Chapter 1 1- Eve

Oh God.

His lips are so warm against mine.

The kiss starts off soft and sensual. Mouths pressed together... lips slowly caressing... his tongue touching my lips, and I open wide to take him in.

His arms encircle my waist and pull me to him. I'm pressing against him, my soft curves against his muscles. Even under the designer tux, I can feel his rock-hard body.

I can feel something else, too.

Something thick and long, getting thicker and longer.

The kiss starts off soft and sensual, but it rapidly becomes something else. Harder... more insistent.

I don't even notice. I'm caught up in the moment, thinking of nothing but how much I want his hands all over me...

**********

I stare at him.

He knows about Mailin.

He knows about the hacking.

"...how...?"

"Not important right now. What is important is that I've engaged your services by paying your company, but I need to know if you're on board. My life might be on the line here."

"I don't understand."

He leans forward intently. "I need to know if I can trust you. Totally and completely."

"Trust me how?"

"As a hacker. As an internet security expert."

"Look, I can test your systems, fix the loopholes I find, make sure nobody can – "

"That's not what I need."

God, I want to shoot this guy. He just keeps going in circles.

"Why don't you cut to the fucking chase and tell me exactly what's going on," I snap.

He looks at me for a long while, as though weighing me. Seeing if I'm worthy. Finally he nods, as though he's decided.

"Someone's trying to kill me. And I need you to help me find him... before he gets to me."

*****************

Okay, first thing you've got to know about me is I'm a regular chick. Or as regular a chick as an internet security expert can be.

Sure, I can beef up your company's computer network to protect it against DDoS's (Distributed Denial of Service attacks, for you non-geeks out there). Yeah, I can write a mean packet sniffer to capture whatever data you want. Yes, I can do a thousand other things that will bore the hell out of you unless you have a computer science degree.

But I like binge-watching N*****x and HBO Go. (Game of Thrones – Team Khaleesi, woot woot!)

I like bingeing on cupcakes, too.

I'm a rocker chick, sort of. When I'm not being all introverted and homebodyish, I'll pour myself into a pair of skin-tight leather pants and go see Steel Panther in Hollywood. They're the coolest, funniest parody metal hair band you've ever seen, by the way. It's like Mötley Crüe and Weird Al Yankovic had a love child.

I'm also... well, I'm pretty.

Don't be all like, What a bitch, she's so stuck on herself! It's not my doing. It was a weird genetic quirk, and it generally makes my life hell.

I'll bet you occasionally get leered at by guys, right? At the supermarket, workplace, whatever. Little surreptitious side-glances at your breasts? Inappropriate sexual jokes by male co-workers?

Now imagine this: you work in an industry filled with guys with thick glasses who are still virgins at 27. They learned their social skills by playing Xbox with little headsets on. The only boobs they've seen outside of internet porn are... okay, they haven't seen any boobs outside of internet porn.

I'm being grossly unfair, I know. I do have some really great co-workers who have cool girlfriends, who are considerate, who are awesome human beings.

And I shouldn't bag on guys in Tech. I didn't lose my v-card until I was a junior in college, and I haven't had a date in the last six months.

But, seriously... there's an awful lot of nerds who spend departmental meetings just staring at my chest.

What really pisses me off is they don't take me seriously. That is, until I school their ass by rewriting their crappy code in under five minutes. Then they usually mutter something rude under their breath and walk away.

So. Pretty computer chick. Introverted. Works for a big online security firm as a forensic data analyst. Game of Thrones. Cupcakes. Occasionally goes to see hair metal parody bands.

My life is pretty boring most of the time.

Or it was, until the night of the Hollywood Charity Gala.

That's when things got a little... weird.

And hot.

Reaaaaal hot.