if it was a recording. Funny how she’d never noticed that Ryan didn’t ever sound like that.

“Beta? What does that mean?”

“Per the agreement signed with Hearth Global, 150639-42G was selected for Beta testing additional features currently in various stages of development.”

Tori’s eyes narrowed. “Elucidate.”

Ryan didn’t move but his eyes darted. To her and then back forward like a good little artificial soldier. He didn’t answer.

Tori crossed her arms over her chest. Fine, if he wanted to pretend he didn’t understand, she’d clarify. “Continue.”

“Hearth Global is in the process of developing upgrades for several functions of Model 6-GX.”

Oh, he was so hedging! “Like what?” Tori was a lawyer, and he was going to make her pull teeth?

“Automated processes, scheduling, response time, security, and personalization, on the user end.”

“Personalization?”

“Adjusting system settings according to user habits and preferences.”

“More.”

“Energy saving in terms of heating and lighting where it’s needed as opposed to everywhere at once. Syncing irrigation systems to weather station for optimal usage. Updating database of spoken commands for faster, more reliable responses—”

“Stop.”

Ryan stopped talking.

“I can change user preferences, is basically what you’re saying. So… if I wanted to host a party tonight, you’d adjust the lighting and heating to accommodate my guests?”

“Correct.”

“And… if I started drinking red wine instead of white, you’d change my weekly grocery order list?”

“Correct.”

“And if I asked you a random but specific question about your functionality and capabilities not necessarily programmed into your database, you’ll answer.” She deliberately made it a statement.

A longer pause this time. “Cor-rect.”

Tori’s pulse sped up until she felt it throbbing in the sides of her neck. Don’t be rash. Get as much information as you can before you freak out.

“Your holographic user interface is being upgraded to more closely simulate human interaction. While still in the testing stages, certain minor problems may occur but the end result is projected to be a more seamless, natural presence in your home.”

She couldn’t process this right now. “I have to get to work. Do not issue access codes. I’ll be back by six.” No reason to say it, he wasn’t real and wouldn’t give a damn if she decided not to come home for a week. It was just a habit she’d developed and it kicked in whether she wanted it to or not.

***

Ryan hated this. He’d put his miserable sleepless night to good use and recorded dozens of voice responses to any number of questions. He’d replaced ones that were obsolete and sounded like total crap, and added new ones, including chuckles and laughs, uh-huh and nuh-uhs.

And he should have left it at that. Turned the feature on and let it run. But no. He’d had to personally be the one to tell Victoria that asshole who’d swapped saliva with her had tried to call holo-Ryan and get a security access code. The scary thing was, if it had been the proper holo-Ryan, it would have responded, and it would have granted the request because the system wasn’t voice-specific, only voice activated.

He’d already written up a report about the monumental security risk and submitted it to Celia. Already got a response, too, that all customers were being notified and a voice recognition software upgrade was being pushed to all units. Ryan did not feel even a little bit bad for the three hundred programmers in charge of that one.

A great big fucking hero. Only he didn’t get to gloat, even a little, because Victoria was just short of figuring him out and she would be putting it all together in that clever lawyer head of hers very soon. He thought all the answers he’d given her were believable. They were essentially the truth, minus the small detail about him being the one controlling the holo-Ryan.

He spent the day sweating bullets waiting for Victoria’s inevitable return. She said she’d be back by six. When six fifteen rolled by and she still wasn’t home, Ryan started to get worried. Had she spooked? Had something happened to her? Her car had OnStar, right? It wasn’t linked to the house system but if she’d been in a crash or something, someone would have been notified.

Someone not him.

Like fire ants under his skin was the possibility that she’d gone to the asshole from last night. His gut told him she wouldn’t. She was smart enough to recognize a creeper when he tried to steal keys to her house. But the way she’d looked right before she left? Who the hell knew.

She was back!

Ryan was practically glued to the computer screen, watching her car pull slowly into the driveway. She got out and popped the trunk to take out at least a dozen bags from some fancy dress store he didn’t recognize. Switch to internal cameras as she entered the house, which unlocked for her so she didn’t have to dig for her keys. The door locked when she closed it behind her, a new security measure she noticed when the lock clicked. She looked relieved.

Holo-Ryan didn’t appear and Victoria didn’t call him. Just took her purchases upstairs to her bedroom. A muscle in his jaw twitched when she started undressing. Feeling like a peeping tom, Ryan switched to the kitchen cam to give her some privacy. The audio was still on, though, and he could hear the hiss of fabric and the rustle of shopping bags. He was amazed at his own will power, but this was exactly what made him different from Gordon the perv and Liam the creeper. Ryan knew the boundaries and he was doing everything he could not to cross them.

When she came down to the kitchen, she was humming to herself. She poured herself a tall glass of cold milk, made herself instant mac and cheese, and went to the living room. Turned on the TV and spent the next three hours watching movies.

Once the last one ended, she washed her dishes by hand, dried them until not a speck of water was left, put them carefully away. She wiped down the counter on her way out, and turned off the lights. Back up in her bedroom she opened the window a little, and got in bed. The house went completely dark.

Ryan just stared.

What the hell just happened?

Virtual Copyright 2011 Alianne Donnelly, all rights reserved, may not be reprinted or reproduced in any manner, written, electronic, or otherwise without express permission from Alianne Donnelly.

Tori didn’t come back alone. It was amazing what getting two speeding tickets in a row from two different good looking cops did for her mood. She’d gone straight to a small café for a much needed dose of chocolate therapy and downed the first espresso-sized chocolate shot without hardly tasting it.

Once her mind was buzzing, she sat back and sipped the second one, watching people pass by. And it just so happened that one of them was Liam Masterson, part time public defender, part time $500/hr attorney at law, and full time come-hither tom cat. He wore his wicked we-both-know-you-want-me smile like an everyday accessory.

Some mild-to-moderate flirting later she was inviting him back to her place for drinks. Tonight she felt like bourbon. She poured two glasses and took them to the living room where Liam was checking out her entertainment system. “Ryan,” she called. “Turn on the heater, please.”

“Ryan?” Liam repeated.

The holograph flickered into being by the TV and somehow he looked like he was scowling.

“Ryan,” Tori said by way of explanation.

“You call it by a name?”

She chuckled. “What else would I call him?”

Liam shrugged, nursing his drink while she arranged herself on the couch. “I just say what I want. I don’t call it anything.”

“Huh.” It had never even occurred to her that calling the holograph by a name – one that it had chosen, as if it was an actual person – might not be what everyone else did. But she couldn’t look at a person and act like he wasn’t one. And Ryan had grown on her. She’d gotten so used to his presence here she missed him when he wasn’t around. When she was at work and something was going wrong again, all she wanted to do was call home to hear his voice. Even though there was nothing he could do.

But she wasn’t about to tell Liam any of that. Changing the subject quickly, before he started thinking she was insane, Tori raised her glass. “Here’s to…”

“To a most fortunate chance meeting. May there be many more to come,” Liam supplied and clinked his glass to hers. As she took a sip of her drink, she noticed Ryan off to the side and could swear she saw him roll his eyes. The sip became bigger and she coughed as the alcohol burned its way down her throat.

“Will there be anything else?” Ryan asked. Did he look more tense than usual? She could practically hear teeth grinding. What was this, another unscheduled emotion simulation?

Liam frowned at the holograph. He got up to get a closer look. “Yours looks different than mine.”

She didn’t like him so close to Ryan. “No, I think I have everything I need,” she told him. “Just make sure I’m not disturbed.”

Liam chuckled. “They don’t understand speech like you and I do,” he said with mild condescension that burrowed under her skin. “You need to give clear and concise commands.”

“Security enabled,” Ryan said over Liam. He was looking right at her as if Liam didn’t even exist. If she didn’t know better, she’d say the holograph didn’t like the guy. “Calls will be routed to voicemail. Would you like them transcribed to email?”

Liam stared.

“That won’t be necessary,” Tori said, puffing up a bit and keeping her proud smile slight and quick to fade.

Ryan nodded. Something else he’d never done before. “Enjoy your evening.” And then he disappeared.

Liam stubbed his heel against the coffee table as he backed himself to the couch, gaping at the now empty space. “What was that?”

“That,” she told him saucily, “was my house understanding me. Now where were we?”

* * *

Ryan turned off his webcam and unplugged the mic. What the hell was wrong with him? The webcam had to go. He couldn’t control his expressions well enough to keep the holo-Ryan impartial – which, what was up with that? When did he become not impartial? What did he care if Victoria wanted to drag a stranger into her house for drinks and whathaveyou? She was a big girl. If she wanted to let that artificial Ken doll put his hands on her, that was her choice. Had nothing to do with Ryan. He was just her housekeeper.

She laughed at something the Douche said and Ryan shoved away from his desk. It was so obvious what he was after! If he didn’t get into Victoria’s pants today he’d be surprised. But Le Douche would be back again another day to give it another try.

He paced away, then turned and paced back. The way Le Douche was leaning in pissed him off. Ryan checked the systems to make sure nothing required attention. Shit. Everything working optimally. He stomped away again. This had nothing to do with Victoria having a booty call. He was just still riled about Gordon and it was affecting his judgment.

Maybe he should go out, get some air and clear his head. Not like he was going to be needed any time soon. Yeah.

Or he could make it a night in. Watch a movie or something. Madi had made him some kind of casserole dish. And that way he could keep an eye on Victoria in case she needed the cops to step in. Movie and casserole it was.

He heated up a plate, put in the DVD and sprawled on the couch. But his gaze kept going back to the computer screens. Ugh, Le Douche had his hand on Victoria’s knee. Ryan stuck a forkful of casserole in his mouth and spat it right back out with a curse. Great, now his tongue was burned and he wouldn’t be able to taste anything.

Back to the movie. One of those senseless violence, lots of car chases and bullets masterpieces. They were all the same, perfect for zoning out to and letting his brain turn to mush.

Le Douche was kissing her! And she was letting him! God, Ryan was going to be sick. He got up and resolutely turned off the monitors. Out of sight, out of mind.

And back to the movie.

He already knew it would be crap. Just like the rest of his night.

Virtual Copyright 2011 Alianne Donnelly, all rights reserved, may not be reprinted or reproduced in any manner, written, electronic, or otherwise without express permission from Alianne Donnelly.

“Explain to me what I’m looking at.” Celia’s tone only ever got so calm when she was pissed. The angrier she got, the more calm she acted. Ryan had seen one guy leave her office after she’d called him inside in that tone of voice. The dude had been in tears.

He wiped his hands on his jeans, made his foot stop tapping. It wasn’t making any noise, seeing as how he was barefoot and on the carpet of his living room slash office, but she’d still see it through the webcam currently trained on him.

She was looking down on her webcam feed, staring at her computer screen and the first update Ryan’s upgraded home system had sent her automatically. Shit, he was in so much trouble. “Uh… it’s just this thing I’m working on. Call it a side project.”

Celia looked up at her camera, which meant she was staring him in the eye. “A side project is meant to stay on the side. Try again.”

Ryan flushed. There was no way to defend himself. “All right. Okay. You’re absolutely right. I fucked up.” And then the whole truth came out. “It’s just that I can’t get the holograph to work on its own the way it’s been doing with me behind the wheel, so I figured if it could mimic facial expressions it would make up for the lack of voice inflection. And it’s not like it can answer a non-command question so I figured if it can smile instead, or nod, maybe that’ll work?”

It would have to because he’d already uploaded and pushed the code through to the system. For now it was linked with his webcam, to record his facial expressions as he talked. Once he had enough images and transitions, he could make the program call on the appropriate image for any of a given set of situations. It was revolutionary. Nothing like this had ever been done, even by the company’s standards. He was literally on the cutting edge of invention here.

Celia stared without blinking. He could practically see fumes rising from her head.

“It’s a temporary transitional phase. I swear.” He lied. “I can wean it off and get it to work like it’s supposed to, I just need more time. I can make it work.” He was repeating himself. Even to his own ears he sounded desperate, but what the hell was he supposed to do? Bad enough he’d already dug his own grave, now that he’d added another holograph scan into Victoria’s system there was no way to gracefully bow out.

“I’m pulling the plug,” Celia said.

“No, wait! I can work around this, just give me a chance!”

She wasn’t listening. “I’ll contact her myself, tell her there’s a problem with her system, refund her money and hope to God she doesn’t ask questions.”

“She’s a lawyer,” Ryan murmured. Of course she would ask questions.

“We’ll have to take the loss but we should be able to absorb it – Jesus Christ Ryan!” The last was shouted so close to the mic he got feedback at his end. “What were you thinking?”

“What was I… I was doing my job! You threw me into the deep end and just left me there, what did you expect me to do?”

Celia rubbed the bridge of her nose. “You’ve broken every security protocol in the rule book, completely changed standard operating procedure, set a holograph of yourself as the default? Invaded the client’s privacy and now you’re getting emotionally attached to this project. I should fire you on the spot. No, I should have you arrested.”

All true. But if he hung his head now and backed off with his tail between his legs, then it all would have been for nothing. Somehow, that felt more like betrayal than anything he’d done so far. He shouldn’t have altered the holograph. But he couldn’t have just sat there and watched an emotionless robot stand at attention and look off into space while Victoria poured her heart out to it. Maybe she never would have done it if he hadn’t interfered in the first place. Maybe it was all his fault and he was just making it worse.

But she hadn’t been talking to a machine. She’d been talking to him. Ryan. A person, not a program. Whether he’d intended it or not – whether she knew it or not – he was part of her life now and he owed her at least this much – to finish what he’d started. He could make this work for her and she’d never know the difference once he was done. Even if it took years.

He just… couldn’t leave her so alone.

“Please,” he said without meaning to.

Celia looked down at her screen again and knowing she was looking at him, he looked right into the webcam to implore her. She shook her head. “I can’t believe I’m giving in to puppy eyes.”

He nearly leapt out of his chair.

Celia blew out a breath and put her business face on. “Okay, here’s the deal. And boy, you better listen good because if you screw up one more time, you’re finished. You’ll be working helpdesk at elementary schools for the rest of your life, got it?”

“Y-uh yeah, totally.” He nodded. “Got it.”

There was the sound of a dozen mouse clicks. “Contractually we have one loop hole to get out of this unscathed. We’ll isolate the Marlow house system into a subclass for beta testing. I’ll assign another programmer to oversee your work and you’ll be taken off all your other cases.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means you just graduated from plain tech to R&D. Congratulations. Your side project just became your job.” She stabbed her finger at the camera. “You keep your head down, make this thing work as humanly as possible on its own. You don’t get involved in this woman’s life, you don’t talk to her like you know her. You do. Not. Do. Anything. Unless she orders it or schedules it as a repetitive task. Keep her house safe and keep your distance.”

Ryan nodded because she seemed to expect some sort of answer. When she didn’t give him any specific instructions on what to work on, he asked, “So… what do I do now?”

She looked into her camera as if he was stupid. “You make it work.” And then the screen went black.

***

House cleaning day. No matter how sophisticated this new system was, it still couldn’t get rid of dust bunnies under her bed. Or inside it, for that matter. Tori pushed the vacuum hose into the far corner under her bed, sucking up every last speck of dust with a vengeance.

It had to be the wine getting to her. She’d picked up her old habit of having a glass with her dinner again. In the absence of actual company, alcohol was starting to taste sweet. A very bad place to be. That was probably it, though. Her subconscious mind just plugged in whatever was missing in her waking life and used a familiar face as reference.

He’d started smiling. And making other faces, too. Tori had asked him about that yesterday and Ryan – the holograph that represented a computer system, for crying out loud – had said it was a new, experimental update. She’d made him go through the whole list of expressions, one after the other and he’d looked so damn real…

Was it any wonder that she was dreaming about him?

Tori turned off the vacuum and sat on the floor. She’d take a break before she dusted the furniture. This had to stop. She needed a social life. With actual people who actually understood what she was saying and could chime in on the conversation. “Ryan?”

He appeared, as usual, facing her general direction.

“Do I have any after work appointments next week?”

His head moved and he looked down. Right at her. Whoa… “No appointments logged.”

Tori scowled at his tone. It was choppy and cold. Like the machine he was. “Add some. Hair appointment at Lulu’s on Tuesday, five thirty. Nails Wednesday, six o’clock. And schedule a date at Bloomingdale’s on Thursday at noon. I’ll take a long lunch break. I think I’m going to go clubbing Friday night.”

“Appointments confirmed.” He was looking straight ahead again. She didn’t like it. Pushing to her feet, she came to stand right in front of him. Had to move an inch sideways to get out of the path of the projector.

“Look at me,” she commanded.

His face flickered and then his head moved to look at her.

“Now smile.”

He smiled.

“No,” she said. “Smile like you did before. Like you mean it.” The way he’d smiled when she’d said last night that he was the best dinner date a girl could ask for. His eyes had crinkled and he’d shown his teeth, and it had been a natural smile, slightly lopsided, and should have been accompanied by a witty remark.

Ryan looked right through her when he said, “Command not recognized.”

“Oh, don’t do that, you know what I mean.”

“Command not recognized.” He wasn’t smiling anymore.

“Stop it! Stop talking like a machine.”

He looked at her. Really looked at her, and Tori gasped and stepped back. She shook her head. No way. It was just in her head. He was a program, nothing more. “I gotta get out of here.”

She fled the room and raced downstairs, shoved her feet into an old pair of tennis shoes and grabbed her car keys. The door slammed louder than she intended but she didn’t care. Getting behind the wheel of her BMW, she backed down the driveway and brought it up to the speed limit.

And then she pushed it over.

***

“Satisfied?” Ryan ground his teeth and refused to look at his webcam.

“She looked upset.”

They were basically screwing with her mind. He’d worked the kinks out of the emotive part of the system, the one that mimicked facial expressions to fit the proper mood, and then the new programmer had had him rework it to be less obvious. Because nuanced mimics took up too much memory and would be too slow to flip through. “Just take out everything but four or five,” the guy had said. “Smile, frown, laugh, scowl… what else do you need?”

And now Victoria probably thought she was going insane. One day holo-Ryan responded like he understood her and the next, with Sergeant Pissant in charge, he was half dead. Ryan was seriously getting sick of the prick. And not just because the guy was screwing with his masterpiece.

The dude was a nerd of the highest order, wouldn’t know what a normal interaction between a man and a woman was because he’d never actually had one. Efficiency expert my ass. Gordon just wanted in on the action so he could say he “helped.”

“Yeah, Gordo, she did,” he said, trying to keep from punching the screen.

“Huh, I guess it’s PMS or something.” He laughed and snorted like a pig. Ryan cracked his knuckles one by one. “Hey,” Gordon said and frowned. “Why does the holo look like you again?”

“You don’t wanna go down that road,” he warned quietly. If Gordon suggested they paste his pudgy, uptilted nose, inch-thick glasses, pimply neck and patchy beard on the holograph Ryan would have to kill him. He might end up doing that anyway, just because.

Thankfully, Gordon got the message. “Uh, fine. Whatever. Guess it’s easier with the facial ticks and all.”

Breathe. Don’t mangle the nerd. “Are we done now?”

“Umm…” Gordon typed on his keyboard, probably writing an IM just so it would look like he was doing something. “Yeah, I guess. I got a pretty good idea of how it’s working now so I’ll just check in every once in a while to see how it’s going.” He looked left. Back at the screen. Left again and licked his lips. “Can you patch me into the video feeds?”

Ryan frowned. “Why?”

“Oh, just, you know. I need to monitor response time and all.”

They were sharing screens through the conferencing software. Ryan clicked on an icon to enlarge Gordon’s screen, which on his end stretched over three monitors so he had to pan over to what he was looking at.

He sucked in a sharp breath. Mangle the nerd. Break his face in. Leave him squealing in a puddle of his own blood.

There was a screencap of Victoria from behind, bent over to vacuum under the writing desk. This went way beyond breaking protocol. It was criminal and sick. Just the idea that Gordon had a stalker picture of Victoria made his stomach turn. He should report him to Celia ASAP. Who knew how many women he was spying on even now?

Too easy. Ryan leaned into his webcam. “Listen here you fucking pervert. There is no way in hell I’m letting you, or any other jackoff be a peeping tom. You even try to hack through my firewalls I’ll have the cops on your ass so fast you won’t have time to zip back up.”

“What the hell’s your problem, man?”

There were no words. The next time he saw Gordon in person, his face was going to get smashed in. “Call Celia. Tell her you’re off this project.”

“Oh?” Gordon’s eyebrows raised. “And just why would I do that?”

“Because I know where you live,” Ryan said, not even bothering to hide his murderous rage.

Gordon’s pudgy face on his screen went pasty pale and his throat worked on a dry swallow as he fumbled with his equipment and the screen went black.

Virtual Copyright 2011 Alianne Donnelly, all rights reserved, may not be reprinted or reproduced in any manner, written, electronic, or otherwise without express permission from Alianne Donnelly.

I know, I know, it’s been forever since I posted a chapter. But here it is, finally. And things are about to get… interesting.

Ryan sagged in his chair and drove the heels of his palms into his eye sockets. The most messed up hour of his life and it wasn’t about to end any time soon.

“Dude…”

And naturally, Matt would have to be there to rub it in his face.

“You realize you just signed on for 24-7 duty to that pill? Voluntarily!”

“Pretty much.”

“Ry?”

Ryan turned around. Matt wasn’t the only one witnessing his fall from sanity. Madi stood in the doorway, a worried look on her face. She was looking over the mess on the screens, the security feeds which were not going away – and could not until Ryan made this work – and at him like she was about to start crying. Not that he blamed her. If he were a chick, he’d probably cry to see this too.

“It’s okay, Mad, I got this.”

“You can’t stay here night and day.”

“I’ll… improvise. I can come up with some sort of standby setting.” But that wouldn’t be for a couple of days.

“Don’t worry, man, we got your back,” Matt said. “I saw a dusty old cot in the store room from the early days. We can fit it in here no problem.” Funny as ever. Bastard. He’d probably done this to get a laugh out of it.

“Thanks a lot.”

Matt shrugged humbly. “I live to serve.”

Madi punched him in the arm hard enough to make him yelp and dragged him away. Ryan took a breather before he seriously sat down with the code. A facility full of programmers under normal circumstances could have this done in a day. But these weren’t normal circumstances and he was pretty much on his own.

Ten and a half hours later, He’d put in two grocery orders, one food delivery, adjusted the house temperature, set timers to record shows on TV, sprinkled the lawn, wrote three letters of resignation to Celia and discarded each. He was going on five cups of coffee and two saltine crackers, his eyes were watering and his hands cramping.

But the environmental systems were up and linked so he didn’t have to physically monitor them anymore and he had a standby for the night that would record whatever orders Victoria Marlow gave like messages so he could replay them in the morning and do her bidding.

He learned a bit about her, too. She had a closet full of shoes but walked around barefoot. She had a house big enough for a family but she lived alone. She had a state of the art entertainment system in the living room but she spent most of her time in a little den with a worn rug in front of the fire place, e-reader in hand.

It was purely selfish to note all those things. Knowing it meant he could adjust the heating system to keep the floors warm so she wouldn’t complain of cold feet. He could concentrate his efforts in just a couple of rooms in the house where she actually lived and he knew to have the TV set to stream an e-book webpage when it was turned on, instead of trying to guess her favorite channel. It made his life just the slightest bit easier.

Someone had brought him the cot and Madi had gone to his place to get him a pillow and blanket and his toothbrush. Ryan Hotels and Resorts was now officially open for business.

God, he didn’t even realize how exhausted he was until he stopped. Someone had brought him a microwaved dinner which had already gone cold but he ate it anyway, starved for any kind of sustenance. The Marlow house was quiet now. Night lights were on, security engaged, windows and doors closed for the night, except for the bedroom window she’d left slightly ajar to let in the night air.

It was late. Everyone else had already left, with the exception of a handful of night owls keeping an eye on the other side of the globe. Ryan had used to think they’d pulled the short straw. Not so much anymore.

He watched Victoria – after all she’d put him through today he was not about to address her by anything but her first name – cook herself dinner and read for a while. Watched her emerge from the bathroom in a man’s t-shirt and shorts, put on lotion and climb into bed. When the lights turned off, he watched her sleep until his eyelids became too heavy to hold up anymore.

With the ready made cot calling his name, Ryan fell asleep at his desk to the sight of Victoria curling on her side as though cold.

He dreamed of winter and snow, in a bleak, empty landscape with symbols and codes shining above him like stars.

Virtual Copyright 2011 Alianne Donnelly, all rights reserved, may not be reprinted or reproduced in any manner, written, electronic, or otherwise without express permission from Alianne Donnelly.