Quarantine and Chill - AMBW Standalone Romance

Oliver walked on my side. “Good jog?”

I blew out a long breath. I wanted to fall to the ground, but I continued walking to slowly let my muscles relax. “Yes. Good jog.”

“Want to go again tomorrow?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Maybe, Wednesday or Friday?”

“No way. I only promised Zora that I would take Ganesha on his official Monday jog.” Panting, I held my hands on my hips. “That is it for me.”

He frowned. “Okay, but let me know if you want to hang out.”

I grinned. “I will, but I doubt it because—news flash—it’s a pandemic.”

He shook his head. “You’re being super safe.”

“Call me crazy, but this is not the time for gatherings.”

Especially with people that I barely know.

Oliver wiped his forehead. “Hey, do you mind if I grab a glass of water at Zora’s spot? Sometimes she lets me get some.”

“That’s fine. You just have to stand in the hallway. Sorry.”

“You’re being careful due to coronavirus. I get it.”

“You would actually have to stand outside regardless. I’m crazy when I don’t know someone that well.” I climbed the stairs of Zora’s buildings and opened the front door for us.

“Hey, this is our second jog and we meet up with our dogs every day.”

“It still takes me time to invite people into my place.” I led us upstairs.

“I get it. You’re a beautiful woman. You should be careful.”

“Yep. Okay. You stay right here.” I opened the door and brought Ganesha in.

“No problem.” Oliver winked at me. “I’ll be right here, waiting for you.”

I stepped inside, lowered, and undid Ganesha’s leash. The poor doggy raced to his water bowl and commenced to sloshing liquid all over his face and the floor.

Kamal’s voice filled the air. “Yes, Victor, but the data from the Costa account suggests that the new privacy firewall is blocking more intrusions and not filtering network traffic appropriately.”

Okay. He’s up, bright and early.

I entered the kitchen and looked across.

Kamal had the dining area set up as an office. He wore a nice designer blue suit jacket and buttoned shirt with a light blue tie. For the bottom half of his body, he had on a pair of jeans. In one hand he held a cup of coffee. A plate stacked with pancakes sat on the stool beside him.

He caught me watching him and hit me with the sexiest smile of my life.

Completely giddy, I waved at him like an idiot.

Another man’s voice filled the room. “Mr. Patel, do you want us to completely drop the XProtect?”

“Yes.” Kamal turned back to the screen. “It’s not doing what we want. There’s no need to push the product to our customers.”

“Okay, sir.”

Kamal picked up his pen, wrote something down, and looked at the screen. “Ron, what do we have on Vorce?”

A lighter male voice started, “Vorce has succeeded with all tests. Webcam and microphone protection is preventing all possible eavesdropping, especially with companies like Amazon. It prevents them from spying on their customers.”

What the hell? Companies spy on us?

I went to the cabinet and grabbed a glass.

“Good,” Kamal said. “No one wants to be spied on especially not by the device that allows you to connect to friends and family.”

The man spoke, “And with these current times more people will be using their web cameras more than ever before. Zoom office meetings. Virtual get-togethers. Celebrities are even beginning to do live broadcasts on all social media platforms. This will be a fruitful time for a hacker.”

“Correct.” Kamal turned my way and watched me filling the glass with ice and then water. His gaze pierced me, heating my skin and making my nipples hard.

A woman spoke, “Mr. Patel, do you think we should keep our release date of Vorce in August?”

Kamal kept his gaze on me. “No, Katie, webcam hacks are a serious reality and will be occurring more and more frequently now. Let’s see if we can put Vorce out at the end of the month.”

I mouthed the words, “You’re so smart.”

He licked his lips and returned to the screen. “Have we tested Vorce against several remote access trojans?”

“Yes sir. We’ve had our best hackers to challenge it. Out of the twenty, only one could get into the cam and when he did, he couldn’t record any of the activities. After two minutes, the camera shut off and alerted the user.”

Kamal nodded at the screen. “Excellent.”

I took the glass of water to the door and opened it.

To my surprise, Oliver stood in the doorway, leaning against it and semi-posing. Somewhere in between my bringing Ganesha inside and getting his water, he decided to take off his t-shirt and do flexing reps with his pectoral muscles. Poor Elisabeth was tied to the radiator in the hall, whimpering and probably thirstier than her master.

I widened my eyes. “Uh. . .here you go. Should I get Elisabeth some water?”

“No. She’s fine.” Oliver winked at me and made his right pec jump. “Are you sure I can’t come in for a hug or two?”