Epilogue
Six Years Ago
Lorenzo
Six years ago, I stumbled across a name on a site full of script kiddies with half-baked exploits.
Everyone wanted to be a hacker, quite insulting to a title you had to earn, but the site was full of people who used pre-made programs to hack into systems without even understanding how they worked, just so they could brag about it.
This site was full of them, and I had every intention of skipping off when I noticed a name.
Var.
The profile picture was one I was familiar with.
As was the name. Having the user name of a Norse goddess intrigued me a little, and I found myself looking up their work.
A part of me was skeptical about the user being yet another script kiddie, but she wasn't. One look at her latest project, and I was hooked.
The code she'd written was…clean, efficient, almost elegant.
The way she'd approached the user authentication process was genuinely clever. I was almost charmed. Almost.
But then I saw it. The flaw in her system. Her encryption keys were hardcoded into the client-side JavaScript. A rookie oversight or accident, easily exploited. But the rest…the rest was promising.
I was hooked. So I reached out to Var to point out a mistake that would have been exploited if the site wasn’t full of phonies. The error was fixed in hours, impressively fast. And I knew then that Var was special.
Then years later, I met Fiona O'Shea. And I knew she was special, too.
And I was right.
As I stare at my blank computer screen, I can't help but smile at how far my little flame has come. From making rookie mistakes in her work to hacking my system.
“What the hell just happened?” My assistant stares at my blank screen in horror. One minute, we were reviewing a report on a program we're working on, and the next, my screen went blank. “Did the power go out?”
“No,” I chuckle, pointing at the light on the monitor. “Someone just hacked into the system.”
“What?” He cries out, alarmed. “H-how? This is the most secure system in the whole fucking city.” He looks around, hands useless as he tries to figure out what to do, but then he turns to me. “Wait, why aren't you doing anything? Why am I the only one panicking here?”
“Because I know who did it,” I say with a proud smile, watching as the screen flickers to life and a message box appears.
Oliver peers at the screen and reads the words out loud. “You have been hacked. Solve these puzzles to regain control of your system.” Then he straightens up. “What the hell does that mean?”
“It means my wife misses me,” I say with a grin, patting the horrified kid on the shoulder. “Let's call it a day, Oliver. Go home. I have a puzzle to solve.”
Oliver looks at me like I've grown a second head before quietly leaving.
I smile after him. At just twenty-three, the kid might be young, but after three years of working for me, he has proven himself in ways my former assistant never did.
Three years ago, we went through a complete overhaul of several departments and fired nearly half of the company after a serious audit.
When the job positions were posted, we received applications in the thousands.
Fiona and I carried out intense vetting before picking an IT team we were confident in.
Oliver, fresh out of college, was incredibly smart and honest in a way that stood out the most.
“Alright then, la piccola flamma. Let's get to work,” I say, rolling up my sleeves and cracking my knuckles.
The first puzzle is a series of numbers, disorganized, and it takes me a couple of minutes of rearranging them to realize they're GPS coordinates. I laugh, grabbing my coat and heading out.
A sandwich shop.
Well, that's not what I was expecting, but when I hear my name called from the pick-up counter, I figure that I'm at the right place. The second I grab the order, my phone buzzes with a message from an anonymous number.
I glance up at the camera in my view and flash it a smile before turning back to my phone. The message is written in code just like the first puzzle, but I quickly decipher it and realize that it's sending me to my apartment. With another grin at the security camera, I leave the sandwich shop.
Fiona is waiting by the door when I make it home, the grin on her face making my chest ache with want.
Six years later, and I still want her. Desperately.
“That was quick,” she says, grabbing my tie and yanking me against her. I feel her smile in the kiss, and when she pushes back, her face is radiant. “I thought it would take you at least an hour to solve the first one.”
“Tsk, you underestimate me, la mia flamma,” I rasp, circling my hand around her waist and pulling her in for another kiss. “Still, if you wanted a lunch date so badly, all you had to do was ask. You scared my assistant there for a second.”
“Hmm, I was craving a specific sandwich. Thank you for getting it for me.”
“And what do I get for all my effort?”
“You aren't done yet,” she giggles, tapping my chest playfully before pulling back. “There's one more puzzle for you to solve. It's in the receipt.”
My brows furrow as I take out the receipt and read through the order. I quickly notice that one of the sandwiches has triple the pickles added to the order.
Fiona hates prickles. Except when she's…pregnant, like with Marco.
My eyes widen as they whip back to Fiona. “You're pregnant?”
“Three for three,” she beams, waving a positive pregnancy test at me. “I'll have to make the puzzles harder next time.”
“You're pregnant,” I mutter, dropping the bag as I sweep her in my arms and spin her around. She laughs happily, arms wrapped around me, when I finally put her down.
“Fuck, baby. You know just how to drive a man crazy.”
***
Fiona
I spent a year poking into his steel-hard security system, studying it as one does for an exam without being detected.
Quietly peeling the layers one after the other.
I did it all so I could one day surprise him by hacking into his system as a prank, but I never thought all that learning was to announce my pregnancy.
But then, I saw the test results, and I knew I just had to.
A part of me wishes I could have seen his face when he realized his system had been hacked. But there is no beating the look on his face when he saw what was on the receipt.
“Are you happy?” I ask the man whose ring I've worn for three years. “Marco finally gets to have a sibling.”
Lorenzo slides his hands under me, and I gasp when he hitches my hip, so I wrap my legs around him. “I'm happy every day I get to wake up with you next to me,” he rasps, his mouth brushing mine as he carries me toward our bedroom. “My life changed the day I came across your profile.”
I laugh, recalling the panic I'd felt when I received a message from a stranger pointing out a flaw in my project. Someone else would have taken advantage of that oversight, but somehow, a beautiful friendship bloomed out of it. ”Can you believe that the same girl whose encryption keys were hardcoded into the client-side JavaScript is the same one who hacked into Raziel's system?”
His eyes light up wickedly as they always do when I use his hacker name.
“Impressed doesn't begin to cover it,” he says, gently laying me down on the bed.
He pushes back, and I watch hungrily as he tugs off his tie, those wicked eyes on mine.
“I guess I'll have to make some adjustments to the system so that a certain hacker doesn't get in again.”
I pout at that. “At least let me play a little with the system.”
“Next time, let me watch you work?” he says, but I'm done listening, my eyes busy tracking the hands unbuttoning his shirt. “It's so goddamned sexy, watching my pretty wife working to wreck a system I worked so hard to program.”
“Huh?” I whisper, biting my lip when he pops open the button to his pants to reveal the huge bulge pushing against his boxer briefs.
Naked, Lorenzo is a god.
All those rippling muscles painted over with ink. My gaze moves to the tattoo on his rib, the one that betrayed his identity in my brother's kitchen that night. To date, it's still my favorite tattoo on him.
My eyes drop to his hard cock, thick and long, between his muscular thighs. Christ, he's big all over. Just looking at his glistening head, red and slick with pre-cum, makes my pussy ache with need.
“Do you need more time to keep looking?” His voice pulls me back to his face, and I flush when I find a dark brow arched at me.
“I was staring at the tattoo,” I say defensively, backing up when he climbs into bed, stalking me on his knees as predator does prey. “I'm serious.” I can't help the giggle that bubbles out of me when he grabs my ankle and pulls me under him. “Raziel-”
“It's my turn to look, don't you think?”
I gasp when he slides his hand under my dress, his touch gentle against my skin.
I'm wet and hot, trembling by the time he's done stripping me.
Love swells in my chest as his mouth seeks mine, holding me close as our bodies become one.
I forget everything but this moment. A random Tuesday afternoon, and it's the most magical moment.
And with my mother babysitting our two-year-old son, Lorenzo and I have all day to celebrate the news.
All night too.
There's heat, and there's love.
My pussy clenches hard around him with every pump of his hips, damp skin sliding against each other in the most sensual of dances. I moan into his lips, heart racing as I hug him close to me.
It's sweet and gentle…and perfect.
“I love you,” Lorenzo whispers into my skin as he thrusts into me. “Always you. Only you.”
My throat clogs up as words fail me. I feel the tears choke me as emotions overwhelm me. “I love you,” I manage, burying my face in his throat.
The climax sinks its violent teeth into me, and I cry out as pleasure floods me. My toes curl in pleasure, the delicious feeling shooting through my system and blinding me.
“Fuck, baby,” Lorenzo roars, his release following mine, and I hold onto his shaking muscles, soaking up every tremor, every grunt, and heaved sigh.
Six years ago, I stumbled on a site meant to connect hackers anonymously, looking for a connection.
For someone to understand me. After months of running into script kiddies and hackers whose intentions were to exploit vulnerabilities and cause harm, I gave up hope of ever finding someone who would connect with me.
But then I found Raziel. Well, he found me. Understood me. Loved me.
“I love you, Var,” he breathes into my skin, calling me a name only he knows. Only he ever will.
Our little secret.
“I love you, Raziel,” I whisper, calling a name only I will ever know. I’m forever grateful for that technical error I made years ago. It brought him to me, and I wouldn't trade my life for anything in the world.
~The End
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