Hacking Mr. CEO by Anna Hackett
Dragon Angel
Remi
Okay, I was pretty sure no man had ever looked at me the way Maverick Rivera was looking at me right now.
Fluttery things took flight in my belly. Like I was something delicious, dipped in chocolate sauce.
I liked it. A lot. Too much.
He rose slowly, that dark gaze running down my body.
I swallowed. “You can’t look at me like that.” I tried to pull off a tension-breaking laugh. “God, put on a tight dress, and men only think of one thing.” I strode over and dumped the coat that I’d borrowed off Naomi on the chair, then I hitched myself onto the corner of his big desk and crossed my legs. “We have bad guys to stop, remember?”
His gaze met mine. God, I wanted to run my hand over that stubble-covered jaw.
“I can’t remember my name,” he said.
Those words sent a shot of heat through me. “Aw, you can be sweet.”
“Not usually.” He sounded faintly bemused.
I looked past him and my mouth dropped open. “Jeez, that view. I wouldn’t get anything done in here.”
Maverick moved closer, and looked like he wanted to touch me.
Boy, I wanted him to touch me. And I’d be happy to do some touching of my own.
But I made myself think of Mama, and whoever was The Shadow.
Whatever they had planned, had to be stopped.
My gaze fell to the computer on the desk. It was sleek and sexy. “What is that?”
“My own build.”
I slid off the desk, circled it, and dropped into his fancy, executive chair. It was comfy.
The computer was unlocked and I jiggled the mouse.
“It’s rude to just help yourself to a man’s computer.”
I shot him a look. “Rivera, I’m a hacker.”
As I looked at the system specs, I whistled. This was one souped-up machine.
Maverick leaned a hip against the desk, watching me. “You like?”
“Oh, I more than like. I’m in love, and plotting how to sneak this little baby out of here.”
That got me a flicker of a smile.
I’d sneak him out, too, if I wasn’t highly aware that I’d be flavor of the week and then be left with a shattered heart.
I looked at the way his suit pants stretched over his muscular thighs. Hmm, okay, if I did tangle with him, I’d keep my heart locked up. I could have fun. Make a few fun memories for the future.
“Remi?”
I shook my head. “Sorry, thinking.” About taking you for a ride. “Shall we get to work?”
“Yes. After you get out of my chair.”
I bounced a little. “But it’s so comfy.”
“Mine.”
He dragged a second chair around and I pulled my laptop out and set up beside him, transferring to the other chair.
My laptop was covered in sparkly stickers.
“You have a Rivera Tech laptop,” he said.
“Of course,” I said. “They are a solid brand at a good price point.”
That faint smile again. “Shame you desecrated it.”
“My niece said it needed to look prettier. And a sticker never hurt anyone.”
“Right, how about we find a bad guy?”
“We need a stealthy little trojan to send to him via email. A sneaky little guest that he welcomes in the front door.”
“With a tracker embedded.”
“Right. I have my angel that I sent into your system.”
“Good. I wanted to see your code up close.”
“Mr. Rivera, you can’t just ask a woman outright to show you her code. I expect dinner and drinks first, at least.”
He gave a low chuckle and it skated down my spine.
God, that sexy laugh. “It’s fine,” I said. “I’ll give you a peek.”
“And then I can show you my tracker, and we can meld the two together.”
“Now you’re asking me to be the mother of your child.”
Maverick shook his head and I grinned at him.
I hooked into the Rivera Tech system, and we got to work.
Our fingers flew across our keyboards. We traded info and a few quips. I found working with Maverick was fun.
He was grumpy, liked to brood in silence, and needed me to snap him out of it with a joke, or sometimes an elbow to the ribs, but we worked well together.
The man had a sharp, sexy mind.
God, I was a goner. I was mildly turned on, excitement a low-level hum inside me.
“There.” I sat back and sipped the coffee that his scary, beautiful assistant had delivered, along with a tray of delicious sandwiches. They were weird, fancy combinations, but mouthwatering. I was trying to stop from eating too many.
“I think we’ve done it.” Maverick nodded. “It’s beautiful.”
My angel was now a dragon angel, with Maverick’s tracker entwined in the code.
“You are a genius, Maverick.”
“Right back at you, Remi. And it’s Mav. That’s what my friends call me.”
I turned my head and sucked in a breath. Our faces were inches apart. “Am I your friend, Mav?”
His gaze ran down my face and settled on my lips. “No. I’m not sure I want you to just be my friend.”
I leaned closer…
A notification chimed on the laptop, and I jerked.
Damn. I glanced at the screen, and all the nice, buzzy feelings curdled.
“It’s The Shadow.”
Still on board, Rogue Angel?
I stared at the message for a beat, then typed.
I don’t want to be, but yes. I said I’d do it, so I’ll do it.
If your conviction falters, I will take measures
to convince you to deliver what I want.
I said I’d do it.
“Asshole. He’s threatening me.”
“Yes, he is,” Mav said darkly.
There were no more messages.
I dragged in a breath. “Let’s see if we can track this asshole down.”
“Send him a message. An update.”
I nodded. “I could send them something from the Rivera Tech system. Something non-vital, but proves that I’m getting close.”
He nodded. “And hide our dragon angel in it. Brilliant.” He cupped my jaw. ‘I’ll get you a file.”
Where his fingers touched me, my skin felt like it was on fire.
I cleared my throat. “Okay, let’s do it.”
I could do this. I could work with dark, hot Maverick Rivera and not totally lose all my senses.
Okay, I was pretty sure I could.
* * *
Mav
Mav watched Remi pace in that maddening dress. She stopped, swiveled on her heel, and strode back the other way.
His gaze moved to her ass, and his cock, already half hard from sitting beside her all morning, lengthened.
Fuck.
“What’s taking him so long?” Remi threw her hands in the air. “Open the email, read it, open the file.”
“Remi, relax.”
“You relax.” She huffed out a breath. “Screw it.” She walked over and snatched up another sandwich. “These brie ones are so good.” She ate it with a little moan.
His cock liked the sound of that, as well.
She perched on the corner of his desk. “I’m not eating any more of those, no matter how good they taste.” She tapped her nails on his desk.
They were still red and sparkly, and he thought that they were a good reflection of Remi herself.
“Come on, bad guy,” she muttered.
Mav studied his screen, then frowned.
“What?” She skirted the desk and leaned over him.
Her perfume hit him—something with a floral note, but not overpowering. He liked it.
“Mav?”
What was wrong with him? He didn’t give a shit about perfume. He focused back on the screen. “The email was opened.”
“What?” She dropped into the chair beside him. “Is the tracker picking him up?”
“No. It’s not active.”
Her nose scrunched up. “He didn’t open the file.”
“Or he has very good security that blocked our dragon angel.”
She shook her head. “We designed it. Nothing can block it.”
Mav fought a smile. She was like him, confident in her abilities. He liked it. There was nothing he hated more than false modesty. It was just another lie to him.
“So, we have nothing. Argh.” She leaped up and strode to the windows. “A big, fat nothing. Then when I don’t hand him over the Calix file, who knows what he’ll do?”
“Remi.” Mav moved to her. He pressed a hand to her shoulder. “It’ll be all right.”
With a small sound, she pressed against his chest and hugged him.
He stilled, his arms at his sides.
She tilted her head back. “You don’t hug, Rivera?”
“As a general rule, no.”
“It’s easy. Just put your arms around me and make soothing noises.”
He frowned. “Soothing noises?”
“Like ‘there, there’ and ‘shh.’”
He snorted and then pulled her tight against him. “I’ll hug, but no soothing noises.”
“Deal.” She pressed her cheek to his shirt.
Damn, he realized how petite she was. The force of her personality made her seem bigger.
“You’re awfully hard for a rich guy.” She poked his pec.
“I work out.”
“I often think I should work out more.”
“How often do you do it now?”
She looked up at him, a grin on her face. “Does walking to the subway station count?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Then never.”
Mav shook his head and fought back a laugh. This woman made him laugh and smile more than anyone he’d ever met.
“Well, I like your body just the way it is,” he said.
The air changed. Worry leaked out of her eyes, replaced by heat. “Thank you. I like your body the way it is, too.”
He lowered his head. Damn, it was still not enough. He wrapped an arm around her and lifted her off her feet, her body pressed tight against his.
She gasped.
“Do you like that?” he asked.
“That you can haul me up without it appearing to bother you at all?”
“Yes.”
“Then the answer is yes.”
“Remi.”
“Oh, God, and don’t say my name like that.” She licked her lips. “And don’t look so hot.”
“How do I do that?”
“I don’t know. Put a paper bag over your head? Wear ugly clothes?”
He cupped her face. “Then you need to stop pulling off the impossible combination of cute and sexy.”
She licked her lips again. His cock twitched, and he knew she felt it against her belly, because her eyes widened.
“Holy cow, do you have a big hard drive in your pocket?”
God, again he wanted to laugh. “No.”
What the hell was it about this woman? It was like she’d cast a spell on him. Making him laugh, making him want things he’d avoided for so long.
“Actually, I don’t think the paper bag will help, because I’m just as attracted to your brain.”
He arched a brow. “My brain?”
“Yep.” Her voice lowered. “Watching you code got me a little hot and bothered.”
“Ditto,” he said, voice gritty.
Her lips parted. “Mav—”
With a growl, he kissed her.
His tongue was barely in her mouth when she pulled back, staring at him.
“Oh, God, you’re too hot.” Her mouth slammed back against his.
The kiss was hard, wet, and deep. Hell, she tasted like sweet sin. She kissed him wildly, like she was so hungry, like she couldn’t get enough.
No one had kissed him like this before.
“I wasn’t…going to do this,” she panted.
“Kiss me?”
“We both know it’s not going to stop there, big guy.”
Right now, his cock was as hard as steel. He imagined all the dirty things he wanted to do to her.
Mav backed up toward the desk.
“This is probably a really bad idea,” she said. “Hackers from Brooklyn don’t bang Manhattan billionaires.”
He cocked a brow. “Says who?”
“Says everyone.”
He dropped into his chair, holding Remi standing between his legs. God, she was so sexy. “I never worry about rules.”
She nibbled her lip. “And I kind of like breaking them.”
Mav growled and skimmed his hands up her legs, shoving her skirt up a few inches, and baring sleek thighs.
“Are you wet for me, angel?”
She nodded.
Mav leaned back. “Show me. “
“You’re bossy. Is that a billionaire thing?”
“No, it’s a me thing,” he growled.
She reached her hands under the skirt of her dress.
“Luckily, I think it’s hot,” she added.
He felt that in his gut. He watched her shimmy a pair of lacy, white panties down her legs.
Fuck.
She shifted closer and he smelled the sweet, intoxicating scent of her arousal.
He pulled her to straddle him and she gasped.
“You fool around in your office much?” she gasped out.
“Never.”
This small hacker seemed to bring him a lot of firsts. He slid a hand between her thighs.
She let out a long, throaty moan and Mav groaned.
She was waxed bare—all warmth and slick skin.
“My angel’s wet. Damn, your thighs are slick.”
He slid a finger inside her and she wasted no time writhing on his hand.
“Maverick.”
His thumb found her clit.
“Yes,” she moaned. “Have I told you that you have great hands?”
Damn, she was hot and sexy. His gut tightened.
His computer pinged and he glanced at the screen. He kept working her, but read the message.
“Oh my God, you have your hand between my legs, and you’re checking your emails?” she panted.
“Yep, told you I could multi-task.” But it was damn hard to concentrate. “The Shadow didn’t open the file, but I managed to get a ping. He forwarded the email to somebody else.”
Remi moaned and spun, sitting back on his lap. As she read the message, she ground her hips down on his hard cock. Mav growled.
She glanced back and smiled. “Okay, back there? The message was forwarded to a guy in Manhattan called Leon Rayner.”
Mav frowned.
“You know him?” she asked.
“Yeah. Young, twenty-something, from a wealthy family. Fancies himself a hacker. He’s tried to get a job with me numerous times. Three, I think.”
“Hmm. You think he got mixed up with The Shadow?”
“It’s a strong possibility.”
“He might know who The Shadow is. We could infect his phone with our dragon angel.”
Mav smiled. “That’s an excellent idea.”
She leaned back, her mouth on his neck. “Now, where were you?”
He kept his hand between her legs, stroking. She looked delectable sprawled over his lap. His fingers found her clit again, and he worked it. She writhed.
“Mav.”
“I like the way you breathe my name, Remi.”
She moved, and their mouths collided. She kissed him, tongues tangling as he flicked her clit. A second later, she came.
Mav swallowed her cries. He wanted to do more, but this was his office, and it wasn’t the place.
She sagged against him, face flushed. “Mav.”
“Shh.” He pulled her dress down. His control was shredded, and his hands weren’t steady. “Later.”
She licked her lips. “Okay.”
Making himself focus, he tapped the screen.
A picture of a young, well-groomed man popped up.
“Rayner will be at a gala event tonight. To raise money for inner-city schools. Keen to drink some excellent champagne, and eat some tasty canapés?”
“I guess I could grin and bear it.” She nuzzled his neck, reminding him of a sleek, satisfied cat. “I thought you didn’t like parties?”
“I hate them. But uploading a trojan on to Rayner’s phone should make it more interesting.”
She smiled. “I’m one-hundred-percent in agreement.”
And Mav suspected having Remi there with him would make it more bearable.
