The Glass Legacy

Override

The kiss was an absolute short-circuit of Aria’s entire system.

She had spent her life evading capture, building firewalls around her servers and her heart, but Leo Thorne completely bypassed them all in a single, devastating second. His mouth was hot, demanding, and entirely consuming. He didn't ask for permission; he simply took over, his large hand tangled so deeply in her dark hair that her scalp tingled with the possessive pressure.

Aria gasped into his mouth, a soft, involuntary sound of pure surrender.

That tiny sound sent a violent shudder through Leo’s massive frame. With a low, feral groan, he shifted his grip, his hands sliding from her hair down to her waist. He practically lifted her out of her chair, pulling her directly onto his lap.

Aria’s legs naturally bracketed his hips, her hands instinctively wrapping around his broad, tailored shoulders to anchor herself. The physical reality of his hard, heavily muscled body underneath her was intoxicating. She kissed him back with the same desperate, frantic energy, her fingers curling into the collar of his crisp white shirt.

For the Ice Prince, who had always operated with absolute, freezing control, the sensation of Aria in his arms was a total system override. He devoured her, his tongue sweeping past her lips to taste the sweet, fiery defiance that had drawn him to her in the first place. He wanted to consume her entirely. He wanted to lock the doors to the penthouse and never let her look at another screen again.

Suddenly, a sharp, piercing *chime* echoed through the penthouse.

The center monitor on the workstation flashed a brilliant, pulsing red.

Aria jumped, her hacker instincts momentarily fighting through the suffocating haze of arousal. She tried to pull back, her emerald eyes completely blown wide, her lips swollen and damp. "Leo... the grid."

"Let it ring," Leo murmured, his voice a dark, vibrating rasp. He didn't let her go. Instead, he chased her lips, pressing a hard, bruising kiss to the corner of her mouth, then trailing his lips down the sensitive line of her jaw.

"Silas... he took the bait," Aria breathed, her heart hammering so hard she thought it might break her ribs. She gripped his shoulders, trying to find a single coherent thought as his mouth grazed the sensitive skin of her neck. "He's uploading the payload into the dummy server."

Leo let out a heavy, frustrated sigh, his breath hot against her collarbone. He rested his forehead against hers for a long second, his chest heaving as he forcibly reigning in the ferocious, possessive instinct to completely dismantle her on the desk.

Slowly, his striking ice-blue eyes opened, locking onto hers with a burning intensity.

"Silas just made the biggest mistake of his life," Leo whispered, his thumbs gently stroking her waist. "But he isn't the only one we have to worry about."

Aria frowned, her pulse finally starting to settle. "What do you mean?"

Leo gently lifted her off his lap, setting her back into her own chair, though he kept one hand firmly wrapped around her knee, refusing to entirely sever the physical connection. He turned toward the glowing red monitor.

"Silas Sterling is a coward," Leo explained, his voice returning to the cool, calculating tone of a billionaire CEO. "He doesn't have the internal access required to know exactly when to ping that backdoor. Someone inside my company fed him that information. A mole."

Aria’s eyes widened as the strategic reality set in. "So... destroying Silas right now doesn't solve the problem. The mole is still inside Thorne Tech."

"Exactly," Leo smirked, a predatory, brilliant light flashing in his eyes. "Which is why we aren't going to destroy him today. We are going to let him think his virus is dormant in my system. And to smoke out the mole, we need to make Silas overconfident."

"How?"

Leo turned back to her, his gaze sweeping over her face. "I am hosting the annual Thorne Tech Global Summit this weekend. Three days of high-society galas, press conferences, and board meetings. Silas will be there. The mole will be there."

Aria crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow. "And where will I be?"

"Right by my side," Leo stated, his tone leaving absolutely zero room for argument. He reached out, his knuckles brushing her cheek. "You aren't a captive anymore, Aria. You are going to walk into that gala on my arm, wearing my diamonds, completely untouchable. You are going to be my official girlfriend."

Aria’s breath caught. "Fake dating? You want me to play the billionaire's girlfriend?"

"There won't be anything fake about it," Leo promised softly, his eyes darkening with that same, consuming hunger from the kiss. "I am going to show the entire world that you belong to me."