“I have to get up. I have to do something. I can’t sit back and watch someone steal my company,” he announced. He stood and started pacing. “I’ll get us some dinner. Chinese?”
“Vegan for me,” I said.
“Right.” He stopped pacing. “I know just the thing. I’ll be back in a minute.”
With that, he was gone again.
I studied the screen, begging to find some clue, anything that would help. It was all such a tangled web of data and numbers and coding. It was hard to know where to begin.
All of a sudden, I had a Beautiful Mind moment, and it hit me.
I hovered over the keyboard and typed away like a mad woman.
Cooper came back in and set a cup of coffee next to my keyboard, out of the line of fire but close enough I knew it was there.
“Thanks,” I said, not breaking away. My fingers were still going a mile a minute. Cooper sat next to me and I could feel his body heat radiating to me.
“There!” I said, cheering for myself before flopping back in my chair.
“What? You got it? It’s stopped?” Cooper peppered me with questions.
I took a celebratory swig of the scalding coffee and realized it was from the same coffee shop that I’d been at when I ran into Parker the day before. It struck me as an odd coincidence, but I let it go.
“Not exactly. But, I managed to secure the backup, so at least the data will be safe.”
“Excellent.” He offered his cup like a toast, and I bumped my paper cup to his.
“God, it’s hot in here,” I said, shrugging out of my blazer. Normally, I wore long sleeves to hide my tattoos that went all down my arms. But, since it was just the two of us and Cooper had already seen every inch of my tattoos…and the rest of me…I figured it was safe.
Cooper’s eyes traveled down my exposed skin and my body temperature felt like it rose ten degrees as I watched him take me in.
“God, you’re beautiful,” he said, his voice a thick whisper. “A masterpiece.”
“Cooper,” I started to protest, but before I could say anything else, his lips were on mine.
He pulled me from my chair and I straddled him, my skirt riding up my thighs as they spread so I could sink down onto Cooper’s lap. I could feel his cock straining under the fabric of his pants and wondered how long he’d been hard. Knowing he was ready made me even more excited and I knew I was already soaking through my panties.
Cooper was kissing down my neck, nipping at the sensitive skin, when a loud blaring ringtone burst through the air. We jumped apart at the sound and jolt of the phone vibrating in his pocket.
My skin felt like it was on fire as I watched Cooper take the cell phone out of his pocket and answer the call.
“I’ll be there in a moment.”
He ended the call and looked at me, his eyes still dark and hungry, like he would devour me on the spot if he could.
“That was Chad, the tech guy. I have to go downstairs and let him in,” Cooper explained.
My heart fell and it hit me just how much I’d wanted to get completely lost in Cooper and let him take me. My head was still full of questions, but my body seemed ready to let him back in. I just wasn’t sure my heart could take any more.
Chapter Five
A few tense hours passed as Chad got to work. I sat next to him, assisting as he needed. Cooper stalked the room. He was good, and didn’t interrupt us—but his mere presence was distracting enough for me. I desperately wanted to pick up where we had left off—my whole body ached for him, slowly burning from the fire he’d started.
I did my best to focus and follow Chad’s instructions as he worked. He had me work on one computer, typing in coding as he dictated it to me, and scribbling down frantic notes. Eventually, we got the virus handled, and shut down, before it could wipe out the whole system.
When it was done, I lay back in my chair, my chest heaving as if I had just run a marathon. The sheer amount of stress had worn me out, physically and mentally.
“That should take care of it. Unfortunately, you did lose some data. But it sounds like Allie, here, got most of the backup salvaged before the hacker could take that out completely. I’ve put in some safe guards to help stave off this kind of attack in the future, but I would recommend investing in some secondary backup that is manual, not automatic, in case this were to happen again,” Chad explained. He slid his jacket back on and prepared to leave.