His reaction was already fast enough, okay?

It wasn’t that he was slow; seriously, who could possibly connect a legendary hacker with a flesh-and-blood person standing in front of them?

Owen’s skills were something that had countries and organizations all lining up to recruit him, but unfortunately, he roamed the internet like some free-and-easy ranger and flat-out refused everyone’s invitations.

No one knew who he really was; they only knew that whenever he decided to make a move, no firewall in the world could keep him out.

He’d heard Owen’s name so often it was practically engraved in his skull, but actually getting this close to the legendary master... any normal person would be too stunned to react, okay?

"Alright, I’ll pass on your thanks," Jim Perry waved his hand and said, "Okay, I’m heading back first."

Jim Perry said it carelessly, took the processed documents, and strolled off at an unhurried pace.

Once he left the tech department, though, his steps suddenly sped up. He rushed back to his own office and immediately called Charles Seymour: "Boss, how does our boss lady know Owen?"

"Ahhh, that’s a question I am absolutely not allowed to ask." Jim Perry pressed a hand over his heart that was pounding from excitement and said, thrilled, "Boss lady is seriously amazing, I totally worship her now."

"Mm." Charles Seymour replied casually.

But even with just that one syllable, Jim Perry could hear the endless resentment buried in Charles’s voice.

It wasn’t that he was overly sensitive; it was just that his boss’s resentment was so thick it was about to solidify and come bursting out of the phone.

"Boss, I’ve still got stuff to do over here, so I’ll stop bothering you." Jim Perry rattled the words off and decisively hung up. He had zero intention of getting caught in that stray gunfire.

He didn’t really understand why his boss was in such a bad mood, but his survival instinct for avoiding harm was very much online.

Charles Seymour hung up, face dark, watching his Sophie Wilson hugging her phone, laughing nonstop. God knows what the person on the other end was saying, but the smile never left Sophie’s face—she was glowing with happiness.

Charles felt seriously, painfully aggrieved.

"...Mm, okay, sure, let’s leave it at that then." When Charles heard that Sophie Wilson was finally about to end the call, his mood improved a little. But her next line made that just-improving mood plummet straight off a cliff: "Talk later."

Talk later about what, exactly?

Charles’s face went even darker.

Sophie Wilson hung up, turned her head, and saw Charles. She stretched out her arms and launched herself straight into his embrace, rubbing against him coquettishly: "Haven’t seen him for years, and that guy Owen’s skills have leveled up again."

Praising another man while nestled in his arms—how was Charles supposed to tolerate that?

Charles lowered his head, captured Sophie Wilson’s infuriating little mouth, and gave it a hard bite. After swallowing down her startled gasp, he finally softened, gently caressing with the tip of his tongue the spot he’d just bitten.

He sucked lightly, lingering and tangled, until he kissed Sophie into a boneless puddle of springtime water, melting in his arms. Only then did Charles slowly pull back. Looking at Sophie with eyes hazy with desire, her cheeks flushed and her gaze liquid with heat, his sexy Adam’s apple bobbed up and down rapidly.

This was way too much of a test of his self-control.

"What was that for?" Sophie Wilson felt like every ounce of strength in her body had been sucked out by a certain someone. She shot the culprit a fierce glare.

The next second, though, Charles’s big hand slid up to cover her eyes, and his hoarse, sexy voice sounded by her ear: "Don’t tempt me."