by Mia Carson
“Are you ready to save Gorgoth?” he teased, and she heard the grumble of his voice through the headset.
Belle couldn’t believe she sat beside not the only the man who created the game she was getting ready to dive head first into, but the man she was pretty sure she was falling for despite the confusion between them. He admitted it’d been weird, and maybe this was the only way to break the strange tension between them. She leaned back in her chair, placed her fingers on the keyboard, and watched the game load.
“Yeah… yeah, I’m ready,” she replied, bit the tip of her tongue, and held on.
***
“Kill it!” Belle yelled with a laugh as she hit the number keys furiously on her keyboard.
“Damn it, I need a heal,” Greyson growled and yelped when his character took another hit. It threw him away from the dragon king boss, and he cursed again as his limp body hit the ground in the game, leaving Belle alive. “You got this.”
“Are you kidding me? It’s got half health left!” She squealed as she managed to block a hit and kited the dragon around the dungeon. “You just had to die on the final boss!”
He watched the screen intently as she continued to race around the dungeon, cursing when she took a hit and her health split. “Potion, health potion,” he muttered and tapped her shoulder in his excitement.
She shrugged him off with a growl. “Got it. Don’t tell me how to play. You’re dead, remember?”
Greyson gripped the arm of her chair and ducked with her when the dragon unleashed a mouthful of fire at Belle’s character. She gritted her teeth and flung her sword as she raced around the dragon, kiting it in a circle while avoiding the fireballs falling from its mouth.
For someone who’d never played this game before, she had spent the last three days amazing him by how easily she picked it up. She was a gaming natural, just like her designs and her sketches. This was the world she was meant to be in. The same world as him.
“Combo move,” he called out and pointed at the screen.
Belle swatted at his hand, but she laughed as she did it, her tongue poking out from her lips as it did when she focused hard on something. Every time she did it, he grinned, unable to look away. He had to admit, he hadn’t had this much fun in years with anyone. And they weren’t even naked. For some reason, the idea that he could just have fun with a woman without sex being involved never crossed his mind, yet with Belle, he hoped it would never end.
“There it is!” she yelled, and to his amusement, she stood for the final few hits as she slaughtered the dragon boss. Her character leapt into the air and drove its sword point down into the dragon’s skull, just as Greyson designed it to do years ago. “We did it! Holy shit!”
“No, you did it,” he cheered and stood beside her. She turned, her eyes bright with excitement, and removed her headset. “I’ve never seen anyone play like that, not even Tim. Hell, not even me!”
“Whatever,” she said, breathless from the excitement.
“No, I’m serious. I’m sorry you were never able to play before,” he said and reached out gently to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear. His fingers trailed down her piercings, touching each one, and her lips parted. “You… uh, you hungry?” he said lamely, and he caught the flare of annoyance in her eyes when he pulled back.
“Sure. I need to take some pain meds anyway,” she mused and walked around him to the door. At the threshold, she glanced back. “Greyson?”
“Yeah?” he asked, holding his breath.
She moved back to him and stood on her toes in front of him. “Thanks for this, really,” she whispered, and her apple and cinnamon scent surrounded him. “I know I haven’t made this easy, and I’m sorry if this is too weird for you or whatever, but—”
Her words cut off when he lowered his mouth to hers, capturing her lips. She gasped in surprise but didn’t pull away. Her arms reached around his neck as his circled her waist and drew her into the warmth of his body. God, he wanted her. He possessed her mouth, exploring the depths with his tongue as she moaned quietly against him. Her hand reached down and tugged gently at his beard until he growled and his hands tightened around her. There was a convenient couch in the gaming room, and he eyed it over her head, ready to move her in that direction when the bulk of her cast bumped his arm and she winced.
Greyson broke the kiss and moved back. “Sorry, forgot your arm.”
“My arm is in a cast, and it’s fine,” she argued, but he took another step back, putting distance between them. “Why do you do that?”
“Do what?” he muttered and strode quickly for the door.
“Take care of me, treat me to three days of intense gaming that’s the most fun I’ve had in as long as I can remember, share another mind-blowing kiss, and then bail on me.” He heard her stomp after him, but he refused to turn around, too worried he’d lose the little control he’d gained. “Why?”
“We can’t do much with the cast on your arm or until your other injuries are completely healed,” he said, but she didn’t accept that as an answer when she laughed harshly. “Can we just eat?”
“No, I’m not eating with you.” She pushed past him and walked quickly down the hallway.
“You have to eat,” he called after her, but she slammed the bedroom door hard enough to shake the pictures on the wall. “Damn woman,” he muttered and stalked after her. When he reached her door, he pounded his fist on it. “Open the door, Belle.”
“No,” she yelled. “I’m not hungry.”
He tried the handle and grunted when he found it locked. “You have to eat sometime!”
“Not with you,” she replied.
He paced back and forth outside the door, running his hand over his beard. “Belle, please just come out. There’s no reason to act like this.”
“There is when you can’t make up your damn mind!”
His feet stopped, and he leaned against the doorframe, resting his forehead against her door as he ground his teeth. “It’s complicated,” he spat out finally.
The door whipped open so fast, he nearly fell face first into Belle’s glare. “It’s complicated? That’s what you’re saying to me. It’s freaking complicated?”
“Yes,” he told her firmly.
“No, you don’t get to sum it all up with ‘it’s complicated,’” she shot at him. “You can’t rush to the hospital after I’m in an accident, invite me to stay at your damn house while I recover, and not touch me at all! You act like we didn’t share a few heated kisses—and oh yeah, by the way, you gave me my first damn orgasm!” She poked him hard in the chest as she spoke. “Don’t you dare stand there and tell me it’s complicated! Of course it’s complicated, you moron!”
She backed up and slammed the door in his face before he could think of a reply. The lock clicked into place, and Greyson hung his head.
“Can we talk about this please? Over dinner?”
“Go eat alone. I don’t feel like talking.”
“Fine. I guess you won’t have anything for dinner,” he snapped, losing patience quickly. Didn’t she understand what this did to him? How much he wanted to hold her again, take her in his arms and love her as she should be loved? Didn’t she know how much it terrified him to open up like that?
He stormed away from her door to the kitchen and glared into his freezer before slamming it shut, snatching up his car keys, and bolting out of the house. It was the first time he’d left Belle alone, and as the Mustang roared to life, part of him wondered if she’d still be there when he got back.
Chapter 3
The moment she heard the Mustang tear out of the drive, Belle unlocked her door and called out into the house. Greyson didn’t respond. She leaned against the doorframe, still furious with him and at the same time still falling for the damn man. All she wanted was for him to admit he liked her too, and she wanted more than just a night. Why was that so terrifying?
She glanced into her room and considered calling a cab to come get her. He wanted
her to live with him, but maybe it was too soon. You pushed, she told herself as she left her room to find some food in the kitchen. You hate being pushed, and look what you did. You pushed him so hard he ran away rather than talk to you. Good job, Belle.
Groaning, she laid her head on her arms at the kitchen island and stared at her feet. What was she even doing here? She’d head back to the dorm first thing in the morning and tell him the second she was off the pain meds for her wrist and other bruises and scratches, she’d get back to work. Until then, she could do some things remotely for him, but her eyes flickered to her laptop in the living room, untouched for those three glorious days with him. At least now she had a mouse she could use so her work would go a bit faster. She was about to make a sandwich so she could get back to work when a key grated in the front door lock, echoing through the house. She braced herself for facing Greyson again.
“Where is that boy?” a white-haired woman asked loudly as she pulled her key from the lock and closed the door behind her.
“Sally?” Belle asked when the woman finally turned and puffed out her cheeks in relief.
“Ah, Belle,” she called brightly. “You look wonderful! How’ve you been feeling?”
“Better, I think,” she said, and the old woman embraced her tightly. The first time she hugged her, Belle didn’t know what to do. She wasn’t used to a mom. None of her foster moms had been hands-on, which had been fine with her, but Sally had given her so many hugs, Belle started to miss them when she didn’t see the woman for a while. “What’re you doing here?”
“Greyson hasn’t answered his cell for three days, and I was getting frantic calls from Tim,” she told her and carried her large, hand-stitched buckskin purse to the kitchen table. “Where is he, anyway?”
“He went to get some food,” she said with a bright smile, but Sally’s raised eyebrow told her she saw right through it. “We may have had a teensy argument.”
“For three days?”
“No. Before that, we were holed up in his gaming room. We beat the whole game,” she said with pride, amazed at their accomplishment and what he thought to do for her. Granted, he’d had Carrie’s help, but no man went through that much trouble for a woman he wanted nothing to do with, right?
Sally watched her closely, and Belle shifted on her feet. “What was this fight about? Oh no… wait, I think I can guess.” Belle followed her as she plopped down in a chair and motioned for Belle to do the same. “My son is a stubborn hard-ass, if you haven’t already figured that out,” she said with a crooked smile. “And he doesn’t know what’s right in front of him half the time.”
“Oh, he knows, trust me,” she muttered and hung her head, picking at her nails with her hands on the table. “I don’t know what he wants from me. We share a few kisses, had one night that could’ve been more if I hadn’t freaked out, and then the accident happens. He comes to see me all worried out and tells the paramedics he’s my boyfriend! And the moment we’re here, he acts like I’m this fragile little doll!”
Sally laughed and patted Belle’s hands. Her face reddened, mortified she’d said all of that to his mom, but she just asked if Belle was hungry. “I can whip us up something while Greyson’s out pouting.”
“You think that’s what he’s doing?”
“Oh, I know that’s what he’s doing,” she said, her head buried in the fridge. “How about tacos?”
“Tacos sound great,” Belle replied, watching Sally putter around the kitchen as her son did. She even hummed as she cooked.
“You know why he’s doing this, don’t you?” she asked a while later when they were building their tacos at the kitchen island.
Belle’s face scrunched. “He’s trying to drive me insane?”
“There’s a chance of that, but no. The last relationship he had, they never lived together. He was too scared of what would happen,” she informed her, and Belle turned to stare at her. “He only shows his vulnerable side when he really cares for someone, and it terrifies him. With the last girl, she broke his heart. I thought he’d never get over it with all his flings and women he hooked up with, but with you? I see a spark in my son’s eyes that’s been missing for a long, long time.”
Sally picked up her plate with a bright smile, leaving Belle standing there gaping. “Ready to eat? Good, I’m starving.”
Belle picked up her plate and joined her as she passed the kitchen table and stepped out onto the well-lit back patio. “You really think he’s scared?” she asked after they sat down.
Sally nodded. “Most men are when they find someone they really like.”
“You sure it’s not just him being too stubborn?”
“Like you are, my dear? He told me you’re a spitfire just like me, and I hate to say it, just like him,” Sally said with a quiet laugh. “Give it time, that’s all you can do. Have patience.”
Belle laughed sharply. “That’s something I think we both lack.”
“You’re both still young. There’s time, so don’t ruin it.” The seriousness in her tone forced Belle to look at the older woman and see the wisdom of long years and a broken relationship of her own. “And you, my dear, are the most mature twenty-two-year-old I’ve ever met. Trust me, I have two younger daughters, and they do not act like you.”
“I have my days,” she mumbled, digging into her food.
“So you’re telling me you two haven’t had sex yet?” she asked, and Belle choked on a mouthful of food. Sally pounded her helpfully on the back with a cackle. “I’ll take that as a no.”
Her eyes watering, Belle glanced at Sally. “No. We… uh, we haven’t. He won’t… he’s scared to because of my wrist, but I keep telling him—why am I telling you this?” she muttered, her face burning. “I can’t talk about his sex life with you!”
“Why not?” She grinned widely. “I’m his mom. What’s it going to do to me? And besides, you lack a sex life with him, remember? You need to change that.”
“He freaked out today when we kissed,” she told her sadly and leaned back in her chair with an exasperated sigh. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Maybe you both need to stop being so difficult.”
Belle opened her mouth to say she wasn’t, but her lips clamped shut when Sally’s eyes narrowed knowingly on her face. “I guess he… uh… he told you about the past few weeks.”
“Vented, more like it,” she corrected. “Couldn’t understand what woman did not like being taken care of.”
“One who’s not used to it. He should know that by now.”
“Have you told him?”
“Well, not exactly,” she admitted, “but I just assumed he’d figure it out.”
“Have you two had a real conversation at all about this?” she pressed, and Belle shook her head. “No wonder you two are biting each other’s heads off.”
“It’s only been the one time… or two,” she defended until a few other heated moments arose in her mind when Greyson pushed too hard to do every little thing for her. “Okay, there’s been a lot of them.”
Sally gripped Belle’s hand and held it tightly. “Do me a favor and talk to each other. Openly. Otherwise, you’ll get lost in the storm brewing between you and will never find your way back to each other. Trust me, I’ve been there. His daddy was no easy man to love.”
“But you loved him anyway?” Belle asked uncertainly.
Sally released her arm and relaxed in her patio chair, staring out into the darkness of the evening. “I did, for as long as he was alive. Greyson never understood it, and I could never explain it. But I felt it deep in my bones, that man and I were meant to be together. No matter how many fights we got into, we always found our way back to each other. Fire and water. Sometimes, they go together and sometimes, they fight to tear each other apart.”
The love reflected in her words caught Belle off-guard. A love she felt in her bones. Since the first time she saw Greyson, she was physically attracted to him. It was hard not to be. But after their first ki
ss and spending all this time together, the idea of leaving his home caused an ache in her chest that she had never experienced before and a longing deep in her gut.
“I think I need some wine,” Sally said and stood abruptly. “Would you like some?”
“Wine is a great idea,” she agreed and helped carry the plates in exchange for wine.
***
Greyson parked his Mustang on the long drive and cringed when he saw his mom’s old truck there. He leaned his head back against the headrest, wondering if he should go inside or leave again. He’d gone to the office to find Tim in a panic. Apparently, he’d called Greyson over the past few days about an issue with the servers. Instead of getting a few hours of peace and quiet, he was on the floor, tweaking and fixing the servers as he ranted to Tim about Belle.
And the only thing Tim had to say on the matter was to shut up, kiss the gorgeous woman, and get over his stubborn-ass attitude.
Kissing Belle would be admitting he really cared for her, and caring for people made him weak, made him vulnerable to being hurt again. To lose focus on being the toughest. It meant his life would be turned completely upside-down… But the alternative was losing Belle, and that idea caused his jaw to clench so hard he was amazed he didn’t crack his teeth.
There was no use waiting in his Mustang. Eventually, his mom would leave and she’d spot him, and the lecture would be ten times worse. He wondered what Sally and Belle were doing. The thought of Belle telling Sally everything that happened freaked him out, and he fumbled for his keys and launched out of the Mustang. He'd vented to his mom, of course, but she had a way of getting people to spill everything about themselves. Belle might’ve told her everything that had happened so far between them, and Greyson wasn’t sure he was ready for Sally to know that much.
As he unlocked the front door and stepped inside, all he heard was laughter echoing from the kitchen. “Hello? Ladies,” he called out, but neither responded. He followed the sounds to find them out on the back patio, sipping glasses of wine with their feet curled up under them on the padded couch near the fire pit.
