“I’m so glad you believe that I didn’t hack you now that you have proof that exonerates me,” I told him, “but like I said, I don’t think I can forgive you. You should leave. Obviously, I don’t have a lot in this world, but I’ve still got my self-respect.”
I’d started crying again, and I hated that he could see it. My legs had gotten cold without fury to keep me warm, and I pulled a blanket down from around the back of the loveseat and wrapped it around myself. If it had been socially acceptable, or if I’d been just a little more drunk, I’d have burrowed down underneath it and hid my face. As it was, I had to keep on looking into his stupid, handsome one.
“Zoey,” Nathan pleaded, reaching out to touch me but pulling back when I recoiled from his hand, “what would it take for you to forgive me? I don’t want to lose my chance with you.”
I barked a bitter little laugh through my tears. Nathan frowned.
“Lose me? I was never yours to lose. We’ve known each other for all of two days,” I whispered through my tears, “can’t you see I’m exhausted? I don’t feel well. Please just go. Let’s go back to being strangers.”
“Do you want me to make you some tea?” He offered softly, and my heart squeezed painfully in my chest. He looked pained, but it was probably all an act. I wanted to believe him so badly I could practically taste it. Even now, I wanted him to hold me in his arms. I wanted him to want me back.
“You should just leave,” I said, but my heart wasn’t really in it. Sometimes being an optimist really messed with my head. It let me believe things that weren’t really true.
“What if I make you some tea first? Then if you want me to go, I will,” Nathan offered.
I sighed deeply, and he took that as a yes. In truth, I was just too tired to argue. While he was fussing around in the kitchen, I set my head down on the loveseat and watched him. A billionaire astronaut was making me tea in the middle of the night after begging my forgiveness for accusing me of hacking his commercial spaceflight company. Oh, and yesterday we had sex while I was supposed to be interviewing Angelica Hunt. My life had gotten very strange, very quickly. My heart was going to get broken. I just knew it.
17
Nathan
While I was trying to figure out how to make Zoey’s stinky loose-leaf tea, she fell asleep. She was curled around herself like a cat atop the loveseat. I waited awkwardly with the tea to see if she would wake up, but when she didn’t, I carefully lifted her the two feet between her couch and bed and tucked her in. Maybe she’d be angry that I’d touched her when she woke up, but if the half-empty bottle of vodka on the table was any indication, she may not remember where she fell asleep.
I poked around in her kitchen for a few minutes trying to locate a vase for the flowers, but it seemed like Zoey had been telling me the truth. She didn’t own one. She did, however, own a purple, plastic pitcher with little flecks of gold glitter in it, so I put the flowers in that. It didn’t look too bad, all things considered. It looked… festive.
Once the flowers, the tea, and Zoey were sorted, I didn’t know what to do. Ironically, this was exactly what I wanted last night: the opportunity to poke around in Zoey’s space.
Tonight, the thought was unthinkable. Other than looking for the bathroom, which wasn’t exactly hard to locate in such a tiny space, I actively tried not to touch, disturb, or even look at anything. There was no way I’d invade her space now.
But I couldn’t bring myself to leave either. I sat down on her loveseat and watched her sleeping soundly. She was beautiful.
Her soft hair was wavy and messy over her pillow, and even though her makeup was in ruins, I could still admire her pink, full lips, porcelain skin, flawless bone structure, and long eyelashes. The outfit she was wearing was probably not meant to be sexy, but the combination of the sinfully short shorts and the peaks of her hard nipples showing through the thin fabric of her t-shirt left me breathless. She was as sexier in her t-shirt and shorts than any other woman would be in expensive lingerie.
Zoey tossed around a bit, not snoring, but making some cute little mewling noises as she slept. She must be dreaming. I didn’t want to be voyeuristic, but she was distractingly attractive.
Unwilling to leave before winning her forgiveness, I stretched out awkwardly on the smallest, most uncomfortable loveseat I’d ever seen and turned off the lights. I knew there was no way I’d be able to sleep on such a disastrously uncomfortable piece of furniture, but at least I could watch over Zoey. I closed my eyes and willed my body to relax, but rest wasn’t available. The thought that Zoey had thought I’d been feigning my attraction to her in order to gain her trust or prove she was the hacker made me feel even worse than I already did.
When the text arrived from Cecelia that there was no new information to share on the data breach, I texted her back:
What do you think it means that the hacker’s hardware and software originated in Russia?
Her reply took several minutes to arrive. I fidgeted awkwardly while I waited.
I have no idea. Russia is a hotbed for cybercrime, so we have no way of knowing whether the hackers wanted the information themselves or were working for someone else. Maybe they just wanted some launch data to sell to terrorists making rockets. Or North Korea. There are still too many possibilities.
I frowned as I thought about my last interaction with a Russian.
You don’t think this has anything to do with Ysenia, do you? I asked Cecelia.
After I returned from my first, last, and most infamous mission, I’d never seen nor heard from her again; not that I wanted to. But as far as I could tell, she’d completely fallen off the map. The Russians refused to answer questions about her.
I don’t see how it could. No one’s seen her in years. We’ve turned all our findings over to the Feds, so I guess they’ll let us know if there’s a Russian government connection.
That wasn’t very comforting. If I had to rely on the Federal government in order to solve the crime of my missing data, I had little faith in ever discovering the truth. I’d been a military and government employee for a half decade. I knew how incompetent the system was.
Does Victor still think he’ll be able to identify exactly what was taken today? I asked. The good thing about texting was that my anxiety level didn’t come through.
I was really hoping we’d be able to proceed with the manned launch. If the hacked data had to do with the data collection from the unmanned test, it would make the entire experiment invalid. We’d have to throw the data out and delay for months.
I would never bet against Victor. If he says he will figure it out, I’m sure he will. Cecelia replied.
That gave me hope, at least. Right now, there was no reason to believe I wouldn’t be leaving Earth’s atmosphere on Friday. All of my work over the last four years had been leading to this week. More specifically, this Friday. It had to work.
“Nathan?” Zoey’s sleepy voice pulled me from my phone at 3:45.
“Did the light from my phone wake you up?” I asked her, “I’m sorry.”
“No, I just got cold,” she replied quietly, “do you want to come and lie down with me?”
Obviously yes. I undressed quickly down to my boxers and undershirt, leaving my clothes in a pile on her loveseat.
“Does that mean you forgive me?” I asked hopefully.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. It was too dark to see her face, but her voice was small and tremulous, “I’m cold though and I don’t want to be alone. You’re still here, so will you come to bed and hold me?”
I lay down next to her and she instantly snuggled up under my arm with her cheek against my chest and one arm and leg across me. For someone who was still angry at me, she was awfully affectionate. Or maybe she just wanted a warm, human body pillow. At that moment, I’d take what I could get. If I was just a human space heater, I’d fulfill my purpose as best as I could. I wrapped my arms around her tightly and buried my face in her hair, finally feeling my pani
c subside. Zoey’s warm, sleepy body felt totally natural and right next to mine. Our breathing synched up after a moment and each exhale felt less tense than the last.
Maybe she would wake up in the morning at hate me again, but it was a risk I was willing to take. She filled a gaping, painful void in me that I hadn’t realized was there. Even if it was temporary, being whole for a little while was better than being broken forever.
Durant Astronautics Continues Data Breach Investigation Amid Countdown to Manned Test
Phillip Paderewski, The Philadelphia Monitor
Just days from its first-ever manned test launch, Durant Astronautics continues to investigate the data breach which occurred simultaneously with Monday’s successful unmanned rocket test.
“The company recently obtained new intelligence and now believes, following an internal investigation, that the data theft was accomplished using a Virtual Proxy network, rather than by the use of stolen credentials as initially thought,” according to a statement from Durant Astronautics.
According to experts, it’s not uncommon for forensic investigations to expose both larger breaches than initial estimates took place, and red herrings left by hackers.
“This often happens with data breaches involving sophisticated assailants,” said Wesley Summers, security expert at Quantainment Data Privacy, “Initially, the investigation establishes a timeline and set of compromised systems and data, then later something is discovered that either expands the compromised systems or access, or reveals that the entire first series of assumptions were set up only to throw investigators off the hackers’ trail.”
Summers also said there is a possibility that Durant Astronautics may never determine exactly what was stolen or by whom unless the data later appears up for sale on the dark web.
In the meantime, there has been no word thus far that there is any plan to delay the manned test of Starflier I on Friday. Nathan Breyer, the CEO of Durant Astronautics and a former NASA pilot and astronaut, has always maintained that he would personally pilot the spacecraft during its inaugural voyage.
“I would never ask anyone else to take this risk on my behalf,” Breyer said at a conference last year, “but space travel is only as inherently dangerous as air travel once was. It’s mostly our fear and ignorance that holds us back. I intend to personally prove that we don’t need governments to take us to space.”
Breyer made waves several years ago when he became the first man on record to have had sexual intercourse in space. Footage of then-Major Breyer and a Russian Cosmonaut named Ysenia Antonova while onboard the International Space Station ended up in the hands of tabloids, who widely publicized it. It is unclear how the video footage leaked, however some intelligence analysts at the time suspected it was a Russian state-sponsored attempt at embarrassing the United States. Still others speculated that the entire affair was a NASA experiment, an allegation NASA vehemently denies.
Since the scandal and Breyer’s subsequent expulsion from the military and the space program, Durant Astronautics has achieved several historic firsts in the commercial spaceflight industry. Sending a manned, commercial spacecraft successfully into the upper atmosphere is just the first milestone in a number of ambitious strategic initiatives planned for the company. It is still unclear what effect, if any, this data breach will have on the long-term prospects of the company, which employs thousands of people in the Philadelphia area.
18
Zoey
No more red wine and no more vodka. Ever. I was learning the hard way that self-medicating took a much harsher toll on my body at twenty-four than it did back in college. The good news, if a hangover can have good news, is that I’d thrown up so much yesterday that there was no nausea when I opened my eyes.
The other piece of dubious good news was that Nathan was asleep next to me in bed. I vaguely remembered his visit from the night before, and us fighting and sort-of making up. I remembered asking him to lie down with me.
He was an extremely cute sleeper. He looked peaceful and happy in whatever dream he was having. The little stress lines around his forehead had relaxed, and he was curled up around me. I let myself briefly revel in his warm, solid body, appreciating every inch of contact and comfort.
It was nine a.m., however, so I needed to get up and prepare for what was guaranteed to be a delightful photo shoot at Angelica Hunt’s country club. Leaving Nathan asleep in my bed, I carefully made my way to the bathroom. My long, super-hot shower helped ease the throbbing in my skull and finally got rid of the awful makeup mess I’d been wearing around. It felt fantastic to be clean.
When I emerged from my shower, Nathan was awake. He was sitting up in bed and poking at his phone. His smile when he caught sight of me made my heart do a little flip-flop into my throat.
“Good morning,” he said cheerfully.
“Good morning Nathan,” I replied, cautiously smiling back at him, “I’m mildly encouraged to see that you aren’t going through my mail or something.”
He grimaced.
“I promise I didn’t snoop around last night,” he said earnestly, “I know you probably don’t trust me yet, but I swear. I know you had nothing to do with the hacking.”
I shrugged.
“You can go through my mail all you want, Nathan,” I told him playfully, rooting around in my little chest of drawers for some clothes, “all you’re going to find are threatening letters from my student loan company and lots of junk mail.”
For whatever reason, maybe because I was innocent, I wasn’t really concerned about the hacking thing anymore. Locating the clothes that I wanted to wear, I turned to face him. Feeling bold, I dropped my towel to the ground to shimmy into my underwear like I didn’t care if he saw me naked.
“Hey!” I squealed, when he shot out an arm and yanked me back into bed like lightning.
His first kiss on my mouth shut me up. His mouth was hot, urgent, and talented, and I yielded easily to his strong hands on my still-wet skin. I needed to feel wanted again.
He rolled over on top of me, pinning me in place and setting my heart pounding. Beneath his weight, I could feel his arousal pressing hard into me. I smiled into our kisses, enjoying the way he flicked his hot tongue against mine like my mouth was his for the taking.
Nathan’s mouth dropped to my neck and clavicle, before moving over to find my pulse point and breathing his warm breath into that sensitive area.
“You’re so gorgeous, Zoey,” he whispered, both hands cupping my breasts from below and squeezing gently, “tell me you don’t have somewhere to be soon?”
“Not until eleven,” I whimpered as he brushed and squeezed my nipples before rolling them under his fingers until they were sharp, near-painful points.
“Good,” he said, licking one nipple before the other, lavishing attention on me until my back was arched and I was making little urgent noises.
My body was alight beneath him. Completely unlike the first time we’d been together, this was slow and gentle. It was loving. This was making love.
Nathan seemed determined to go slow, taking his time on each part of my body. When he was finished with my nipples, he went lower, kissing down my abdomen passionately before spreading my legs and gently touching the wet, warm, flesh between. I arched as I hoped he wanted what I wanted.
“Do you like this?” he asked me, nuzzling the hollow of my thigh and looking up at me.
I nodded eagerly, spreading my legs wide and burying my fists in his short hair.
His first kiss was sweet, exquisite torture. His fingers spread my soft flesh and his tongue did the rest, pushing and pulsing against my most sensitive area. I gasped and moaned underneath him, letting my mind go blank and my vision go blurry as he worshipped me.
Nathan’s mouth learned my body quickly. He watched my reactions and pushed me higher and higher, stroking and penetrating gently with his fingers while continuing the assault with his tongue. No other man had ever come close to making me climax like this, but I wa
s being driven half out of my mind by Nathan.
He banished all my inhibitions and I sought pleasure from his mouth shamelessly, describing exactly what I needed for him to make me climax. He eagerly complied, pushing his thumb hard to my clit while he penetrated me with an index finger exactly how I described. I ground down against his mouth and hand until Nathan pulled me off the edge, until I came into his mouth and onto his fingers, moaning desperately in a torrent of pleasure and clenching muscles.
When the heat finally cooled, and he rose up next to me, however, I was ready for more. With him on his left side, and me on my right, I looped a leg up over his hip and sent my fingers between his legs. He was hard and ready for my touch, and when I kissed his lips I could taste myself. It only made me want to give him some piece of the pleasure he’d just given me.
“Condom?” I asked, and he shook his head ruefully.
“I used the last one I had yesterday,” he replied. That answer actually satisfied me more than it probably should have. It meant he didn’t carry them around as a general rule.
“I’m on the patch,” I told him, guiding a hand to where he could feel the little outline of the sticker on my hip, while continuing to stroke him eagerly with one hand, “do you want my mouth or this?” I asked, guiding him to my entrance and rubbing his tip against the wetness of my opening.
He moaned deep in his throat.
“I want what you want,” he replied breathily, “I want everything.” His breath caught as I bore down on him and took him inside me. His aquamarine eyes widened as we moved together, and I could see his pupils dilating as he stared into mine.
“Harder?” I asked him, shifting to try and push more directly down on him as our rhythm intensified, and his response was to flip onto his back and pull me atop him.
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