I frown at that, disagreeing. “There’s no harm in looking, Lex,” I counter, lifting the T-shirt up to my waist, wriggling to get it out from under me.
As suspected, he looks down and is reminded that I’m wearing his T-shirt and nothing else. “You don’t fight fair,” he mutters.
“But at least I never broke the law,” I joke, tugging his sweatpants down.
His chuckle is a little nervous and raspy. And it turns into a groan when I circle his hardening length and pump him a few times. “I take it your pussy doesn’t feel like hissing at me anymore?” he mumbles.
“No, it’s actually weeping for you now. Look…” I swallow back an impish smile as I run his round tip over my drenched folds.
“Fucking hell …”
He dives in for a kiss, and I gladly return it. He tastes like relief and gratitude, and I can’t believe he genuinely thought any of this could be a deal-breaker for me. Knowing he’s an even better man than I thought, even smarter, even more mysterious, has me more feral for him—which I didn’t think was possible.
At this point, I’m practically frothing at the mouth for this man.
“Slow…” I moan in our kiss when he pushes his dick inside me.
“You’re sure you don’t mind?” he asks as he sinks deeper, parting our lips to meet my eyes.
I swing my hips forward a little. “Do I look like I mind, baby?”
“You’re not the best judge of character when you’re horny, Andrea.”
“I’m not horny, Lex. I’m in love.” With a firm push, he enters all of me. “Aah, fuck,” I whimper.
I cling to his shoulders as he begins thrusting in and out of me—slowly, like he knows I can’t take much more than that. God, I can’t believe I’ve been having sex with Nammota this whole time. I don’t know which one of us needs this more, but there’s something powerful in this moment. We’re being one on his illicit desk, in this illicit room, right after he confessed his illicit activities. And somehow, even knowing what I do, nothing has changed. He’s still Lex, still the sweetest man I’ve ever met, still the smartest person I know, still my impossibly handsome nerd, still the love of my life… And just in case he doubts that, I’ll remind him.
“I’m yours, baby. Every single part of me belongs to you.” I grab his jaw and bring him to me so his lips are against mine. “Will you take all of me exactly the way I am?”
“You know I will. Down to the last freckle.”
“Then trust that I want you just as much, Lex. All of you, even your past and especially your future. I want the good, the bad, and everything in between.”
It should scare me just how much I mean it, but I can’t be bothered to care. I’ve found my one person in this universe, and I’m never letting him go.
Chapter 21
Going back to work on Monday after the best weekend of my life is particularly difficult. Luckily, I work with the reason why my weekend was so great.
I’m not sure I have fully processed what Lex’s revelation entails. In a way, I know there’s gravity to it, and I know there are many implications I’m not fully grasping yet. But at the same time, it doesn’t change a single thing about my feelings for him. Knowing he’s done all that makes me love him even more than I already did. My baby is a fucking badass.
The fact that he refuses to talk about it is more of an issue for me. I’ve asked many questions, but he remains dismissive and adamant about leaving that part of him in the past. And as much as I want to give him that, I’m too curious and intrigued to move on like nothing happened. I meant it when I said I wanteverypart of that man.
So, like any good girlfriend, I took it upon myself to learn everything I could about my boyfriend’s past hobby. As soon as Lex dropped me home on Sunday evening, I took out my laptop and began googling. First, I read the entire Wikipedia page about Nammota to refresh my memory of the timeline and events. Then, I dug out some old articles from when everything was happening and read them from headline to sign-off, along with some of the comments. I remembered it was a lot, but I don’t think I ever realized just how insane thirteen cyber heists really was. That’s over two per year when it would take most people several years to organize and prepare a single one.
Some copycats tried, actually, pretending to be Nammota when they did their hacks. But because of their selfish philosophy—most of them kept the little money they hacked for themselves—and their sloppy skills, they were quickly proven as frauds. A couple of them were evencaught and are serving their sentence. No one has ever come close to Nammota’s level of meticulous planning and flawless hacking skills, and I doubt anyone will for a while. Lex really is that unique.
On Monday morning, I’m not in the right state of mind to work—especially since I’m halfway through the Netflix special on Nammota that came out a few years ago, with only two episodes left. There’s something thrilling about watching experts talk about just how good Nammota was and how we’ll likely never know who stole and redistributed all that money. I also very much enjoyed seeing the crowds that gathered after the later heists to celebrate Nammota’s gift to society.
Thankfully, I get my head in the game about an hour in, working with Mace and Brian. We’re doing last checks to ensure everything is in order so my app can go to our beta testers. Brian is in charge of over-clicking buttons and randomly swiping or tapping on the screen to mimic poor user behavior and find potential glitches or issues. The number of problems we encounter is almost scary, but Mace and I correct them as we go, so there’s less and less.
And it’s nice to see the app so nearly finished. The graphics team did an incredible job with the design, and it finally looks like a proper app. The color scheme is joyful and vibrant, and the experience is very smooth, thanks to a fluid design and intuitive buttons and icons. Marketing has been working with a consumer panel to pick the best name and logo for the app, which is closely monitored by Lex and Kev. From what I know, they’ve narrowed it down to four options and are waiting for the final feedback from the panel to announce it.
Then, once everything is ready, which should happen by the end of the week, we’re sending out the app to our beta testers. It’s nerve-wracking, but at least it means we’ll get a bit of a break—some breathing time until we receive our testers’ first wave of tickets. But yes, my code baby is about to be released into the world, and I’m emotional about it. Two and a half years of hard work are coming to an end. Though the app will never be completely done, so I’ll still get to work on it for years to come.
Kevin has been working hard on negotiating contracts nationwide for when the app is officially ready for the public. Several states have already agreed to purchase hundreds of Injin tablets equipped with our OS and the app, to make them available in schools, colleges, hospitals, administrative buildings… People with hearing and speech impairments will finally be understood and included.
Mace, Brian, and I work for a solid two hours before we stumble on a bug we can’t fix. There’s an input system that allows users to correct a signs-to-text transcription, which will allow the deep learningalgorithm to better itself over time. But it doesn’t work when Brian returns to the home screen and then comes back, and we can’t figure out why.
