Page 3 of Indecent Demands

The man looked up at me, then his breathtaking blue gaze scanned me from head to toe, as if assessing every inch of me. “Miss Kent,” he acknowledged with a nod.

He slipped his hand into mine, giving it a firm shake. Jesus, even his hands were large and strong, and I felt an undeniable rush of desire flow through my bloodstream. Even my knees went a little weak.

I quickly shook off my reaction. What was wrong with me? I hadn’t swooned over a man in ages . . . even if everything about this man was completely swoon-worthy.

“I’m Seth Maxwell,” he said, his voice a smooth, deep rumble made me shiver in reaction. “I’ve been asked to take a look at your security systems. Now that Smirtech is dealing so much in crypto, Mr. Harcourt wants to see if there’s any need to strengthen the firewalls. As you probably know, once a transaction in crypt is made it’s nearly impossible to undo it, which means scammers can get away with robbing you blind.”

I nodded, and now my throat went a little dry, even though it wasn’t possible that he was aware of my covert activities. “Of course. That’s why I was hired. I have experience in crypto and worked for several companies that integrated the digital currency into their workforce before it became mainstream. I can’t say that mistakes weren’t ever made, but I can say that I have a lot more experience from those mistakes than most people do in the world of crypto.”

“Glad to hear it.”

Seth smiled at me, and I could feel my stomach turning into a flock of butterflies, which I immediately tried to squash. This wasn’t my first encounter with a guy who could possibly gum up my system. But it was my first time with someone who distracted me so easily. I told myself I could handle the temptation, but being attracted to the man who could possibly bring me down was dangerous.

Seth tipped his head toward the laptop that was set up in front of him, the one he’d been perusing when I’d entered the room. “Why don’t you walk me through the system?”

“Sure thing.” I grabbed an extra chair and pulled it up to the head of the conference table to give him a rundown of everything, focusing on the techy stuff instead of how amazing he smelled standing next to me. “As you know, Smirtech wanted to give small businesses and other lower-level productions a way to handle their portfolios when they can’t yet afford the big firms and want to start building up savings. It’s vital that companies and startups build up their savings for a rainy day and don’t rely solely on their cash on hand.”

What I didn’t tell Seth was about all the illegal funds that Harcourt, himself, was siphoningintothe company for his own gain and to avoid taxes as he converted that money into cryptocurrency, essentially laundering his money, because blowing the whistle on that would defeat my purpose of skimming those illegitimate deposits. I never touched a client’s money, interest, or investments . . . it was all about sticking it to those who were already corrupt to begin with.

I opened up our various accounts to show him how our systems worked. “I’ll give you a basic tour and then you can ask me any specific questions you have and I’ll be happy to answer them and show you anything else you’d like to see.”

Seth took a seat next to me, close enough that his hard muscular thigh brushed mine, and gestured for me to begin. “Go ahead.”

I wasn’t sure how much this guy knew and what level of an expert he was, so I decided to just give him a walkthrough of all our systems, like I would anyone else. There was no reason for me to hide anything. If he could find my network piggybacking on top of Smirtech’s, then he’d have to do it on his own. I wasn’t going to help him out with that, clearly, and a simple tour of our software wouldn’t be enough to give it away. No, he’d have to hack into the nexus itself down in our computer room to find any evidence of what I was doing.

In the meantime, I made a mental note to fortify my own network—perhaps disable the automatic one and strip things down a bit and mix up the coding. It never hurt to be too careful.

Besides, who knew how good this guy really was at actual computer tech? He was security, so he was probably used to cameras and real-life problems. Built like he was? This Seth was most likely a body builder who didn’t know as much about computers as he should.

“So.” I logged in with my credentials. “As you can see, I have a level three clearance as a member of our tech team. Most employees have a level two clearance, and then Mr. Harcourt and a few of his trusted C-level execs have level four, which is the highest level but generally reserved for sensitive documents rather than actual hardware like we techies have to deal with. People like the cleaning crew, temps, and receptionists have level one clearance—just enough to get them things like emails, into and out of the building, that sort of thing.”

Seth nodded. “Who can give me level four clearance?”

My eyebrows shot up as I stared at him. “You’d only need level three clearance in order to access everything in our security system, Mr. Maxwell.”

Why would he need to get into the documents of our C-level executives? Did he need to look at something from the legal department? But what would that have to do with network security? My gut was telling me that there was more to his presence here at the company than simple security protocols.

His gaze held mine, direct and undeterred. “As I told Mr. Harcourt, I need access to absolutely everything in order to properly investigate and make a thorough evaluation of the system. I don’t want to have my progress impeded because I ran into a brick wall.”

I just barely restrained myself from rolling my eyes. Okay, he might be handsome, but he was a stubborn jerk who clearly liked to feel powerful just for the hell of it, same as the rest of them. Pity. “All right, my boss, Tony, will be the one who can get you that clearance. I’ll have him talk to you.”

“Any reason you’re the one talking to me if another person is your boss?”

I bristled in annoyance. “Tony’s job is more about handling the members of our team and delegating. I’m the person who knows this system inside and out, so I’m the person you want to talk to if you want an expert.”

Seth gave me his full attention, and I once again got the impression that he was looking right through me. Then he turned back to the computer. “Couldyouget level four clearance if you wanted?”

“I have no reason for it.” Despite the uneasy feeling settling in the pit of my stomach, I said, “I suppose I could ask Tony to give it to me. He trusts me.”

“Good.” Seth nodded. “I might need to use your account to look into things. See if you can get that clearance.”

I took a deep, slow breath.Yeah, not good. Not good at all.“Why would you need my account, specifically? Can’t you just create your own?”

He casually drummed his fingers on the conference tabletop. “Of course that’s what I’d prefer, but if people in the company can follow my trail back to me, they’ll get nervous when they see an outsider looking at things and poking around. But if it’s a high level employee doing it, it’ll seem like business as usual.”

Okay, that was it. I straightened in my chair and called him out on my suspicions. “Mr. Maxwell. I hope I’m not overstepping here, but this sounds to me like more than just a simple security check.”

He arched a brow at my accusation. “Don’t you think I should know what any tech employee could get access to so I know the potential pitfalls of the system?”

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