Viper's Kiss by Shannon Curtis

together. This insecurity wasn’t a feeling she was used to, and she didn’t like it. Normally she was the take charge type, the one who set the rules and made sure everyone followed them. The one renowned for efficiently solving problems. With this man, and in this situation, she was totally out of her depth. She needed to regain some control of the events shaping her life.
    She stepped out of the shower, her breath catching. All her cuts and scrapes stung The memory of Luke’s gentle touch as he ministered to her hurts flashed to mind. His touch caused an unfamiliar tightening in her belly, an attraction that warmed her from the inside out. Yet another new, uncomfortable sensation caused by the man. As she tightened a leaky tap, she spotted the window. She froze. A window . Her eyes widened as she stepped out of the shower, ignoring the running water behind her. She gauged the size of the window. It would be a tight squeeze, for sure.
    But she could fit through there.
     
    Luke arched an eyebrow at the Wonder Woman bookmark he’d found in the laptop bag. Her password login was easy to crack after that discovery. DPrince. Diana Prince, Wonder Woman’s everyday persona. He snorted. Some spy she was turning out to be. He frowned as he waited for a diagnostic report on Maggie’s laptop to be completed. He wanted to make sure there were no viruses that would corrupt the MSA network before working on it. He eyed the piled-up red wool in front of him. Aren’t there supposed to be two needles? He could see only one. Man, she really tries to get into character. He couldn’t avoid the flash of appreciation that coursed through him. Except for the missing needle, she’d nailed her disguise. The frumpy outfit, the hair, spectacles and now knitting. No wonder she’d succeeded in fooling everyone. She’d managed to pass herself off as quite the retiring dowd.
    But he wasn’t fooled. He knew she possessed a fire and strength that was compelling, as well as a resourcefulness that would put a Boy Scout to shame. She’d managed to pass herself off as an unassuming librarian. She’d infiltrated a top secret military research project, and she’d escaped both the cops and her violent cohorts unarmed.
    The monitor blinked at him. Standard diagnostics were complete, her laptop was clear. He frowned. She was a master spy, and her cover was a techno-nerd working on a defense project. He expected some security access issues to be highlighted. His eyes narrowed. He swiveled in his chair and connected the laptop to a freestanding computer that wasn’t hooked up to the network, quickly glancing over his shoulder as he did so. He could hear running water. Good, she’s still in the shower .
    He had a spy program of his own, one that would turn the D.O.D. green with envy. He ran both systems at once, quickly scanning the program files and boot up procedure as they loaded. Bingo . His program had detected something. It wasn’t a normal virus, though. No, it’s definitely something else . He typed busily on the keyboard, eyeing the report as it followed one command after another. He cocked an eyebrow. She had a Trojan horse hiding on her laptop. It was a damn good one, too, piggybacking on a stealth virus. Normal antivirus checks hadn’t picked it up. He pulled out a hidden drawer and retrieved a disk, slotting it into his computer. He entwined his fingers, inverted his hands and listened to the satisfying crack of knuckles. He rested his fingers on the keyboard. He wiggled them. And smiled at the thrill of the hunt. I love my job .
    Using the software program he’d personally created, he entered code and bypassed Maggie’s security. Data streamed across the screen in front of him, and he absorbed the information. After just a few short minutes, he was able to tag the malicious software program. A little longer, and he had access to every record, every file, every program on Maggie’s laptop. The Trojan horse allowed a hacker from a