“So you’re okay with green peppers, mushrooms, and onions?” he asks while typing into his phone.
I nod, it’s actually what we ordered the most when I still lived at home. I went through a big vegetarian phase in high school. Those were the three non-meat ingredients we agreed on and they sort of stuck even after I admitted I missed steak.
Trey puts his phone in his back pocket and steps closer but doesn’t grab my hand. I’d make the first move myself, but my nerves won’t allow me. For lack of a better topic I try to keep the conversation going.
“So where do you live?” Hey, I said I could keep it going. I never promised stimulating conversation.
“I’m off Fillmore Street, a few blocks from our office. My house was one of the first purchases I made after we sold Dragons Reborn. That and the car.”
I have no idea where Fillmore Street is considering I barely know where I live. “It’s in Knob Hill, right?” I remember Aspen telling me that's where Trey lived, and I try to play it off like I have knowledge of the city.
Trey’s head turns to me and his brows furrow. “Um, no. The opposite direction to Cow Hollow.”
My face heats, but I hope he’ll think it’s from the cooler evening air not my embarrassment. “Aspen said…” I trail off.
Trey snorts. “I told Aspen I lived in Knob Hill once,” he does this silent chuckle thing, “it’s kind of a long story, but I can see how it might be a memorable fact. Anyway, no, my place is a few blocks from the office. I walk some days.”
I still have no idea where Fillmore Street is, but I don’t question it more. “Where did you and Finn work before you sold Dragons Reborn?”
Trey’s gait slows for a moment while he looks to the sky. His smile and slight head shake suggest he’s lost in memories of their early days. When his pace picks back up, he starts talking. “Originally there were four of us. Finn, Ryland, Grant, and me. Our freshman year we all ended up roommates in the quad.”
He says the term with a deep voice but explains before I probe him. “The dorms all had a quad room on each floor. It was the room at the end of the hallway, which used up all the extra space. Since it was bigger, they put more of us in them. Living with three other guys was not always the easiest thing.
“Ryland ended up walking on the soccer team sophomore year, so he had to live in team housing, but the rest of us stayed together. Finn was always messing around with his computer. While most of us were studying, he’d design these simple games. Our favorite was a picture of the most hated professor on campus. The object was to throw things at him. You’d get points for direct hits. It was silly and stupid, but we all loved that one.
“One night, after a few beers, Ry suggested Finn make a soccer game. It would use most of the same code but wouldn’t get anyone sued if we let other people play it. The four of us talked it out and Finn started coding the game that night. He finished the next morning still hungover."
He runs his hands through his hair and slows our pace again before he picks up. Trey in full story mode is a sight. He looks younger and more laid back as he relays the start of their profitable company. I don’t want to interrupt him to ask questions and ruin the spell.
“That’s how smart Finn is. He coded our first real game while drunk. The concept was simple. Players had to use their fingers to swipe at the screen and make a goal. It was so basic, but once we stuck it online it went crazy. We sold it our junior year and that summer I finally convinced him to focus on making more games.
“I had dollar signs in my eyes. The soccer game sold for twenty-four thousand dollars, but I thought we were rich. I had no idea how much it cost to keep a gaming business afloat.” He laughs at himself and turns to me.
“How did you go from soccer to Dragons Reborn?”
“It never would have happened without Grant. As you know, he has a bit of family money.” Trey pinches his fingers together in front of him. “He invested in us and his money was the start-up cash we needed to keep the lights on.
“It was a crazy time for all of us. It took over a year of solid coding, but Finn finished Dragons Reborn next. We had half a million downloads in the first month and were caught unprepared for how quickly it would take off. We were always on the defense. Buying more server space as we overloaded the old one, working on one bug just to discover five more."
Trey stops when we reach a brick building with a bright red door, the word “Pizza” written in neon lights above it. He opens the door allowing me to enter first. One step inside the building and the smell of cheese has my nose searching for the ovens where the dairy goodness is cooking. My stomach growls in excitement.
The restaurant is small with less than ten tables for people to eat inside, half-filled at this moment. We approach the main counter, a tiled affair separating the eating area from the prep and ovens in the back. As we wait for the pizza to cook, we take seats at the farthest corner next to the large glass window to watch people as they walk by the store front.
“There must have been some good times in the beginning, right?” I ask to learn more about the young and ambitious Trey.
He laughs in thought again. “There were tons of great times. Grant stayed at Stanford to finish his senior year. Ryland had already been recruited for a semi-pro team, so he left before finishing college as well. Finn and I were living in this tiny two-bedroom crap rental. We survived on soda and pizza for every meal. It was in a horrible part of the city, but we craved that coveted San Francisco address. It was the only place in Silicon Valley we could afford.
“As our memberships grew, we were forced to hire more coders. We’d have five or six guys sitting in our tiny living room all working together. It was my job to feed everyone and keep them motivated since I was little to no help with the code."
“I’m sure your neighbors loved that.”
“They weren’t too bad. Eventually we needed more servers, so we ended up renting office space in Oakland and putting them in there with the AC turned way up.” He laughs as if he’s told some huge joke, but between the two of us, he’s the only one that understands it. “It wasn’t safe at all. Now all of our machines are stored in a climate controlled area in the basement of our building.”
“Good!” Trey’s last name is called from behind the main counter as a white and red pizza box is slid on the counter awaiting us. Trey pays and we step back out on the sidewalk before the conversation picks up again.
“So when did you decide to go from six guys in a crap apartment to what you have now?”
“It took a while. As Dragons Reborn grew bigger and bigger, we realized we couldn’t continue to handle it so I started to shop it out. There wasn’t time to worry about the legal parts of a company at the time. I had to get rid of the game before it buried us. Most of our early coders make up the main employees in the company now. A few left to keep working on the game for the new company.”
Trey stops in front of a large blue building on the corner. Windows, three stories high, line the space with big white doors leading inside. “The Raven Digital Arts building.”
I look up to try and take it all in with the setting sun. “Wow. Much nicer than your first place, I assume.”
We start to walk again while Trey holds the pizza in front of him with my bag still swaying on his shoulder.
“Does Finn ever plan to take the company public?” I ask. Trey’s head shoots to mine and he narrows his eyes at my question. I'm reminded of his allegations from last week when he thought I was after his account. “I only mean Finn could’ve kept all the money. Of course you could have sued, but you’d have spent years in court,” I try to clarify.
Trey snorts his derision. “Finn’s not like that. He forced half a billion on me. I would have taken much less. Now that everything’s settled, we've focused on designing new games and selling them to larger players.
“Finn doesn’t want to deal with all the issues that come with a popular game. I used to disagree, but recently I’m starting to
see his point. After so many years in that shitty apartment and working non-stop, it’s nice to have some personal time.”
“You get half a billion, and with that kind of payout, you buy a two seater Mazda Miata first?”
“It seemed like a good idea at the time.” Trey laughs with me. “Besides, I thought you liked Apple.”
His use of my name for the car makes me giggle and shrug my shoulders in his direction.
“I also bought this place and paid off both of my parents’ houses as well.” Trey stops to open a dark blue door to our right.
I step back to admire his home. It’s built right next to the houses on either side of it, which appears to be a common element at least in this neighborhood. I scan the houses down the street and notice they are all the same without any space between the nonmatching home designs. Trey’s place has a garage door next to the area we stand now, so you could pull a car in from the street. The dark blue color and large window jutting out from the front set his home apart from the rest. It’s larger than his neighbors’ and gives the building a modern and new age look with the reflective mirrored surfaces.
“You didn’t help out any of your siblings?” I ask as we walk through his garage and up a staircase into the main house. If I came into five hundred million, Elena would be at my doorstep asking for keys to the Porsche before the ink was dry.
Trey stops to open another door at the top of the staircase and walks in before me. “I’m an only child. Finn too, which is probably why we clicked so well. We both needed that brother connection.”
He leaves the pizza box on the breakfast bar area and I’m left to take in the view as Trey walks through the kitchen and begins opening cupboards. The space is larger than it looked from the outside. Somehow even the window looks bigger from this angle. Light wood grain hardwood floors make the space feel cavernous. I have to suppress the urge to see if I can echo my voice off the tall ceilings.
“Drink?” Trey’s question brings my attention back to him.
“Whatever you have.” I walk to where he’s placed a plate with a napkin and fork waiting for me on the white marble countertop.
He pours me a glass, but the door from the refrigerator hides what it is. “Enough about me. I’ve already met Elena, but tell me more about what you left behind in New York.”
Trey slides the glass full of dark liquid he poured for me across the counter before he scoops up two pieces of pizza and sits beside me on a tall stool.
“I told you all of it on vacation. I’ve been working for a promotion like this since I started. I didn’t expect to move to California to get it, but I couldn't pass up the chance.” I take a cautious sip of my drink and am pleasantly surprised it’s pop.
“What’s Elena do when you two aren’t lying on the beach?" he questions when the conversation lulls.
As much as she annoys, me I’m so proud of my little sister and won’t pass up the chance to praise her to someone else. I’d never do it to her face. "She’s at home with my parents in Buffalo right now working on her final year of college getting an education degree. She wants to teach in an inner city school. Her plan was to come live with me in New York, but I’m not sure what she’ll do now.”
“You two sound close. I bet they miss having you at home.”
I finish chewing the big bite of food I’d taken before I answer. “I didn’t get home as much as I should have even in New York, but I think my parents are ready for us to be out of the house. They’re both travelers and have planned some big trips once Elena is on her own.”
“Are you planning to go home for the holidays?”
“I don’t know, but my old boss, Jay, has already said he’s coming to visit me this spring. He keeps emailing me links to all the places he says we have to visit."
I laugh as I remember the last email from Jay where he demanded I take him to Alcatraz so he could see a ghost. I eye rolled him until I read the attached article, which did made the place sound a little spooky.
“Jay, huh? Yes, I’d like to meet this Jay as well.” Trey isn’t laughing with me. The possessive side I’m starting to pick out in him is in full view again.
“Yes, and if I’m lucky he’ll bring his girlfriend, Stacy, because she’s one of my closest friends in New York.”
He smiles and shakes his head knowing I’m on to him.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The dishes clank together as Trey throws my plate on top of his in the sink.
I stand from my stool and wander to his large window in the living room. “I love your place.”
“Thanks, the view’s better upstairs, but I think inviting you to my bedroom might be a bit presumptuous at this point in the night.”
I giggle snort from nerves in the most unladylike way imaginable. Get a grip, Simone.
Trey crosses the area in the living room decreasing the distance between us. He throws his hands in the air, palms out. “I promise, no bedroom antics.”
For a split second I consider asking him to describe these antics, but I can’t bring myself to do it.
Trey prowls to his black leather sofa, his movements fluid like a large cat stalking its prey. I turn to keep an eye on him like you’re supposed to do when faced with a predator.
He takes a seat in the middle of the sofa and turns his head in my direction with a small smile. “Unless you’d like to find out what I’d do to you on my bed.”
I shake my head at his attempt and turn back to stare out his window as people walk by.
“You come off as a strong woman, Simone, but every once and a while I see the look in your eye.”
“Yeah? What kind of look is that?” I question.
Trey leans back against the couch. “The kind that makes me think you’d like to hand over a little control every once and a while.”
Not sure if he’s serious. I maintain my position by the window staring at him rather than the view and remain silent.
“Can we test it out?” His hand slips over the top of his thigh and smooths the material down to his knee.
I track the movement and nod my agreement. The conversation switched within a blink of my eye, but my body thrills from excitement with his words.
“Good,” he spreads his legs farther apart before tapping on them twice, “come sit on my lap, Simone.”
Huh? My body wants to follow his order and it jerks when I force it to not move. From the smile that spreads across his face, Trey understands my reaction.
“Just try it,” he coaxes from his spot on the couch.
With slow steps I cross from the window and stand between his legs.
“Sit.”
I start to debate exactly what he means. How should I sit? To the side of him with my legs thrown over? On the other side of the couch? I muster all my courage, take a deep breath, admit that isn’t what Trey wants, and then slide my body over his, straddling him with a leg on each side.
Our height difference is minimal in this position, and our heads almost line up. “See that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Trey asks as his mouth lowers to mine before I answer.
His mouth fits over my lips in a passionate kiss like those we shared a month ago. It doesn’t take long before I’m lost to him and our desire for one another again. The room falls away from me and the only thing that matters is Trey.
His hands rest on my thighs, and I wish I had worn a dress today rather than these wide-leg black pants I’m in now. His touch on my bare skin is the one thing I miss most from our time on vacation. His hands move up my legs as his mouth opens, asking to be let in.
The hard press of his body against mine as our tongues duel causes me to forget where his hands went. My skin tingles as they begin to slide up my back underneath the thicker blouse I wore to work today. I push back forcing him to tighten his grip on my over sensitive skin.
Trey lifts my shirt higher and higher as his hands continue up my back. Our faces part and he drags his thumb across my lower lip while we stare at one another with ragged b
reaths. I’m nervous and my body is still tense because of it. I stand at a crossroads of wanting to speed things up and slow them down at the same time.
“God. I missed this. I missed you, Simone.”
I smile at the compliment and relax a little. “Me too.”
Trey’s head lowers until he buries it in the curve of my neck. His tongue draws the line from my ear to my collarbone and then lower. As he lifts my shirt up the last few inches, my black lacy bra is bared to the room and he sucks in a breath. He drags his teeth lightly over one breast while my body shakes with the contact. I’m vibrating as his head moves to the middle of my chest and he opens my front-clasp bra with his mouth in some kind of superman move.
Three consecutive dings from the other side of the open space stop both our movements. Trey leans his head back from my chest allowing both parts of my bra to fall open. His eyes take in the two pebbled peaks in front of him before he leans forward again, ready to ignore our interruption.
Another three beeps stop him and I stiffen as I realize where the noise is from. I unwrap my arm from around Trey’s neck and move to stand, but he stops me with two big powerful hands on my back.
“It’s my phone,” I whisper to him.
“Don’t you dare answer your phone, Simone,” Trey whispers back, but with more authority.
“It’s my boss. He’s an ass. I have to answer.” I scramble off his lap and he lets me go. He threw my large bag onto the floor inside his door when we walked in, and I race there to answer the call.
I hate to admit that while the timing on this phone call is horrible, it isn’t unexpected. I thought my boss, Roger, was a jerk the first week, but he’s focused on guaranteeing it this week. He’s called or emailed me to question every decision I’ve made since I stepped foot in the office. Which when you consider I’m still working on getting to know my clients, I haven’t done more than make copies, phone calls, or meet for lunch dates. The largest transaction I’ve put through our system was approval for a $400 vet bill.
Lag (The Boys of RDA Book 2) Page 8
