Free Breaching His Defenses (Love Hack #1) by Allyson Lindt Page B

again, stolen customer information. Names, phone numbers, addresses. Do you think they really stop and ask themselves, ‘does this website follow industry standards?’ and then steer clear if the answer is yes?”
    Jared’s mouth drew into a thin line, and he half rose from his chair. “But you’re painting the rare scenario. Standardization and certification statistics show those things impact less than one percent of online businesses. These are companies who are paid to verify things work the way the rules say. Time and again, research has proven the chaos hacker is the boogey man in an executive’s closet. It doesn’t happen to the everyday user. Statistically it doesn’t even register on the radar.”
    “But that’s what we sell.” The words slipped out without her considering them. “Peace of mind. You’re not buying security because it happens all the time. You’re buying because you don’t ever want to be the person who said, ‘That’ll never happen to me.’ And then it does.”
    The corner of his mouth twitched up. It looked like he wanted to reply when the moderator cut in. “Thank you, Ms. Elford. Very enlightening. But I think we’ve gotten off topic. Next question?”
    She turned her attention back to the audience, but not before she saw a hint of a smile whisper across Jared’s face. Had she impressed him? She liked the thought of that.
    The rest of the panel passed without incident. After, she lingered, shaking hands and accepting business cards, along with a smattering of, “Great insight. We’ll be in touch.”
    Part of her wanted to wait for Jared to extract himself from the small pocket of people around him. For professional reasons, of course. So far he’d had some very specific opinions on what did and didn’t work in this business, and she wanted to know how a brain like that crossed the line into innovative.
    And maybe she was lingering just a little because every time she looked at him, new images flashed through her mind. Of his lips gliding up her throat. Or his hands on her hips. Or his mouth swallowing her cries in a hungry kiss.
    Her skin tingled, reacting to the simple caress of her shirt against her body. She pushed the onslaught of fantasy aside. Too bad she had to get back to work. She made her way toward the exit, still toying with fantasies around the familiar voice fading in the background.
    “Michaela.” The sharp word cut into her thoughts, and she spun toward Hayden. He stood on the other side of the hallway, face stretched into a grin. “A minute?”
    She crossed the short distance, taking a cue from the fact he’d picked an out-of-the-way spot and keeping her voice low. “What’s up?”
    “I caught the end of your performance in there. Absolutely brilliant. Want to run the rest of the show?”
    “I—” How was she supposed to answer a question like that? It was tempting, but only if it came with the great view again. “I think tech’s more my thing. I didn’t say anything you wouldn’t have.”
    His expression shifted, corners of his mouth tugging down. “Except you did the one thing I really need you to not do.”
    She replayed the panel in her head, focusing on the bits that weren’t blurred together. Nope, nothing stood out as “bad.” “Which was?”
    “Making waves with Skriddie.”
    “Oh.” This again? What had he expected? So much for him giving her more excuses to stare at Jared. When she rolled his words around in her thoughts, his request dragged back her nagging question from earlier. Why was he so fixated on this? “You know it was a panel discussion, right?”
    He jammed his hands in his pockets. “Just… Please. You’re fantastic at what you do, so I let you do things your way. I only have this one request.”
    She bit back a snort at how his idea of doing things her own way contrasted with the tight leash he kept on everything, but she couldn’t suppress her next question. “You’re really kind to worry about my