“I love you,” I whispered.
It was a couple days later and my mother had been making a spectacular recovery. “Now go spend time with your boyfriend,” she said.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I shot back.
“He missed his big game to stay at the hospital with you and your sick mother,” She said pointedly. “Honey, he is your boyfriend. Now, go.” I couldn’t help the smile spread across my face as I watched my mom scold me.
I went over to Landon’s place, but warned him from the start that I couldn’t stay long. He told me he understood completely before pulling me onto his lap, sitting on one of the chairs out on his balcony.
“We better make the most of your time here,” he told me suggestively, pulling my body closer to his.
“Excuse me, we’re outside in plain sight of, well, anybody!”
“And your point is?” He tickled my sides and I giggled, batting away his hand. He dipped me back and kissed me deep, silencing my protests.
“The point is I thought you were an arrogant asshole when I first met you,” I confessed. I reached up and ran my hand over his hair. “But turns out you’re not so much. I guess I was wrong. And I’m never wrong.” I laughed.
“I am an arrogant asshole,” he admitted, “Only not so much when I have you by my side. And…” His eyes cast down as a little grin started to inch across his face, “you make me a better person.”
I smiled back at him, “I fought like hell not to fall for you, even when I didn’t realize I actually was falling for you. But you got me to love you. Somehow. Someway.”
He kissed me hard, hand creeping up my side toward my chest before he muttered arrogantly, “I always knew I’d win in the end.”
I laughed and slapped him on the arm.
“I’d say we’re both winners here.”
The End
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Story Description:
My life was going great until he came along and ruined everything by making me the most famous person in the world.
He is Hayden Dunn—the obscenely rich and famous video game creating-internet-bad boy.
And he’s just plastered my face onto his newest creation: Via Mace—the big breasted, scantily-clad, vulgar, video game vixen that’s instantly becoming the biggest pop culture phenomenon ever.
And I look exactly like her!
Now I’m tracking him down to get my life back. Too bad he’s an arrogant A$#hole that’s determined to keep his game exactly how it is. I want to hate him so bad, but when his baby-blue eyes look me up and down like I’m God’s greatest gift to Earth, I start to wonder if I even CAN hate him.
Now, with every flutter in my chest and nervous breath I take, I just want to smack him across his gorgeous face even more. Could I really have feelings for this man? The guy who completely turned my life upside down?
No. Impossible. I’ve got business to take care of.
Hayden, I Hate You
At least that’s what I keep telling myself...
Prologue- Mind Lash Video Game Trailer
The sound of her enemies’ footsteps echoed down the hallway as they paced back and forth, but she was too much of a professional to allow herself to be heard. The camera followed her as she rounded a corner only to stand up against the wall of another. She was calculating the perfect moment to finally let her presence be known. Sweeping a loose strand of her auburn hair behind an ear, she clutched something hiding in a holster of her utility belt; a sexy leather thing slung over her curved hips.
She pulled out a flashbang grenade with a devious smirk and took out the pin just before rolling it down the hall. She was going to catch the men looming off guard. The loud crack and blinding light bounced off the walls with punishing force.
“I can’t see!”
“What the hell was that!” She couldn’t help but smirk at their surprised screams.
She knew she only had a small window of time to charge down the hallway and knock them out while they were still disoriented. There was no turning back now. She had to move forward without fear or hesitation, but she was confident in her abilities—despite being so grossly outnumbered.
She stepped forward, large breasts jutting out from behind the wall before the rest of her became visible. Although it wasn’t cold inside the building her nipples were still visibly hard under her skin-tight costume, one which realistically would be ill-suited for a serious fight. But her six-inch heeled leather boots didn’t hinder the sexy heroine from charging forward at full speed, two guns drawn and held in each of her perfectly manicured feminine hands.
The men at the end of the hallway stopped shouting for just a moment, simultaneously dumbstruck and awestruck by their surprise visitor charging at them. The man toward the back, who appeared to be the largest and gruffest of all four, was the first to shake the stupid look off his face. In a flash he drew out a dagger from his leather belt. With a determined sneer in place, he chucked it at her in the blink of an eye.
She was quick to dodge it. The blade cut through the air near her shoulder with a heavy whoosh.
Stealthily, she stuck one of her guns back in her utility belt to pull out her own dagger, but it was merely a distraction. She expertly threw it past the man’s face and ran down the hallway to knock him into the wall. Incoherent shouting fell from the lips of the other two men.
“Fuck you!” One of the men yelled with a panicked grunt.
“Ha! You wish! If anyone’s asshole is going to be burning it’s gonna be yours!” She swiveled round, voluptuous body momentarily twirling and distracting the two men. Her large breasts bounced enticingly with every one of her motions. Swiftly, she lifted one of her long, toned legs to karate kick a man in the chest, sending him to the ground in a crumbled heap.
There was silence for a moment as the camera zoomed in for a close up of her heaving breasts. The ceiling lights casted a shine on the miniscule bit of leather covering them, until the frame panned out to her face. Her neck glimmered subtly with a light sheen of sweat. Her face was scrunched up in determination with what looked like highly sexual bedroom eyes. She was staring her final opponent down, the gruff man who had thrown the dagger at her.
“Fucker,” she finally muttered bitterly, apparently not willing to take his attack lightly. She shot him a cute smirk as she sensually ran her hand down the curve of her waist until it landed on her gun. Thin fingers curled around it as she prepared to pull it out if necessary, but her other hand was still clutching another weapon.
“You’re a big man, but your skills are shit.”
The man sneered and took advantage of her stopping to curse at him with her vulgar tongue. He distracted her eyes with the flourish of a hand while he pulled out another dagger from behind his suspender. What he didn’t count on was that the pretty girl, seemingly overzealous with her smugness, was well aware of what he was doing and had only decided to lull him into a false sense of security. As soon as she saw the muscles in his arm shift to grab another knife, she crouched down on the floor.
The dagger whooshed over her head and landed into the wall with a loud thud. In an instant she expertly swung around and pulled it from the wall. Quickly, she turned back around to see the man bearing down on her. He was fast. She couldn’t deny that, but he was still too much of a dumb brute for her. As soon as she was sure
he was in close range, she bent backwards and quickly kicked him in the face. He went flying to the back wall, his back slamming against it and his body sliding down with an unconscious thud.
She threw the dagger, which buried itself in his arm but he didn’t flinch– he was knocked out cold. Laughing with satisfaction, and sounding slightly sadistic, our heroine crouched down in front of every one of the three men to pull out their weapons. They would wake up to find their weapons gone. Then they’d be forced to fight with but their bare hands and their stupid caveman brains.
As she crouched in front of the second man, fishing for weapons dangerously close to the bulge in his pants, the pronounced outline of her center was visible thanks to a lewd close-up shot of her very tight, very small shorts. The focus continued on her body, moving slowly up her legs to the curve of her waist, lingering on her large heaving breasts, and finishing up on her perfectly curved, red lips.
She bit her lower lip as she worked to pick the lock of the door at the end of the hallway, the very door the men had been guarding. Her tongue darted out to run over her lips once she heard the satisfying click of the lock. Success!
The door sprung open and she poked her head in to look around before sneaking inside to find the computer she had been searching for throughout her mission. Quickly, she inserted a USB flash drive and in an instant a download bar popped up. All of the computer’s hard drive files started downloading absurdly fast onto the drive.
The computer chimed when the download was complete. She pulled out the drive when she heard boots thudding outside the door. She knew more men were storming down the hallway and it wouldn’t take long for them to figure out where she had gone. She had to be quick. In a flash she grabbed the desk chair and chunked it at the window, causing it to shatter into a million pieces that went flying every which way.
Knowing the men outside heard the crash, she quickly crawled out onto the windowsill and grabbed a gadget off her utility belt. This was far from the first time she had to make a quick exit and she knew it was far from the last. She was prepared and there wasn’t a single ounce of fear in her eyes.
With nothing but a determined look, she attached the gadget to the wall beside her and fearlessly roped down the tall, corporate building. It was just like zip lining—piece of cake. The air gushing over her head sent her long auburn hair flying in every direction. She loved that feeling. It always refreshed and energized her after an intense mission. The camera panned out just enough to show her entire body, hands clinging to the rope as her curves and sex appeal were showcased in a 360-degree shot.
She landed in an ally, breasts bouncing, and walked out into the busy city street with nobody even looking in her direction. The camera focused on her skimpy leather top and her tiny, tight shorts. Passing men didn’t dare leer at her or admire her stunning beauty that was sexily showcased for all. She sauntered with the sexy confidence of a superhero as her high-heeled boots clicked busily on the strikingly clean city sidewalk.
As she continued walking, the frame panned out slowly and the sun beat down on her lightly tanned skin to finally reveal a miniscule tattoo on her left hip, just barely poking out from the top of her shorts.
Perhaps she was vulgar and overtly sexual with her clothing and strut, but Via Mace was top class when it came to her profession in game.
As the camera slowly pans away a big bold title pops onto the screen—
Mind Lash
Chapter 1- The Moment My Life Changed
There were no birds chirping outside my window on such a fine morning. I lived close to the city, just right on the outskirts really, so the sweet melodic sounds of birds chirping away on my windowsill were a rare occurrence. Instead, every morning I was greeted with the unpleasant sounds of rushed chatter outside my window of commuters who were eager to catch the main bus line to the business district.
I had grown quite used to it, so the cute morning songs of small birds weren’t exactly missed. There were other redeeming qualities to living in the Dogpatch, a trendy neighborhood tucked up against the famous San Francisco Bay.
I stretched and slowly cracked my eyes open to get used to the light filtering through my somewhat sheer, spring curtains. They gave me enough privacy without blocking out the soft glow of natural light, something I very much enjoyed. Sitting up, I reached out for the remote control to turn on the TV and tune into the morning news just like I did every day. It was part of my morning routine, but this morning was going to be very different.
“A new video game is set to sweep the market in sales,” the lead news anchor reported with a sheet of paper clutched in her hand. “The numbers reported for potential pre-orders are staggering for a debut game in an era of illegal downloads and digital pirating. Many think it’s thanks to the so-called sexy vixen of the game, the heroine and protagonist, Miss Via Mace.”
That was the moment my jaw dropped.
As the news anchor continued spouting off facts and information, a now muffled sound to me, clips of Via Mace played out on the screen. My mouth was locked open in shocked horror.
The character looked just like me, Ali McClane. And When I say just, I mean a splitting-freaking-image of me!
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I was in a near panic after I saw just how the video game character was portrayed. She was vulgar, crass, and highly sexual; despite the fact that she was supposed to be a powerful woman who kicked ass.
“That was the release trailer you just watched for the new and rather controversial game, Mind Lash, which is set for release next month. As you can see, it is about Via Mace, a spy who steals information from corporations for profit. The player is assigned…”
My racing thoughts drowned out the woman’s voice. It was like a constant, droning sound in the background of my heartbeat. How was it possible the animation had such a striking likeness to me? I was a real person who had no connections in that industry? I wracked my brain trying to think of anybody I might know who would have anything to do with it, but I drew a blank.
I only focused back on what the news anchor was saying when I heard the word controversy. “… Controversy from many areas, such as the business world and the gaming community and even parents, due to the hyper sexualization of the lead female character Via Mace.”
Of course it had to be something like that, I thought helplessly. My heart dropped a little further.
The screen cut to some stills of Via Mace before showing so-called ‘exclusive clips’ from actual gameplay, which were worse than the trailer for the game. It didn’t take much to figure out why there was such a fuss over the game. At the conclusion of the news segment on Mind Lash, a clip played from an exciting scene that ended in a close up of Via Mace’s plump round ass. The camera then moved slowly up the curve of her hip only to focus on her large, bouncing breasts.
The news cut to a commercial break, leaving me wide-eyed on my bed as I continued to stare at the television screen. I was finally pulled out of my panicked daydream when I heard my cell phone chirp with a new text message. I clenched my eyes shut and took a deep breath before reaching out to grab my phone off the nightstand. I expected to see a familiar name on the screen and had already braced myself for a message about Via Mace. For some reason, however, it came as a slight surprise to see Ferris David’s name rather than someone else’s.
Ferris David was an old college friend of mine. I had been quite close to him back in the day. The two of us met close to the end of my freshman year. We had spent the better part of our college lives together. We would hang out often, study together, and talk or text nearly every day.
Many people ended up wondering if we were in a relationship, but we were just great friends– except for that brief window of time during sophomore year when we almost ended up dating. Whenever I looked back on that time it seemed like an entirely different life.
We would stay up nearly all night and write songs for him and his band to play. Ferris had been one of my closest friends and
I couldn’t even start to think about how different things would have been had we ended up dating. His life especially was different now. Now he was the lead guitarist in the widely popular band Close Callers. But to me, he was just Ferris.
Over the years after college the two of us grew apart naturally. That seems to be the way it goes once you graduate and start building a life. We had, however, managed to keep in touch, even if communication didn’t happen often. That’s why him texting me didn’t even cross my mind. But there his name was, staring back at me on the screen.
Before having a chance to open his original message my phone chirped twice and a little number ‘3’ showed up beside his name. I opened it, holding my breath, only to be greeted with a photo of Via Mace, one of me, and a message that read, “Via looks just like you!”
Fourth Down and Dirty: A Bad Boy Sports Romance Page 13
