Hacking? Evan wanted to hack her. Huh. Was that a computer geek’s way of saying sex?

Halley didn’t think it sounded all that awesome. Hacking away at her, I got hacked last night, you make me so hot and hacky… no, it was pretty much a bucket of cold water as far as she was concerned.

She knew it wasn’t a euphemism, damn it. Which meant… what? Why the fuckity-fuck had he just kissed her and then returned to the previous problem at hand?

“What do you mean?” She licked her lips and leaned back in his arms as he continued to rub the most delicious circles across her backside, his thighs moving to enclose hers while his tongue made swirlies on her neck.

Maybe she could put up with hacking, after all.

“Revenge. I’m talking about revenge on the Three Commandos.”

Yep. Wrong. That’s not what he was supposed to say. If she had time, she would write a handbook on things men should not say while getting a woman all hot and bothered.

After mentioning an ex-girlfriend or a change in sexual orientation, revenge would be at the top of the list.

“Revenge?” She tried to pull out of his touch. This was weird, with a capital W. God, what the hell had she been doing anyway?

His tongue dipped into her ear as he held her tight.

Getting turned on, that’s what she had been doing.

Was still doing, despite the potential disaster factor being huge. She quivered in his arms, breathing hard as he nuzzled into her neck, sucking lightly, pulling her skin forward with his hot mouth.

Evan didn’t seem to be struggling with this baffling change in their relationship. In fact, he was acting like he had his hands on her ass on a regular basis.

Halley wondered if it were possible to have fallen asleep standing up.

His thumbs drifted up from her waist and brushed across each of her nipples, a quest for permission, but a confident one.

“Oh,” she groaned, arching her head back, inviting him to continue. She’d spent too many months contemplating this very thing to actually stay strong in the face of him touching her.

“Is this comforting?” he murmured, his head bending in front of her as he slid down her chest with his teasing mouth.

Evan dragged her tank top down to expose the tops of her breasts and she could see his pink tongue heading for the nearest curve.

“I do feel better,” she said truthfully. She was also feeling hot, damp, and achy with tight need that snaked around her insides.

Two years’ worth of hormones flooded up and out like the Hoover Dam had been compromised on a massive scale.

Evan seemed to be experiencing similar feelings. Halley could feel his hardness pressing into her, as he rocked forward with the full length of his cock. With a desperate ferocity that startled her, Halley dropped her hands to his waist and helped him grind.

It might be wrong, but it sure felt good.

Evan groaned, a deep masculine growl that gave her a burst of triumphant pleasure. He was stroking the length of his erection between her legs, pulling in and out, as Halley wrapped her thighs around him and clenched.

She could hear his breath grow shallow as he thrust with a quick rhythm, and his moans were stifled in her neck as he buried his head. There was no thought of anything but the throbbing strokes of intimacy between them, strokes that mocked the movements of him actually plunging inside her moist body.

Eyes half closed, she gripped his shoulders and wondered that even with his briefs and her pants, she could feel the heat between them. Panting and beyond rational, she thrust her hips to meet him, causing another full moan to rip from Evan.

Then he misjudged and nudged her a little on her inner thigh.

Wait a minute. Her eyes flew open. Something didn’t feel right. This felt too real.

She glanced down and saw smooth golden skin before Evan pushed forward and buried himself between her covered thighs. She wasn’t supposed to be seeing skin.

That lion was out of his cage.

His shorts had sprung a leak.

“Evan.” She tried to maneuver backwards out of his way, but another thrust made her groan and freeze where she was. Oh, my.

She whispered on a ragged breath, “You’ve fallen out of your shorts.”

And he was so glad he had. Evan gripped Halley by the waist and rocked against her. Even though every inch of her was still covered by clothing, he was on the verge of crossing the line. Well, more than he already had. On the edge of a cliff, about to jump off, and fuck the consequences.

Just to feel her, to smell her, to taste the saltiness of her skin, had him ditching common sense at the door. He was driving himself between her thighs, her soft flesh clenching around him, the rustle of her pants causing hot friction on his cock.

He was fighting for control, but it was slipping away from him. He had wanted Halley for so long now, and she had looked so vulnerable to him, fighting back tears. Needy. Evan knew how hard she worked on her business and she didn’t deserve to lose it. Staring into those big shiny green eyes, he had been overcome by the urge to kiss her and make it all better.

Granted, he’d done a little more than that, but hell, he was only human.

“My mistake,” he said, staring into her bewildered and glazed eyes.

“Evan.” She broke eye contact and shuddered. “You have to stop.”

He had already slowed down to soft pulsing strokes, and he really didn’t want to stop, but he was damn surprised she’d let him get away with as much as he had. Not that he’d planned on sliding between her legs, but when he had burst through the slit in his shorts, he’d gone with it.

But he stopped now, and pulled back with a smothered groan. Yeah, he could stop. Sure, no problem. He took a painful step backwards and ran his fingers through his hair.

This wasn’t exactly how he had planned to tell her his feelings extended just a little beyond friendship. He stood there a minute, gathering his thoughts. He wasn’t having much luck.

Halley gaped at him. “Well, don’t just stand there. Put it away.”

That horrified tone in her voice didn’t help his speech-making capabilities. Neither did looking down and seeing his cock, sort of rising there between them.

This was a dilemma. He really didn’t think he could put it away. If he put his hand on himself, there was no telling what might happen, and he didn’t think it would fit back in his shorts right now anyway. Like trying to stuff a bull into a cat carrier.

“Just give me a minute.” Or twelve or thirteen.

“Evan!” She adjusted her tank top and flushed pink. “I can’t just stand here when you’re… hanging out.”

Hanging was the wrong word. Rearing up was a better way to phrase it. He felt the start of annoyance. She was acting like he had shown her a box full of worms and tried to make her touch them. “It’s not like you haven’t seen one before.”

“Yeah, but I haven’t seen yours.”

Actually, she had once when she’d walked in on him changing, but Evan didn’t think now was the time to point that out. Instead, he asked her seriously, “Why do you think that is?”

Halley had responded way more enthusiastically to his kiss than he ever would have imagined, which was exactly why they had ended up standing here like this. She had kissed him back so hard and hot, that the next thing he’d known, they had been grinding into each other.

Her lips pursed together, and she fanned herself. “Because friends don’t show each other body parts.”

Evan grinned, feeling relieved despite the grimace on her face. For years he had been afraid that Halley thought of him like a big platonic buddy. That kiss told him differently, and that’s all he needed to know. “Maybe we should change that.”

To appease her, he moved his cock and gave it a painful shove back into his shorts, where it made a nice tent, stretching the fabric as far as it could go.

“Keep it where it belongs.”

He grinned, giving her a cocky tilt of his head and a hands-out gesture of acquiescence. “Sweet stuff, I can’t think of any better place where it belongs than…”

She cut him off, looking more flustered than angry. “That’s not funny.”

She moved back, away from his reaching arms, and tripped over his garbage can. “Your apartment’s disgusting, by the way. Don’t you ever clean?”

Nothing was alive, as far as he knew. That was good enough for him. “Sure, I clean. I cleaned everything top to bottom in May.”

“It’s August.”

And her point was? He had a cleaning lady come in and shovel him out once a week. She was due to arrive the next day so he wasn’t worried about a little clutter.

“Listen, can we get back to why I’m here?” She tucked her blond hair behind her ears.

“You’re the one talking about my cleaning schedule.”

“Why… why did you just do that?”

“Do what?”

“Kiss me and everything,” she whispered, turning a pretty little pink color.

“I told you. I was comforting you.” He smiled slowly at her, watching her eyes go wide and her mouth drop open. He suddenly felt really damn good about his options with Halley. “Did it help?”

She nodded, obviously too stunned by his prowess to speak.

This was it. He could move in for round two. Now that his cover as asexual pal was blown, he might as well take advantage. He took a step forward, eager to touch her again. “Should I comfort you some more?”

Her head flew back and forth in a vicious shake. Okay, that wasn’t good. Maybe her speechlessness was terror that he might touch her again.

“Evan. I owe you money.”

That was what was bothering her? “So? I offered you the money, remember? You didn’t ask.” He had plenty. It didn’t even matter to him if she ever paid him back, but he knew Halley felt exactly the opposite. She did not like being beholden to anyone.

“I just lost several big accounts. My revenue stream is going to be shit the next few months. I can’t pay you back. And I don’t need to complicate any of this by… changing our relationship.”

So that was loud and clear. He knew when to retreat. “Got it. Want to go to lunch?”

“No, I have to get back to work. Now.” Halley twisted her earring in her ear and darted her eyes, avoiding his gaze.

Evan sighed. His approach had lacked finesse. Time to regroup.

“Halley, I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable or anything. I was just trying to make you feel better.” He mentally eye rolled. Fuck, that sounded awful. Like he just whipped out his dick whenever anyone was upset.

She blinked. “Oh, well, I do. Feel better. Thanks.”

Halley turned and left the kitchen, heading for his front door at a fast clip.

“Give me a couple of hours and I’ll have your site fixed, but don’t worry. No one can see anything offensive right now.”

Her head bobbed up and down, but she didn’t look back at him. “Thanks, I really appreciate it.”

“No problem.” He stood silent, wondering if he needed to push her a little. Or if he should apologize more extensively. He wouldn’t be able to stand it if he lost Halley as a friend. She meant everything to him.

Rubbing her palms on her jeans, Halley stopped and turned in the front doorway. She opened her mouth, then closed it, probably just to torture him.

“What did you mean about revenge?” she asked.

Something that had seemed like a fun, friendly kind of thing to do together. Before he’d buried himself in her thighs and changed their friendship forever.

“I have a lead on who one of the Three Commandos is. I thought we could do a little hacking of our own. Fix him the way they did you.”

On any other day, one where he hadn’t kissed her senseless, Halley would have said yes. He just knew it. But that frown on her face showed him how much he had risked and probably lost by listening to his libido.

“I really have to get back to the office. Maybe… later.”

No surprise there. She wanted to get away from him. But it would have been fun to fuck around with those guys with Halley next to him, giggling and coming up with evil reverse hacking suggestions.

Hey, he would just have to do the hacking on his own then. He couldn’t stand those cocky shits who ran around what the media liked to call the deep web messing with people’s lives and businesses. Halley didn’t deserve to have her business screwed with for no reason.

“I’ll call you when I get the site fixed,” he said.

“Great,” she said with a nervous smile. Then she edged out the door backwards like she was afraid he might make a grab for her and slap her with his dick.

Which, she had every reason to be concerned about, given what he had already done. He got hard again thinking about how she had felt, how her skin and mouth had tasted.

“Bye, Evan.” With a wave, she took off, the sound of her sandals slapping down the stairs as she ran.

“Yeah. Bye, Halley.” He was pissed at himself for keeping his mouth shut for a long time, then letting her retreat before he made his case.

Kicking his nasty, festering, overflowing garbage can, he sent a half-filled fountain drink skittering across the floor. As it leaked three-day old Coke on the hardwood floors, he stomped out of the kitchen and down the hall to his bedroom.

The only reason Halley had come to him, her old friend Evan, was to cover up her tits before they were shared on social media.

Or he could stare at the screen all day and fantasize that Halley really was naked in front of him, and he was the cherub. Though he wouldn’t be using his finger. First he’d use his tongue, until she broke over her.

Evan blinked at the image still on his computer and swore out loud.

Damn, he was hungry.

Comforting her. Evan had been comforting her.

As she ate her lunch, Halley tried to force Evan’s kiss out of her mind. She would have had more luck lifting a semi-truck with her finger. It was all she could think about.

Evan had been comforting her, and she had already been planning her orgasm, kissing him back for all she was worth. Admittedly, he had responded, after all, she’d felt that thing between her legs and had seen it in all its glory. Impressive glory that it was.

But Evan was a man. And it was hardly surprising that he would get an erection when she was booty grinding on him. She had long ago recognized what was a known fact- that men’s penises acted independently of the rest of their bodies, including their brains and hearts.

That’s why she had gotten the hell out of there. If she had pushed it, pulled out the breasts and a few other tricks, she probably could have convinced Evan to have sex with her in the kitchen.

Which was comparable to throwing ten years of great friendship down the toilet.

Geez, maybe she needed to go home and rent When Harry Met Sally to remind herself that sex between friends was a major no-no.

Of course, Harry and Sally had gotten together in the end. And really, if that was the only movie in thirty years that could display a platonic male-female friendship then maybe she and Evan were fooling themselves anyway.

Halley threw down her sprouts and avocado sandwich on her desk and grimaced. Brushing crumbs off her fingertips, she glanced at the texts Nora had sent her. She didn’t want to open them, knowing she had nothing but bad news. In the two hours since she’d been back, her social media notifications had been going off nonstop.

Her sandwich churned in her stomach and she was left with the horrible feeling that if the absolute worst happened, and she lost her business, she would be left with nothing. No business, no Evan.

Plus she would still owe him money, friendship shot or not.

That thought had her flinging down her paper napkin and standing up. She had worked damn hard to make this business successful. Maybe she had screwed things up with Evan, but she couldn’t just sit still and let Salt crumble down around her. This was a minor setback, that’s all. With a little damage control, everything would be fine.

“Nora,” she called as she stepped out of her office.

The hum of a half dozen employees talking ground to a halt as she entered the reception area. Eyes avoided hers. Horace, one of her younger drivers, boldly ogled her, running his gaze up and down.

Anger raced through her. She was about to reprimand him when Horace shook his head in confusion.

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

Caught off guard, she asked, “What doesn’t?”

“That’s not even you in the picture. I can tell by looking at your…”

So much for the sixty-dollar wonder bra she had bought. Halley cut him off. “Alright, I got it! And of course it’s not me.”

Like she would ever pose for nude photos in the first place.

The faces staring back at her were a mix of confusion and pity. It made her feel sick. Taking a slow, even breath, she said, “The problem is being dealt with. Let’s all just go about our business, shall we?” And stop mulling over her breasts.

There were nods, half-smiles, and a reluctant pulling of various bodies off of desks where they had been leaning. Talking about her. Probably about how boring she was, and how unlikely it was that her naked picture would ever be splashed on the Internet.

Not that she cared. She didn’t want her picture on the Internet. So what if she was boring and flat-chested and so starved for sexual attention that she had to throw herself at her best friend? Big deal. She was successful. She had scratched and clawed her way out of Hazen, West Virginia, and had made something out of herself. Something she could be proud of.

A workaholic who hadn’t had sex in two years.

Argh. That wasn’t helping.

Nora left the others and approached Halley where she stood clenching her fists and glaring, feeling like a bull just itching to charge. At what, she didn’t know. The Three Commandos would be the logical choice.

Nora took her hand and pulled her aside. “Listen, Halley, did you read those texts I sent?”

Since Nora looked ready to pop a pacifier in her mouth and cuddle her in a blankie, Halley guessed they weren’t filled with uplifting news.

“No, I haven’t gotten to them.”

Nora squeezed her hand. “Well, it’s just as well that I tell you myself then.”

That was promising. “More cancellations?”

Nora tucked her red hair behind her ear and shook her head, giving Halley another maternal look even though she was nearly five years younger than her. “No, actually, things have been quiet on that front, thank goodness. Just more requests for nude catering jobs.”

Great. Just great. “I hope you declined.”

“Of course!” Nora bit her lip. “But the part you’re really not going to like is that your dad called.”

“My dad?” Ohmigod, her father never called her. Her dad worked twelve hours a day, and when he wasn’t on the job, he was not a chatty guy.

“Did someone die?” Her heart dropped to her shoes, and she wondered if something was wrong with her mom or one of her three younger sisters.

Nora shook her head. “No! But he saw the picture.”

“What? How is that possible?” Her dad paid no attention to anything other than the news online. He was a news junkie and obsessed with following politicians on Twitter.

Nora whispered, looking distinctly uncomfortable, “I guess your cousin Jake has a Google alert on you. When he told your dad last night, your dad insisted Jake show him.”

Halley shook her head to clear it. All she did was flip hair in her mouth. “You got all that from my dad?” Her dad wasn’t known for long drawn-out conversations. “And wow, that is incredibly weird that my cousin is keeping tabs on me.”

“No, your mom got on and told me after your dad couldn’t string anything together after ‘where the hell is Halley?’”

Halley clutched her head in pain. “Oh, crap, this is awful. My parents think I have a nude catering business.”

They were sweet, hard-working, church-going folk. She was surprised her father hadn’t already had a heart attack.

“Well, I told them it was a mistake.”

But did they know that wasn’t her body? Yuck, yuck, and triple yuck.

“Thanks.” Halley forced her head up and patted Nora on the arm. Hopefully with a phone call, she could assure her parents she wasn’t running a prostitution ring or stripping online.

Something Nora had said popped into her head. “Wait a minute? My dad saw this last night?”

“That’s what he said.”

“I wonder how long it’s been up there like that, then?” She couldn’t remember the last time she’d checked the site prior to that morning.

“A week.”

Halley spun around. Horace was listening to them with no sign of embarrassment.

“A week?” She was back in bull mode, clenching fists and leaning forward. All she needed was the nose ring and the red cloth target. “But we just started getting calls today.”

Horace shifted on the balls of his feet, and coughed into his hand. “It started a week ago with just the tray disappearing, then your top, then your skirt. Last night was when the angel showed up. It’s been going around on Twitter and shit. Though Joey sent it to me on Snapchat.”

She stared at him in horror. “Why didn’t you say anything?” You total jackass.

He shrugged. “I wanted to see what would happen next.”

Unemployment was what was happening next. “Horace, you’re fired!”

With the audacity to look startled, Horace said, “Hey! Whoa, don’t overreact.”

That was not overreacting. Overreacting would be grabbing his nuts with her hand and squeezing the hell out of them.

She had been doing a weeklong strip tease on her website and no one had bothered to mention it to her.

That was it.

Nobody turned her into an online stripper and got away with it. Time to take Evan up on his idea to get revenge on the Three Commandos.

It was petty and juvenile and wouldn’t solve her problems, but The Three C’s were just begging to get knocked down a peg or two.

Besides, she needed to talk to Evan, and clear the air about their random grind session earlier. But first she was going to tell him to hack away, with her permission.

It would be her pleasure.