Everything in my world felt good and right.
My God. There was nothing like being nestled in her sweet, hot mouth. Jasmine was heaven. She could have been with anyone, and I was humbled because she chose me. The glorious wet heat of her mouth felt amazing as she sucked me in until I hit the back of her throat. I’d thought I was going to burst as her muscles clenched as she struggled to adjust to my length and width. Slurping noises filled the room as she licked and sucked me, guiding me to climax. I thanked all things holy for bringing her into my life. In return, I pledged to give her anything she wanted and everything I had.
Shit. I was in deep.
What we shared was no longer a work thing. It was a real thing.
"You're mine." The words came out in a whisper. For a moment, I thought that she hadn't heard me. The golden haze of the rising sun cast a soft glow across her face, highlighting the full, plump mouth wrapped around my cock. She lifted off my cock and met my gaze. She replaced her lips with a hand and slowly stroked up and down. The movement briefly jilted me out of my love-struck stupor, hitching my breath.
Love-struck? Fuck.
"Are you mine?" She tilted her head slightly, her lips parted in a genuine smile. In her cool, confident style, she stretched out next to me, still slowly pumping my dick. She leaned in and kissed my cheek. My eyes fluttered as her hand moved faster and faster.
I sucked back a breath and directed my energy on not coming in her hand. I wanted to release deep inside of her. She bit my bottom lip, a demand for the correct response.
I nodded rapidly and bucked my hips upward, pumping into her hand like a piston. I tried, but I couldn't last much longer.
"I'm yours." My climax built from my center and shot out through all my extremities. The eruption sprouted up like a fountain and dripped onto perfectly manicured hands.
"Good answer."
She reached for a tissue off the nightstand and wiped the traces of my cum off before she rested her chin on my chest.
"I don't want to go to work today. Can we call in sick? I'll order room service, and we'll stay in bed all day and make slow, lazy love." My hand traveled down her back and squeezed her ass. She smiled, leaning closer, brushing her lips against mine.
I parted my mouth, my tongue slowly moving to taste hers, sending shivers through my body. She wrapped a leg around mine, the heat from between her thighs scorching my skin.
We crashed against each other. Raining hard, bruising kisses on each other, her mouth sucking my tongue. My hand roamed from her chin to her shoulder and dipped lower, ghosting over a distended nipple. She gasped sharply, and her eyes fluttered. I rolled her onto her back and dipped my head to take the pebbled flesh between my teeth, nipping until she fell limply against the mattress. I pulled my shirt over my head and resumed biting and sucking her breasts.
At the height of our foreplay, my phone vibrated on the nightstand. I ignored it and continued to lick and bite and suck on the hardened tips. A voicemail chimed simultaneously with the text message notification sound.
"Don't answer it," she gasped. I moaned and nodded in agreement. Our moment was short-lived when my cell phone rang again.
"Fuck. It must be important. I've got to answer." I leaned over and picked up the phone, a Dynex phone extension displayed on the screen. I pressed the red Answer symbol. "This is Garrett."
I looked over at Jasmine's concerned eyes. She'd sat up on the bed, the pale, shell pink strap of her silk camisole fell from her shoulder. Swollen lips. Mussed hair shooting in all directions. I reached over and adjusted the strap of her silk camisole and leaned in to kiss her pouty mouth.
"Work. I'm sorry," I mouthed.
"G, man, what's up? Um. This is Austin in the SecOp. We've found a priority one issue that needs your attention. I think you need to come to the office right away."
"Okay. I'll be there in the hour." I pressed the End Call button.
"Everything okay?"
"Something's going on at work. I need to go in." I kissed the top of her head before turning to search for my shirt, pants, and shoes. "My mouth waters for that pussy. Raincheck?"
"This pussy stays on ready for you,” she teased.
I kissed her on the lips, dressed quickly, and sprinted out the door. I flagged a cab and texted Hunter on the five-minute drive to my condo. At home, I showered and skipped the shave and breakfast, slid on clean clothes, and hightailed it to the Dynex offices, arriving shortly after seven o'clock.
"This is our worst fucking nightmare." A stressed Hunter ran a hand through his hair, ruffling his already messy coif. "Looks like they've only accessed our testing environment. The enterprise solutions team recently refreshed the databases with live customer data. Austin is reviewing the logs to make sure the hacker didn't access it."
We stood outside the office that Austin and Chace shared. Our two-person security operations team were roommates and coworkers. The ethical hackers spent their days hyped-up on coffee and nights navigating the dark web for threats.
"How did he access?" I asked.
"Some sort of a worm. We searched the dark web, and this has a signature of The Penguin. It's brand fucking new, and it is in our network," Hunter said.
"Shit."
"Austin hacked into the code to see if he can come up with something. Chace is on his way. I called, and he was in the middle of a wake and bake. Don't worry. He does his best work when he’s fully blazed.”
"If anyone can figure it out, it would be those two. But I think there's someone else that may be of help." I picked up my phone and scrolled through my recent calls. I walked out of the office and pressed my thumb on the name.
“Hi," Jasmine answered the phone with a smile permeating her voice.
"Hi, sweetie. Shit's crazy down here. We have an issue that we could use your help with. Do you mind stopping by the SecOps area on your way in?
"I thought you would. I'm on my way."
Ten minutes later, Jasmine walked into the office balancing her work bag and two boxes containing an assortment of doughnuts. To her left stood a bed-worn Chace. He held a carafe of coffee and a stack of paper cups.
"Mornin' fellas. I picked up breakfast from the shop across the street. I had a little help with the coffee. Thanks, Chace." She blazed a big smile at him. He tried to hide a wide, dimpled grin. She searched the room until our eyes met, and the corners of her mouth revealed a slight smile. She turned her attention back to the other three.
Like vultures, Hunter, Austin, and Chace pounced on the boxes and cartons. Austin and Chace were likely experiencing the munchies and Hunter . . . well he enjoyed eating. They each took two doughnuts and filled the cups with coffee. Jasmine pulled a pile of paper napkins from her work bag and placed them on the table.
The five of us huddled together with the napkin wrapped treats in one hand and coffee in the other. Jasmine turned her attention to Austin and Chace.
"So, what's going on?" Jasmine asked.
"Someone's been in our network and poked around in customer data. Not in the live environment," said Austin.
"We recently moved over a small amount of U.S. customer data for testing. Not credit card data. We anonymized most, but there may be old legacy accounts. Less than two hundred customers." Hunter took a huge bite of the doughnut and chewed noisily.
"That's good news. I'll talk to legal, but we aren't obligated to report less than five hundred names." I breathed a sigh of relief. Reporting to authorities could have placed a bigger spotlight on Dynex's technology.
Jasmine, Chace, and Austin huddled around two thirty-two-inch monitors while Hunter and I sat at the table and drafted a communication to the executive team explaining the issue and the actions taken to correct it.
"A ten-year-old could have done a better job. I wonder what the hacker wants." Jasmine slowly shook her head. "Did the malware protection show any active threats?"
"No. This is the first report," Chace said while chewing on a glazed doughnut.
"I
t's almost as if the bad guy wrote it specifically for Dynex,” Austin tsked.
"This is a typical move of a black hat hacker. Send a spoofed email. The recipient clicks on the link granting the hacker the keys to the city. We're lucky that he didn't access financial data. Now is not the time to announce a breach. Your billion-dollar IPO turns into junk," said Jasmine.
"Yeah, a shitty black hat hacker at that. He or she left more breadcrumbs than Goldilocks." Chace chewed noisily on another glazed doughnut.
"That was Hansel and Gretel." Jasmine looked at the two over her tortoiseshell frames. "Two little badass kids, eating that poor woman's home."
"The witch gets it at the end," I piped up, looking from the email I've drafted to communicate the issue. She passed me a heart-melting smile. This woman . . .
"Chace, a woman would not be this careless." She waited a beat, and seriousness took her tone. "This behavior goes against the rules of being a hacker. You get in, look around, do what you want, and clean up your tracks. Is this person trying to throw us off?"
"It feels like they wanted us to know they were here. Our visitor did a poor job of covering up his tracks," Austin added for emphasis.
Kiss ass.
The three shared jokes and lively chatter. Then I saw it. Chace and Austin were flirting with Jasmine and likely imagining her in their beds. And as rumor had it, the two enjoyed women separately and together.
Jasmine said a few words, and the two laughed a little too loud and a bit too long for my taste, but there was nothing I could do about it. Our relationship wasn't public, so I couldn't jump and land on both of their heads. I couldn't beat on my chest and tell them she was mine. I had to sit there and watch the two pot-smoking, woman-sharing dipshits flirt with my girlfriend.
My girlfriend.
Seeing the three clustered together changed everything. I needed to shift from figuring out my life after the IPO to figuring out my life with Jasmine after the ER Wallace engagement. There was no way I was letting go of her.
"Did you guys find a solution?" I called over, putting an end to their love fest.
"Yes. We closed port number two-twenty-two and took a screenshot of the closed connection message on the console," Jasmine answered. "I suggested Austin and Chace get information from the IP address, then review all port settings. The last thing we want is to receive word that all the product links have changed to point to Pornhub videos."
What a great idea. She saved my ass. And for that, I’ll reward her with whatever she wants. I'd bury my face between her legs all night if she desired.
The next day, I received a meeting invitation from my boss, Jeff. There was one agenda item, discussion on yesterday's breach. Shortly before noon, I entered Jeff's corner office and took the seat facing his desk. I pulled out the notes from the violation, along with a report showing no malicious activities in the last twenty-four hours. There was a soft knock at the door before Nic slipped in and walked behind Jeff's desk. I thought she would push Jeff out of his chair. Instead, she stood next to him and leaned against the window.
"Garrett, Nic and I would like to discuss yesterday's activities. I know that you are preparing a root cause analysis, but we need to answer questions from the board and our investors."
I opened my mouth to answer, but Nic stepped away from the window and interrupted.
"Garrett, do you care to tell us how your team missed that we had a bad guy in our network?" she demanded impolitely.
"The tools we use are insufficient for the size and scope of our business. We're reliant on freeware."
"Why didn't you develop a proposal for additional software?" Nic raised an eyebrow.
"Hunter and I presented a business case back in early March. We received management and VP level approval, but it failed at the chief level."
"You should have pushed harder. I've noticed that you don't fight for what's important to you." Nic delivered the last statement as a verbal slap across my face. Shards of each word pierced and embedded into my flesh. Stunned, I blinked twice before I answered.
"Nic . . . for the past five months, you've denied all of my requests." I pushed a printout to Jeff. "Here's the bill of materials for the equipment and software needed to secure the network."
Jeff leaned back in his chair. He looked stressed and not at ease, which made me uncomfortable. Which meant I needed to keep my guard up. I winced and waited for the bomb to drop.
"Garrett, we've invited you here for a reason. We're gonna have to suspend you," he said. "Thirty days."
My head swam. Even as my mind groped for the words, I had to know. I needed a reason.
"Why?"
"Jeff, allow me to explain. Under your leadership, we've had two incidents in our network. We will bring in an external Incident Response Team to inspect what's going on. Once they've completed, if there's no wrongdoing on your part, we'll bring you back." Nic stepped away from the window. "Garrett, I considered firing you, but you are a valuable member of this team. I think the period away from the office will give you time to remember what's important. You'll return with renewed energy. We just want the old Garrett Hamilton back."
"Can I leave now?"
"Garrett, if you don't mind. I'd like to speak to you alone, in my office." Nic walked to the door.
"No. I am leaving." Grabbing my portfolio, I pushed away from Jeff's desk and stood.
"Jeff . . ." Nic leveled a knowing look at him. He nodded and exited his office, closing the door behind him. She crossed in front of me, blocking the exit.
"Nic, be honest for once. This is about Jasmine."
"Why would I care about you or Jasmine? This is about doing what's right. I could have tossed you on your ass, but I didn't. I think we can both admit that your mind's been elsewhere. In thirty days, the Wallace team and your distractions will no longer be an issue."
I sidestepped her and placed my hand on the doorknob. I stopped when she called over to me.
"Garrett, wait. I ask that you go home and think about if this is what you want."
I flung open the door and took a deep breath before storming out of the room. I'd spent eight years of my life working to cultivate a professional brand that exuded quality and creativity. For the first time in my career, I was not a star player. If given the opportunity, Nic would unceremoniously toss me out on my ass and throw me under the bus.
I hated that years of hard work hung in the balance of Nic's whims.
Fuck that. I would stand and do what was right.
Fuck Jeff.
And fuck Nic.
Jasmine
"Hey, babe, call when you get a chance."
I wrapped up a productive meeting with the enterprise applications department when I received the voicemail from Garrett. The sounds of the city provided a noisy backdrop, but his voice was anguished and raw. It was the voice where anger bubbled just beneath the surface.
The project war room was eerily quiet. The time was eleven forty-five, and we were fifteen minutes into lunch. There were several food containers on the kitchenette counters, but the room was empty. The analysts were likely taking a midday walk, enjoying the unusually cool summer day.
Hunter and Lilah appeared at the conference room door. The two shared the same strained expression.
"There you are." Lilah exhaled a breath of relief.
"What's going on? Where's everyone?" I asked.
Hunter and Lilah traded concerned looks. Hunter turned back to me.
"We're going out for a long lunch. Grab your purse, let's go." Hunter's tone was uncharacteristically firm, it prickled my skin.
"Does Garrett know? I'll send him a text." I raised my phone to my face to unlock.
The two shared conspiratorial looks. Hunter shook his head. "We don't have time."
"Is everything okay?" I asked.
"Jasmine, we'll talk outside," Lilah said in an impatient tone. I knew that something important happened.
I grabbed my purse and followed behind him and Lilah.
We were silent in the elevator, only politely smiling and nodding when someone entered the car. We exited the lobby into the bustling midday crowd. Hunter created a path through the jam-packed sidewalk. Our trio dodged tourists clustered around street performers until we found an empty path.
Hunter stopped walking and turned to me.
"Jeff and Nic suspended Garrett for thirty days. They didn't make any formal announcements. He texted me when he arrived home. We're going to his place to hear what happened. You two didn't wear walking shoes,” he said, looking down at our feet. Holding up a hand and he flagged an oncoming taxi to a screeching stop.
My heart crashed against my chest, so hard I thought it would burst out of it. My vision went black as I slid into the back seat next to Lilah. I needed to calm down and receive the facts before reacting, but I knew that whatever happened wasn't good.
I whipped out my cellphone and began blocking out my calendar for the rest of the afternoon.
"Ontario and Dearborn, please," Hunter said to the cab driver. He was wound so tight that he was like a coil ready to spring forth.
Lilah took my hand and squeezed it. A silent confirmation that everything would be okay. I wasn't sure if it would.
Fifteen minutes later, Garrett answered the door. He'd loosened his tie and held a bottle of Ketel One. Brows furrowed and hair disheveled, probably from running his hand through it, I'd never seen him so angry. He gestured for the three of us to enter, his eyes locked on mine.
I wrapped my arms around him. I didn't have any words of advice. He patted my ass and then leaned in for a quick peck.
"Um, hello, Garrett. Good to see ya," Lilah said sarcastically and squeezed through the entry. Garrett led us to the sectional in the living room.
"Hoss. What the fuck?" Hunter closed and locked the entry door. Apparently, no stranger to Garrett's condo, Hunter walked to the kitchen and pulled out four glasses from the kitchen cabinets. He'd found a bottle of tonic in the refrigerator and returned to the living room. He pulled the vodka from Garrett's hand and filled three of the glasses with two fingers of vodka and splashes of tonic. The fourth glass, which I assumed was for Lilah, was all tonic with a splash of vodka.
It's a Work Thing Page 14