“MS. ANDERSON, YOUR visitor is here.” The guard announced me as I stepped through the door.
“Holy shit.” Violet’s eyes got wide when she saw me walk into the interrogation room. “You’re Ethan Prince!”
“Yes.” I nodded and took a seat across from her. “Let’s have a chat.”
“I’m really sorry I hacked your security system. I didn’t even realize I was on a PrinceSoft server. I was just hitting anything that popped up and before I knew it, I was staring at your company’s logo.” Her face filled with remorse quickly as she spoke.
“This program you used to get in. You wrote it?” I leaned back in my chair and stared at her.
“Yeah.” She sighed and nodded. “I was just trying out a few things that I learned in class.”
“You didn’t learn that in class.” I shook my head back and forth. “I also don’t believe you did this on your own. Who helped you?”
“Nobody.” Her eyes got wide again and she shook her head back and forth. “I swear it was just me. I mean, it wasn’t exactly what I learned in class, but I’ve always been good with that kind of stuff. It just comes natural.”
“You’re telling the truth.” I watched her eyes as she spoke and I didn’t see any hint of a lie.
“I am.” She nodded quickly. “I swear.”
“You’re aware of what my company does, right?” I tilted my head slightly.
“Yeah, you make dating apps.” She wrinkled her nose slightly. “I can’t say I’m a fan, but I do know your work. My friends love them.”
“How would you like to walk out her right now and come work for me?” I folded my arms across my chest. “I’m working on something special that could use someone as brilliant as you on it.”
“A dating app?” She twisted her lip slightly. “I don’t know much about them.”
“I’ll give you all the resources you need. You’ll have to sign a contract and a non-disclosure agreement, but once you have a working prototype, I’ll drop all the charges against you.” I tapped the table. “This is the best deal you’ll get.”
“I should probably consult with my lawyer.” She stared at the table.
“This offer expires the moment I leave here. Either take it and come work for me, or you can go to trial.” I put my hand into my jacket and and pulled out a stack of folded forms. “Your signature earns your freedom.”
Violet was as lovely as her photographs. She made my dominant personality flare. The only thing I could think about was taking the orange jumpsuit off and punishing her the way she needed to be punished. She didn’t need prison, she needed discipline. As much as her curves interested me, the app I was working on was more important than either of us. It was going to change the world. I watched as she scanned the forms and when I offered her a pen, she quickly signed her name on the bottom line. It was settled. She was mine—at least, she was my employee. I took the forms, left the room, and made a call to Agent Danvers.
“Let her go, but make sure she ends up in my car when she leaves the station.” I smiled and ended the call.
PRESENT DAY
Violet created the framework for the app and initial algorithm so fast that I thought she would have a prototype in no time. I was already considering offering her a full-time position on the team when she was done. But, then things started to take a turn for the worse. She couldn’t get the algorithm to link people together correctly. It would have been fine as a dating app, but I was trying to help people find their soulmates. It had to be flawless. I had tried every form of motivation that worked with my other employees, but the one thing I couldn’t threaten her with was termination. The contract was simple. Her freedom in exchange for a working prototype. All charges would be dropped.
Damn it, Violet. I don’t want to send you to prison.
I left her with a warning, which I knew she didn’t understand. I felt like she had given up and had no motivation to keep going. She had hit a brick wall and couldn’t find a way around it. The key was in her mind—I just knew it was. There was nobody on my team that could create an algorithm that complex, so if she failed, the project would be done. I would have to start over from scratch and put a fresh coat of paint on an older app to dazzle my investors. I gave her one last chance to show progress, and I fully intended to carry through with my threat if she didn’t deliver what she promised.
This is the last chance I’ll have to get through to her. If this doesn’t work, I’ll have to call Agent Danvers.
I looked down at Violet’s beautiful body draped across my knee. I had fantasized about spanking her several times since she had arrived, but I never imagined it would actually happen. Unfortunately, it had shifted from a fantasy to necessity. I didn’t know how else to get through to her and it was my last resort. Scorched earth was normally my policy when it came to failure, but with Violet I was going to make an exception—I was going to try a scorched ass approach first. I hoped it would provide the motivation she needed to develop the prototype that would keep her out of prison.
Chapter 3: Violet
My stomach was in knots and I felt more vulnerable than I ever had before when I felt Mr. Prince’s knee under my stomach. I was always the good kid growing up. I didn’t get in trouble. My teen years weren’t spent rebelling like a lot of my friends. I was busy with my schoolwork, keeping my nose clean, and tinkering with computer programs. They had always fascinated me and it wasn’t until I got to college that I first discovered hacking. I knew a lot about it, but I wasn’t brave enough to try it on my own until I took a security class. After that, I became rather fascinated with it. My fascination had taken me to some interesting places, but it had never gotten me into any trouble until I stumbled into the PrinceSoft security system.
“This is meant to be a motivational spanking—motivational enough that you never want to end up in this position again.” Mr. Prince slid his fingertips into the waistband of my pajama pants.
“What are you doing?” I looked over my shoulder in a panic.
“Giving you some proper motivation.” He landed a firm smack on the seat of my pajamas.
Before I even realized what was happening, my pajama pants were stripped from my ass. I quickly realized that Mr. Prince was going to do more than simply spank me, he was going to humiliate me in the process. He grabbed my panties and with a quick tug, they were around my knees with my pajama pants. I felt my face blushing as I thought of the billionaire looking down at my naked ass. I had never been naked in front of a man before, and even though my clothes were still technically on my body, I was more exposed than I had ever been in my life. His hand lifted and then a sharp cracking sound rang out through my apartment. I heard it before I felt it, but then a sting started to spread across my ass. Before I even had a chance to process the sound and the sensation, another smack came down that was even harder.
“Ow!” I kicked my feet, feeling my pajama pants slipping down to my calves.
“I don’t accept failure.” He emphasized his point with a stinging smack. “I expect perfection and I get it.”
I took several smacks before I felt my fight-or-flight response start to kick in. I threw a hand back to try and stop him from landing his hand again. He grabbed my wrist with his free hand and bent my arm at the elbow. It was quickly pinned to the small of my back where I couldn’t move it and the spanking continued. The sting got worse as his hand rained down on my unprotected flesh. The reality of the situation started to sink in. I was being spanked by one of the richest men in the world. It might have been hot if I wasn’t the one on the receiving end of his punishing palm. All of the times I had heard my friends joke about wanting someone to spank them made me seriously question if they had ever actually been on the receiving end of one.
“Ouch! I’m sorry, Mr. Prince!” I kicked my feet more, which sent my pajama pants to my ankles. “I try harder, I promise!”
“I don’t want you to try harder.” He brought his hand crashing down. “I want you to succe
ed.”
As his hand continued to fall, I started running through algorithms in my head. I was trying to block out the pain with my thoughts—any thoughts. I saw the code in front of my eyes, spiraling down on the screen. I had no idea where I went wrong with it, but I regretted not testing a few of the ideas I had in the back of my head. I just needed one idea to stick. I just needed the algorithm to work once. That would earn my freedom and avoid a second trip across his knee. I felt more motivated than I had since I started working on the app. The only thing on my mind was success. The stakes had gotten higher. I wasn’t just going to prison if I failed. I was going to be spanked weekly until I either figured out what was wrong with the algorithm and if I still couldn’t come with an answer, then I was going to prison.
“I will succeed! I swear I will!” I squirmed on his lap and kicked my feet so hard my pajama pants landed on the floor and my panties hung around one ankle.
“I almost believe you.” His tone was flat and the spanking didn’t slow down. “I’m starting to hear the same determination I heard when you first started working on this project.”
I hadn’t heard that determination myself in a long time. The voice in my head had gotten the best of me. Deep down, I knew I had given up. The stinging smacks were a quick reminder that it wasn’t an option. I definitely didn’t want to go to prison. Perhaps I had just gone stir crazy from being trapped in my apartment all day, even if it was a palace compared to the house I grew up in. My ass started to burn after several minutes of agony and when I peeked over my shoulder, I saw that it was a bright shade of red, bouncing underneath each skin-scorching smack. My dignity and modesty were no longer a concern. My legs flailed wildly and I didn’t care that he was getting a clear view of my pussy. I just wanted the spanking to stop.
“Mr. Prince, I won’t fail you! I promise!” I twisted in his grasp, but he held me tight.
“If you end up across my knee again, it won’t just be for a motivational spanking.” He reiterated his point with several hard smacks in the center of my ass. “I’ll make sure you remember your failure every time you sit down.”
“Yes sir!” I squealed and nodded.
The spanking continued for a little longer as he kept the fire on my ass burning until it was a raging inferno. I felt tears welling up in my eyes and they started to stream down my face. I knew I deserved to be spanked. Being across his knee had done more for my motivation than sleep and Red Bull ever had. When his hand slowed to a stop, I couldn’t wait to get back in my computer chair, even if I had to sit on a bag of ice while I worked. I wanted to try every idea that I ignored. I was even ready to rewrite the entire algorithm from scratch if that was what it took. I wiped the tears from my eyes and started to stand, reaching for my pajama pants as I did.
“Not yet.” He put a foot on my pajama pants. “The spanking is done, but you need to think about this for a little while. I want you to go over there and put your nose in the corner with your hands on your head.”
“Yes sir.” I nodded and walked to the corner.
I thought the spanking was horrible, but being forced to stand in the corner with my nose pressed against the paint was pure humiliation. I could hear Mr. Prince tapping away on my computer, likely discovering exactly how little progress I had made while he was away on his trip. That was the last time he would see that. I was going to work my fingers to the bone to make sure I figured out what was wrong with the code. It was nearly an hour before Mr. Prince gave me permission to leave the corner. I felt like I was doing the walk of shame as I walked over and gathered the clothing I had lost during the spanking.
“Remember, failure is not an option.” Mr. Prince pointed at me with a shake of his finger and then walked towards the door.
THE SPANKING GOT ME motivated and I worked for two days, barely taking a break. I napped when I was exhausted, but my internal clock didn’t let me sleep long. Even more motivating than being across his knee was making sure I didn’t end up there again. If sheer determination could have fixed the problem, I would have been done in a matter of minutes. As the hours dragged on, day after day, I constantly thought about the spanking Mr. Prince gave me. With the pain removed from it, the idea of being across a powerful man’s knee started to actually turn me on. I wondered if he felt the inverse of that—the control. If I felt like I could have spared ten minutes, I would have spent some time in the bedroom exploring the thoughts in my head, but I didn’t feel like I could spare even ten minutes that I wasn’t sleeping. Suddenly, a bolt of clarity caused to sit up and become more alert than the empty cans of Red Bull had done.
Oh my god. I’ve got it. It isn’t the algorithm that is the problem, it’s the data. It’s the freaking test profiles!
My fingers started dancing across the keyboard as my eureka moment flooded me with adrenaline. I realized I was going to have to tap into the same skills that got me in trouble in the first place—I was going to have to start hacking. I needed data and not just a little data—I needed everything I could get my hands on. I started thinking about all of the social media hacks that had made headlines. That was the data I needed. I pushed the limits of what I could do on my own, breaking into firms that specialized in collecting the information I needed, and siphoning it all into a database. It was a lot easier behind the PrinceSoft firewall. It was such a trusted source that half of the security systems I encountered didn’t put up much resistance.
And now for the special touch that will make this algorithm hum.
I took all of the social media data I had scraped, compiled a new algorithm, and turned it loose on the Internet. It started pulling in more information than I ever imagined. It also evolved as it worked. Every detail it found out about a person set up a search for additional individualized information. Before I knew it, I was moving through porn sites, cataloging viewing habits, and matching those up based on emails. The algorithm could even predict variations of emails that people used when they didn’t want to use their real address. The scariest part was that it started to learn how people posted, how their grammar structure flowed, and it started cataloging forum posts people made anonymously. I had created a monster, but more importantly, I had created something that could literally learn everything about a person.
Mr. Prince won’t like this, but fuck it. He wanted motivation and he’s going to get it.
I started hacking into PrinceSoft again. I had limited access, but with a terminal that was connected to their network, it was easier than it was when I got in the first time. I navigated to all of the dating app data he had stored, even the ones that specialized in matching people with specific kinks, and poured that information into my database. I leaned back in my chair and took a quick nap while my computer matched everything together. When I opened my eyes again, several minutes had passed. The algorithm was done and I had everything I needed at my fingertips.
Now, let’s find some soulmates.
Chapter 4: Ethan Prince
“Uh, Mr. Prince. We’ve got someone in our security system!” The head of my newest security team rushed into my office with sweat on his brow.
“What?” I stood up and felt my blood pressure rising. “You promised me that could never happen again!”
“Yeah, but this is different. This is someone inside the company.” He motioned for me to follow. “They’re accessing everything, at the same time.”
I was starting to wonder what I was paying a security team for anyway if it was that easy to break into PrinceSoft. I had dealt with errant employees before that tried to take data with them before they quit. I assumed that was what we were dealing with, but none of them had ever managed to crack the entire system open. Each division had their own security clearance codes. It shouldn’t have been possible for one person to access something that was outside their division, even if they were on our network.
“Yeah, I mean—look at this.” He pointed at the screen. “I don’t even know where this is in the building.”
“W
e looked at the blueprints.” One of the other security guys turned around. “This area isn’t even supposed to have a terminal.”
“Wait, let me see that.” I walked over and stared at the blinking dot on the screen.
Violet.
“Do you want us to send someone up to that floor? We would need your access card. It’s one of the floors you marked private on the map.” The head of security turned away from the screen.
“No.” I shook my head back and forth. “False alarm—this was a test.”
“A test?” He blinked in surprise.
“Yes, I wanted to see if you were on your toes after the last breach we had. Congratulations, you all passed.” I forced a smile.
I headed to Violet’s apartment the minute I left the security team. I had set that floor up specifically for her. She was only person that actually lived at PrinceSoft. I considered setting her up somewhere off the premises, but I liked being able to check in on her anytime I wanted. I had no idea what she was up to, but she wasn’t being very secretive about it. She obviously knew it would raise a lot of red flags. I pushed the key into her door and when I pushed it open, I saw her standing in front of me with a huge smile on her face.
“So, Mr. Prince.” She tilted her head slightly. “Are you ready to see your prototype?”
Violet started filling me in on everything she had done and my head spun. If anyone traced the hacks she had performed back to PrinceSoft, it would be very hard to explain. I couldn’t focus on that though, because she had done the impossible. She had actually got the algorithm to work. I pulled up a chair as she loaded it up and started matching people together. It was flawless. It ran so many sequences behind the matches that it created a digital profile even the federal government would have been proud to have. The formula was so precise that it was almost scary to watch it in action.
Seven Soulmates_Reverse Harem Romance Page 2
