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?”

the financial database at Kingston’s” she moved quickly to the door, Luca right behind

“Virus?”

to tell. But the

her tea forgotten, where several team members were already gathered

Sutton

Elliott said. “Memory usage through the roof. Started

minutes ago.”

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

he didn’t have their level of computer skills. So he stood

on the screen. “This looks like the early stage of a worm. Replicating through network protocols, building backdoors, I wonder if they set this up to cover their tracks.” 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 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.

“From where?” Luca asked.

She straightened, moving to her

“What do we do?”

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

development team had gathered around now, watching as her fingers flew across the keyboard. Nicole appeared

on?”

answered without looking at

face tightened. “Shouldn’t one of the seasoned techs handle

focusing on deploying her code. Luca stood

now. It’ll isolate the malicious code

ran, identifying

Elliott

The virus has already established some backdoors. I need

that take?” Luca

need to trace every possible

need anything?”

for a moment as Sutton turned

to her station.

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Chapter 112

for this. Let the rest of the team support he?? Nicole cuf

to look

he said, without breaking

This isn’t some Teams meeting. They are flying in to meet

it for me,” Luca said, his tone making it clear the discussion was over. “Think any company wanting to use Cyber10 or any of my businesses would like to know that during a crisis, I’m helping to fix it. Not just sitting calmly in

back to her screen, trying to ignore the tension crackling in the air. “I can do this alone,” Sutton

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

office had emptied, the other developers gone home, leaving them

to ease the stiffness. “Almost done. Just need to clean

watching her work. He’d removed his jacket hours ago, rolled up his sleeves. The sight of his forearms, tanned and muscular, had been distracting

mind works. How you see patterns no one

in her

more than that.” He moved closer, his hand coming to rest on the

program completed its cleanup.

in her chair, he was right there, barely a breath away. The office was silent except for the hum of computers and

said,

bumped against him

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