Breaching His Defenses (Love Hack #1) (4 page)

“Thank you, but no. I’ve got things covered,” she said.

He shoved his whispering disappointment aside and instead loosely grasped her wrist, tugged her close, and rested his other hand on the small of her back. He kissed her deeply, searing the sensation into his head.

A gasp slipped from her throat when they broke apart, and the corner of her mouth tugged up. “Good night.”

He sank back onto the bench after she was gone, mixed emotions coursing through him. He focused on the pleasant ones. She’d even made him forget about work and that damn phone call for a few hours. Maybe he’d have to let Tate and Vivian pick his songs more often.

Mikki’s tiny smile—the one that had lingered even in a sleep that graced her with sensual dreams—couldn’t be convinced to leave. This morning, when logic tried to horn its way in and remind her everything about the last night had been completely irrational, she’d smiled wider. And had she really given him her panties? Her own boldness made her grin in retrospect. So worth it!

Growing up, she’d always been the shy, quiet, nerdy girl. The way they moved around, combined with her younger age in school, had only helped keep her in her shell. Even through college she’d kept to herself.
Yawn.

After graduation, she’d met Payton. The name made her thoughts snarl in irritation. The things he’d said to her. To other people about her. Her gut clenched at the half-formed memories, and she shoved them aside.

It didn’t matter. He was in the past, and the poor decision to date him had led to her choice to experience life after they broke up. It had taken some time to get comfortable with stepping out of her shell, but she’d faked it until she made it. Her personal mission statement had become live first, think later, and never say “if only.”

The night before had been the perfect addition to her memories. Sexy guy who just happened to be an idol of hers, tons of fun, and wow…some sizzling mental souvenirs. The only regret she had—and she didn’t usually do regrets—was that she hadn’t been more up front about who she was. She’d assumed he knew, but maybe she should have made sure.

She smoothed out the polo shirt with her company logo on it, grabbed her exhibitor’s badge for the trade show and her purse, and left her hotel room behind her. Time to see more of Vegas, even if a lot of her view would be from the confines of a trade show booth.

It was her first time in the city of lights and though she was there for business, she was going to take every free chance she could to at least see the part of the strip their hotel and the convention center were on. When she’d wandered the shops the day before at Caesar’s Palace, she’d spotted the perfect place for breakfast. Now it could also provide a few more minutes for her to drift in the memories of last night. She and Jared had had undeniable chemistry on stage, and he was bandwidth-choking hot.

Her body flushed at the memories. She’d probably never do something like that again, which was all the more reason to relish the images seared in her mind.

The cafe looked like most she’d seen in her life—treats under glass, the smell of coffee in the air, and eclectic furniture. But it was nestled in the middle of a hotel and that made it awesome as far as she was concerned.

“Michaela.” The staccato word cut through all the noise, like Styrofoam on Styrofoam. She hated her real name, and she only knew one person who refused to call her anything else. He insisted it was professional.
Playtime’s over. Bossman’s in town.

She pasted on a smile and turned toward Hayden. He was attractive and as clean cut as she’d ever seen a person. Close-cropped, dark blond hair, broad shoulders, and doing a decent job of hiding he was almost forty. And his suit ensured he’d blend in with all the retail store owners they were about to mingle with—beige, pressed, and plain.

He was the senior vice president of the team she worked for. She couldn’t imagine wanting to climb that high on the corporate ladder.
Boring.
His father owned NetSafe Systems, a company built on creating everything digital one could imagine for retail stores. Websites, shopping carts, point of sale software. Their group offered ethical hacks to companies with website security concerns.

Her job specifically—and the best job ever, in her opinion—was to try from every angle possible to break into a company’s website or network, and then tell them how to keep people like her from doing it again.

Which was the only reason she was okay with being reminded regularly to put on a polite face for the public. This was her dream job, and NSS was one of the two top firms in the country. Jared’s was the other. Okay, so it wasn’t
his
company, but still… Heat shimmered through her as more memories and fantasies teased her.

She would have liked a few more minutes alone with her thoughts, but she couldn’t completely brush off her boss. Especially on a business trip. She grabbed her food and crossed the short distance to the table he’d secured.

“I hope you weren’t too bored last night,” he asked as he toed out a spare chair for her.

She dropped into the wooden seat. Sometimes it felt like he asked too many questions, but most of the time she was pretty sure he was just making small talk. Not that the details of her night before mattered in the grand scope of work. She hadn’t missed anything, and she was awake and alert this morning. Besides, the question reminded her things had ended much better than she’d expected. “I kept myself occupied.”

More memories flashed through her head. Jared’s hands on her legs, roughly shoving her skirt up. Heat flooded her skin and she tucked the pleasant thoughts aside before she could fall into them.

“Glad to hear it.”

He riffled through the laptop bag resting next to his leg and pulled out a magazine. A whisper of relief flitted through her. Small talk was fine most days, but this morning she had other things on her mind.

All her other thoughts evaporated when she saw his reading material. Staring back at her from the cover were Jared and his two friends from the bar, the headline proclaiming them the corporate dream team that was Skriddie Bust Media.

She couldn’t pull her attention from the photo. The three had made their company a name. Vivian Graf was director of operations, Tate Foster was director of sales, and Jared Tippins rounded out the trio as director of technology. Her cheeks warmed, and a pleasant tingle crept through her. She’d really hooked up with
him
.

“Hey.” Hayden had set down the magazine and was staring at her. “Earth to Michaela. Did you just check out?”

“I’m good.” She swallowed, not able to push away the distracting fantasies tripping through her thoughts.

She’d heard stories in college—and after—of the legend that was Jared. A decade older than her, he’d built one of the biggest, baddest-ass security systems corporate America had ever seen. He’d been some kind of genius savant back in his day, before he’d traded it all for a suit and an impressive title. And apparently he was sexy as fuck on top of that.

Hayden looked between her and the picture, and his eyebrows rose. “I’ll do you a favor right now, not as your boss, but as a friend. He’s not your type, Michaela. Trust me. He likes his women with a digital voice and a square shell.”

A cloud drifted across the vivid images painted across her thoughts. There was that. According to Hayden, Jared was the industry’s version of a monk—more interested in machines than dating. In fact, those were frequently the exact words Hayden used to describe him. Except, that didn’t mesh with the man she’d met the night before. “You’re exaggerating.”

He set the magazine down and locked a steady gaze on her. “It doesn’t matter if I am or not. I’ll remind you once because I’d hate to see you destroy your career before it even starts—keep your distance from these guys.”

She had a list of things that irritated Hayden, but she hadn’t ever expected to have to add “Don’t sleep with Jared Tippins” to it. She tried to be subtle about inhaling deeply. It didn’t get rid of the memories, but it did mute her body’s reaction. She wouldn’t blurt out she’d already crossed that line, but couldn’t hide all of her irritation at his
professional
advice. “I’m pretty sure my contract doesn’t delve into who I can and can’t talk to.”

“Does conflict of interest mean anything to you?”

Oh. That
. Hayden had made it clear what he thought of corporate espionage, or any violation, real or perceived, of the non-disclosure agreement all employees signed. In fact, he’d spelled it out for her during the later stages of her interview. After he’d fired the guy who’d made hacking the Skriddie systems network a part of her technology test even though the interviewer told her she was still on NSS systems.

Hayden had reiterated his, and the company’s, zero tolerance policy about the ethics of spying on the competition. He’d also driven home that Skriddie would probably demand her head when they found out she’d committed such a serious transgression as breaching their security just to get a job, unless he smoothed things over first.

She turned her attention to her breakfast, keeping her tone casual. “You want a dictionary definition of each word?”

“You kill me sometimes, you know? Slay me dead.” He pointed at the magazine cover. “Look, I’m not trying to be a wet blanket. This is standard stuff.” Concern edged his kind tone. “They were furious when I told them what you did, and steering clear of them is going to make your life less stressful. I just want you to avoid any unpleasant situations.”

She frowned at the reminder she might have pissed off someone at Skriddie and gave her full attention to her food. Six months, and she’d almost managed to put the entire thing out of her mind. Hoped the situation might just evaporate. Talk about a buzzkill. “I get it. Thanks.”

“Are you ready for the panel this morning?”

Good. A neutral topic. Dull as hell, but neutral.
“I’m set.” She redirected her thoughts to work-related subjects. “I pulled anything that could be considered interesting—sorry,
proprietary
—from the slides.”

An unpleasant thought joined Hayden’s warning. If Jared had known who she was last night, would he have had a different reaction to her? What if he was still angry about what she’d done?

Professional people didn’t hold grudges like that, right? He was way too mature to do something like resent her just because she’d found a teeny, tiny…okay, fairly significant hole in their security when she wasn’t even supposed to be on their network. Besides, at least she’d found it before someone else. And Hayden had made sure they knew about it. There should be some forgiveness for that, right?

Still, conflict of interest. Not that it was Hayden’s—or anyone else’s—business who she did or didn’t sleep with.

Images and sensations teased back in response to her mental question. Jared’s breath on her skin, his teeth digging into her shoulder, his hands gripping her hips. No regrets. She just had to keep it quiet.

Jared’s sneakers thwapped against the rubber of the treadmill, the sound filling the hotel gym with a rhythmic pulse. The beat echoed in his skull and with images of the night before. He’d had enough impulsiveness to last him the next year, but it had been worth it.

The sensations from the bar still teased him. Her heady scent, the rainbow of sounds she’d made, and the carefree attitude always dancing behind her eyes.

“Ever stop to wonder why you’re the only person in here at seven a.m.?” Tate’s jab shattered Jared’s rambling thoughts.

“Nope. Never even considered it.” He couldn’t help the tiny smile that slipped out. He owed Tate a thank you for ditching him the night before. Or maybe “giving him some room” was a more appropriate way to put it. He continued running—no reason to interrupt his daily routine—but did set the speed slower so he could talk and jog at the same time.

“Of course not.” Tate used a nearby wall for support and took a long swallow from his oversized coffee. “Then you’d have to admit your routine is boring and predictable.”

“Predictable and consistent,” Jared corrected him. “Unlike, oh, say, abandoning your buddy in a bar after you suggested we drink all night.”

Tate snorted. “Right. Because you’re so torn up about that.”

Jared couldn’t suppress his grin. The expression had to be a dead giveaway about what happened. “If you’d rather have hit up the tables, you should have said so before we left.”

“I have to do something to make sure they give me the room again next trip.”

Jared doubted that. For as much money as Tate dropped on high-roller tables every time they were in town, he was pretty sure the guy had a lifetime’s worth of comp in the luxury suites. Once upon a time, the way Tate went through his father’s money had been a sore spot between them. Now that Jared had his own cash—even though he still couldn’t justify twenty-five hundred dollars a hand for poker—it didn’t faze him the same way. “So really, you should be thanking me.”

Tate laughed. “I don’t think so. And for the record, if I’d known you’d get that kind of response, I’d have gone up there myself. Next time, you’re
forcing me onto stage and playing wingman.”

“I’ve never stopped you in the past.”

“Whatever. Speaking of your velvet-voiced siren, did she spill anything good? It would serve Hayden right after the bullshit he’s already pulling today. I ran into him in the lobby, and he spent fifteen minutes trying to get me to slip up and tell him who we were in negotiations with.”

Spill anything good? Serve Hayden right? Wait, what?
The circuits in Jared’s head collided with each other and he stumbled. He stepped on the edges of the treadmill before confusion could become a full-blown face plant, and shut the device off. She’d definitely said and done things that would stick in his head for a long time. But the tension rolling under his skin told him that wasn’t what Tate meant, and shouldn’t have anything to do with one of the senior vice presidents at NSS. “I’m missing a key point of reference, aren’t I?”

Tate grimaced and set his coffee aside. “You don’t know.”

Obviously not.
“Know what?”

“Vivian told me. I think she would have told you too, but figured you’d find out directly from the source. You and your karaoke partner seemed to be getting on just fine without us.”

For the most part, he was used to Tate’s tendency to not get directly to the point. He didn’t appreciate it, but he accepted it. Just now, he needed to have details sooner rather than later. His brain was already erroring out from lack of information. “Tell me.”

“She’s Michaela Elford.”

So that was what Mikki was short for. Why did her full name sound familiar? From Tate’s expression, it was clear Jared should know it.

Tate continued, “She’s the new prodigy Hayden hired. The one he stole from V six months ago.”

Right. The weird interview that had pissed Viv off for weeks after. Apparently Michaela—Mikki?—had been just as impressive in her resume as in person when Vivian had interviewed her, and had seemed like she was ready to all but sign. Then, out of nowhere, she’d sent Vivian a very polite and apologetic
thanks but no thanks
letter. Something along the lines of, “I hope you’re not too angry with me. I think we can all agree the best place for me is with NetSafe Systems.”

Viv had tried to reach her a handful of times after, but Mikki hadn’t returned her calls.

Yup, that was exactly where he’d heard her name. He never should have misfiled information that important.
Fuck.
Jared stepped off the treadmill. “Got it. And no, it didn’t come up.”

“Maybe she didn’t recognize you.”

Except she had. Alarms clanged in the back of Jared’s thoughts. Suspecting anything was off about the situation was ridiculous. The encounter in the elevator had been random chance, and she couldn’t have known they were heading out to get wasted and sing bad music. His paranoia might be a rampant bastard sometimes, but there was no way this was like Karen.

But Mikki working for the competition dragged up unpleasant memories he hadn’t expected to deal with on this trip. Especially if she was associated with NSS.

Karen had taught him years ago getting involved with anyone in that company was a dangerous path to follow. Good thing he and Mikki knew last night was a one-time thing. The thought didn’t take the edge off the realization she’d kept something as significant from him as working for the competition.

“Speaking of, if you want to see your karaoke partner on stage in a more professional fashion, she’s running an NSS panel in the morning breakout sessions.” Tate took another sip of coffee, grimaced, and tossed the cup in a nearby trashcan.

Jared cringed as coffee splashed in the waste bucket. So messy. Despite his irritation at being deceived, his pulse kicked up at the thought of hearing that playful voice again. He beat the reaction back with the rest of the morning’s conversation. “I was planning on it anyway.”

He was going to see if there were any hints about the direction NSS was taking their security offerings. And hopefully uncover a detail or two as to what he was missing in these rumors that his company wasn’t worth its own press releases. Not that he expected there to be any usable information—providing as little information as possible was status quo for these demos—but there was always a chance. And he could almost convince himself Mikki wasn’t adding another layer of incentive.

Tate’s brow furrowed, and he studied Jared for a minute. “I was joking. Vivian’s already attending. You can skip it if you want.”

Jared shrugged. “Hayden’s been bragging they’ve got something that can put us in the dirt. I’d like to form my own opinion.”

He didn’t want to be excited, or intrigued, or anything besides nonplussed about the thought of seeing the playful siren again, but he couldn’t swallow his growing arousal. Every inch of him hummed, his pulse racing in a way he knew wasn’t related to his abbreviated jog.

“Almost forgot.” Tate plucked Jared’s phone from the top of his gym bag. “Check your mail.”

Jared glanced between him and the device. “Just tell me what I’m looking for. You know I have about fifty unread messages.” His own verbal reminder set his mental compulsion on edge. He always forced himself not to check before his morning workout. Otherwise he’d be stuck in email hell before he had a chance to wake up. But he’d have to catch up on those before the morning breakout sessions.

“That’s it? How late were you up last night?” Tate shook his head. “Anyway. Peacock announced his retirement.”

That was almost enough to pull Jared back to the now. Larry Peacock was chief operations officer for Skriddie, and rumors of his retirement had been circulating for a while.

Jared wanted the job, and he knew he was one of the people being considered. The kinds of changes he could make in a position like that… Excitement tingled in limbs, and he drummed his fingers against his leg. One of the reasons he loved his work was because there was always something new to learn—another way to make things perfect. And a step up the ladder would give him even more access to exactly that. “Any other news?”

Tate tossed the phone back on the bag. “Nah. But I’m sure you’ll hear before either of us anyway.”

****

Jared slipped into the conference room with a just a few minutes to spare. Vivian already stood near the back, despite the empty chairs lining the last couple of rows. She gave him a tight-lipped smile and nodded him over.

“I didn’t expect to see you here.” Her voice was low amid the chatter of the trickling in crowd.

“I had to sate my curiosity.” He kept his tone as cool as possible and tried to convince his rampant imagination to chill as well.

“If everyone wants to have a seat, we’ll get started in a minute or two.” A familiar voice sliced into Jared’s thoughts, and his head snapped toward the stage.

Before his brain finished processing what the sound meant, his body reacted. Want tugged his cock to life and tempted him with memories of the night before. Even in her company’s basic trade show uniform, she still made his blood run hot.
Not good.
He needed to bring that under control.

Vivian looked between him and the podium, eyebrows rising. “Tell me you didn’t share more than a mic with her.”

Fuck. Why did she have to know him so well? When she’d been brought into the company a few years back and dropped into a high-ranking position, he’d resented her. This person didn’t know their business, especially not something as critical as day-to-day operations.

Since then, he and she had become solid friends. She understood things no one else did. And she had an odd—sometimes refreshing, occasionally irritating—way of looking into his head and helping him sort out his malfunctions when he wasn’t thinking straight.

He couldn’t pull his eyes away from Mikki as he talked to Viv. Maybe he could redirect the conversation. “Speaking of, did it occur to you to tell me who she was?”

“When would I have done that?” She dropped into a nearby seat. “While you were singing round after round of cheesy love songs? Besides, I figured she’d tell you.”

He took the spot next to her, attention still fixed up front. “It didn’t come up.” Would the knowledge would have stopped him? Of course it would have. He needed to stop that line of thinking now. If he abandoned the logic and reason he used to keep his life in line, he’d surrender the grip that order had on his sanity.

“Weird. But it was just a couple of duets. Given this entire week is about networking, the two of you were going to meet anyway, and it’s not like you screwed, right?”

“Hmm?” He’d heard the question clearly, but the sick clenching in his gut didn’t know how to respond.

“You’re pulling my leg. You did not do something that random. She’s an incredible talent, and I have nothing but respect for her. But she’s a decade younger than you.”

“You make me sound ancient. We’re both consenting adults.”

Vivian brushed a nonexistent strand of hair from her forehead. “Not that it matters, as long as she knows it was only one night.”

“Of course she does.”

“Did I ever tell you she gushed about you in her interview? Some kind of minor hero worship.”

Vivian had never told him that. And he wasn’t pleased to hear it.
Or maybe I am just a little.
“Doesn’t sound familiar, or relevant.”

“Right.” She crossed her legs at the knee. “Since you’re here, tell me if you think she’s got the skills everyone says she does. I still want her.”

That made two of them. Fuck, he needed to stop that. Of course Vivian was still trying to recruit this talent. She’d never been a good loser, especially when it came to Hayden. “Sure. I need you to give me something in return, though.”

“What’s up?”

Mikki’s eyes met his, holding him captive. The corners of her mouth twitched, and then she looked away. The teasing half smile of her not-quite acknowledgement made his pulse quicken and refreshed the page file of his mind with pleasant memories.

“I need to talk to her, strictly business, and I need someone to run interference.”

“Absolutely.”