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?”

Kingston’s” she moved quickly

“Virus?”

early to tell. But

out of the kitchen, her tea forgotten, where several team members were already gathered around Elliott’s computer,

we got?” Sutton asked,

Elliott said. “Memory usage through the roof.

minutes ago.”

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

at all things tech, but he was the business mind, and he didn’t have their level of computer skills. So he stood back

Sutton 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

“From where?” Luca asked.

opened a malicious file.” She straightened, moving to her own workstation with Luca

“What do we do?”

need to deploy the prototype.” She logged in quickly, pulling up her virus detection system. “It’s not fully tested, but it’s the best shot we have. I will not let anything happen to Kingstons.” Roman and Blair had gone away for a few days.

fingers flew across the keyboard. Nicole appeared at the edge of the

on?” she

Kingstons,” Luca answered without looking at her. “Sutton’s handling

“Shouldn’t one of the seasoned techs handle it?

focusing on deploying her code. Luca stood close. She ignored everyone. She

Sutton said finally, hitting enter. “The system’s scanning now. It’ll isolate the malicious code and contain

program ran, identifying the virus

Elliott said,

already established some backdoors. I

long will that

I need to trace every possible access

you need anything?” he

for a moment as Sutton

to her station.

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Chapter 112

the rest of the team

back to look at

said, without breaking eye contact

not possible. This isn’t some Teams

was over. “Think any company wanting to use Cyber10 or any of my businesses

to her screen, trying to ignore the tension crackling in the

said quietly. “I’m not interfering. This is for support. What sort of boss

working. The office had emptied, the other developers gone home, leaving them alone in the glow of the computer

“Almost done. Just need to

up his sleeves.

said softly. “The way your mind works. How you see

rose in her cheeks.

moved closer, his hand coming to rest on the back

as her program completed its cleanup. “There. That should do

barely a breath away. The

said, just

bumped against him in the confined space.

thumbs moved in small circles against her sides, soothing and arousing