Page 16 of Loved By the Hacker

“Eat, baby, you’re going to need your energy.” He kissed my forehead, and I expected for him to drop the subject, but he didn’t. “There is something special about Moonlit Pines. I liked it here, so I decided to stay a little longer.”A little longer.I had no idea why that simple sentence seemed to sit heavily in the pit of my gut. A little longer meant he was going to leave and whatever rose-colored glasses I had on needed to be taken off.

“Oh… so, you speak Russian?”

“I do. Not fluently but enough.”

“Nice. Being bilingual is like a superpower. Or that’s what my mom likes to tell everyone.”

“Everyone?”

“She’s a teacher,” I shared. “She teaches dual language immersion.”

“Spanish?” he guessed, and I nodded. “But she has an ear for languages. She speaks four.”

“Really?” He sounded impressed.

“She tried to teach us, but we had a horrible ear for it. Raven, my youngest sister, can pick up a little here and there, but I think by the time Mom tried to teach her, she had given up hope.” I laughed. “She speaks Spanish, English, Tagalog, and German.”

“That’s impressive.” He nodded and got back to eating. “And how’s your Spanish?”

“I’m fluent.”

“Eso es bueno,” he noted in a rich deep tone that made my panties wet. Or wetter.

“You know it?”

“I live in California for the most part.”

“Not in New York?” I asked, hating how hopeful I felt. If he left, or when he left, he’d still be in the same state.

“My family, or what I have of one, is in New York, but I’m in LA.” He shrugged. “And I own a condo in San Diego,” he added, as if it wasn’t a big deal to own real estate in California, much less two.

“Wow. That’s impressive.”

“No, it’s an investment,” he countered. I rolled my eyes but secretly loved how humble he was. He could have easily gone on and on about how much he made. Jill, another attorney in my office, was single and shared about how often all guys liked to talk about what they had and how much they made. Instead, he turned the conversation towards me.

“How’s your week been?” he asked with genuine interest. With those four words, he wrangled me even deeper, and I shared.

I don’t know why I went on and said more than it was just okay. Oleg made it easy to talk to. Easier than anyone else I had ever been around. Which was wild considering I included my sisters in that bunch.

I shared about meeting some clients and what I did and why I liked it. Then, for some reason, I shared what was going on in the office. Little things that no one would really care about. Like how our receptionist had received flowers and one of the partners hadn’t seemed too happy about it. Suddenly, the whole office received a memo that flowers are no longer allowed due to possible allergies. I told Oleg I suspected it was more of the fact he didn’t want her to get flowers from someone else.

Oleg listened to everything I said like he clung to every word, and before I noticed, our plates were empty.

“Busy morning tomorrow?” he asked, and I shook my head.

“I actually took the Friday off,” I shared. “I wanted to go for a hike.” It was stupid to tell my plans to a man who was practically a stranger.But is he a stranger?

“You hike?” He didn’t mask his shock.

“You sound surprised.” My head tilted slightly, and I didn’t miss the way his eyes followed my hair falling to my shoulder.

“I just didn’t take you for the outdoorsy type.”

“I grew up here,” I shared and shrugged. “It’s kinda ingrained in you to go outside and enjoy fresh air once in a while.” When he smiled, it gave him an almost boyish allure. One that pulled me in and made me want to find out everything there could be about him.

Oleg and the Russian-sounding nickname he had given me intrigued me.

“How old are you?” I blurted out asking without thinking.

---