“Shoot,” she said, smiling.
“I can’t get you off my mind,” I said pointedly. “No matter what I do, all day long, you are floating around in there.”
“That’s really nice to hear,” she said. “Especially since I feel the same exact way. I keep seeing all these signs, and who knows? Maybe I’m looking for them, but it’s almost like the universe is sending me in your direction at every turn. Now, I’m not a mystical person or anything, barely spiritual, but it has been hard to ignore.”
“No, I know exactly what you mean,” I said, scooting closer. “It happened tonight when I was trying to decide whether to just pop in or not. Then poof. A billboard of Lindsey appeared next to me out of the blue, on the side of a bus. I knew I had to come here.”
I reached up and brushed a piece of hair out of her face, watching her close her eyes as my skin touched hers. I pulled up my other hand and cupped her neck, pulling her in and kissing her passionately. She whimpered as I slid my tongue across her lips and tasted the sweet champagne on her tongue. I slid my hand down her side and around to the small of her back, feeling the heat rising in my chest. Just as I moved my lips to her neck, my phone went off, breaking the spell for a moment. I sighed and fumbled to find the thing in my pocket. Without looking at the screen, I hit the ignore button and set it on the table. I dove back in, pulling Amanda close to me, feeling the heaving of her chest against mine.
The smell of her perfume and the bubbles from the champagne had me completely twisted in knots. I wanted so badly to take her right there on the couch, to feel her supple body in my hands writhing beneath me as I pushed her closer to orgasm. However, before I even had the chance to get her undressed, my phone rang again. I groaned, angrily grabbing the phone from the table. She smiled and nodded her head, telling me to answer it. I pulled it to my ear and answered gruffly.
“Yes, what can I do for you?”
“Nathan,” John said in a slightly panicked voice.
I turned and sat up straight, not used to hearing that tone from him. “John, what’s wrong?”
“We have a problem,” he said. “There’s been a security breach. I came right over to make sure it wasn’t a false alarm before bothering you on a Friday night, but it looks like it’s the real thing. I know you’re probably in the middle of something, but you should get over here immediately. We need to get the system under control and fast.”
“Right,” I said, glancing over at Amanda. “I’m on my way. I just have to call the car.”
I hung up the phone and texted my driver, letting him know it was an emergency. I put the phone down and kissed Amanda sweetly on the lips, pulling back and sighing. She smiled sweetly and tilted her head.
“Is everything okay?”
“There has been some sort of security breach at the company,” I said. “I have to get over there and make sure it’s stopped. These things are pretty serious when it comes to the company and our projects.”
“I’m sure,” she said, looking up at the sound of my driver honking.
“I’ll see you tomorrow night, okay?”
I leaned in and gave her a long, deep kiss before standing up and heading for the door. I turned back for just a minute and smiled at her before walking out and shutting the door behind me. Once I was outside, I sprinted for the car and jumped inside, instructing the driver to step on it. This was a serious thing, something that could completely take us off the market for an entire quarter. We had serious steps in place to avoid these types of things, so whoever hacked in was either lucky or really experienced. When I got there, John, Jordan, and half the IT department were standing around different computers, looking at the system.
“Hey, we think we have him stalled,” John said as I pulled a chair up to the main computer and began looking through the system.
We worked for several hours, finally picking up the hacker’s signal and running a trace. Turned out, it was some kid in Idaho playing around with hacking like it was a game. He got lucky and got into the mainframe, but once he was there, he had no idea what he was doing. He was doing little bullshit things like changing some names and highlighting certain things in accounting. He obviously had no idea what he was looking at, or what to do once he was inside. I handed the computer over to Jordan and his team to start cleaning up and went into my office to call the proper authorities. We worked closely with the FBI’s hacker unit, so I gave my contact a call and let them know what happened. Luckily, there was no customer or employee information available on the level the hacker broke into. He was just surfing the regular system like most of our employees could do in the mail room.
“That was close,” John said, shaking his head as he leaned back in the chair. “We need to find the weak spot that he got in through and make sure that never happens again. If he had known what he was doing, he could have crippled us.”
“I know,” I said. “I’m gonna head out. I’ll see you tomorrow at the party.”
“Right on, buddy,” he said.
By the time I got home, it was really early in the morning, and I was dragging ass. Luckily, I didn’t need to be at the party until that evening. I got ready for bed and pulled my phone out to hook it up to the charger. It was the first time I looked at it since I left Amanda’s house. I noticed a missed text, so I pulled it open and smiled. Amanda had sent me a message shortly after I left her house.
“I miss you so much and I can’t wait to see you tomorrow. Thanks for listening to me ramble,” it read.
I sat down on the bed and reread the message probably ten times. I shut the phone off and hooked it up, feeling those same butterflies dancing around in my chest. As I turned the light off and settled into bed, I realized something. Those butterflies weren’t just excitement. They were much more than that. They were all too familiar, and although I hadn’t felt that way in a long time, I knew what it was. I was falling in love with Amanda, and I didn’t want the feeling to end.
Chapter 7
Amanda
I smoothed the hair back on the side of my head. I had pinned one side of my hair up and let the other fall over the edge of my face. The curls bounced around my shoulders, and the makeup on my eyes shimmered against the satin of my dress. I ran my hands down the cool material, happy that I had picked that dress for the event. It was a spaghetti-strapped, satin gown that flowed down over my curves to the floor. The back dipped down low until it reached just above my ass. I knew I was going to stun Nathan with the thing. It was a good thing that I was ready early, too, because as I slipped my earrings on, I could hear the sound of the doorbell.
I smiled and pulled on my heels, walking out to the door and peering through the peephole. He looked nervous, and I found it absolutely adorable. I opened the door and whistled, staring at him in his Dior tuxedo, perfectly pressed, and fitted just right around his tight body. I was a lucky girl to get to go to this party with such a handsome man. He leaned in and kissed my cheek, shaking his head.
“You look absolutely stunning,” he whispered. “I’m sorry I’m early, but I missed you.”