Beneath Her Bastard Boss

Chapter 112

Sutton stood in the development team’s kitchen on Monday morning, waiting for the kettle to boil. She needed a cup of tea. Saturday had been Blair and Roman’s wedding. She had done her best to keep her distance from Luca. He had hurt her so badly the first time around, and the wasn’t sure she could deal with that kind of hurt again.

She had loved… No, she needed to be honest with herself. She loved him… as in still did. That was the problem with love. Your couldn’t turn it off like a tap. So she needed to protect herself and her baby.

And tonight she had agreed to have dinner with him. He had said to discuss the baby. But there were other questions he was still waiting for answere on… One being the car service and the second his proposal of marriage. She was thinking of accepting one, but the other… his proposal. That wasn’t something she could even think about.

She pressed a hand to her lower back. Her balance was off. Having a soccer ball strapped to your belly all the time had really thrown off her center of gravity. She couldn’t do a model walk if her life depended on it.

The baby had been restless all morning, probably picking up on her tension about Blair’s wedding this weekend. Luca hadn’t done anything, but his being there and watching her had increased her internal tension… That’s what the baby had picked up on.

“Need help with that?” Luca’s voice behind her made her jump, nearly knocking over her mug.

“Shit.” She hadn’t heard him approach.

It felt like her thoughts had manifested him before her. She wondered if she could think about him leaving. Would that work just as well? She didn’t need any gossip at the office.

“I’ve got it,” she said, not turning around.

He moved beside her anyway, close enough that she could feel his heat, smell him. His arm brushed hers as he reached past her for the coffee. Why was he having coffee here?

“How’s the Kingston security proposal coming?” he asked, his voice low.

Sutton focused on breathing. “Good. I’ve identified several vulnerabilities in their financial systems that made the embezzlement possible.*

“Jake says you’re making impressive progress.”

“Jake talks too much. He is a sweetie.”

Luca chuckled, the sound sliding down her spine like warm honey. “He’s impressed. So am I.”

She risked a glance up at him. Mistake. His eyes were dark, intense, fixed on her face.

“Are we still on for dinner tonight?” he asked quietly. “To discuss the baby?”

Sutton looked outside the room to make sure no one was listening to them.

“Shh… Yes,” she said, keeping her voice low so no one would hear them. “It’s just about the baby, right?”

“Of course.” His eyes dropped briefly to her lips. “Unless you want to talk about or do something else.”

“Luca.” Sutton cleared her throat. “I can’t…” She trailed off because she could very easily, but that was her body talking, not her brain.

Want to at least focus on the baby… yes, I want more, Sutton. I’d be lying if I said otherwise,” Luca said.

Before she could respond, her phone chimed with an alert. She checked it, grateful for the interruption.

“Shit,” she muttered, scanning the notification.

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Chapter 112

“What is it?”

Clustered in the financial database at Kingston’s” she moved quickly to the door,

“Virus?”

to tell.

kitchen, her tea forgotten, where several team members were already

we got?” Sutton

spiking on the client server,” Elliott said. “Memory usage through the

minutes ago.”

see.” She leaned forward, scanning the logs scrolling across

all things tech, but he was the business mind, and he didn’t have their level of computer

was thinking maybe Dan had done this, so if it went to court, there would be no proof of what he had done. He must have got someone internally to activate the virus by opening a file or following a link. Was it someone else he was sleeping with? The man really was a dog. But he

“From where?” Luca asked.

She straightened, moving to her own workstation with

“What do we do?”

tested, but it’s the best shot we have. I will not let anything happen to

as her fingers flew across the keyboard. Nicole appeared

going on?” she

at Kingstons,” Luca answered without looking at

of the seasoned techs handle it? This seems beyond a junior

deploying her code. Luca stood close.

said finally, hitting enter. “The system’s scanning now. It’ll isolate

identifying the virus and systematically

Elliott said,

“Not completely. The virus has already established some backdoors. I

long will that

maybe. I need to

need anything?” he said

for a moment as Sutton

to her station.

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Chapter 112

this. Let the rest of the team support he?? Nicole cuf in. “You have a

turned back to look at

it,” he said, without breaking eye contact

not possible. This isn’t some Teams meeting. They

discussion was over. “Think any company wanting to use Cyber10 or any of my businesses would like to know that

the tension crackling in the air. “I can do

know you can,” Luca said quietly. “I’m not interfering. This is for support. What sort of boss would I be if I just

other developers gone home, leaving them alone

her shoulders, trying to ease the stiffness. “Almost done. Just need to clean up

up his sleeves. The sight of his forearms, tanned and muscular, had been

incredible,” he said softly. “The way your mind works. How you see

in her cheeks.

moved closer, his hand coming to rest on the back of her

typed the final command, watching as her program

was right there, barely a breath away. The office was silent except for the hum of computers and their

he said,

bumped against him in the confined space. His hands came up to steady her, gripping

small circles against her sides, soothing and arousing at once. She should pull away. She