Page 80 of Never Again

“And?”

“And I, ummm, may have broken my promise to Nathan,” she said, pretty sure that he already knew everything. The man was devious, after all.

“Meaning…”

“I didn’t run a background check on her,” Bailey admitted, struggling to bite back a wince when she felt him go still against her.

“Because?” Quinn asked with one last kiss before he leaned back so that he could watch her as he waited for an answer that he wasn’t going to like.

She opened her mouth, only to rethink that decision, closed it, cleared her throat, and then, finally, “I would very much like to ensure that this won’t lead to Nathan following through with that threat to beat my ass.”

“I can promise that your brother won’t beat your ass,” Quinn drawled as she felt herself relax, only to wince when he added, “because I’ll most likely be spanking it.”

Clearing her throat, Bailey said, “In that case, then, I’m going to require you to promise not to do that.”

“Depends on what you tell me,” Quinn murmured, leaning in to brush his lips against hers.

“I’m afraid that I’m going to need a better offer than that,” Bailey said, making his lips twitch against hers.

“I’m willing to overlook the fact that you managed to negotiate a second Coke behind my back,” Quinn drawled, which was probably going to be the best offer that she was going to get.

“Because I knew that she was running away from something,” Bailey finally grumbled, only to swallow hard when he said, “And you still hired her,” and-

“Oh, that can’t be good,” Bailey mumbled weakly when she saw the look on his face.

When he didn’t say anything after a minute, which was really starting to concern her, especially when a muscle in his jaw began ticking, she cleared her throat, shifted, and decided that this would probably be a good time to change the subject. “I should probably get to work now,” Bailey murmured, even though she had to admit that might be an issue with her laptop currently locked in a metal bin somewhere.

She opened her mouth to inquire about his laptop, only to rethink that plan when his eyes took on a dangerous glint and-

“Why can’t you access your files remotely?” Quinn asked, thankful for the change of subject even as she tried to figure out the best way to explain this.

“Technically, I can, but I choose not to because I don’t like to take chances,” Bailey said, only to decide that she should probably further explain when his eyes narrowed dangerously on her. Clearing her throat, she continued. “Haven Technologies’ server is set up for in-house use only. I set it up to stop anyone from accessing files from an outside IP as well as set a safeguard on the files to lock if the laptops were taken out of the building.”

“And if they make a copy of the file?” Quinn asked, looking lost in thought.

“They won’t be able to access it without my key,” Bailey said, shrugging it off.

“What about the employees who are working on the program?” he asked as he ran his hands back down her thighs.

“I broke the project down into pieces and assigned each piece to a different team, making sure that it couldn’t be pieced together without my code. So, even if someone was able to get their hands on every part, they wouldn’t be to-”

“Piece it together,” Quinn finished for her with a nod of understanding. “Are your files in the same folder?”

“No, I learned my lesson the first time that one of my games was stolen,” Bailey said with another shrug as she gave up playing with the buttons on his shirt and reached up and ran her fingertips along his jaw, enjoying the feel of his early morning whiskers against her skin.

“Meaning?” Quinn asked as he turned his head and kissed her palm.

“I keep my files on a separate server along with the completed parts from my team,” Bailey admitted as she leaned forward and brushed her lips against his.

“Does anyone else know?” Quinn asked, running his hands back up her thighs and over her hips as he returned the kiss, making her moan softly as she felt herself melting in his arms. God, she was quickly becoming addicted to his touch and that terrified her, but not enough to put a stop to this.

“No,” Bailey said, moving to wrap her arms around him.

“Good. Keep it that way,” Quinn said as he reached up and ran his fingertips along her jaw. “Where does Jonathan’s program play into this?”

“How much do you know about coding?” Bailey asked, not really sure how she was going to explain this.

“Nothing,” Quinn murmured with a slight shake of his head as he leaned in and brushed his lips against hers.

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