Plush Book 3: A Billionaire Romance

by KB Winters

  It was a virus.

  “Oh, my God.” I pulled up another window on my second monitor and started searching frantically. I had some cyber friends who were deep in the hacking underbelly. I logged into a forum, using my alias, and without giving specifics, typed out what was happening.

  A reply came back that sent a chill over my entire body.

  It’s a wormhole.

  “Oh, shit!” I scrambled to type a reply back, begging for help. Once my SOS was posted, I grabbed the phone and dialed Cooper’s cell phone. I didn’t want to go through his assistant, and this was too important to wait another second.

  “Hello?”

  “Cooper, it’s Allie. I need you to get down to my office, now!”

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “There’s been an attack,” I said. A reply to my forum post popped up and cradled the tiny phone against my shoulder, craning my neck so I could use both hands. “Just come down here!”

  The phone slipped and hit the desk. I could hear Cooper’s voice coming from the speaker, but couldn’t make out anything he was saying. I clicked off the call and hoped he would take me seriously enough to get down here. Not that he could help with the techy stuff…but this was his company…his network…and although I didn’t know that much about wormholes, I knew that if this hack continued, he could lose everything.

  I was typing frantically, setting trackers and taking screen shots, to capture everything that was happening while waiting for further advice to come in from my friends on the forum.

  “Allie, what the fuck?” Cooper appeared in my doorway. He looked breathless and scared out of his mind. “An attack?” He looked around as if expecting to see chunks of the walls missing.

  “A viral attack,” I said, turning my attention back to the computer screen in front of me. “A wormhole, to be more specific. If we can’t get it stopped, the entire system could go down.”

  “What?” He rushed around and stared over my shoulder. His cologne engulfed me and it took all my concentration to not turn and look at him. His face was inches from mine and I could hear his breath as it returned to an even pace. “What is all this?”

  “I just found it,” I said. I was a little embarrassed that it had taken me so long. From what I could tell, the data mining had been going on for some time. It was hard not to be mad at myself for not catching it sooner. If I hadn’t spent so much time procrastinating and working on that stupid spreadsheet, things might be different now.

  Not that I was going to tell Cooper that part…

  “Whoever set this up has been taking information from the Brighton Enterprises database and is sending it to another database.”

  “What kind of information?”

  “Emails, sales data, personnel information,” I listed.

  “Holy shit.”

  I nodded. “Yes, holy shit.”

  “Can you stop it?” I felt his gaze on me and turned my head, our faces inches apart. My mind drifted back to his office and the feel of his kiss. He was like a magnetic force, and I felt myself getting sucked in.

  “Allie? Can you stop it?” he repeated.

  I jolted back to focus on the screen. “I’ll try, but, I’ve never seen this before. Is there anyone else you can call to help?”

  I hated admitting that it might be above my head, but this danger was too real to let something like my ego stop me from asking for help.

  “Everyone’s gone home. I’ll call and see who can get back here.”

  I nodded.

  “But Allison, please, do what you can,” he said.

  “I will.”

  He left the office, already on his phone before he rounded the corner out of my line of sight.

  While he was gone, I continued working, trying to figure out what—and more importantly—who was taking the information.

  “Anything?” Cooper asked, striding back into the office twenty minutes later.

  “It looks like whoever is taking information is gathering the most data from Plush. So, that must be what they’re after.”

  Cooper pulled a chair around the desk and sat next to me, staring at the computer screens, but I could tell he was completely out of his league as his eyes frantically watched the activity on my two screens.

  “Do you need anything?” he asked.

  “Is anyone else coming?” I prayed the answer was yes. Even with the help of my forum friends, this was way more complex than anything I’d ever done before. The ironic thing was that I’d just been planning to do the same thing to the competition. Granted, I wouldn’t have been stealing, simply observing. Which raised a very important question…why were they stealing the information? Wouldn’t it be easier to simply copy the data? Whoever was behind this was not just looking for the data, they wanted to destroy it.

  Cooper nodded. “Yeah, Chad Franklin will be here soon. He’s not one of my guys, but he comes recommended for stuff like…this,” he said, gesturing at the screens.

  “Good.”

  “Don’t we have backups for this kind of thing?” he asked.

  “Yes, but if this virus takes out the whole system, there is a chance it will destroy the backup, and whoever this is locked the backup so I can’t get information out or shut it down. I already tried.”

  “Fuck. This is just what I need,” Cooper growled.

  My heart twisted at his anguish. I wished I could say something to comfort him, but at the moment, it seemed as though I had no hope to offer to him.

  I remembered back to what Parker had said at the restaurant. I hadn’t paid much attention at the time, but as it came back to me, it fit like a puzzle piece. He’d said that Brighton Enterprises was a little too fragile. I wondered now what he’d meant.

  “It will be okay, remember?” I said, repeating his words from hours before, up in his office.

  If he recognized my attempt to comfort him, he didn’t let it show.

  “I have to get up. I have to do something. I can’t sit back and watch someone steal my company,” he announced. He stood and started pacing. “I’ll get us some dinner. Chinese?”

  “Vegan for me,” I said.

  “Right.” He stopped pacing. “I know just the thing. I’ll be back in a minute.”

  With that, he was gone again.

  I studied the screen, begging to find some clue, anything that would help. It was all such a tangled web of data and numbers and coding. It was hard to know where to begin.

  All of a sudden, I had a Beautiful Mind moment, and it hit me.

  I hovered over the keyboard and typed away like a mad woman.

  Cooper came back in and set a cup of coffee next to my keyboard, out of the line of fire but close enough I knew it was there.

  “Thanks,” I said, not breaking away. My fingers were still going a mile a minute. Cooper sat next to me and I could feel his body heat radiating to me.

  “There!” I said, cheering for myself before flopping back in my chair.

  “What? You got it? It’s stopped?” Cooper peppered me with questions.

  I took a celebratory swig of the scalding coffee and realized it was from the same coffee shop that I’d been at when I ran into Parker the day before. It struck me as an odd coincidence, but I let it go.

  “Not exactly. But, I managed to secure the backup, so at least the data will be safe.”

  “Excellent.” He offered his cup like a toast, and I bumped my paper cup to his.

  “God, it’s hot in here,” I said, shrugging out of my blazer. Normally, I wore long sleeves to hide my tattoos that went all down my arms. But, since it was just the two of us and Cooper had already seen every inch of my tattoos…and the rest of me…I figured it was safe.

  Cooper’s eyes traveled down my exposed skin and my body temperature felt like it rose ten degrees as I watched him take me in.

  “God, you’re beautiful,” he said, his voice a thick whisper. “A masterpiece.”

  “Cooper,” I started to protest, but before I could
say anything else, his lips were on mine.

  He pulled me from my chair and I straddled him, my skirt riding up my thighs as they spread so I could sink down onto Cooper’s lap. I could feel his cock straining under the fabric of his pants and wondered how long he’d been hard. Knowing he was ready made me even more excited and I knew I was already soaking through my panties.

  Cooper was kissing down my neck, nipping at the sensitive skin, when a loud blaring ringtone burst through the air. We jumped apart at the sound and jolt of the phone vibrating in his pocket.

  My skin felt like it was on fire as I watched Cooper take the cell phone out of his pocket and answer the call.

  “I’ll be there in a moment.”

  He ended the call and looked at me, his eyes still dark and hungry, like he would devour me on the spot if he could.

  “That was Chad, the tech guy. I have to go downstairs and let him in,” Cooper explained.

  My heart fell and it hit me just how much I’d wanted to get completely lost in Cooper and let him take me. My head was still full of questions, but my body seemed ready to let him back in. I just wasn’t sure my heart could take any more.

  Chapter Five

  A few tense hours passed as Chad got to work. I sat next to him, assisting as he needed. Cooper stalked the room. He was good, and didn’t interrupt us—but his mere presence was distracting enough for me. I desperately wanted to pick up where we had left off—my whole body ached for him, slowly burning from the fire he’d started.

  I did my best to focus and follow Chad’s instructions as he worked. He had me work on one computer, typing in coding as he dictated it to me, and scribbling down frantic notes. Eventually, we got the virus handled, and shut down, before it could wipe out the whole system.

  When it was done, I lay back in my chair, my chest heaving as if I had just run a marathon. The sheer amount of stress had worn me out, physically and mentally.

  “That should take care of it. Unfortunately, you did lose some data. But it sounds like Allie, here, got most of the backup salvaged before the hacker could take that out completely. I’ve put in some safe guards to help stave off this kind of attack in the future, but I would recommend investing in some secondary backup that is manual, not automatic, in case this were to happen again,” Chad explained. He slid his jacket back on and prepared to leave.

  Cooper thanked him and slipped him what I assumed to be a fat check to thank him for his help.

  “Whew.” Cooper exhaled slowly as he sank into the chair next to me. It was nearly midnight and we were both wiped out. “That was insane.”

  “Tell me about it!” I looked over at him and smiled.

  “You were amazing,” he said, his voice suddenly very serious.

  I tried to brush off his compliment.

  “Allison, I’m serious. Without you…” His voice trailed off. “Well, let’s just say this company can’t take one more fire to fight. Thank you.”

  I nodded and tried to breathe normally. The room crackled with intensity and I found myself, once again, being pulled to Cooper.

  “Come on,” he said, standing and offering me his hand. “Let’s relax a little. Or does Sam need you home?” He smiled at me and I couldn’t help but laugh at his reference to my cat.

  “I think he’ll be okay,” I answered before slipping my hand into his.

  “Glad to hear it.” Cooper’s eyes darkened as I let him lead me to the leather couch on the opposite side of my office. He sank down and pulled me next to him. “Are you hungry? You never got a chance to eat. I put your food in the fridge. I can go heat it up, though.”

  I stared at him, baffled by his sweet gesture. He was the most complicated man I’d ever met. He brought out every emotion within me, sometimes all at once. He could make me so angry and fierce that I wanted to punch him, and then rebound two seconds later and have me eating out of the palm of his hand.

  It was insane.

  And intoxicating.

  I had to admit that regardless of how much I wanted to be angry and stomp my feet and throw a fit, the reality was that I was developing real feelings for him and I wasn’t sure what to do with them just yet.

  “I’m all right. Let’s just sit. My brain is fried.”

  Cooper laughed. “I bet.” His hand was still holding mine and he gave a little tug and I fell against him. His rock-solid chest provided a nice place to land and I didn’t give in to the urge to resist. I let myself lay against him and heard the comforting beat of his heart under my ear.

  “This is nice,” he whispered against my hair.

  I nodded, but the quiet of the room and his voice was starting to unsettle me.

  “Do you prefer Allie, or Allison?” he asked.

  It struck me as an odd question. We had known each other for well over a month at this point. He’d always called me Allison.

  “Most people call me Allison, but friends and family call me Allie,” I answered, wondering where he was going with his question.

  “Well, what am I?” he asked. He tilted his head to look down at me.

  Good freaking question, I thought.

  If only I knew…

  “You can call me Allie.”

  “Okay, Allie. Have you ever been in love?” he asked.

  This time, I popped off his chest and stared at him. “What kind of a question is that?”

  It was like he’d touched a raw nerve and I recoiled at the sensation.

  “Whoa, easy,” he said. He reached over and placed my head back on his chest and stroked my hair gently. “It was just a question. We’ll start with something easier. Tell me about your tattoos,” he said, his hand sliding from the ends of my hair and over my arm, tracing the colored lines of my tattoo sleeve.

  I shrugged. “I just like them.”

  “Hmm. So, no particular meaning behind them?”

  I sighed and relaxed my head on him, delicate sensations running over my skin as he continued to caress my arm and shoulder. “I got made fun of, a lot, growing up.”

  “What? Why?” Cooper asked. I smiled at the protective fierceness to his voice.

  “Well, I was a chubby red-head. You figure it out.” I cringed as a wave of anxiety swept over me. I rarely let myself think about my childhood, let alone talk someone though it. “Anyways, I got bullied and teased a lot. I didn’t fit in with anyone. My parents made me try church camps, the drama club, band. You name it, and I was probably a part of it at some point. But none of it really fit me. Eventually, I started hanging out with a rougher crowd. The misfits, I guess. We smoked, drank, got high, and partied together. Nothing too serious, but it became part of my identity. I wasn’t doing it to be rebellious or just to act out. I hung out with those guys because they were the only people who liked me and accepted me. Of course, the perk was that all the other kids were afraid and you didn’t get messed with so much.”

  I sighed, letting the memories play through my mind.

  “I’m really sorry, Allie,” Cooper said before pressing a kiss to my temple.

  “It’s all right. I’m a stronger person for it. Once I got to high school, I worked at a sandwich shop and got enough to buy my first bike. My parents were horrified, but they couldn’t stop me. I was too stubborn.”

  “There’s a surprise,” Cooper teased.

  “Hey, now,” I said, laughing as I looked up at him.

  His gorgeous, dark eyes were staring down into mine and I got lost, wondering what in the world I’d been talking about.

  “So, then tattoos are mandatory for bike riding, tough chicks?” he asked.

  I laughed. “Yeah, I guess so. They drove my parents crazy, and at the time, that was part of the attraction. I guess I’m like a crazy cat lady or something, just with tattoos. You start with one and pretty soon you have a dozen and people look at you weird.”

  It was Cooper’s turn to laugh, and the soft vibrations through his chest soothed me and I nestled into him even closer.

  After his laughter faded,
we were quiet for a spell.

  “What about you?” I asked, my curiosity getting the best of me. “I’ll bet you were the hunky jock that all the girls chased around school.”

  He laughed at my assessment. “I guess. My parents sent me to prep school. So it was uniforms and very strict. At the time, I was a little resentful because I wanted to go to a bigger school and play sports and all that but my parents wouldn’t let me. My dad started this company when he was young, and it was just this expectation that someday I would take over for him. So, to them, getting a good education was more important than sports and girls.”

  I nodded, slightly surprised by his answer.

  “I thought I was in love once,” I said, my voice low. “But, it wasn’t love. Love is for suckers.”

  “Hmm.” Cooper tightened his grip on me but didn’t argue my point.

  The adrenaline rush from chasing down the virus was crashing hard and I felt myself drifting in and out of consciousness as I lay in his arms.

  “Allie?”

  The sound of my name roused me and I opened my eyes, startled by the brightness around me, and equally as freaked out by the feeling of another body pressed against me. I sat up and jerked around, realizing Cooper and I’d fallen asleep on the couch in my office.

  And judging by the light breaking through my office window, it was already morning.

  “Shit!” I said, scrambling off the couch. “What time is it?”

  I smoothed my hair back, hoping I didn’t look as disgusting as I felt. My lips and tongue were dry and scratchy and my hair felt all out of place. I didn’t even want to know what my makeup looked like after my face had been stuck to the leather couch all night long.

  Cooper laughed softly. “Come here.” He reached out an arm, trying to lure me back to the couch. I resisted his invitation and crossed the room so I could search my desk for my phone.