Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 46875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 188(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 188(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
Eyes that fix on mine for so long, I wonder if the screen is frozen.
But with his whole torso eventually flexing under a plain T-shirt when he shifts in his seat, I can see that he’s built to be fit as well as fabulous.
Not huge like an athlete, but definitely all beef under that tight cotton tee.
My mind’s a total blank. Almost as if the sight of him hypnotizes me. And it’s not until Joey pipes up that I realize just how long we’ve spent staring at each other in absolute silence.
“Zak?” Joey finally asks, and I catch something like embarrassment on the man’s face.
“Uh… Sorry big guy. Bit of a lag over here,” he smiles at Joey.
“I’m Zak Templeton,” he says, clearing his throat a little and directing his gaze to me again.
“I just wanted to ensure Joey was playing with some adult supervision… It’s still in its testing stage, yet to be rated,” he explains, and I feel my head slowly nodding.
Having no idea or even caring about what the hell he’s saying.
As long as those dark, knowing eyes are looking into mine, he could be reading the phone book aloud for all I care.
“Joey here’s pretty good at the gameplay so far, and I just happened to be online,” he adds.
Without needing to look, I can feel Joey beaming with satisfaction.
Getting a compliment from a gamer like Zak is pretty neat.
His reputation for gaming came long before his creative input as a developer.
“I’m not so bad myself,” I hear myself announcing. Almost sounding wounded that I don’t get a compliment.
Zak’s eyes widen, and his brow lifts, “You game?” he asks, giving such a strange look I’m not sure if the news is good to him or not.
“Yeah. I game,” I retort – not meaning to sound so bratty and instantly flushing red once I hear myself aloud.
Joey groans to himself, but it’s Zak who apologizes.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” he says, creasing his mouth and looking disappointed in himself somehow.
“I just…,” he starts to explain, but Joey butts in. He turns in his seat to face me and looks again at me with those pleading eyes.
“Zak said I could go to Phoenix to be at the official launch,” he boasts, and I feel my eyes darting back to Zak.
“I said could,” he reminds Joey tactfully and with an air of some authority.
“The game’s not nearing launch just yet. Plus, it would only ever be if it’s okay with your mom…,” he adds, trailing off.
His eyes burn into mine again as he seems suddenly stuck for words.
Joey ignores him in the way kids do when they hear any terms and conditions attached to anything.
“I didn’t realize Joey was…I mean…,” Zak stammers, but I get it.
And I’m assuming Zak can tell at a glance that although I’m an adult, I’m not Joey’s mom.
But if Joey’s told him that already, I don’t want to make him look like a liar either.
I choose on the spot not to tell Zak I’m not Joey’s mom.
But I don’t tell him I am either.
“I’m Jade,” I practically whisper, lost in those eyes again.
Forgetting about Joey and the game, I think both of us have forgotten all about whether I’m a mom or not.
Forgetting everything for each moment that his intense eyes are focused on mine.
“Jade,” he echoes back to me, smiling to himself while sitting back in his huge leather gaming chair. A faraway look is in his eyes.
“I mean, if Joey was selected to come out to the game launch…well, he’d need an adult with him,” Zak finally says, cocking a brow.
“All expenses paid, of course,” Zak says in a lower tone, his mouth forming into a grin.
The sound of a man who knows what he wants and how to get it just the way he likes it.
Joey pumps the air with his fists, “Yes!” he exclaims triumphantly, sounding like the happiest I’ve ever seen him.
But I can only feel my mouth hanging open again, my head nodding.
Looks like I just had a ten-year-old son.
And if it gets me any more face-to-face time with Zak Templeton?
I’ll go along with whatever Joey’s already told him.
Anything to get some more of the man, this feeling.
CHAPTER TWO
Zak
I was supposed to go quietly.
Supposed to take the bullshit settlement amount from my former business partner, Dwayne Webster, once he stole my game code, locked me out of it somehow, and sold it as his own. Then sued me as the final ‘fuck you.’
It was never about money with me as best friends through college and then business partners. I’m that guy with his nose in a page of coding or talking with actual gamers to find out what they really want.
But I learned the hard way that even best buddies can change once there’s the promise of money.