Chapter One Hundred-Twelve
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 she 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. You 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 answers 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.
“I 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.
“What is it?”
“Server anomalies. Multiple instances. Clustered in the financial database at Kingston's.” She moved quickly to the door, Luca right behind her.
“Virus?”
“Too early to tell. But the pattern’s suspicious.”
They hurried out of the kitchen, her tea forgotten, where several team members were already gathered around Elliott’s computer, faces tense.
“What have we got?” Sutton asked, stepping into their circle.
“Data requests spiking on the client server,” Elliott said. “Memory usage through the roof. Started about two minutes ago.”
“Let me see.” She leaned forward, scanning the logs scrolling across his screen.
Luca was good at all things tech, but he was the business mind, and he didn’t have their level of computer skills. So he stood back and watched. “What do we have?”
Sutton’s focus was 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. But he wasn’t smart enough to create a virus he could have paid for one.
“From where?” Luca asked.
“Internal, most likely. Someone opened a malicious file.” She straightened, moving to her own workstation with Luca right behind her.
“What do we do?”
“I 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. They didn’t need this ruining their honeymoon.
The development team had gathered around now, watching as her fingers flew across the keyboard. Nicole appeared at the edge of the group, eyes narrowed.
“What’s going on?” she demanded.
“Possible security breach at Kingstons,” Luca answered without looking at her. “Sutton’s handling it.”
Nicole’s face tightened. “Shouldn’t one of the seasoned techs handle it? This seems beyond a junior developer’s expertise.”
Sutton ignored her, focusing on deploying her code. Luca stood close. She ignored everyone. She couldn’t be distracted.
“There,” Sutton said finally, hitting enter. “The system’s scanning now. It’ll isolate the malicious code and contain it before it can spread.”
They all watched as her program ran, identifying the virus and systematically blocking its replication paths.
“It’s working,” Elliott said, sounding surprised.
Sutton nodded, still tense. “Not completely. The virus has already established some backdoors. I need to close them manually.”
“How long will that take?” Luca asked.
“Hours, maybe. I need to trace every possible access point.”
“Do you need anything?” he said immediately.
Their eyes met for a moment as Sutton turned back to her station.
“Luca, you don’t have time for this. Let the rest of the team support her,” Nicole cut in. “You have a meeting in fifteen minutes.”
Sutton turned back to look at him… waiting.
“Reschedule it,” he said, without breaking eye contact with Sutton.
Nicole’s mouth tightened into a thin line. “That’s not possible. This isn’t some Teams meeting. They are flying in to meet you.”
“Then handle 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 a meeting.”
Sutton turned back to her screen, trying to ignore the tension crackling in the air. “I can do this alone,” Sutton said, hoping to break the tension.
“I know you can,” Luca said quietly. “I’m not interfering. This is for support. What sort of boss would I be if I just left you all to it?”
Hours later, they were still working. The office had emptied, the other developers gone home, leaving them alone in the glow of the computer screens.
Sutton rolled her shoulders, trying to ease the stiffness. “Almost done. Just need to clean up these last few traces.”
Luca stood 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 all evening.
“You’re incredible,” he said softly. “The way your mind works. How you see patterns no one else does.”
Heat rose in her cheeks. “It’s just coding.”
“No, it’s more than that.” He moved closer, his hand coming to rest on the back of her chair. “You saved Kingston’s millions today.”
She typed the final command, watching as her program completed its cleanup. “There. That should do it.”
When she turned in her chair, he was right there, barely a breath away. The office was silent except for the hum of computers and their breathing.
“Sutton,” he said, just her name.
She stood, needing to put distance between them, but her pregnant belly bumped against him in the confined space. His hands came up to steady her, gripping her waist.
Time seemed to stop. His thumbs moved in small circles against her sides, soothing and arousing at once. She should pull away. She knew she should.
Instead, she swayed toward him. “We can’t,” she whispered, even as her body betrayed her words.
“I know,” he replied, but his eyes dropped to her mouth. She saw the desire in his eyes.
The moment shattered as Nicole’s voice came from the doorway. “Luca? Are you still here?”
They broke apart as Nicole crossed the floor toward them. Sutton turned back to her computer, face burning.
“The virus is contained,” Luca said, his voice remarkably steady. “Sutton’s system worked perfectly.”
Nicole’s eyes flicked between them, taking in their proximity, the tension in the air. “How… fortunate. I was able to reschedule that meeting for 8 a.m. tomorrow morning.”
“Fine,” Luca said. “We’re done here, anyway.”
Sutton began gathering her things, avoiding Nicole’s glare.
“I’ll drive you home,” Luca said.
“That’s not—” Sutton began.
“I insist.” His tone left no room for argument. “It’s late.”
Nicole’s smile was brittle. “How chivalrous. But I need to brief you on the meeting, Luca. I can call Sutton a car.”
“I’ll drive her,” Luca repeated firmly. “Send anything you have for me to review to my email.” Before walking Sutton out.
In the parking garage, the silence between them was heavy. Luca opened the passenger door for her, his hand brushing hers as she got in.
The drive was quiet, tension building with every mile. When they reached her building, Luca parked but didn’t turn off the engine.
“Thank you,” Sutton said. “For today.”
“You did all the work.”
“You stayed. You didn’t have to.”
His eyes found hers in the dim light. “So much for dinner tonight.”
Sutton laughed, “We still ate.”
“Delivered pizza wasn’t what I had in mind. Let’s try again for tomorrow. I’ll book somewhere public, promise.”
She nodded, reaching for the door handle. “Goodnight, Luca.”
His hand caught hers. “Sutton, wait.”
The warmth of his fingers around hers sent electricity up her arm. She turned back.
“I’ll pick you up at seven tomorrow.”
Sutton didn’t think that’s what he planned to say, but she nodded, slipping from his grasp and out of the car. As she walked to her building. What was she doing? She’d nearly kissed him tonight. If Nicole hadn’t interrupted…
If she wasn’t careful, people at the office would get the wrong idea. She wanted to prove herself and her virus software before anyone questioned how she had gotten the job.