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?”

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

“Virus?”

tell. But the

out of the kitchen, her tea forgotten, where several team members were already

got?” Sutton

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

minutes ago.”

leaned forward, scanning the

and he didn’t have their level of computer

their tracks.” Sutton was thinking maybe Dan had done this, so if it went to court, there would be no proof of what

“From where?” Luca asked.

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

“What do we do?”

quickly, pulling up her virus detection system. “It’s not fully tested, but it’s the best shot we

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

going on?”

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

of the seasoned techs handle

code. Luca stood close.

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

her program ran, identifying the virus and systematically blocking its

Elliott

has already established some backdoors. I need to close them

that take?” Luca

need to

you need anything?”

a moment as Sutton

to her station.

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Chapter 112

the team support

turned back to look at

he said, without breaking eye

“That’s not possible. This isn’t some Teams meeting.

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

crackling in the air.

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

they were still working. The office had emptied, the other developers gone home, leaving them alone

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

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

way your mind works. How you see patterns no one

in her cheeks. “It’s

his hand coming to rest on the back of her chair. “You saved

command, watching as her program completed its

he was right there, barely a breath away. The

said,

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

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