Gaming for Keeps (Entangled Ever After) (7 page)

“Cal, I’m really sorry you’re stuck in the middle of this. I promise. A real vacation soon, okay?”

“Sure. Whatever you say.” He clicked off his phone and laid it on the desk. He didn’t give a shit about the vacation time anymore. He wasn’t even worried about the possibility of being on hand when things went to hell. Or the hundreds of nameless, faceless people at ConDamned. The only thing he cared about at the moment was the one person Marron’s order had brought to mind.

Pen.

…

The jackass hadn’t even had the decency to look contrite when she saw him with his way-too-hot-to-be-natural girlfriend. He just sat there and let the blonde eat off his damn plate right after he looked at Pen. For the next three hours, she stalked through
the main floor. The one panel she tried to sit in on was a bust.

After spending the morning dwelling on how awesome last night had been, she didn’t know what the hell to think of this. He wasn’t at work like he’d said. And then he paraded some chick with the kind of body he’d sworn he wasn’t into all over the con. God, she felt like an idiot. And now she couldn’t even pretend last night had been all positive energy and good times. She felt dirty and used and sick to her stomach.

Then Cal had the nerve to text and ask what her plans were for the night. She still couldn’t remember when she’d given him her number. Seriously, though? He showed up with
that
at lunch and wanted to hook up with Pen again tonight? God, did he think she was that pathetic? She wanted to scream or hit something or…

She pulled up short. Perfect. There was a group demoing sword fighting. Wooden swords, but at least she’d get to attack something.

Someone must have just been used as an example because the instructor was having a tough time getting anyone to volunteer. Pen stepped to the edge of the roped area. “I’ll do it.”

The guy, about six-two and on the plus side of two hundred pounds, eyed her up and down. “Do you have experience with a sword?”

Fencing all through college and a lot of practice with her Wii lightsaber. She rolled her eyes. “Hold it and swing, right?”

“Oh boy. Come on in and get suited up.” He pointed to some ridiculous padding in the corner.

“No thanks.” She picked up one of the wooden swords and whipped it around like an idiot. What she really wanted was for some cocky asshole to jump in with her so she could beat the snot out of him.

A too-familiar deep voice piped up from behind her. “I’ll take her on.”

She just didn’t expect this particular cocky asshole to volunteer.

Spinning around, she came face-to-face with not one, but
both
of the guys she’d spent too much time with yesterday. While Cal stepped into the ring, Kent stood right outside the ropes, smirking at her.
Whatever. Let him watch
. Of course, she’d have preferred he never watch her do anything again.

Still, if she was going to beat someone up, better one of the guys who deserved it than some random stranger. The instructor positioned them across from each other and started talking about proper form. Pen zoned him out.

“I texted you,” Cal said, tipping his head toward her bag in the corner.

She shrugged. “Sorry, I was enjoying vibrate mode too much to bother responding.”

He ignored the jibe. “So…tonight?”

Oh, fuck this.
She swung at his head, and he blocked with an inch to spare. “I have plans. They don’t include you.”

Cal frowned at her as she jerked her sword back. “What happened? I thought we hit it off.”

“Yeah? Well.” She thrust at his abdomen, and he parried. “My plans have room for two at most. Your more-hot-than-cute girlfriend can’t join in. Sorry.”

The instructor stepped between them. “Hey, you two, we’re not quite ready for—”

Pen glared at him. “Shut up and get out of the damn way.”

She lunged at Cal, but he sidestepped and caught her sword hand in his free one.

“What are you talking about?”

As she jerked away, she accidentally whacked him across the face with the sword. Too bad—he shouldn’t have grabbed her. “Are you kidding me? I’m not blind, Cal. And I’m not stupid. I saw you with her at lunch. Blonde with the legs that went on forever? Ring any bells? Or does your non-attraction to hot girls end when the makeup’s off?”

“The call this morning was from my job; that’s why she showed up. Ow!” He staggered backward as she clipped his thigh, and the crowd roared. “I work with her!”

“Sure you do. She definitely looks like the kind of girl who plays with computers and hacks into the FBI database for fun. Was she looking for fashion tips there?” People cheered around them as Pen battered against his raised sword over and over again, searching for another sign of weakness, but he blocked her at every turn. She wanted to hurt him at least as badly as seeing him with the blonde had hurt her.

Why couldn’t he have just let her keep her illusions? She wanted to be able to have a guy act decently and not ruin it with reality. Just once. Apparently that was too much to ask for. Might as well have all the truth on the table and find out exactly how far he’d pulled the wool over her eyes. “Is it all an act? I mean, are you even in coding?”

“Of course I am. Why the hell would I make that up? There are much sexier jobs out there.” A muscle twitched under his eye as he answered. It was a lie. He lied right to her damn face.

“Fine. Then you should be able to read my shirt.” She shoved against his sword and stepped back, spreading her arms wide. The instructor came over and pried the sword from her hand, leaving Penelope free to square off with Cal—though markedly less able to inflict any real damage. “Come on, uber-coder. If what you say is true, read it.”

It was a bluff. Based on the “oooo”s even the crowd understood. Most of the biggest geeks she knew couldn’t read more than a few letters in binary before they got headaches. She just didn’t want to deal with any more lies. And now he twirled his finger in a circle like he wanted her to spin around. God, how far was this charade going to go?

She turned so he could see the back, and of course there was Kent, still glaring at her. She crossed her arms over her chest and glared right back, fuming and wishing she could knee him again for good measure. The sword fight hadn’t made her feel any better at all. In fact, she wanted to—

“It says, ‘If you can read this, you might be dating material.’ The back is your cell number, but I’m not sure you want me to give it to everyone. Let me know if I’m wrong about the last part. That way all the guys here who want a girl who knows how to handle a sword can get their phones out.”

Her mouth dropped open, and Pen found it impossible to move, much less speak. It didn’t help that a few of the guys just outside the ring indeed had cell phones in their hands.

Cal circled her, stopping when they were face-to-face. The crowd around them blurred, only Cal snapping into crystal-clear focus. Hyper-reality had overtaken the reality that had killed the fantasy. He’d read her shirt, every word. And it wasn’t that he had time to program it into a translator on his phone. If he was telling the truth about that…

“The blonde’s name is Marissa. We work together. Hell, I’ll call her right now and you can ask her yourself. She’ll even confirm that I’m single, since she’s tried to set me up with at least a half dozen of her friends. There is no girlfriend. No wife. No kids. There’s just me…asking again if you have room in your plans for a guy who’s desperate for a break from the computer in his damn hotel room. Who really wants to spend more time with you. Maybe somewhere other than here.” He tossed his weapon onto the corner of the mat where it landed with a clatter against the others. “Now, if you still want to disembowel me with a wooden sword, I won’t stop you. I even have a red shirt on so we could follow that whole trend. Then again, if you let me live, you get to be the one to buck the system.”

“I—” She didn’t know what to say. She was just impressed she managed to make sound come out at all.

His lips twisted into a smirk and he held out a hand toward her. “Truce?”

She raised her hand, ready to gnaw on her fingernail, but stopped before it reached her mouth. He’d offered to prove to her that he was single. He
had
proven his geekiness wasn’t an act.

Whenever she questioned him about something, he came out smelling like a perfectly ripe strawberry. But she couldn’t shake the feeling he was lying about something.

Every red flag was dimming until, one by one, they disappeared. With nothing to hold her back other than fear, Pen reached out, wrapped her fingers in his, and let him pull her close. Amid the groans from the cell-phone guys, applause erupted from the crowd, and she didn’t care about those who weren’t clapping, especially not the one with more hands than brain. Then Cal pressed his lips to hers in a brief but shiver-inducing kiss—the kind that made her forget almost everything.

One thing she knew for sure, though—kiss or no kiss. Whatever the lie was, it better damn well not be about liking cute girls.

Chapter Eight

Sound of Madness

“So, who was the guy giving you the evil eye while y
ou were trying to kill me back there?” The bastard had looked at Pen with death in his gaze through their entire fight. Every instinct had Cal wanting to jump out of the ring and pummel the jerk. Now, with the field office on top of processing the forged tickets, all he wanted was the Penelope he’d met last night back. That and to get her someplace safe.

He let his fingers dangle near hers, hoping she’d take the hint. She obviously still wasn’t completely on board with getting back to how things had been when they first woke up—much less when they went to bed—considering she clenched her hand in a fist by her side. He was going to have to work up to asking her about the screening tonight.

“Can we pretend I don’t know?”

Good. She was talking, but he’d be damned if he was going to keep waiting for her to move in. Cal covered her fingers with his and gave them a squeeze. “Probably not. Just tell me this much—am I going to need to watch my back because you left the ring with me?”

With the way Pen rolled her eyes and snorted, he had his answer, but she clarified anyway. “Remember the uh…guy I sent into the fetal position? Yeah. That was him.”

It was a good thing Cal wasn’t drinking anything or it probably would have sprayed over everyone near them. Damn. He’d liked her before; he
really
liked her now. “You were serious about that?”

Shrugging, she edged her way through the crowd. He didn’t know what it was, but she clearly had a destination in mind. “He may have gotten a little handsier than I wanted, and I might have kneed him in the groin.”

“Wait. An ex? I was a rebound?” With the way she’d accused him of having a girlfriend, he couldn’t resist poking at this particular issue. Plus, he wanted to understand exactly where his urge to kill the guy came from. Only one day with Pen and already the idea of someone else having his hands on her pissed him off.

“Only a rebound in the way I mentioned last night. I was pissed off and looking for trouble.” She craned her neck around and gave him a half smile. “I found you, Trouble. But no, he’s not an ex. He is, however, a guy I thought a lot better of. We’ve played the same MMO together for a couple years now. Which means I’m going to need to find a new fighting buddy after this weekend.”

Ack. That was no good. Cal couldn’t imagine playing
Heroes
without Megara, not after all this time. Hopefully Pen had a good group to support her, or she’d likely end up quitting. Cal had been on the brink before due to a crappy guild situation. His salvation was the invite to join Fourth Wall. Sure, the guild had drama, but nothing that lasted. “Sorry to hear that. What game?”

“
Heroes of Fallen Gods.
”

He blinked. “Seriously? I play
Heroes
, too. If he really makes things bad for you, maybe you could hunt me down instead.” Even as he said it, he felt the sting of betraying Megara. Hell, he hadn’t even looked for her after he’d met Pen, and now he was practically offering her up for a virtual three-way.

“Thanks.” Her voice had that resigned tone that said she thought he was full of shit.

Of course, he also wanted to know the scrawny little prick’s screen name so he could hunt the fucker down for a not-so-friendly chat. No one should ever look at Pen with such loathing, least of all some ass who’d tried to force himself on her.

Right now, though, Cal needed to deal with the Takamaki issue, which meant hoping the forged tickets got here in time and poking at Pen to see if she had the real deal to give up.

Pen led him into the same bar where they’d met the night before. At the moment it was blissfully quiet and they settled in at a high table in a corner.

“So…about tonight?”

She leveled her gaze at him and didn’t say a word until the bartender wandered over. “Can you get me one of those awesome steaming vodka things?”

“Make it two. Room 1216.”

The bartender jerked his head, doing that weird nod thing some men seemed to think made them look cool, and strolled back to fill their order. Pen sighed and flopped her purse onto the table. “Just because you buy me a drink doesn’t mean I’m spending the night with you again.”

“I’d never make that presumption. I was only hoping you’d agree to spending some time with me.” Of course, if it ended up back in his hotel room again, he wouldn’t say no, but he was willing to wait for Pen if he had to. “I’m not going to lie, though—I never would have slept with you last night if I didn’t like the idea of waking up to you next to me. Preferably more than once.”

She didn’t respond to the future his words implied, instead staring at the neon lights. When the drinks arrived, red and steaming, she swirled hers, the lights refracting and reflecting in the liquid. “I don’t know if I want to give away the extra spot to put my feet up and get comfy. I’ve been looking forward to
Silencing Gravity
since I first caught wind of it on Twitter.”

She had tickets, and more importantly she hadn’t promised the second one to anybody. He decided if she wasn’t going to acknowledge his comment about sleeping together, he shouldn’t poke at it. Better to focus on the other issue—trying to get her out of that screening room and keep her safe. “More than say…dinner at Rochester’s?” It was a posh restaurant not far from the hotel. He’d have to get Josh to make arrangements but—

“One, I don’t have clothes for that. Two, I’m more a pizza and beer kind of girl. Three, did you miss the part about me looking forward to this movie?” She took a slow sip of her drink.

Fuck. Most women loved getting dressed up for a horribly overpriced dinner complete with watered-down drinks. He was so stressed about this damn screening, he’d stupidly looked at her like any other mark instead of as Penelope. He should have known Rochester’s wouldn’t appeal to a girl like her. Hell, it didn’t really appeal to him. And now she’d made it very clear that she wanted to go to the movie. “Is there anything I can offer to drag you away from cyberpunk in a room full of people in sweaty, stinky costumes?”

“Nope.” She tipped her glass toward him. “But if you try really hard, you
might
convince me to take you with me.”

Double fuck. Knowing something bad could go down in that room, he wanted her as far from it as possible. But they needed someone inside, and he could open doors as easily as Trevor or Marissa. Plus, when the shit started to fly, he could push Pen out of the line of fire. Not an ideal solution, but with time running out it looked like the best chance they were going to get. Especially since the only other option was stealing her tickets, and she’d never forgive him for something like that. Besides, if the tickets came up missing, she could alert con security, and then Takamaki could get wind of it and know something was in play. Not to mention, the forgeries could arrive in time and then his
only
job would be keeping her safe.

No. Definitely smarter—not to mention more enticing—to stay by her side.

He reached across the table and took her hand, moving his thumb in slow circles to massage it. “And how might I convince you to let me accompany you?”

Dirty, wonderful thoughts raced through his head as her lips twisted into an evil smile. “Well, I’m still not convinced you are the geek you say you are. You impressed me with the binary, but how’s your Tolkien?”

Cal gaped at her for a second, gears grinding to a halt in his brain like some rusted clockwork. He knew the more popular works, but if she asked something obscure…

“I’ll make it easy for you, Sir Dark Elf. Tell me the word you need to say to open the doors to Moria…in Elvish please.”

Thank God he hadn’t dressed as a Klingon last night… and that she obviously wanted him to answer correctly. “
Mellon
.”

Pen drained her glass and grinned. “Looks like it’s a date.”

Lifting her hand from the table, Cal brushed his lips across her knuckles. “I look forward to it.”

He just hoped this first official date wasn’t also their last.

…

Penelope began to regret inviting Cal to the screening right about the time he showed up at her room. To call him distracted was an understatement. He’d gotten a text while they were grabbing dinner at the food
court, and he’d tried—again—to convince her to skip the movie. Needless to say, she’d refused.

Now, he kept checking his phone. He scratched at his ear and clenched his hand into a fist afterward like he wanted to message someone but knew he shouldn’t. Then there was the weird way he kept sweeping his jacket forward. He looked like he was trying out to be an extra in…something. And why the hell was he wearing a duster anyway? Especially since it was his only nod toward a costume.

Since she hadn’t known about the
Silencing Gravity
screening before she arrived, she hadn’t brought cyberpunk gear of any sort and was going sans costume. Then again, she was kind of over cosplay for the weekend. The ups and downs had left her drained. Quite frankly, if Cal got weird on her again, she was seriously pondering the idea of eating tonight’s hotel cost and just heading home to save what little was left of her long weekend.

As they stood in line to get into the room, he checked his phone—again—and Pen nudged him with her elbow. “You’re really starting to strain credibility about not having a girlfriend with the way you keep doing that. Please tell me once they start the film, you’ll put it away.”

“Sorry. Work.” He stuffed the phone back into his pocket and took her hand. “I promise once the movie starts I’m done.”

Something in his smile seemed off, almost sad, but Pen shook the thought away. She
liked
Cal—a lot. More than enough to give him the benefit of the doubt after overreacting so badly earlier. God knew there were times random emotions hit her face that had nothing to do with the moment. She flashed their tickets at the men by the door, but they blocked her path until she handed the cards over. Only after running them through a scanner did the men step aside and let her enter with Cal.

“Well, that was weird.” She surveyed the area, looking for seats.

“No kidding. Hey, how about over there?” He pointed to some seats at the end of a row near the front. She was usually more of a back-middle kind of girl, but when she opened her mouth to mention it, he said, “Makes for an easy getaway if this thing sucks.”

“Don’t tell me you only agreed to come in the hopes I’d leave early so you could get into my pants again.”

“Not a chance. I’m perfectly willing to wait and hope for the day you’ll once again let me bash your head against the corner of a shower, but the director’s last movie sucked ass. Doesn’t matter how killer the previews look, this could be a piece of crap.” He tipped his head toward the seats once more.

With a halfhearted shrug, she gave in and settled into the chairs by the door. As more people filed in, Cal started fidgeting again, another strange expression flitting across his features as he searched the crowd. He was driving her batty.

“Okay, I can’t handle it anymore. I know guys hate it when we ask this, but what the hell are you thinking about?”

He gave a wan smile and squeezed her hand. “Just wondering what would have happened if you and I met in other circumstances, Darling.”

The endearment made her jerk away from him. No one had ever called her “Darling” except Lohonas. Hearing it from Cal now stung a little. He was the guy who should have been by her side in
Heroes
. Even with his weird quirks, he was worth taking a chance on. A rare trait lately.

“Like in-game?”

“Yeah.”

“For starters, you probably would have looked at my screen name and groaned. Then we might have fought together once or twice before you out-leveled me and left me in the dust.”

His too-soon-to-be-so-familiar deep chuckle danced over her skin. “Never happen. I like to kill stuff, but I’m mainly a social gamer. If I weren’t, I’d play something else where all I did was kill shit. But as far as the screen name, hit me. It can’t be that bad. I mean, mine’s an anagram of Han Solo.”

Even as her mind started recombining the letters, distracting heat rose in her cheeks, and she stared at the front of the room where men in what could only be termed uniforms—gray and black jumpsuits with striped armbands and knee-high boots—had started to assemble. “Sure it can. I named my main after my favorite non-princess Disney heroine. The romantic failure with a killer set of pipes.”

She had to give him props—he didn’t laugh. Of course, he didn’t say anything at all for a second, and Pen wondered if there was a rock handy so she could crawl under it. Did she have to say all that? Couldn’t she have just said “Megara” and been done with it?

“Meg?” The way he said her name—not like he remembered the movie, but like he
knew
her—made her twist toward him. “That jerk is in Crimson Blades of Eternity?”

Oh my God. He
does
know me.
She scrambled, trying to figure out who the hell he could be, searching for something to say so she didn’t just sit there with her jaw dropped open. And because awkward conversation had always been her strong suit, her voice squeaked as she stammered out, “N-n-no…he’s in a guild we fight with sometimes. Who
are
you?”

But shortly after she turned to him, something had snatched Cal’s attention away from their conversation. She followed his gaze to the uniformed men she noticed before. Each and every one of them had donned gas masks—likely part of some show preceding the screening.

A short Asian man stepped up to a podium, yet another mask dangling from his fingertips. “Welcome to the world of the future. Once upon a time, conventions like this shunned me and sent me packing with only laughter to keep me company. Now, here we are, and I could not be happier to present to you…
Silencing Gravity
.”

Cal sucked in a breath through his teeth, making a hissing noise. “Takamaki.”

Huh?
Before Penelope could ask him anything else, he grabbed her by the arms and twisted her toward him.