“Jo Scalise,” Sebastian said. All eyes turned to the banker of the group. “We had the same problem at my bank. But it’s actually more insidious than you might think, Kazar. Criminals get the malware onto the computer system and then start stealing money from accounts. The amounts are small at first, a dollar or euro here, ten dollars or francs the next day. It goes on until the account holder notices. Sometimes it’s only a few hundred dollars from each account. Sometimes, their accounts are wiped out. When the account holder realizes that something is wrong, I have to cover the costs. It used to cost my bank about a hundred million dollars annually.”
“How did you stop it?” Kazar asked, his attention riveted on the coldly handsome man.
“Jo Scalise runs a company called MalAttack.” He lifted his cell phone out of his pocket and pressed a few buttons. “I just sent you the company’s contact information, but I’ll also send a message of introduction for you. Give Jo a call and the team will not only fix the issue, but will find out how the virus got onto your computer system and stop the breach of information. You’re probably losing money as well. This team works fast to stop the losses. It takes a bit more time to find out the where and how.”
Kazar felt his phone vibrate, indicating that he had a message. Looking down, he nodded at the contact information from Sebastian.
“Thank you. I will contact them immediately.” With that, he walked out of the room, leaving behind about ten million dollars in chips where he’d been sitting.
The others around the table stared after him, then at the pile on the poker table.
Jabril was the first to speak up. “Look at his cards. He didn’t really…”
Tiran flipped over the man’s hand, laughing when a pair of twos flashed up at them. “Damn, the man really must be furious to be that out of sorts.”
Sebastian chuckled. Turning to Jabril, he shook his head. “If you’d kept your concern for a few more moments, I could have won that hand,” he said.
The others burst out laughing. “Go ahead and take the money,” Mika encouraged. “You deserve it.”
Sebastian shook his head as he finished off the last of his scotch. “No, I don’t want the money. I wanted the win,” he replied.
The others pushed the pile of chips towards their departed friend’s stacked chips, someone nodding to a servant who immediately gathered up the chips.
Chapter 1
Emily glanced at the clock and, sure enough, the elevator pinged right at seven thirty. A moment later, the bustling woman who was Emily’s boss hurried out of the elevator, her usual uniform of black suit, white turtleneck and black, sensible shoes in place.
Emily suspected that her boss wore the painfully androgynous outfit to hide her ultra-soft femininity. But there was absolutely no way to hide the beauty of Josephine Scalise. Her green, cat eyes sparkled with intelligence and quick humor at the outrageousness of humanity, her cheekbones were something a supermodel would covet and her full, red lips made men drool when she spoke. Or smiled. Or anything. Emily had seen men literally trip over themselves when she walked by. Add in her soft, blond hair and a voluptuous figure that her stiff, boring “uniform” couldn’t hide and Jo was simply…stunning!
Unfortunately, Jo was oblivious to all of it. She refused to date the numerous men who tried to flirt with her, not even realizing that they were flirting. Any man who sent her flowers was disappointed when Jo immediately ordered that the flowers be sent to someone at the hospital. All gifts of food were sent to the food shelter down the street. It was sad, but Jo had turned off every feminine instinct, trying to look as tough and formidable and business-focused as possible.
But as Jo approached, Emily knew that Jo could never match the scariness of the man who was waiting in her boss’ office right now. He’d shown up thirty minutes ago, demanding to speak with the “person in charge immediately”. Emily had brought the man coffee but, because he was so big and scary and terrifying, she’d spilled the liquid all over the carpet. When she’d tried to clean it up, Emily had only made the situation worse.
So Emily didn’t hesitate to step into her boss’ pathway, bracing to be run down for her efforts because Jo was looking down at something, completely focused and in her own head. Jo had a tendency to hole up in her office first thing each morning, getting administrative issues out of the way. Emily understood her boss’s pattern and knew that there should be no interruptions and no deviation from that schedule. Normally, Emily was excellent at keeping the staff of shockingly brilliant but socially inept computer gurus away until Jo emerged from her office at nine each morning.
Unfortunately, nothing could have stopped the scary man from taking control of Jo’s office. Certainly not Emily! Which was why Emily was almost run over by the slender beauty reading a magazine article, not paying attention.
“Emily?” Jo asked, stepping back just in time, blinking and trying to focus her eyes. “What are you doing? You know that…”
“I know,” Emily interrupted, lifting her hands up to stop the censure. “I know that you work on admin issues first thing in the morning and aren’t to be disturbed. But I got a call from Sebastian Hughes this morning and…”
Instantly, Jo’s beautiful features cleared of irritation and switched to intense concern. “The program I built for his bank should still be working,” Jo stated, shoving the magazine into the utilitarian tote on her shoulder. “Is he having problems? I’ll call him…”
“NO!” Emily interrupted again, causing Jo’s eyebrows to lift at the interruption. “No,” Emily breathed, shaking her head for emphasis. “There’s another problem. A man arrived this morning. He’s…”
Jo pulled the magazine article back out of her tote, obviously intent on absorbing the newest technology. “Well, tell him to hold on. I have to respond to some emails and then I can talk to…”
Jo pushed her office door open and came to a screeching halt. “Emily, what happened to my carpet?” she asked, staring at the enormous stain in the middle of her office.
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” Emily sighed impatiently.
“Your assistant is attempting to explain to you that a man is in your office,” a deep voice explained.
Jerking sideways, Jo’s attention shifted from the stain on her carpet to the left where the huge, dark shadow emerged. Shoving her distance glasses onto her nose, Jo gasped when the dark shadow morphed into a man. An enormous man! A scary, dark enormous man with eyes that…well, his eyes didn’t match the rest of him. Broad shoulders and very tall, hard male hit her senses with a spark of shockingly unwelcome awareness. As Jo stared, parts of her that had been dormant for years…happily and comfortably dormant…sparked back to life with a vengeance! All of those girly parts of her body that she’d wanted to deny existed were now standing up and screaming “Well, hello there handsome!”
Pushing her body’s unwanted reaction to this man aside, she adjusted her glasses more carefully on her nose and glared up at him. Way up at him! Was the man on stilts? Looking down at his feet, she realized that he just had long legs. Really long legs! Good grief!
Lifting her eyes back up, her eyes narrowed in her best attempt to look intimidating. “Who are you and what are you doing in my office?” she demanded.
The man’s gaze sharpened, then skimmed down over her figure. Jo resisted the urge to pull the edges of her black jacket closed over her figure. Barely. Her fingers twitched and she lifted them up to unnecessarily shift her glasses on her nose.
“I am Kazar el Sizar, Sheik of Rian. Sebastian Hughes told me to contact this company and speak with Jo Scalise. I’ve now been waiting for over thirty minutes for this person. Please, retrieve Mr. Scalise immediately. I don’t have time to wait any longer.”
Jo rolled her eyes. “Ah, so you’re one of those men,” she grumbled, wishing that his sexist attitude would diminish her awareness of his enticing masculinity. But it didn’t. As usual, his misconception that the head of the company was male
amused her, but it didn’t obliterate her awareness of him. Darn it.
“One of what men?” the arrogant jerk demanded, his eyes narrowing and Jo suspected that the movement would be her only clue that he was irritated. She moved over to her desk, dumping her leather tote onto the chair before turning back to face Sheik What’s-His-Name. Jo had helped many powerhouses of industry all over the world and refused to be intimidated.
“One of those men who think that men are the only gender who can think.” She walked around to the front of her desk, leaning against it and crossing her arms before looking back up at him. Unfortunately, the moment’s reprieve didn’t alter her awareness of him at all.
Unfortunately, she also discovered that he was closer. And taller! Had the man grown in the last few moments? Impossible! She was being fanciful and not focusing on the issue.
“Sir, I don’t…”
His lips pressed tightly together for a moment. “Get me Jo Scalise,” he growled. “I don’t’ have time to play these ridiculous gender games.”
She laughed, amused by his anger, which relieved her awareness slightly. Extending her hand, she said, “Josephine Scalise. And the only reason I’m not throwing you out of my office immediately is because you mentioned Sebastian Hughes, a very good client. Scary man, but not a man I would ever want to piss off.” She gestured behind her to the chairs behind him. “Would you like to sit down and tell me about your problem? Feel free to leave if you think my mind is too feminine to solve your problem.”
Kazar stared at the beautiful woman, stunned and ready to spank her adorable bottom for speaking to him in that manner. His hands itched to grab her and...make love to her. Despite the outrageously ugly outfit she’d donned this morning, nothing could hide her shocking beauty. She was soft and feminine and the way she kept adjusting those thick, ugly glasses only brought his gaze back to her lovely eyes. And cute nose. And wide, full lips that he wanted to…
Hell! This wasn’t going to work! There was no way that this woman was the genius behind Sebastian’s computer solution! She shouldn’t be standing in front of him, daring him outrageously!
The knock on the door stopped his mind’s perusal of her figure in the horrible suit, a figure she took pains to hide. But his experienced eye could see the soft, feminine curves underneath the stiff fabric and boring shoes. This woman was gloriously beautiful. And mysterious. Why did she hide her figure and her eyes behind the ugly disguise? And he didn’t doubt for one moment that it was a disguise!
“Enter!” he called out, suspecting it was one of his body guards.
“How dare you!” she gasped, pushing off of her desk as her body bristled with outrage.
The door opened and Musef stepped in. Kazar lowered his head so the man could whisper in his ear. Kazar nodded sharply and straightened, his eyes moving back to the woman ready to explode with fury.
Musef walked back out and Kazar waited for the snick of the closing door before he continued. “Sebastian Hughes says you are the person who can fix a problem.”
Instantly, her body stopped bristling and her green eyes sharpened with interest. “What kind of problem?”
He gestured to the chairs behind him and almost laughed at the obvious debate going through her head. She wasn’t sure if she wanted him out of her office or to hear the problem more. Her curiosity won out and she sat down. An excellent sign of a person who could fix the situation, he thought.
“Two days ago, my security team realized there was a breach in our systems. Someone is stealing secure government information and…”
“How long?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. No one can figure out how long this breach has been going on, but we discovered it two days ago.”
She stood up and walked over to her desk and Kazar couldn’t stop his eyes from admiring the gentle curve of her derriere as she bent over to get a note pad. Coming back, he appreciated the gentle sway of her hips and the sexy energy that seemed to reverberate around her.
For the next hour, she asked questions and he answered, to the best of his ability. They conferenced in his head of technology, but even that man couldn’t answer some of her questions.
After the questions, there was a long silence as she wrote something down on her note pad, then looked up at him.
Jo fought her inner demons, not sure if she wanted to take on the exciting challenge this man presented. It sounded much more complicated than anything she’d tackled to date and her mind was already writing the code that would be needed to get the data breach fixed.
But the man…! This man sitting in front of her was annoying in ways that made her…uncomfortable. For years, she’d banished any thoughts of sex and ignored her body’s cravings. But after only one hour in this man’s company, her body wanted that back. She wanted to feel his fingers and…
Well, that just wasn’t going to happen. He might be shockingly attractive, but he was arrogant and annoying! And a sexist jerk on top of everything else. A part of her told her to take the challenge and show him that women were smart and efficient. The other part of her mind didn’t want to have anything to do with him.
“You have a problem,” she announced. “You’re going to need what I call a master virus,” she explained. “Get your security team to build a code that will track the virus so that you can identify where the virus is embedded. That will allow you to…”
“When will you have this code completed? I want this issue fixed immediately.”
Jo smiled politely, ignoring his arrogant interruption, and shook her head. “You can’t afford me,” she told him, mentally doubling her usual fee in order to dissuade him. She named a price, then sighed with relief when he stood up.
“Fine,” he replied, shocking her. “When can you leave?”
Jo stood as well, ready to thank him for his time and usher him out the door. But…huh? He had accepted her price? But…he couldn’t! He shouldn’t!
Shaking her head, she stared up at him, unaware of her mouth falling open for a moment of stunned silence. “You can find someone for less money,” she told him.
He waved the money aside. “I want the best. I’ve been told that you’re the best. Get your team prepared and I’ll fly everyone to Rian tonight.”
Fly everyone to…Huh? “We don’t need to…actually be in Rian to fix the problem, sir.” Should she address the man differently? Did he have a title? Shaking her head, she mentally told herself to focus on the primary issue, which was getting him out of her office. Fast!
He wasn’t budging, unfortunately. “This is a problem of national security for my country. I want you and your team onsite while this issue is being fixed. You’ll have more access to my technology team who can assist you. I want the issue fixed quickly. But I don’t want the breach just fixed,” he warned, his voice changing to a growl of fury. “I want you to create a program that will infiltrate the perpetrators. I want them found. I want you to track them down, no matter where they are in the world so that they can be prosecuted.”
Jo licked her lips, her fingers twitching with excitement. Not just stop the breach but…find the people who had done it? Oh, this was an excellent opportunity! Too many companies just wanted the information breach stopped but…to find them and prosecute them! It would be a coup! Not to mention, the challenge of creating code that could find them? She’d been working on that solution for over a year. This would be a good test of her code and she could launch it into the tech world. She’d be the premier service!
“If you want the people who did this found, it’s going to cost you more,” she warned, giving him one last chance to back out. And herself one more opportunity to avoid this man. It would allow her conscience to be clear, she told herself.
“I don’t give a damn about the money,” he replied, still in that sexy, growling tone that sent shivers all over her body. “I want the person found! This is a violation of my country!”
He was right, but most people didn’t think of breaches
in this way. “Fine. We’ll be ready tonight,” she told him, a bit startled by her agreement.
“Excellent,” he replied, taking her hand and bowing slightly. “I look forward to your efforts. Jo.”
And then he was gone. Jo lifted her hand, the skin still tingling where he’d touched her. And why did it sound as if her name was more of a caress when the big guy said it?
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