Johnny Robbins is late, so the three of us get started. That’s typical of Johnny, and in fact, I’m surprised he called me so early. Like most expert hackers, he’s an extreme night owl. For all I know, he was actually still awake from the night before when he called me this morning.

The three of us get started, poring over the code.

Lily is drinking coffees from the vending machine back to back, and Jerry is already having trouble staying awake. This is a little too much for him.

I can’t take my eyes off Lily. It’s no longer just her body for me, and her incredible curves, but it’s every little way that she moves. I find myself watching her, not caring whether she notices, just to see how she’ll brush her hair back, or how she’ll adjust herself in her seat.

My cock twitches each time she moves.

I find myself focusing on every little sound she makes, especially her breathing, which I know changes, growing more rapid, when she glances over and sees me staring at her.

It’s hard to get my mind on the code.

I can only think about her.

No woman has ever had this effect on me before. Sure, I’ve felt lust. I’ve been with countless supermodels, but they pale in comparison to her.

Today, she’s wearing something professional, but I can’t help but notice that she’s got on a different type of bra, one that pushes her breasts up and forward more, augmenting her already ample bust, which rises and falls with her breathing.

“I didn’t think I was in the right place,” says someone, appearing at the door.

“Hey Johnny,” I say, aware that my cock is half hard in my pants and probably visible, but I don’t care. That’s what happens when I stare at Lily for so long.

“So this is the office?” he says, making a face.

“You’re used to more luxury?” I say. “I find that hard to believe.”

Johnny laughs. He’s wearing all black: black jeans, black shoes, and a black button up shirt that’s unbuttoned up top. His hair is long, and a very dark brown that’s almost black. He’s thin, and while not conventionally handsome, certain women have been known to fall for him. His skin looks like he hasn’t seen the sun in years.

“I’m used to more like… squatter hacker spaces, and all that…”

“Oh yeah,” I say, dismissively. “Hacking away in abandoned buildings, stealing wi-fi.”

“You’re all about the money, though,” says Johnny. “You always were.”

“But you’re here,” I say.

“I’m just here for the code.”

“Oh, let me introduce you…”

I present him to Lily, whose eyes widen since she knows his hacking fame, and Jerry, whose eyes are filled with sleep.

“Well,” says Johnny unceremoniously. “Let’s get to work.”

“I figure you’ve got your own laptop,” I say.

“You know it,” says Johnny, launching into an explanation of the specs of his machine, which I could frankly care less about.

I’ve never been that kind of tech guy. I just want the stuff to work. I don’t care about the specs. Like I said, I’ve never been a nerd. I just happen to have a mind for programming.

Johnny hunches over in his horrible posture, pulls out his laptop, and says, “Here, this is what I wanted to show you.”

It’s a research paper that’s never been published. It’s by Simmons, the creator of the new algorithm.

“Where’d you get this?” I say.

Johnny just chuckles. “Let’s just say it’d be better not to say.”

“Wow,” says Lily, who’s leaning over to see the machine. Johnny is sitting to the left of me, and I’m extremely aware of Lily’s body as she leans in, approaching me. Her left breast is only a couple inches from my shoulder.

She notices it too, and glances at me sideways for just a fraction of a second. If I wasn’t already looking at her, I never would have noticed it… but I see something in her eyes.

She seems to be holding her breath slightly, aware that my presence makes her breathe harder.

“So,” I say, getting the gist of the article by reading it quickly. “This basically outlines his approach. But then he realized that he could just write the algorithm himself and not publish it, making a lot of money instead of getting academic fame… my kind of guy.”

“Yeah,” says John. “And I think we can reverse engineer his algorithm with this approach. Basically he’s going…”

“Yeah, yeah,” I say. “I get it. He’s basically rewriting the simple shuffle algorithm. But that doesn’t give us quite enough information…”

Johnny gives us all a copy of Simmons’s unpublished research paper on a USB drive. “This isn’t something you email,” he says with a wink.

Another ten minutes go by, with all us on our own computers, trying to figure out how to apply the article to the code we’ve been studying.

“Oh!” says Lily, suddenly sitting up, her eyes looking excited.

I use the moment as another opportunity to take her all in. The curve of her spine, this time, drives me wild, not to mention her breasts, which are pushed forward…

“I’ve got something!” she says.

“Yeah?” says Johnny somewhat dismissively. He’s never been keen on women programmers. He’s one of those guys who doesn’t think they’re as good as men. Me, I just care about results, whoever the programmer is.

Jerry’s asleep in his chair, snoring lightly.

“What do you have?” I say.

Suddenly, an alarm sounds. It’s a vicious, intense noise that seems to drive right through you, making you feel frantic.

“The fire alarm,” I say.

“What’s going on?” says Jerry, waking up.

“It’s probably just a drill,” I say.

“But there’s smoke coming from the hallway,” says Johnny, frantic.

“Probably just a little trash can fire or something,” I say. “Nothing to worry about.”

But people are screaming now out in the rest of the office.

Someone out there shouts, “Not a drill!”

“It’s probably fine,” I say, not looking up from my computer.

“I’m not taking any chances, not since the last time,” says Johnny, rushing out in the hallway, where he disappears into the smoke.

Jerry is next, rushing past him. “Come on!” he calls out after us. “Come on!”

“Looks like we’d better get going,” I say, still calm.

But she’s still staring at her computer, not looking at me or the smoke. She’s completely immersed in her work, and for a moment I’m completely immersed in her beauty.

“No,” I say, snapping out of my little trance. “We’ve really got to go.”

The smoke is denser now, and it’s completely black.

“This looks like it might be serious,” I say.

“But I’ve just figured something out!” she says.

“We can talk about that later.”

“I’m so close, though!”

“Seriously, Lily,” I say. “We’ve really got to go.”

“Fine,” she says, closing her laptop.

Suddenly, she notices the smoke around her. “Oh shit!” she says.

I laugh. “Finally you notice it. Come on.”

I take her by the hand. She won’t leave her laptop there so she carries it with her. Me, I’ve got a hundred laptops, and copies of everything I need.

We rush out of the conference room, into the hallway that has the cubicles where Lily and Jerry usually work.

The smoke is thicker now, and it’s all around us.

I cough involuntarily, and Lily sounds like she’s choking.

The fire alarm is intensely loud out here, so loud I have to shout over it to be heard. Jerry and Johnny are long gone, and so is everyone else. It seems like we’re the only ones left in the office.

“Stay there,” I yell at her. “I’m going to see if we can get through.”

I leave her there, and go further into the smoke, towards the main entrance and exit.

I feel like I’m choking, the black smoke filling my lungs. I can’t breathe properly, not nearly at all.

And it’s hot. Everything around me is incredibly hot, even the floor. This isn’t just some trash can fire.

I can see the flames now. The entire kitchen at the other end of the hallway is in flames, huge flames that lick the celling. The fire has spread, blocking the way to the receptionist’s desk where the entrance is.

I turn around just as I feel like I can’t breathe at all, and rush back to Lily, who’s looking petrified.