Draco (Coded for Love 2)
“How do you know about Sean?”
“Promise me you won’t take off when I tell you?”
“I can’t think of anything you might say that’ll make me take off, not while I can look at you, Kitten.”
He really was flirting with her, blatantly. It felt good, but she steeled herself for a very different reaction. “You might take that back.”
“Go on. Hit me with it.”
“Eighteen months ago my father paid a cyber crime expert two hundred thousand pounds to find you and your buddies.”
Frowning, he tensed. “Your father owns Compton Finance?”
She nodded.
He drew away and looked at her as if she were insane. He was bound to mistrust her. Her father’s company was the place he and his buddies had hacked into on several occasions eighteen months ago. The very same organization who’d put one of them behind bars.
His expression showed his amazement. “You seriously think I’ll work for you?”
“Why not? I’ll make it worth your while.”
“Yeah, sure, a pretty honey trap and a straight-to-jail card. No way.” Inside a heartbeat he strode away.
Cursing silently Lara gathered herself, hauling away from the wall. She couldn’t lose the opportunity, not now, not after investing so much effort in setting up this project. “Wait, please! Hear me out?”
He paused, glanced back over his shoulder.
The way he looked at her—she felt stripped bare in a glance. It was incredibly arousing.
Brooding. Leather clad, unpredictable. Everything about him should have warned her off. Instead, it made her yearn to know more, to find out what it would be like to spend time with him, to get to know him.
Praying she wouldn’t regret it, she stepped after him.
CHAPTER THREE
It was a navy blue BMW. Draco figured it was Lanky H
arry’s car.
When she told Lanky to wait by the car Draco wondered if he was a chauffeur, but no. It was an expensive model, but several years old.
When they emerged from the alleyway she pointed across the road at the vehicle, then told him to get in the back with her so they could talk.
Lanky drove until he found somewhere to park, pulling in on the forecourt outside a mobile phone shop. Once the engine was off, he half turned in his seat to observe. Draco preferred it when they were alone. “So you’re saying you need a hacker?
She pursed her lips, a habit that amused Draco because she seemed to do it when she was trying to work out what to say but it made her mouth look even more lush and kissable. “I need someone who can quickly understand house software and help me find a—shall we say—source of internal corruption.”
Draco had to laugh. The irony of it was clear. Eighteen months before it was him and Sean and Rory who were causing the company grief by dabbling with their code on a night. Now someone else was at it and she’d come to him. “Someone inside your father’s company is screwing him over?”
She pursed her lips. “In a way, yes. And I want to offer you the chance to help me find out who it is.”
She really did have this all worked out.
It made Draco wonder how long she’d been planning this thing and at what point she thought he was the ideal person to help her with the problem. “You keep saying you’re offering me a chance, like I’m supposed to be some grateful charity case. What you really mean is you need the help of someone who can act outside the law and is willing to do so if you throw him a bone.”
Her eyebrows drew together, which made her look kind of cute.
“Well, not exactly, I want you to work within strict parameters, under my guidance.”