“Meow?”
Belinda blinked her eyes open at the sound and looked straight into a pair of green eyes. “Hi, Tinkerbell. Did you sleep well?”
The cat rubbed his face against Belinda’s nose in response and began purring.
“I’ll take that for a yes,” Belinda answered with a laugh. “Are you ready to go home?”
Tinkerbell turned and swished his tail regally before jumping off the edge of the bed to land silently on the carpeted floor.
Belinda pushed herself up to sit on the edge of the bed and yawned before getting up. Rubbing a hand through her tousled hair, she followed her evening visitor through the apartment to the balcony door. When she opened it, Tinkerbell waltzed out and turned to meow his thanks before heading toward Pedro’s apartment.
Curious to watch the cat navigate from one balcony to the next, Belinda leaned out and froze.
“Good morning, Little girl. Come out and join me,” Pedro invited. He held a steaming cup of coffee in his hand.
Belinda tried to focus on his face but failed miserably. The allure of his rock-hard body dressed only in low-slung pajama bottoms was too much to resist. Damn! At his chuckle, she realized she had stared for way too long and that she probably looked like a mess. Her hands immediately flew to her hair and she tried to smooth her rumpled locks into place.
“You look adorable, Little one. Come out and chat. I’ll share my coffee,” he offered. “How is your bottom?”
“Sore.” Belinda focused on the railing between them, unable to meet his gaze.
“And your mind?” he probed.
“Better,” she admitted. “I slept really well.”
“I’m glad.”
Walking forward slowly, she attempted to fill the silence that followed. “I should have sent you a message that Tinkerbell was with me,” Belinda apologized.
“No need. I watched him dart into your apartment and knew he planned to snuggle with you last night. I was understandably jealous,” he admitted as he offered her the handle of the large cup.
Automatically, she accepted it and took a sip of the dark, rich coffee. “Mmm! This is amazing. This isn’t the normal coffee stocked in these apartments.”
“It is my own special blend. You have found the first of my faults. I am a coffee snob,” Pedro confessed.
“The first of your faults,” she echoed, unable to hide her curiosity.
“I also suddenly find myself possessive and protective.”
The heated look he gave her left no doubt in her mind that he referred to her as the object of his attention. She looked down at the cup and took another sip to give herself time to think.
“Have you had a Little girl before?” she blurted, darting a look up at his face to judge his reaction. To her surprise, he didn’t look guilty, but sad.
“I have. Do you want to hear about her?” Pedro asked softly.
“I don’t want to, but I think I need to,” she confessed.
“Elizabeth was my first love. Not a schoolboy romance as I was already in my twenties. It was, however, the first time I thought I’d found the woman suited for my desires. She was shy and enjoyed being at home. I met her while investigating a break-in for a major insurance company. An actuary, numbers and risk assessments ruled her life. I wooed her for six months before discovering she was the source of the security risk.”
“Was she really Little?”
“She was. Unfortunately, she needed a different type of Daddy. The shy demeanor covered her deft manipulations and misdeeds. I couldn’t trust her,” Pedro admitted, shaking his head. “Our relationship shook me to my core. I didn’t date for two years after that.”
“Do you think you’ve ever gotten over it?” she asked.
“Oh, yes. I was more angry at myself for being deceived than I was angry she’d hoodwinked me.”
“She was your only Little?”
“My only serious relationship. I have played with Littles at BDSM clubs. There was never anything serious between them and me. Then I met you. I told myself that you couldn’t be as perfect as you appeared. I was wrong.”
“I’m not perfect,” she laughed.
“You are perfectly you. I don’t want you to be anyone else. Now, you…”
The beeping of her alarm sounded faintly from her room. “Sorry. I have to go. Maybe I’ll see you at work.”
Belinda fled into her apartment and flipped the lock on the balcony door. Running to her bathroom, she splashed her face with water and tried to pull herself together. Twenty minutes later, she let herself out the door and closed it quietly. Dashing to the elevator, she mentally pleaded with it to open fast. When the metal doors closed behind her, there was no sign of Pedro.
Once in her office, Belinda logged into her computer and checked her schedule. She had a variety of meetings and conferences. In her previous position, Belinda had worked with almost all the division leaders. Now, she was holding a series of meetings with each department to assess their technology needs. The first session scheduled for today was in forty minutes in Tower C. She blinked and looked back at the computer. Pedro Morales was listed as an attendee.
Glancing down the rest of her daily schedule, she noted his name at every single meeting. This was too much. Had he done this before or after assuring her that he wasn’t going to challenge her authority? She pulled up the ABC Towers employee list to locate Pedro’s phone number. It wasn’t listed. Belinda rolled her eyes in aggravation.
She called HR. They had done the hiring. They had to have his number or his office location. In a minute, she had both pieces of information.
His office was down the hall from her on the sixth floor of Tower C. Grabbing her tablet and phone, Belinda headed for the elevator. She stewed as she waited. How dare he waltz into her schedule without asking! The thought that he might undermine her authority as the head of technology rebounded into her thoughts. She’d worked too hard at Edgewater Industries. Belinda didn’t care how world famous he was.
Plastering a friendly smile on her face when the elevator opened, Belinda hid her emotions from her colleagues as they greeted her. She maintained her congenial demeanor as she waved and bypassed his admin to rap on his door.
“Belinda! Hi!” Pedro stood and rounded his desk to greet her.
“I’m going to shut this door if that’s okay?” she spit through her teeth.
“Of course.” He led the way to a small conversation area at the side of his large office.
Belinda closed the door with a deliberately quiet click. She stalked forward and stood an arm’s distance from him. “Why are you at every meeting I have today? Was everything that happened last night a complete lie?”
“Nothing that happens between us is a lie. I looked at that schedule this morning and was surprised as well. I don’t know how this happened without your knowledge.” Pedro spoke precisely and gently.
“No one called, messaged, or emailed. I watched it appear on my schedule this morning,” she answered, hearing the clipped tone marking her words. She was pissed.
Pulling out his phone, Pedro selected a number just as a knock sounded on the door. They both could hear the ringtone on the other side of the barrier.
“Hello? Pedro? I’m at your door. Could I talk to you?” Sharon’s voice was easily recognizable.
He looked at Belinda and answered, “Please come join us, Sharon.”
“Crap! I didn’t get to you fast enough.”
“Belinda came to speak with me when she noticed my name appearing on the schedule for each of her meetings today,” Pedro explained.
“I should have taken care of it myself,” Sharon quickly shared. “I put Pedro’s schedule for the next week together myself, Belinda. When I spoke to the head of accounting, he mentioned you were coming in today to speak to him. He asked if he could meet with both of you for a longer time since he felt there was a connection between technology and cybersecurity needs.”
Belinda nodded as the new corporate headhunter paused. She glanced over at Pedro.
“I emailed asking you to let me know if you could see any negative aspects of a joint meeting. I didn’t hear anything back, so I figured that you agreed,” Sharon added quickly.
“I did not receive a message, Sharon.” Belinda’s tone was professional, but curt.
“I know. It’s my fault. Instead of emailing last week, I included it with the scheduling addition. I expected it to be effective days ago so you could react. When I logged in this morning, I discovered a notification that the system had delivered the email today and updated Pedro’s schedule in one vast sweep—also today twenty minutes ago,” Sharon explained.
“The scheduling system has a section to send prior notification, but that is only possible on the advanced settings screen,” Belinda provided. “I’ve had others complain messages sent through the scheduling system are not received until the last moment.”
“Email is best sent through the email system,” Belinda added.
“I’ve learned my lesson,” Sharon said, raising her hand as if swearing an oath. “I am so sorry for any confusion. Do you want me to remove them and schedule Pedro separately?”
Belinda looked at her, trying to keep her frustration from showing on her face. There was no way to refuse with Pedro standing at her side. “No. It’s already on everyone’s schedule. I have meetings all week…”
“I’ll reschedule the ones in the future myself,” Sharon assured her quickly.
Belinda pulled her schedule up on her tablet and blinked. Sharon had scheduled Pedro in every single meeting she had. What the…
“Sharon, I think Belinda and I need to talk privately to develop a strategy to make the most of this situation. I will call you with our decision for the future meetings,” Pedro interjected smoothly. He escorted Sharon from the room and closed the door once again.
“My apologies, Belinda. I understand how this must have looked to you.”
“I may not be the director of cybersecurity, but I have excelled in all my positions at Edgewater Industries and was chosen to lead the technology department.” Belinda established her credentials with a steely look. She was not backing down. Even if he was the yummiest specimen of man flesh she’d ever met and stood in front of her and claiming to be her Daddy.
“Exactly. My job has a fancy title and is on the firing line if something happens. Your job ensures that Edgewater Industries functions on all levels and at all times. We have fifteen minutes before we need to leave for your first meeting. Let’s figure out how to make this work.” Pedro waved her into a chair. He jogged to his desk and grabbed an old-fashioned notepad and a pen before joining her.
Pulling up her checklist of items she had established when scheduling these meetings, Belinda looked at the time frame she had estimated and divided it by half. She shook her head. There was no way to accomplish her goals in such a limited time frame.
“This is your meeting. How much time did you allot for the division leader to ask questions?” Pedro asked.
“Ten minutes of each hour-long meeting,” she snapped. Belinda didn’t wish to give up that time. Their questions would tell her information she needed to know about lack of communication or training.
“The people you’re meeting with have met you?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Could you take one minute to introduce me and then move on to your plan?” Pedro suggested. “I’ll use part of that minute to state that I’m joining you simply to meet everyone, be time efficient, and gather overlapping information between our two departments.”
“And you’re going to be quiet for the rest of the time?” she scoffed.
“Watch it, Little girl. I know you’re angry, but remember, I did not cause this situation.”
“I am not a Little girl at work,” she hissed.
“You’re a Little girl all the time,” he corrected her with the first stern look she’d received since closing the door to talk to him. “I will make notes and only ask questions if there is a dead space of time.”
Belinda rolled her eyes. Sure he would.
“Can I see your list of topics?” he asked.
She handed it to him silently, waiting for him to criticize something.
“Perfect. I would ask several of those questions myself. If time allows, I will ask this question, ‘what security gap have you found or worry about?’”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it,” he confirmed. “As we move from meeting to meeting, I could benefit from your knowledge of the person next on your schedule.”
Somewhere in a small segment of Belinda’s attention, she noticed that he always referred to these as her meetings, her schedule, and her agenda. She wasn’t ready to trust him yet. As her mom always said, ‘The proof’s in the pudding.’ That first meeting would tell her all she needed to know.
“It’s time to leave,” she snapped.
“Let’s go.”
Pedro preceded her to the door and opened it. Gallantly ushering her through, he joined her at the elevator when she didn’t pause so he could walk with her. They stepped into the car and when it started down, she tried to relax the tension building between her shoulder blades. She glanced down at her notes and gathered her thoughts.
When they reached the fourth floor, she stepped confidently out of the elevator and paused for Pedro to join her. As they walked through the floor Belinda had worked on for years, many employees looked up from their cubicles to wave and call hello. She was equally pleased to see them as well. Belinda would have remained there, but she knew Easton was correct in stationing the chiefs of the department on a different floor. She would be less efficient if people could just drop in to see her. There were others in charge of the jobs she’d held before. She needed to let them do their work without interference.
“Belinda, I’ve been looking forward to our meeting,” John commented as he welcomed the duo into his office. He smiled at the man behind her.
“Thank you for your time, John. This is Pedro Morales. He’s the new chief of cybersecurity. As you can imagine, there’s an overlap between overall technology at Edgewater and cybersecurity. We decided it would be most efficient of your time if we met with you together. Mr. Morales will schedule further meetings with you as needed,” Belinda said smoothly, keeping her emotions from showing on her face.
“Nice to meet you, John,” Pedro said and shook the man’s hand. “This is Belinda’s meeting. I’m just eavesdropping.”
“I’m glad you could join us. Please take a seat.” John waved a hand at the chairs in front of his desk.
Immediately, Belinda guided the conversation through all the topics she wished to discuss for the meeting. She noticed Pedro making notes on his pad of paper as she jotted items to remember on her tablet. Pleased with the progress by the end, Belinda opened the conversation up to John’s questions.
He asked several questions about funding and supply issues before glancing at Pedro. “May I ask you what you’re looking for?”
Pedro glanced at Belinda and asked, “Do you have anything else you’d like to follow up on first?”
When she shook her head, Pedro continued, “Every company has their own challenges. It could be something as confounding as employees who open risky emails or something as complex as a coding error that may have been around for years. I’ll dive into everything but would love to know your greatest cybersecurity concern.”
“To be honest, the newest computers coming in are scary fast. That’s great for time efficiency, but I wonder how many employees are clicking on random messages that pop up without taking the time to read them completely. I’ll give you an example that happened to me. I was in the middle of saving a spreadsheet for the monthly budget. Normally a message pops up to ask if I wish to leave the application after I’ve finished saving. I almost clicked it automatically, but the word accessible caught my eye. When I stopped to read it completely, the computer was asking for permission to make this file accessible to various people in the department. Probing deeper, I found a name I didn’t recognize. It was a consultant who’d installed our virus system on the new laptop I’d just been given.”
“I remember you reporting that last week. We implemented a new policy to remove permissions granted to a contractor before we assign a computer to an Edgewater employee. In addition, all the computers that consultant worked on were recalled and extraneous names were removed,” Belinda commented.
“I knew you’d taken care of it thoroughly,” John confirmed. “It got me thinking, if I hadn’t noticed and dug, would anyone else have? Many departments are working overtime. Would someone have taken the time I did to check something out or report it? Or would they have been too busy?”
“Unfortunately, that rushed click is often how a hacker gets inside. They could target a million employees at a million different companies to try to get one person to grant them access. Thank you, John, for suggesting processing messages as a target to lock down. It sounds like you, Belinda, and the technicians handled the situation perfectly.”
“Yes. I was very pleased with the response my concern was given. It definitely opened my eyes to threats I hadn’t considered. While I’ve got you here, Belinda, let me ask you…” John opened his laptop and accessed a list of questions he’d created before the meeting. Quickly, he addressed the remaining items on his list and jotted notes.
When Belinda and Pedro stood to leave, John followed them to the doorway. “Thank you for meeting with me. I appreciated an update on the plans for technology in general and a taste of what cybersecurity will address.”
“Our pleasure, John. Thank you for your time,” Belinda said as she stepped into the hallway and advanced a few steps for Pedro to exit and join her.
“So, do you think there are any advantages for you to continue to tag along?” Belinda asked.
“Yes. Other than the obvious issue that you dealt with efficiently, I also picked up on several other risk factors. He started his computer without using any login or biometrics like his fingerprint. Anyone could have pulled up his files if the rest of it was unprotected.”
Belinda turned her notes to show him she’d jotted down the same idea. “Great minds,” she said sarcastically.
When they stepped into the empty elevator to descend to the ground floor, Pedro warned, “Enough, Little girl. We need to work together.”
“What are you going to do? Spank me again?” Belinda laughed, feeling like a fool.
“I understood your reaction to these combined meetings. I would have been angry as well to see a newcomer’s name pop up in my meetings. We’ve figured out how to make this a positive rather than a negative. Enough with being deliberately confrontational.”
He held her gaze for several long seconds before adding, “And yes.”
The door opened before she could respond. By the time they’d finished the last morning meeting, Belinda’s anger had dissipated completely. Pedro was allowing her to run her meetings and only asking questions if time allowed. Part of her wanted to stay snarly. Of course he’s playing nice. I made him. The other half realized he wasn’t responsible for the mistake and had taken steps to create a positive result. And I’ve learned important things as well today.
Pedro excused himself at lunchtime to visit the human relations department. They had urgent paperwork for him to complete. Belinda ate a solitary meal at her desk and had to admit she missed him.