Chapter 4

“It’s the strangest thing,” says Mallory. I’m back in my office to see if she figured out what was interfering with our program. “I can’t find anything wrong with the code, but Jasper’s profile won’t let the search work.”

“Maybe it has something to do with the fact we set this up for only twenty-five werewolves.”

“No, that’s not it.” A pen taps against the table as Mallory bounces it in her fingers. “I’m completely stumped.”

I reach over and grab her pen so she’ll stop the annoying noise. “Should I reload him? I could have done something wrong setting him up.”

“I doubt it, but sure, go ahead and delete his profile and start again.”

Mallory yawns, and I say, “Get out of here. I’m sorry I kept you late for this, but I appreciate your help.”

“No problem.” She shuts her laptop with a click and tucks it under her arm. “I’ll take another crack at it in the morning.”

I know better. Mallory is like a dog with a bone when a coding problem presents itself, and I bet she’ll stay up all night trying to sort out the issue. “No, you won’t.” I reach over and yank the computer out of her grasp. “This stays here.”

“Hey!”

“If I let you take this home, you’ll be working all night until you solve the problem.”

She puts her hands on her hips. “No, I won’t.”

“Right. Then you won’t care that this stays here.”

Mallory squints at me as she drops her hands. “I don’t like you when you’re pushy, Boss Lady.”

“Boss Lady?” Jasper steps into the room and flashes Mallory a smile that could land him a starring role in a toothpaste commercial.

Mallory lets out a low whistle as she scans the werewolf with her gaze. “Day-um. We don’t need to fix this guy’s profile. I’ll just take him home and call him mine.”

Jasper glares at her. “I belong to Marilyn.”

“Whoa.” Mallory throws up her hands and grins at me. “My mistake.”

I shake my head in reply with a stern expression while stopping myself from snapping back. I let out a heavy sigh. “What do you need, Jasper?”

“Can I talk to you when you have a minute?”

Mallory says, “I was just leaving.” She slides a hand down Jasper’s arm as she moves past him. “Too bad, outlaw, we’d have had some fun.” My heart stops a second, and the urge to punch Mallory overwhelms me. She has no right to touch him! “If you change your mind, the name’s Mallory.”

Jasper doesn’t take his gaze off of me as he barks out an order to her. “Shut the door on your way out.” Once Mallory is gone, he steps closer to me with a predatory look in his eyes. “I heard you have a coding problem.”

I step behind my desk to put it between us, and the laptop Mallory was using thumps when I set it down. I’m not sure how Jasper knows or why it would concern him. “We do, but I’m sure it’ll get sorted out.”

When Jasper reaches toward me, I step back. But he was lunging for the laptop and lifts it up with one large hand. “Let me take a look.”

“What? No.” I reach for the computer, but he lifts it above my head as if I’m a child.

“Why not?”

“Because for one, you don’t work for me. And two, if Mallory couldn’t figure it out, then it’s too—” I realize I’m about to insult his intelligence, and since he’s holding the laptop, I switch gears. “I’m sure it’s time consuming, and I couldn’t let you spend your night doing something I’m not authorized to pay you to do.”

Jasper’s sexy grin disappears. “You don’t think I can do it.”

“It’s not that. I swear.”

“No?” He plops down in the chair Mallory just vacated, and it groans under his massive body. “Then you won’t mind if I take a look.”

I bristle at the tactic I just used with Mallory. “Jasper. I don’t know.”

He ignores me as his fingers move smoothly over the keys, and I’m reminded of his graceful table manners. I never would have guessed he was a programmer too. This man might be more than a hot body after all. And I decide since he’s working on his own profile, I might as well let him take a shot at fixing it.

As Jasper scowls over what he’s seeing, I walk around my desk to peer over his shoulder. I see the usual lines of code. He says, “If you’re going to breathe down my neck, I’m going to lose my focus.”

“Oh.” I step back. “Sorry.” I wander back to my desk and know I should find something to do, but I can’t seem to stop staring at him.

He chuckles.

“What’s so funny?”

“You listed my profession as a personal trainer.”

I recall the conversation I had with Marilyn about what to put down as a placeholder for his profession. I thought manual labor, but she convinced me that a body like Jasper’s doesn’t just happen from a physical job and insisted it must be gym-created. “And that’s funny because?”

“Because I’m the biggest nerd you’ll ever meet.”

Now I chuckle because brilliant men do not look like Jasper. “You can’t be serious.”

“Found it.” He types something and then turns to me with the computer held out so I can see the screen. “Want to try me now?”

His tone is suggestive, and I scowl at him before I click on the search matches button. The screen begins to populate with a list of potential females for Jasper based on the made-up profile Marilyn and I created. I stare at him in shock. “How did you find it so quickly?”

“Basic hacker move.”

“Someone’s hacked into our system? That’s not possible.”

“Not only is it possible, it happened.” The chair squeaks as Jasper leans back. “You’ve got a security problem.”

“No.” My stomach knots up, and my shoes click on the floor as I begin to pace. Who would want to break into a small dating program for a tiny coastal town? “We’re nobody! And we have one of the best computer programmers in the world.” I turn on my heel to face him. “How could this happen?”

“You don’t have the best programmer in the world.” He grins at me. “But you could.”

My friend Charlie’s werewolf husband, Ryan, is a computer programmer, too, and it occurs to me that if he and Jasper worked together, it wouldn’t be hard to have Jasper checked out. “Are you saying you’re the best?”

“I’m saying I can fix this.”

The edge of my desk is hard on my bottom as I lean against it, and I groan. “I insisted we hire Mallory, against what Kevin wanted. What’s he going to do when he finds out she let a hacker in? I could easily lose my job, and more importantly, the entire dating program could be ruined by some jerk in their basement with nothing better to do.” My stomach knots up. “If Mallory couldn’t find a solution, I’m not sure who I can find to fix this.”

“Really, Marilyn?”

“Kevin’s not going to want you to do this.”

Jasper raises his eyebrows. “You think I’m afraid of Kevin? This isn’t going to go away. The door to your system has been opened, Marilyn.”

“I can’t pay you.”

“I’m not asking you to. I’m doing this to help you. Kevin doesn’t have to know. You’re my mate, and I’m on your side.” His gaze intensifies when he adds, “Always.”

I take a deep breath because as much as I want to ponder the fact Jasper might be my type after all, I’m trying to come to terms with letting him help. But if I don’t do something, I won’t have a job anyway. “Do it.” I catch myself and add, “Please.”

Jasper nods at me, and he gets up from his chair to grab the laptop. “I’ll have you set by morning.” I watch him walk toward the door, and while I enjoy the view, it hits me that he has a brain that is just as sexy. He glances over his shoulder at me and says, “There better be jelly donuts for breakfast. They’re”—he pauses for a moment to flash me a playful smile—“sticky.”

Once he’s gone, I stare down at my hand and imagine the heat of his mouth on my fingers as he works his way through them all. A shiver of desire runs through me as I let myself contemplate the fact that Jasper said he was the biggest nerd I’d ever meet. Dare I believe he is the incredible kind of man that makes my body sing and who also has a mind that will challenge and satisfy my intellect?