Page 15 of The Southern Thirst Trap

“I’m not above begging, but it’s for more,” I gasp, wanting to even the playing field, just a little bit.

But he’s keeping score, and he’s winning. Through the frenzied lust we’ve felt and our mutual desire for each other, Zander is taking the time to learn my body. He’s getting to know every sound I make and cataloging how I move so he’ll know what I like and what will set me off even faster the next time our bodies come together.

This is more than casual, more than a typical fuckboy wanting a willing plaything on a fancy vacation. I was happy to be the willing plaything, but now, well, it’s already feeling different. Better. I’ve been Zander’s sole focus each day. My pleasure, his priority. My challenges, his game. That’s not feeling casual.

Maybe… oh God, do I even let myself think it now? Maybe he wants more than casualwith me? Before I can even let my thoughts trail down that rocky road that will obviously lead to disappointment, I cut myself off.

I know the score. No attachments. That’s Zander Olsen to a T. It doesn't matter if he looks at me right now like he wants to memorize every curve of my body, or his kisses demand ever more from my mouth, and his body fits better with mine each time we come together. The next orgasm hits me with the same force as the thought that when these two weeks are up, so are we.

I just have to keep reminding myself of that.

nine

Zander

Dayslater,wearestill reeling from the breach into our servers and hackers getting access to Pegasus, along with other sensitive company information. We have been working longer hours than usual, doing top-to-bottom sweeps to ensure nothing else was collected from the attack, but the damage was done. What they did get into was enough.

We lost deals immediately. The Rosenthall deal was dead as soon as the news broke about the breach because our credibility and the security the project needs were undermined. Acquiring Rosenthall would have given us the manufacturing capacities needed to produce the Pegasus project at scale. Now, we have to see if there is any use in following through with a plan that has been leaked to the highest bidder on the dark web.

I know it would be worthless for the team running Pegasus to file patents on plans that are in the hands of our competitors and they’re scrambling to change the manufacturing timelines to try to beat others to market. If that can’t happen, they’ll be looking for how they can alter intrinsic portions of the current process, but what we have taken years to achieve, and it won’t be replaced overnight.

And now we have to deal with having Octavius Rex integrating himself into the Olympus architecture after calling him in to help with the breach.

“You three look like shit,” Rex says when he enters our conference room and sees all three of us waiting for him.

“We didn’t ask you here for your opinions on our appearances, Rex,” Hayes says, impatiently waving him in.

“But it still bears saying, because I enjoy it when you smug fuckers look down. Grant me my small victories when life has been so unfair to me,” he replies with mock humility, making himself comfortable across the table from Hayes. They were close friends through business school, and a few years after, until we decided to buy out his father’s company and strip him of the legacy he was set to take over. That sort of kills a friendship in its tracks. Now, they’re begrudging allies when necessary, at best.

“Tell us what you know about the cyber attack,” Payton says, diving right in. Dark circles rest under his eyes from the long hours he’s been pulling, and his temper is more volatile than usual, for valid reasons. He feels personally responsible for this breach since it was his system that failed.

“I heard you were unlucky enough to be targeted, and the hackers stole some pretty important details for an up-and-coming project. Weren’t you just interviewed in Forbes about the engine plans, Zander?” he says, looking my way with a glint of mischief in his eyes.

“Among other things, it was one of the topics that came up,” I say, staying neutral until I know what he is insinuating.

“Well, it does seem particularly interesting that the article came out the same day you got hacked.” Rex leans back in his chair and steeples his fingers. “Correlation or causation?”

“Bad timing and some determined group of assholes,” I respond. There’s no way that my interview would have spurred a cyber attack from our enemies in that quick of a time frame. This had to be in the works way before the article came out. The Pegasus project wasn’t secret, but how we’re managing to produce the results that would set us apart from other clean energy engines was.

Rex tips his head back and forth, weighing my words. “Imayhave heard something that leads me to believe the article was the catalyst, if not the cause. You remember Andreas Donovan, CEO of Donner Investments?”

I nod and make a motion for him to continue. Rex likes to draw things out, and I’m not feeling the most patient at the moment.

“He has a son, Archer, who is making quite the name for himself in the tech world. I guess he didn’t want to go into finance after dear old dad lost his company to Olympus and watched you burn it to the ground.”

“Get to the point, Rex,” Hayes says, sounding bored and irritated. Not a good combination from my eldest brother, since it’s likely to turn him into a vindictive asshole just for sport.

“Archer is a software developer and coder, and if what I heard is correct, likes to dabble in breaking and entering of the cyber variety to steal trade secrets and wreak havoc for funsies.”

“Some punk kid went to all that trouble to hack into our system, went through every precaution we had, just forfun?” Payton repeats slowly. His face is a mask of indifference, but I can hear the underlying rage.

It actually seems like something Payton himself would have done when he was younger. From his tone, it doesn't sound like he appreciates the idea when the shoe is on the other foot. His usual shit-stirring attitude is markedly missing, and Rex doesn’t even realize what he is walking into by delivering this information now. While Payton may be the most genial, golden retriever type of the three of us, we’re all cut from the same cloth, and he’s fully capable of the ruthlessness Hayes is normally tasked with.

“I’ve heard a rumor he’s developed some sort of program called Achilles that runs multi-faceted assaults on servers looking for specific weak points with high-value targets as the end-point. I don't know all the details; it goes over my head, but sounds a lot like what you experienced. He probably had a backer wanting something from the effort. As far as I’m aware, he’s kind of a hacker for hire and takes jobs that interest him enough. I’m sure getting back at the people that not only ruined his father’s company but also sent him to prison would be enough incentive to take on your firewalls and cyber protections.”

I scrutinize Rex as he leans back in his chair. He’s playing it cool, but I can see there’s an undercurrent of fear running beneath his placid surface. Maybe he came across this information from another sensitive source that, if revealed, could potentially put his life at risk once again. I’d be hesitant to give up the details if that were the case, as well.

“This explains his signature,” Payton says under his breath, and we all look at him for an explanation. “His digital signature on the code he ran to get into our system?” When we look at him blankly, he continues. “Our digital forensics identified his signature from the code used and ran it through our database of attack signatures. He included a clever illusion to a bow and arrow in the code, because,Archer.”

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