Page 27 of Loved By the Hacker

“That’s how you knew which one was my car the first night we had dinner at the brewery.” I nodded. “That first night… when we bumped into one another and you pretended to be my?—“

“Man?” I cut in, and she bit down on her bottom lip to stop herself from smiling.

“Sure, when you pretended to be my man.”

“There was no pretending, Coral. I was yours from the moment I first saw you.” I might not have known it then, but I knew it now.

“Singing horribly?” she asked, and my shoulders relaxed.

She knew it all. The bad and the worse. Yet she wasn’t leaving.

Coral hadn’t run away like I was the devil reincarnated. If anything, she was snuggled against me perfectly, holding on to me like I was some kind of anchor to her. And fuck me, I wanted to be that and more for her.

“No.” I shook my head. “I’d seen you in the biker bar. Dancing and drinking. Glancing around.” She listened and blinked. I recognized the moment she remembered. It was like a lightbulb turned on inside her head.

“You were there,” she said. “I remember seeing you and thinking…” Her voice drifted to nothing, but the slight tinge of color in her cheeks made me curious.

“What?” I asked. Not because I needed my ego stroked but because the color on her face was coming back, letting me believe maybe, just maybe, I had a chance.

“That you were seriously hot but way out of my league.”

“You weren’t ready. I’ve always been around, baby.”

“How didn’t I see you?” she whispered. “Why didn’t we meet before?”

“You weren’t ready,” I repeated, but she had a stubborn look on her face.

“But I was ready that night a little over a month ago?”

“I hope so. Because despite all this, and I know how crazy it sounds and how many boundaries my invasion of your privacy broke, you’re not getting rid of me. I meant it when I said I loved you last night. The question is, do you think you can keep loving me through my obsession with you?” I asked, putting my heart on the line.

“Oleg,” she whispered my name. “This is a lot. I mean… you know I have to tell Scar now about?—“

“She knows,” I cut her off, needing her to know her sister knew and was safe from whatever threat she thought Merri might be. “She knows everything.”

“She does?”

“Yes,” I confirmed. “You two can talk about it later. I hate to be a dick but…” I swallowed. “Now that you know it all, did it change things between us?”

“Oleg.”

“Coral.”

“Baby, you know I’m an attorney, right? You can’t keep doing things like that. Illegal things.”

“I could hire you and put you on retainer so you can be the keeper of all my secrets,” I half teased.

“Oleg,” she sighed. “I’m a divorce attorney,” she reminded me, as if I didn’t know exactly what she did. Like I didn’t know everything there was to know about her.

“Okay, what if I promise I won’t take on any dangerous hacking jobs?”

“That’s subjective,” she argued, and my lips twitched as my dick started to wake up. If she was arguing with me using legal jargon, that gave me hope.

“Okay, what if I promise only to use my special skills on seriously important jobs?” I asked, and she shook her head.

“And take down the cameras in my place?” My hand cupped her face as I leaned in closer, resting my forehead against hers because I needed to be as near as possible for these negotiations.

“Only if you move in with me,” I countered, and if I wasn’t mistaken, she paled.

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