“Juda, I’m happy you brought that up,” I said. “I’d love a chance to take that off your plate, if Mr. Armanelli is comfortable with me doing so.”
Cade’s finger now tapped the desk in about the same rhythm as my foot. “Why do you need to take over?” Cade inquired.
“Because I’d like to continue managing those threats. You know my history in undercover work—”
“Is over,” Cade snapped. “You don’t need to do that here.”
“But I want to,” I ground out as I searched his room for the speaker of the phone. “Juda, are you comfortable with that? It will free up some of your time.”
“Juda, you realize this is a big opportunity. We intend to mirror some of the setup for the election cybersecurity. We’ll fly you out to DC to meet the team and—”
“Oh, I think it’s ideal that Izzy takes it, then.”
I smirked when Cade’s brow furrowed. He didn’t get that Juda really had no idea about the project that I’d essentially built from the ground up. JUNIPER was my baby, and I was proud to say it was working out nicely.
Cade’s eyes narrowed. “You’re not interested in the opportunity for a promotion?”
“I think Izzy’s got this one handled,” he grumbled.
Cade’s tapping stopped. He stood from his chair and made his way over to me as he said, “Great, Juda. I’ll iron out the rest of the details with Izzy, then. End call.”
The beep overhead signaled Juda was gone. Cade wasn’t done yet. He walked around me like a snake, ready to coil me up.
“You think you’re winning right now, don’t you?” he snarled. I couldn’t help but smile. “You think you can handle a managerial position? If that’s the case, why have you been taking all of Juda’s work and not standing up for yourself?”
“It’s practice, quite frankly. I needed to know I could do his job. Now I know I can handle his duties as well as my own.”
“There’re calls with management, HR issues, complaints, strategy, not to mention all the other Stonewood bullshit we have to work on.”
“I can handle it.”
“You saying it doesn’t prove it to me.” Yet Cade rubbed his chin like he was thinking about it, like he might give me a shot. Then he pulled his cell from his pocket and sent off a text. “Plus, you’re going to have to prove it to Jett.”
“Jett?” I squeaked. “What does Mr. Stonewood have to do with any of this?”
“He’s not going to let an employee run the security of an election.”
“But it’s your team, and I—”
Of course, it was at that moment that Alice—their version of AI assistant—announced Jett Stonewood calling.
“Either we answer it or we don’t, Izzy.”
I’d barely graduated high school because of juvie, I’d faced one or two pretty bad drug deals, and I’d been held at gunpoint undercover. My life had been full of extreme choices, but for some reason, this one felt heavy, full of weight, and definitely life changing.
I quirked a brow at him. If I was going to get my feet wet, I might as well jump off the boat into the ocean. “Answer it.”
I stood tall as he circled me, and I didn’t falter or shrink.
Cade shrugged when I looked over my shoulder at him, and then he pointed to the knot at my neck where my blouse was tied. “This holding your top up?”
“What’s it matter?” I sneered.
Then I heard, “Cade, what’s going on?” from the man himself. Jett Stonewood had taken over a multibillion-dollar business from his father, invested vastly throughout the world, and partnered with the mob to pretty much rule the United States. I knew that between him and Cade Armanelli, I was about to have probably the most important conversation of my life. He was one of the only trillionaires in the world, and I think he shared half that wealth with the Armanellis.
“I have an employee who’s taking over the Chicago PD infrastructure and the election voting cybersecurity.”
“Does she know there are holes in it?” Jett shot back.
“I’m sure, since it’s her work.” Cade lifted a brow at me like he thought I might fold under the embarrassment and pressure.
I chewed my cheek. It hurt to hear the flaws in my work pointed out. But I could fix them. I was going to take care of them. “I’m aware. I’m working diligently to confirm no breaches will happen this year.”
“You have the knowledge needed?” Jett asked.
It was a question for me, but I waited a beat for Cade to step in and confirm my credentials.
“She’s pretty underqualified,” he said instead.
This jerk.
When my jaw dropped, he took that moment to drag a finger across my neckline towards the bow of my blouse, like he was considering untying it. Instead, he leaned close to whisper into my neck, “Sell yourself because I won’t. I’m not doing you any favors.”
With that, he bit my neck, and I tried my best not to gasp. His hands trailed down my back to my hips, and he pulled me close enough to feel his length—rigid, long, pulsing against me like it had a few nights ago.
He wanted me to fold, to make a fool of myself, to tell his virtual assistant to hang up.
There was no way I was letting him get the best of me.
“Mr. Stonewood, I’ve worked on the infrastructure from the very first day we changed systems. I think the JUNIPER system is great, but I did tweak it because of the information stored there. With more coding, it will be nearly impenetrable, and I believe it will enable us to mirror that level of security on a larger scale in the future.”
“Exactly. This system is linked to the court system of Illinois and the voting—”
“I’m aware they’re all interconnected,” I blurted out. I hated that I wanted to cut the conversation short, but Cade’s tongue was lapping at my neck, and my body quaked with need rather than my mind reacting to the CEO who was addressing something I would have previously given an arm and leg to discuss with him.
Cade grabbed my ponytail and whispered in my ear, “That’s my baby doll. Tell him. And untie the neck of your blouse too.”
Something was wrong with me. I shouldn’t have done it. I shouldn’t have even considered it. Yet my hand went right there as I glared at him. I pulled the string. This was a battle of wills, a way to fight him, control my narrative, and win.
My enemy would not have me surrender here. Even if I was wet for him—and damn it, I was so wet—the breath I took quivered through me. Cade must have noticed because he dipped his finger into my cleavage and dragged it to my nipple under my black lace bra.
“Do elaborate, Ms. Hardy,” Jett commanded in a tone that indicated he didn’t appreciate my bullshit. Like if I had the balls to cut him off, I’d better have the ammunition to back it up.
I did. I was just struggling to breathe and not moan; to pay attention and not spiral into an orgasm. “I set most of them up because Juda had too much on his plate, so I know they are all interconnected.” It was a lie, and I caught Cade rolling his eyes, but I wouldn’t throw my team under the bus. I couldn’t expound further because my pussy was crying out for Cade, so I left it at that.
Cade chuckled, and his hands slid from my breasts to my stomach, then pushed my blouse over my hips to the ground. Next, he was on his knees in front of me. “Ms. Hardy did do most of the setup, Jett. I looked into it,” Cade finally confirmed, smiling up at me.
“And you’re comfortable working with Cade?” Jett asked. He knew Cade was no walk in the park.
I stared down at my archnemesis, a man ready to fuck me in his office but who didn’t believe in me outside of it. This was what I probably couldn’t do. The challenge in his eyes was there, telling me to back down now.
“I do work under Cade, but I don’t know that I’ll need his help on this. Like I said, I just have a few more tweaks for the Illinois—”
“Sure, but we’ll use this for the election,” Jett stated with authority. “We can mirror this code. Cade, you think it’s good enough, right? This is it. If you’re working on the Chicago PD infrastructure, I want you on the election team and flying out to meet them in a week.”
Cade’s hand gripped my nyloned calf tightly all of a sudden. “Not necessary, Jett. I can handle that on my own. Don’t even need a team there for it.”
Jett sniggered. “My point exactly. You want to do it on your own. It seems Ms. Hardy will be able to at least be a team player if you won’t. You two can fly out, meet them, work together to make sure this election doesn’t get hacked. That is, if you’re on board, Ms. Hardy?”
Cade shook his head no at me, but I didn’t have to be told twice to take the opportunity of a lifetime. I glared at Cade and said loudly, “I’d be honored to do that, Mr. Stonewood.”