Page 2

A man stood there, leaning against the desk, his broad shoulders filling out a black T-shirt, his blond hair catching the fluorescent light. He was tall—six-three, maybe—muscular in a way that said he worked for it, not just genetics. His jaw was sharp, his eyes a piercing blue, and he had a smirk that screamed trouble.
He looked like he’d stepped off the cover of a romance novel, all rugged charm and quiet intensity.
My heart did a little pirouette, which I promptly ignored.
“Vivi, there you are!” called Teresa Sneed, our office manager and resident tech guru. She was a wiry woman with a perpetual coffee stain on her blouse. “This is Elias. He’s helping me with … a thing.”
Elias’s eyes flicked to me, and I felt it—a jolt, like the moment before a jump.
Wow.
His gaze lingered on my face, then dipped to my sweat-damp leotard, slow and deliberate. My skin prickled, and I crossed my arms, suddenly aware of my messy curls and flushed cheeks.
“Nice to meet you, Vivi,” he said, his voice low, with a hint of a drawl that didn’t quite place. There was humor in it, like he was already in on a joke I hadn’t heard. “Heard you talking about skydiving out there.”
I raised an eyebrow, tossing my bag onto a chair. “Eavesdropping, huh? Yeah, I jump. You ever tried it?”
His smirk widened, but something tightened in his expression, a flicker of unease. “Nah, I prefer solid ground. Gravity’s my friend.” He said it with a dry chuckle, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Scared of heights?” I teased, stepping closer, my hip brushing the desk. The air between us crackled, and I caught a whiff of his cologne—woodsy, clean, expensive. My pulse kicked up, and I hated how much I noticed it.
“Not scared,” he said, leaning in just enough to make my breath catch. “Just smart. Why jump out of a perfectly good plane when you can stay down here and … enjoy the view?”
His eyes locked on mine, and the room felt smaller, warmer. My lips parted, a retort ready, but Teresa interrupted, oblivious. “Vivi, Elias is a genius with computers. He’s doing me a favor, fixing our system.”
“Fixing what?” I asked, tearing my gaze from Elias. Teresa hesitated, her fingers twisting a pen.
“Just … a glitch,” she said, too quickly. “I hope, anyway. Nothing big.”
Elias’s smirk faltered, and he straightened, his posture shifting to something more guarded. “Yeah, a glitch,” he echoed, but his tone didn’t match Teresa’s. There was weight to it, a secret I couldn’t quite grasp.
I narrowed my eyes, sensing the lie but not pushing. Instead, I turned back to Elias, leaning against the desk, mirroring his stance. “So, Mr. Cipher, what’s your deal? You just wander into ballet companies to fix glitches?”
He laughed, a rich sound that sent a shiver down my spine. “Something like that. Friend of a friend. I’m good with tech, and I owed a favor.”
“Must be some favor,” I said, my voice lighter than I felt. His presence was unsettling, like a storm cloud rolling in over the Lowcountry. I wanted to poke at it, see how much I could stirhim up. “Sure you don’t want to try skydiving? I could use a partner.”
His jaw tensed, but the grin stayed. “Tempting, Red, but I’ll pass. You keep your death wish. I’ll stick to … safer thrills.”
“Red?” I arched a brow, my curls bouncing as I tilted my head. “Original.”
“Fits you,” he said, his voice dropping, and damn if it didn’t make my stomach flip. He was flirting, and I was falling for it, my body betraying me with every heated glance.
Teresa cleared her throat, breaking the spell. “Vivi, you should head out. Long day tomorrow.”
“Right,” I said, grabbing my bag, but my eyes stayed on Elias. “See you around, Cipher.”
“Count on it,” he replied, and the promise in his voice made my skin tingle.
I was halfway to the door when Teresa’s phone buzzed. She glanced at it, her face paling. “Elias,” she whispered, her voice tight. “It’s worse than we thought.”
He crossed the room in two strides, his humor gone, replaced by a laser focus that made him look … dangerous. He leaned over her shoulder, reading the screen, and his expression hardened.
“What’s going on?” I asked, pausing in the doorway.
Elias looked up, his blue eyes sharp, unreadable. “The company’s been hacked,” he said, the words landing like a punch. “And I'm going to find out who did it.”
2