It was so much fun to be juvenile with her. Fortunately for Naman, it was only Naina and him on the call and not the rest of the team. She tended to be far too withdrawn with Vansh around them, and he hated it. Didn’t she know that her stiffness around him was a dead giveaway of this thing that had taken to sparking in the air when they were near each other?

The more uptight she got, the goofier it made Vansh want to be. It made him want to make a complete ass of himself, if that would get her to crack a smile.

On the screen Naman lost his shit all over again at the mention of Vansh in diapers. “Lord, this is the most fun I’ve had in too long. Naina, Vansh, thank you.” Finally they were done with the formality and down to first names. Then he got serious again, but only slightly. “And you know what? You have my full support on your project. Actually, let’s do this: All permissions and licenses will go straight through my office. A fast track. Let’s make this project such a success that it becomes a model for the rest of the world. My assistant will be in touch with the details.” With that he hung up.

Wait, what? Had they just cut through twenty miles of red tape in one fell swoop? Had they just done that?

Naina let out an entirely un-Naina-like squeal and flew out of her seat and started jumping up and down, and Vansh was doing the same, and then she was hugging him and he was spinning her around.

Then they were standing there holding each other. Because keeping his hands off her this past week had felt . . . it had felt . . . wholly unnecessary.

“Did that really just happen?” she said, glowing like the full moon on a cloudless night, hair pulled back, tired eyes shining so bright their light burned through his body.

“Yes!”

She started jumping again and he spun her around again.

When he put her down, his arms still around her, she was shaking. It started in her shoulders, the tiniest sobs, then her eyes filled with it. Relief and bone-deep exhaustion, all the pressure of the past weeks, of years, trembling through her even as she struggled visibly to push it down. For all her effort, the swell of emotion seemed to overwhelm her so much she pressed her head into his chest, and lost herself to the silent sobs.

He stroked her back, his body registering how she felt in his arms before his mind did. Then his mind crashed into the information with an electric buzz that raced through him. These electric sparks had become his companions these past weeks.

How does this feel so damn good? his body and mind demanded together. In one voice. Flooding his blood.