White-Hot Hack (Kate and Ian #2)(39)

She was waiting for him in the conference room, and she was on fire. She flew into his arms and said, “Holy crap, that was intense. I’m still waiting for my heart to stop ping-ponging around in my chest.”

“Excellent job, Jeannine. You’ve earned your Spy Girl title.”

“I took a bunch of pictures and planted the business cards, but I got stopped on the way out.”

“That’s okay. I’ll admit to being a bit concerned when the assistant manager joined you, but the important thing is you got in.”

“That was the assistant manager?”

“Not just any assistant manager. The assistant IT manager.”

“Oh my God.”

“And no other firm has been able to penetrate that server room. They’re supposedly guarding it like a hawk and claim it can’t be done. The CIO told me that himself.”

“And you didn’t mention this before, why?”

“Didn’t want you to think we couldn’t do it. And see? It worked.”

She handed him her phone, and he scrolled through the pictures she’d taken. Then he set it on the table and put his arms around her. “Sweetness, I have a question for you. If someone asked you if our life together was boring or exciting, what would you say?”

“I’d say that so far, it’s every bit the adventure I hoped it would be.”



“I know it’s been a long day, but I need to see you in the conference room. We have some unfinished business to take care of,” Ian said when they got home.

She set down her purse and kicked off her shoes. “Of course. I’ll be there in five minutes.”

He was sitting at his desk when she walked in. She’d played it so straight he wasn’t positive she’d understood, but she’d changed out of the sedate clothes she’d worn that day into a short black skirt, a white silk blouse open far enough that he could see the top of her black bra, sheer stockings, and extremely high heels. He suppressed a smile because the glasses and ponytail were back.

This is what he’d been talking about when he said they didn’t need any extra spice.

He’d bet money they never would.

She sat down on the couch. He had difficulty taking his eyes off her legs and she recrossed them slowly, as if she knew that.

“Are you ready to begin?” she asked.

“Yes. I’d like to start outlining my report tonight, so we’ll need to recap the many ways in which we were successful in our penetration methods.”

“I’ll write them down for you,” she said, opening the notepad and clicking open the pen she’d brought.

He put on his glasses. “Technical penetration was successfully executed externally, internally, and wirelessly. Entrance to the building requires a badge, yet we circumvented the building’s physical security three times each for a total of six breaches. We were never stopped or questioned. Over the course of three days, we entered the office of the CEO, installed a keylogger, raised our profile to the extent that our presence should have raised a red flag, and penetrated the server room. Did I forget anything?”

She finished writing down their accomplishments and looked up. “I think that’s everything.”

“Well done, Jeannine. Especially the server room.”

“Thank you. I look forward to doing it again.”

He leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers. “Why don’t you come over here?”

She walked over to his desk and perched on the corner, just out of reach. In the black stilettos and sheer stockings, her legs seemed to go on for miles.

“That skirt is a bit short for the workplace, don’t you think?”

Her face was flushed, not pink like when she was embarrassed, but rosy, a color he’d come to recognize as the by-product of desire, as if her core temperature had slowly been heating her from within.

“You don’t like it?” she asked.

He pushed in the keyboard tray and reached for her, placing his hands on her hips and dragging her over a bit so she was sitting on the desk directly in front of him. He positioned her feet so they rested on the tops of his thighs, which gave him a nice view of her stockings attached to her garter belt. “I only said it was short. I never said I didn’t like it.” He took off her shoes and they landed on the carpet with a soft thud.

Her chest rose and fell as he stared at the buttons of her blouse and observed the increase in the tempo of her breathing. After leaning forward and pulling the hem of her blouse from the waistband of her skirt, he began unbuttoning it from the bottom. When the buttons were undone, he stood and stripped her of it. The bra was black with a purple lace overlay. He’d bought it about a month ago, and he’d tucked it into her lingerie drawer with the other pieces that made up the set. He’d been waiting patiently because part of the allure was not knowing when Kate would wear it. She often wore the lingerie he bought her under her oldest pair of jeans and her plainest T-shirts. He was always pleasantly surprised to encounter silk and lace when he’d been expecting cotton, and he swore she did it on purpose just to keep him guessing.

“Are you aroused, Jeannine? I know what a good hack does to you.”

“You tell me, Todd.”

Tracing his fingers along her bra, he reached behind her and unhooked it, and it sailed onto the floor and landed next to one of her shoes. Though her skin was warm, she shivered when he skimmed his palms over her breasts.