Page 12 of Loved By the Hacker

“You’re worried about your girl getting upset over the possibility of her sister getting her heart broken again. I get it. You think it was easy to sit on the sidelines, looking at her, hearing the shit that was going on, and not making a move?” But my hands had been tied. I couldn’t make a move. I hadn’t been sure if I could ever be good enough for someone like her, and I sure as fuck didn’t want her to think I was some kind of rebound.

“Honestly, Oleg, I don’t think I would have been able to do what you did,” he complimented, or I was going to decide it was a compliment. I grunted because there wasn’t much to say.

“We done here?”

“You going to call her?”

“My butterfly flew off without leaving her number,” I shared for some godforsaken reason. There was a beat of silence before he started to chuckle.

“She skipped out on you,” he guessed, and I rolled my eyes.

“Like a thief in the early light.” One I had let escape, but he didn’t need to know that.

“Fuck.” He cleared his throat, but I could tell he wanted to laugh. “Like I said, this is going to be interesting to watch.”

“Goodbye, Merri,” I muttered, ending the call.

I started my computer and pulled up all the cameras I could possibly have. I needed eyes on her, and fast. I didn’t like that we shared an incredible night, and she snuck out.Why did I let her?I wondered. The moment my eyes caught sight of her in her living room as she sat on her couch, I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I zoomed in, focusing on her face, stroking the edges. Knowing how that smooth warm skin felt, my fingertips ached to feel her again.

And right then and there, I knew exactly why I’d let her go. My girl deserved to be chased.

The dumbass who had let her go had done the bare minimum, if that. He’d been manipulative and an asshole. Stringing her along in case he found someone better. I scoffed.Someone better?The thought made me laugh. There was no one better. He was truly an idiot. But his loss was my gain.

I was more than ready to chase after my girl. She was more than a woman I wanted to enjoy in all sorts of ways. She was already my entire world.

Coral

Isat in my car and stared out at my brother’s brewery.

I wasn’t there to take the edge off after a long day in the office or even to try and drink my worries away.

I was there for one reason and one reason alone.

I glanced away and caught my reflection in the rearview mirror. My lips were painted red, my makeup was flawless. My eyes skimmed down my body to the little black dress I’d put on that was a little sexier than I normally wore to work but when paired with a blazer still paned out as office attire. Bottom line, I knew I looked good.

It was the first time in a long time I didn’t doubt myself.

Sure, I might have more curves than the ones you saw on TV or in magazines, but I liked them. Or I had started to really like them. I could still remember the sting of Jack’s words or rejection when he turned me down after trying to seduce him.

Funny how that happened, and I would think it was about me and the way I looked. It turned out it was because he was too tired after fucking around on me for however long it had been, so he didn’t have any energy left.

None of that had been real.

If I was honest with myself, I think I’d known that. Maybe not the lengths of his extra-curricular activities or how he messed around with the women at his dental practice, but I’d known we weren’t right. It was why I had been the one who always changed the subject when it came to marriage or family. I thought something was missing. Maybe when we first started seeing each other, there was something real, but later on, as we both grew and evolved, I think we had just been comfortable with each other. Going through the motions. Me in law school and him in dental school.

Everything happens for a reason.My motto since I was little popped into my head. The one I couldn’t seem to wrap my head around after Jack and I ended was starting to make sense again.

My tall, dark, and sexy stranger entered my mind. I hadn’t been able to forget him or think of anyone else. Was this what your first one-night stand was like? You got stupid attached and regretted walking out before sunrise?

If I was honest, he was the real reason I was here.

Parked, staring out at the bar where he had come to my rescue, dressed up and wearing my favorite perfume, one that was so expensive I only wore it to special occasions. And I had stopped to get more than my eyebrows waxed two days before.

Because of him.I couldn’t stop thinking about the man, and all I wanted to know was his name. Okay, maybe that wasn’t all I wanted. My thighs pressed together at the reminder of everything he’d done to my body. Everything I would want from him again.

Maybe I should talk to Olive? She had kept her word and hadn’t told any of our sisters, and if she had, they were all uncharacteristically quiet about it. I could ask her if this was normal to feel?

I glanced at the front door again and then back at the parking lot. I tried to remember the make and model of his dark luxury car, but for the life of me, I couldn’t. I had been so caught up with the man and the way he had come to my rescue and swept me off my feet, I still wasn’t sure of even the color of the interior of his car. The whole night had been a whirlwind. A beautiful, magical hurricane of glittery dust and passion.

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