One Night in Valeria - Chapter 4: Chapter 4

The moment Jessica Hale stepped into her private design studio at Velar Global, she felt it pressure, invisible but real. The walls were glass. The ceilings high. The silence rich.
This wasn’t a workspace. It was a test.
Her sketchbook trembled slightly in her hands, but she breathed through it. This was her shot. The real one. The one she hadn’t dared to dream for.
She still didn’t understand how she’d gotten here.
First the rejection, then the miracle acceptance.
She didn’t question it too much. She couldn’t afford to.
Across the Building…
Liam Velar stood before a wall of monitors. One of them displayed Jessica in real-time hunched over her desk, sketching in soft charcoal, her brows furrowed.
He should’ve pulled away by now.
He should’ve transferred her to another mentor.
But he couldn’t.
Ever since she walked into his boardroom and didn’t recognize him… something inside him refused to let go.
She was so close now.
And yet so far.
Worse, she was flourishing rising through the ranks with quiet grace and relentless fire. He watched her reject assistants who offered to carry her things. She stayed late. Took every criticism like fuel. Grew sharper, faster, bolder.
He could feel her becoming dangerous not to the world.
To him.
That evening the mixer, the rooftop garden of Velar Global was bathed in string lights and smooth jazz. This was the company’s signature monthly mixer where design residents mingled with investors, executives, and rising stars.
Jessica didn’t want to go.
But her name was on the invitation.
So she showed up in a black silk jumpsuit with an open back and heels that made her walk like she owned the sky.
Liam saw her the moment she stepped in.
She hadn’t seen him yet not up close. Not without boardroom energy between them.
But he saw everything.
The deep curve of her back.
The way she smiled polite but reserved at the investors swarming her.
And then… Smith Delacourt approached.
The charming French investor with the smooth accent and wandering hands.
Jessica laughed at something he said.
And Liam turned his glass so hard, it cracked.
On the Balcony…
Jessica stepped outside to catch her breath. The air was cooler up here. Softer.
She leaned on the rail, staring out at the water far below.
Then a voice low and steady broke the silence.
“You don’t like crowds.”
She turned.
Liam.
Standing just feet away, dark suit, dark eyes, darker expression.
“How do you know that?” she asked.
“You keep your energy close,” he said. “Like someone who doesn’t trust people easily.”
Jessica blinked. “That’s... surprisingly accurate.”
A small smile ghosted across his lips. “It’s not a bad thing.”
She tilted her head. “Why do you watch me so closely?”
The question hung there, raw and unfiltered.
He didn’t flinch.
“I notice talent,” he said finally.
But his voice had dropped.
Lower. Warmer. Tighter.
And in that moment, the space between them felt like a string stretched and burning.
Inside…
Smith approached the balcony but stopped just before the glass door.
He saw them standing there.
The CEO.
And Jessica.
Too close.
Too still.
Too… intimate.
He turned away, his lips twisting into something unreadable.
Back in Her Room…
Later that night, Jessica lay on her bed, staring at the ceiling.
Liam Velar.
There was something about him the way he looked at her. Like he knew her. Like he’d seen her naked… not just in body, but in soul.
And for a second tonight, she’d felt…
Something.
A pull.
A heat.
A flicker of something half-buried in her mind a whisper of memory.
The weight of a man’s hand on her back.
A voice like smoke.
A kiss that felt like fire.
But it disappeared before she could catch it.
Liam stood alone in his suite.
He’d come too close tonight.
Said too much.
Let her feel something.
He was losing the grip he’d held for years.
And he knew one more touch, one more look…
And he might tell her everything.