Her Perfect Game Read online

  Then he collapsed.

  Charlie slid her limbs away from him, but he wasn’t ready to let go. His right arm remained beneath her as he rolled off. They both stared at the ceiling doing nothing but catching their breath.

  Finally, she broke the silence. “I’ll tell you, Best, that was beyond excellent.”

  He found the strength to push up on his elbow. He didn’t want to read too much into her word choice, but even his ego needed stroking on occasion. “You are aware you just called me Best, right? There’s no taking that back.”

  She winked at him. “I don’t think I need to.”

  He laughed at the easy playfulness of their conversation. “You make things too easy,” he admitted.

  Her face became serious, a flash of something in her eyes, but she pushed it away and smiled at him. “That’s me, Easy Charlie.”

  “I didn’t mean it like that. You know I didn’t.” He pushed hair off her forehead and stroked a finger down her cheek. “I mean this—talking, joking, laughing—I’m always comfortable with you. Easy like that.”

  The same brief look came back.

  “What?” he asked.

  She jumped up quickly, and he thought for a moment that she was going to leave. “Let’s order room service. I’m starving.”

  One thing he should’ve remembered about Charlie was that she liked to eat, especially after having sex. He stretched out on the bed. “Go ahead. Order what you want. I’m going to shower and get some work done. You’ll be here when I get out?”

  She snickered. “You just offered me free food. Of course I’ll be here.”

  He stood and wrapped a hand around the back of her neck to pull her close. “You might enjoy the food, but you’re staying for the sex.”

  His mouth closed over hers before she could spout her snappy comeback. He kissed her breathless and then went to the bathroom. Yeah, he’d definitely missed Charlie. Now all he had to do was convince his boss that she was worth hiring.

  Chapter 8

  Charlie inhaled a deep breath. Jonah knew how to short-circuit her brain. She’d wanted to ask why he’d left without a word, without a call. But he kept distracting her with fabulous kisses. Her mind clung to the idea about why she was here now, in his room.

  They’d never had sexual compatibility issues and maybe that’s all this was to Jonah. A great way to spend a weekend. With any other man, she could totally get behind that.

  But Jonah was different. She needed to learn how to make him not different because when the weekend hit, Jonah was going to board a plane and leave her again.

  She picked up the phone and ordered an obscenely large amount of food. She’d skipped dinner, and great sex always made her hungry. While she waited for the food to arrive, she grabbed Jonah’s shirt and logged back in to Resskaar. She needed to talk to Win.

  He still hadn’t logged on and she was getting worried. What if Kraven had gone after Win again?

  When Jonah stepped out of the bathroom, a cloud of steam followed. He wore nothing, a testament to his level of comfort around her.

  “Enjoying my shirt?”

  “Much, thank you.”

  He crossed the room, kissed the top of her head, and asked, “The rush of sex is gone already, so you’ve turned back to the game? I’m wounded.”

  She laughed. They’d spent nights just like this three years ago. Sex, gaming, hacking. Laughing. When did it turn? When did it become too much for him?

  The question was poised in her mouth as he pulled on his boxer briefs. She wanted to ask but thought better of it. Maybe there was such a thing as too much truth.

  “Have you figured out how Kraven almost raped me?”

  Charlie watched as the muscles in Jonah’s back stiffened and bunched. When he turned around, his face was stone. “Not yet. We found the altered code and corrected it, but my team is still working on figuring out how he got in.”

  “I’m worried about my friend. He was there that night. He saved me, in fact, but he hasn’t been back. I’m afraid that psycho did something to his character.”

  Jonah came back to her and squatted to put him at her eye level. His palm cradled her cheek. “The first thing we did was track that guy down and shut him out. He couldn’t have done anything to your friend or anyone else. I promise you that.”

  His palm on her face warmed and comforted her. “But what if he just created a new profile, logged in another way? He’s obviously got hacking skills.”

  “We followed his IP and flagged it. It’ll hold him off while we figure out a long-term solution.” His thumb stroked her cheekbone, just like he had while they were in bed talking. “Trust me, your friend is safe.”

  He spoke with such conviction that Charlie wanted to believe him, but hearing from Win was the only thing that would really set her mind at ease.

  “Go ahead and play. I’ve got some work to catch up on.” He took the seat opposite her at the small table and opened his laptop.

  “Any secrets for Resskaar that you’re working on? I’d love to beta a new version.” She smiled and winked.

  “I’ll keep you in mind, but we have nothing ready just yet.”

  And then she lost him. His focus was on his screen. He was like a ninja on the keyboard. His strokes barely registered as clicks. Sometimes she’d woken in the middle of the night to find him typing away, but it was never the sound that disturbed her. It was feeling like he was gone, which he was every time he sat in front of a screen.

  She turned back to her game and put on her headphones. Today, she wanted to hear people. She wandered the woods. Her health and strength had returned, in large part due to Win. She checked her mission status and saw that three other members of her guild were on, so she went in search of them to see if they’d had contact with Win in the forums or outside the game.

  As she approached the group, they rushed at her to talk about what had happened. How did they know about Kraven? She hadn’t spoken to anyone since it happened.

  Messages in the forums told them what had happened, and although no names were used, they figured it had been her. She told them how Win had saved her and asked if Win had been playing. Of course, she got the answer she’d been expecting, which was that no one had seen Win. Just as the disappointment sank in, a blink notified her of Win logging on.

  A private message. Meet me at the cave.

  She said quick good-byes to her guild and took off back in the direction she’d come from. As she burst through the trees, she saw him leaning nonchalantly against the mouth of the cave. “Hey, gorgeous.”

  His computerized voice made her heart leap. She rushed at him and jumped on him. His arms circled her as his back smacked against the rock, her long body nearly twice the size of his toppling them. Good thing they were only pixels. In real life, that would hurt like a bitch.

  Oh my God. Are you okay?

  He set her down. “The real question is are you?”

  I’m fine since I had a hero rescue me.

  “And a fine rescue it was. It drained me of power.” He paused. “And it freaked me out a bit. I’ve never seen anything like that.”

  Neither have I, but I have it on excellent authority that it won’t ever happen again.

  “Do I want to know who your authority is?”

  Remember I asked you to come to this con because I ran into my ex?

  “Sure.”

  He’s a developer for the game.

  “So you’ve gone and done something stupid because I wasn’t there.”

  She smacked his shoulder. Maybe. I’m not sure. The thing is, I feel so right when I’m with him. It’s like it’s too good to be true.

  “What’s wrong with that?”

  He’s going to leave. Again.

  “Maybe he won’t if you ask him to stay.”

  Charlie hadn’t thought of that, but she knew Jonah wouldn’t stay. He had a life away from here. Plus, she had nothing to offer him. If she wanted someone like Jonah in her life, she needed to get her
shit together.

  Win waved a hand in front of her. “Did I lose you?”

  No, just thinking.

  He moved his body to look around her.

  What are you looking for?

  He laughed. “Smoke. I figure if you’re thinking that hard, there’s bound to be a fire.”

  You’re a good friend. I really wish you would’ve come here. We would’ve had a blast together.

  “I’m sure. I have to go. I work early. I just wanted to check on you to make sure you’re okay.”

  I am. See you soon?

  “Of course. I can’t wait to get all the details about the con.” Then he vanished.

  What was with her and the disappearing acts of men in her life?

  Seeing Win and knowing he was all right revitalized her, and she stormed back into the game, looking to do some fighting. She wouldn’t be able to exact revenge on Kraven, but she’d be able to find plenty of other players to fit the bill. She glanced up quickly in time to see Jonah looking at her.

  He smiled like he had a secret. She tossed her headphones on the table and leaned over to kiss him. She took a surreptitious peek at his screen. She didn’t know what she thought she’d find, but it was rows of code, nothing exciting.

  “What was that for?” he asked.

  “Nothing. You were right. My friend is fine. I’m going to kick some ass now.”

  “Have fun.” Then he went back to his screen.

  As she put her headphones back on, she wondered what kind of secrets Jonah had.

  The room service arrived and Charlie ate her fill. Jonah had shut down his computer and refocused his attention on her. They lay in bed, leftover dishes scattered on the dresser, bedspread crumpled at the foot of the bed. Jonah’s arm was her pillow. She kept hearing Win’s words, but before she could even think about taking things further with Jonah, she decided she really needed answers.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “Nothing.”

  “No, it’s something. What is it? You get this look like something’s bothering you. Talk to me. You were always able to talk to me.”

  She closed her eyes. Here goes nothing. Or everything. “Earlier, you said that I make things easy. If that’s true, why did you leave?”

  “I graduated.”

  That was a cheap answer. “You left without a good-bye.”

  His muscles bunched beneath her, and she braced herself for a lie.

  “I was worried about you. You were on self-destruct mode, and I didn’t know how to stop you. You’re this fucking brilliant person, Charlie, and you were going to throw that away. I saw all this potential totally going to waste. And for what? Some revenge that went nowhere? You couldn’t bring Sylvie back.”

  She turned her face and laid it on his chest to avoid opening her eyes and seeing him. “But I could stop him from treating some other girl that way.”

  “Sure, you could stop him from posting pictures of other girls. But for how long? That’s just it. I was afraid you’d give up your whole life to keep tabs on that guy. You couldn’t change who he was. He didn’t deserve that much of your energy.” He traced a finger over her face—her eyebrows, the bridge of her nose, her jaw.

  He’d left for the exact reasons she believed: She was a loser. She hadn’t been good enough for him. She should feel better for having the conversation, for being told the truth. “I guess I owe you a thank-you.”

  “For what?”

  She pushed off his chest and stared into his eyes. “You leaving made me realize how pitiful my life was. I had no balance. Nothing I really cared about. Losing you showed me I needed to unfuck myself. So I did.”

  “No, Charlie, you changed because you were ready to. And I’m really glad you did.”

  The deeper they got into this conversation, the more difficult it became to stay put. She didn’t know why she was there, and his words only deepened the confusion. If he saw this as a fun weekend of catching up and great sex, she might not like it, but she could accept it. But now he talked about being glad she’d changed.

  How little he knew. If he found out about her dropping out of school, his theory of wasted potential proven, she didn’t want to see the disappointment on his face.

  “I’m going back to my room,” she said, scooting off the bed.

  He sat up quickly. “What? Why? It’s the middle of the night.”

  “I have to come up with a plan for tomorrow’s competition.”

  “I can help you strategize. Who do you think you want to partner with?”

  She stepped into her pants. “I can’t accept your help. That would be cheating. I know you. Before sending invitations to any of these hackers, you would’ve vetted them. You know more about them than I do, and that would give me an unfair advantage.” She pulled her shirt on and stuffed everything else into her bag.

  “What about tomorrow during the day?”

  “What about it?”

  “Do you have plans?”

  “Yeah, I need to do some networking, check into job possibilities.”

  “I’ll see you on the floor then.”

  The offer seemed odd. Jonah hated the crowds. He preferred to face his screen attacking a problem. Unless he was recruiting as well. He’d said companies might want to hire competitors from the hackfest. He might know who was looking to hire. “Want to meet for a late breakfast? Then maybe you can introduce me to people you know.”

  “I can work with that.” He stood as she slung her bag over her shoulder. “You sure you don’t want to stay?”

  “I need to go.” Before I get in any deeper.

  He walked her to the door, but before he opened it, he asked, “I forgot to ask. How did you know it was Maverick?”

  It took a moment for her brain to register that he was asking about the competition. “A couple of things. First, when Poison started yelling, I did something you’re not good at: I read faces. Most people in the room looked worried and agitated. Some were afraid of being falsely accused, more worried about whether someone screwed with their work as well. A couple of people were confident because they knew they were innocent. But Maverick was smug.”

  “I scanned the room, but Maverick wasn’t facing me. I missed it. What else?”

  “I watched him work. He was twitchy.” She put up her hand to stop whatever comment Jonah planned to make. “I know everyone has their own process, but in the first challenge, he sat next to me. He was the second done, after Poison. I watched him work then too, and his movements were smooth, fluid. He was like a squirrel tonight. My gut told me he was guilty.”

  Jonah nodded. “I bet if we let you look, you would’ve found the same trail I did.”

  She shrugged. “I guess we’ll never know because you didn’t give us that chance. It might’ve been a good follow-up challenge, don’t you think?”

  Jonah watched Charlie walk down the hall to the elevator. He had no idea what had changed from the time she arrived to a few minutes ago, but it had. She’d planned to spend the night with him. He replayed the conversation in his head. She’d asked why he left and he was honest. Back then, she’d been lost, and no matter what he did, he couldn’t stop her.

  As it turned out, he did. He didn’t believe that he was the sole reason for her getting her act together, but he couldn’t help but wonder what would’ve happened if he hadn’t left. Where would they be now?

  He locked his door and flopped back on the bed. He almost blurted out that he couldn’t have watched her wander that path three years ago because he loved her. After seeing her again, he began to think he still might. Being with Charlie was like coming home.

  He didn’t know why she wanted to escape his room and his bed tonight, but they had plans for the morning. He’d take her around and introduce her to the few people he knew, but there was no way he’d let them hire Charlie out from under him. He’d have to wait until after the hackfest to offer her a job, otherwise it might look hinky, but he would be offering one.

  Mental
ly, he began composing an e-mail to Kyle about hiring prospects. He truly believed Charlie would be a good fit for the company, but he had to be upfront about their relationship.

  In a relationship with Charlie again. Who would’ve thought?

  The following morning, Charlie wasn’t dressed in costume, for which he was grateful because kissing her with paint on her face had been gross. But she also wasn’t dressed like a hacker in disguise. She wore a blazer over her dark jeans, and instead of her usual sneakers, she wore a pair of heels. Low heels, so she could still maneuver, but still sexy.

  “Hi.” He greeted her with a kiss, and he was happy that she returned the affection.

  “I figured we could just grab a coffee and a doughnut at the counter. I have a list of people I want to see today.” She led the way to the coffee kiosk outside the hotel’s restaurant. While she walked, she handed him a paper. “Do you know any of these people?”

  He scanned the list. He’d come across some at other conferences, but he wouldn’t say he was friendly with any of them. He knew them well enough to recommend her for a job and they would listen, though. “Some.”

  They ordered coffee, and instead of sitting at one of the tables as Jonah hoped, they walked back to the con floor. Charlie inhaled her doughnut and charged ahead. He had no idea why she invited him to tag along because that was all he was basically doing, following her. She didn’t need his help for anything.

  Charlie fearlessly introduced herself to people, chatted up a storm, and then passed her business card on. She was better at networking than most people he knew. One more reason why Kyle should hire her. And judging by the interactions she was engaged in, Kyle had better move fast. Charlie wouldn’t be jobless for long.

  As she finished up a conversation, he stood beside her and grabbed her hand. “So do you have any preferences for where you want to work?”

  “What do you mean? I just want a real job.”

  “I mean, are you willing to move out of Chicago?”

  Her eyebrows furrowed. “I guess. I didn’t give it too much thought. I just want to get my foot in somewhere, anywhere. If that means I work remotely from my apartment in Chicago, cool. If it means that I have to move somewhere else, or travel for work, I’ll do it. I’m just tired of not doing anything real, you know?”