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?”

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

“Virus?”

to tell. But the

where several team members were already gathered around Elliott’s

Sutton asked, stepping into

said. “Memory usage through the roof. Started about

minutes ago.”

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

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

of

“From where?” Luca asked.

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

“What do we do?”

shot we have. I will not let anything happen to Kingstons.” Roman and Blair had gone away for a few days. They didn’t need this ruining

flew across the keyboard. Nicole appeared at the edge of

going on?”

breach at Kingstons,” Luca answered without looking at her.

the seasoned techs handle

Luca stood close. She ignored everyone. She couldn’t

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

all watched as her program ran, identifying

Elliott said, sounding

The virus has already established some backdoors. I need to

long will that take?”

need to trace every possible

need anything?” he

met for a moment as Sutton

to her station.

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Chapter 112

of the team support he?? Nicole cuf in. “You have a meeting in

back to

he said, without breaking eye

possible. This isn’t

or any of my businesses would like to know that during a crisis, I’m helping to fix it. Not just sitting calmly

in the air. “I can do this alone,”

not interfering. This is for support. What sort of boss would I be if I just left you all

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

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

behind her, 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 her

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

in her cheeks.

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

typed the final command, watching as her program

there, barely a breath away. The office was silent except

he said,

put distance between them, but her pregnant belly bumped against him in the confined space. His hands came up

her sides,