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“Max, I’ve only ever wanted to do the right thing for you.”

“I know that.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “The whole time I was in Florida, all I could think was how I wanted to get back to you. To talk to you, to be around you. I didn’t think twice about Harmon. I think that scared me, when I got back and realized I wasn’t completely in control.”

My heart was racing but I picked my words carefully. “We can’t be completely in control when we care about other people.”

Max stepped to the very edge of the boat, as close as he could be given the gap of water between the boat and the dock.

“You know, Payton, the only game I hated as a kid was Super Mario. I didn’t get the rush-the-tower, save-the-princess shit. Why you’d do everything just to get the girl.

“But I
get
it now. Because you’re the girl. And you’re all of it. The prize, the gold, the ever-fucking-after.” He sent me a meaningful look, his dark eyes warm. “When I met you, I never expected you to want me. I didn’t in a million years think you’d love me.”

I blinked up at him. “What?”
Max knew I was in love with him?

A ghost of a smile pulled at the corner of his mouth but I could see the intensity underneath. “Got any plans for the next forty-eight hours?”

“You want me to go to the Caribbean with you?”

He rocked on his heels. “Nah. If we’re lucky, we’ll get to New Haven. I have to be back Monday.”

My jaw dropped. “But…I don’t even have any clothes!”

“Clothes are overrated.”

A grim determination took me over. I tossed Max my handbag. “Step back.”

He did.

And I took a running leap, soaring over the expanse of water and straight into his arms.

Almost.

My foot caught on the edge of the dock and I landed face-first in the channel.

The water crushed in on me and my lungs gasped for breath at the impact of hitting the surface. I was rewarded by swallowing gulp after gulp of seawater, flailing blindly.

When I broke the surface, sputtering, a hand reached for me. Max hauled me up onto the
Real Fantasy
.

“You trying to impress me?” Max murmured, slapping my back. I coughed, watching water pool at my feet as it dripped freely from my clothes and hair. Somewhere, I’d lost a flip-flop.

“Did it work?” I managed to clear the last of the water from my lungs and rung out my soaking hair before turning to face him.

The emotion in his eyes made my knees weak, even before he pulled me close.

“Definitely.”

I greedily drank in the sight of him, the feel of his strong hands on my arms. My head was spinning and it wasn’t from ingesting water. “What were we talking about?”

“How much you love me,” he reminded me.

“What do you want me to say?”

Max lifted a shoulder. “A confirmation would be a good start. Otherwise this is going to be pretty fucking awkward.”

“I see. You want three words?” He nodded, and I pretended to consider. Then ticked off my fingers as I said “Got. A. Towel?”

He groaned, but retreated long enough to lift a cushion from one of the seats and retrieve a fluffy blue towel.

Instead of handing it to me, Max patted it forcefully over my face and head.

“Wow, thanks.” I laughed as I grabbed it from him, breathless, and pulled it around my body. “I love you, Max Donovan.” Saying the words broke down something in me that’d been bottled up. “I love your ideas. Your passion. The way you won’t compromise on what’s important. Sometimes you drive me crazy but I love that too.”

Max’s answering grin, a little cocky and a lot earnest, was the best reward. My heart threatened to escape my chest.

“It’s your turn,” I prompted. It was hard to believe this could get any better, but it had to.

Max brushed a thumb over my cheek, his hand cupping the back of my neck like he didn’t want to stop touching me. I didn’t want him to either. “I said it in the game,” he murmured.

“You ‘said it in the game’? OK, first lesson. A guy telling you he loves you for the first time in Helvetica…”

He tilted his head, like he was trying to understand. “Not the most romantic thing in the world?”

“Actually, it’s kind of romantic. But I still want to hear it.”

“Fine,” he growled. “I love the fuck out of you, Coyote. I’m so glad you chased me. Don’t stop now.”

His words stole my breath before his mouth did. When he pulled me up to him, it was familiar and new at once. My body was desperate, like it’d been missing him every second we’d been apart and it wanted nothing more than to be reunited. But more than that, I was overwhelmed by the feeling of loving him, and being loved by him.

Max started dragging me toward the stairs. “Wait, I thought we had to go to New Haven?” I protested.

“We can leave in a couple hours.” His mouth found my jaw, and he shifted to pin me against the side of the boat with his body. “Or a couple days.”

I fought the haze that was taking me over. “But…when will we get there?”

“Who cares.”

With his teeth on my ear and his hands pulling my hips against the growing evidence of the fact that he’d missed me as much as I’d missed him? I had to admit.

He had a point.

Chapter 29

Isn’t that where the sellouts go?

“So how does this work?” I asked for the third time.

“We’ve sold non-voting shares to a group of twenty Titan employees,” Riley said patiently, steepling his fingers over his desk. “All the developers wanted in. They’ve either bought in or agreed to take equity instead of a portion of their salary for the next twelve to twenty-four months.”

“That gets you to ten million?” I crossed one leg over the other in my beanbag chair, impressed.

“Six, actually. But Jenna’s working on a licensing deal for Evolve that would bring in another two million a year for three years.”

“So what you’re saying is…”

“We can finish Phoenix on time,” Max said from behind me.

My heart lifted at the sight of his familiar frame leaning in the doorway of Riley’s office.

It’d been a busy week since Max and I had made up. Our trip to New Haven had ended up being a trip to Providence, since we’d spent so long in bed we didn’t have time to get to Connecticut and back.

Max and Riley had turned Harmon down, deciding they’d wait to launch Phoenix until after Axel released their game. I hadn’t been ready to let it go, and since my fight with Max, an idea had been baking in the back of my mind.

Which was why since we’d come back, the three of us had been working out options for equity.

Or, more accurately, I’d planted the idea and then gotten out of the way.

Max dragged my desk chair over between me and Riley, turning it backward so he could sit astride it and lean his arms on the back. His eyes were warm on mine.

“You pushing me on equity made me think about something. I don’t like the idea of giving up control of my company to people I don’t even know. But I realized there were people I trusted.”

Riley went on. “The developers agreed to restructured compensation in exchange for shares—nonvoting shares, which means Max still gets to run the company how he wants—and we all share the risk and the profits.”

“You’re not worried about anyone undercutting you?” I asked.

Max shrugged. “They do, it’s money from their own pockets.”

My phone beeped and I looked down at it.

“That your mom?” Max asked. We’d promised to take her apartment hunting. She’d brought me round to the idea that she didn’t need her two bedroom and was ready to downsize. I wasn’t thrilled about it, but I knew she’d be OK, and Max insisted we’d make sure she was.

“Nope, it’s Charlie.” I angled my chin up, my gaze moving between Max and Riley. “Hey, you guys ever hear of Throwdown Thursday at Tilt?”

They exchanged a look. “Tilt?” Max asked. “Isn’t that where the corporate sellouts go?”

“It is. And seeing as how it’s six pm and you two are co-leaders of a corporation that has officially sold itself, I think we should go collect your shareholders and head down there.”

Thirty minutes later we caught up with the Alliance crowd. Jenna, Terry, Muppet, and Zane were in tow.

“I’m buying the first round,” I offered, bypassing the booth to head for the bar. Max followed.

“Where’s Charlie?” I wondered aloud.

I followed Max’s gaze to the hallway that led to the bathrooms.

In her five-inch heels and black leather dress, Charlie was the same height as Avery and just as intimidating. His glare was cold enough to freeze lava. Charlie stuck her finger in his chest and bit out some scathing retort that had him recoiling.

“What’s that about?” Max asked, amused.

“Knowing Charlie, she probably replaced the vodka in his drink with dish soap.”

We watched them argue as we ordered drinks for the Titan team.

“How long do you think it’ll be before they’re hooking up in the bathroom?” I asked under my breath.

Max frowned. “No way. They’re at each other’s throats.”

“And we weren’t?”

“Yeah, but with us it was…”

“Vicious? Bloody?”

“I was going to say hot.” Max’s gaze heated.

When the bartender finished pouring the round of liquors, beer, wine, and sodas, I reached for my wallet. Max got to his first. “On me.”

I eyed him knowingly. “Oh. I get it. So all I have to do to get you to buy drinks is sleep with you?”

He pretended to consider. “Yeah, pretty much.”

My eyes cut back to Charlie and Avery.

“Still pissed off that he won the award?” Max asked.

I lifted a shoulder. “Not so much. I’m still the number two associate in the company. And, I have the highest client satisfaction ratings.”

“I am an extremely satisfied client,” Max offered seriously. “If you want to go in that bathroom, I’ll show you just how satisfied.”

I laughed, looking around the room at the mix of Alliance and Titan people. Charlie and Avery. Jenna and Terry talking to one of the other associates. Riley was talking with some girls from accounting, who were fawning over Muppet. “Max? I know our reality’s weird. But I think it might actually be better than fantasy.”

Max’s face split into a grin.

“Me too.”

Epilogue

3 months later

Max

“You’re dead, Coyote.”

“Don’t get cocky, Roadrunner.”

“The only thing getting cocky is you,” I warned under my breath. “Because in five minutes you’re going to give me the most spectacular blowjob in the history of mankind.”

Payton shot me a look, her hazel eyes sparking, before focusing with new determination on the tiny TV mounted on the wall across from us.

Phoenix had launched a month ago and was selling like crazy. This was the first week I hadn’t been running around doing promo for the game. So, my girlfriend had suggested we take the
Real Fantasy
to the Caribbean.

I was the one who’d proposed the game, which was why we were docked in Jacksonville before visiting my parents tomorrow, the two of us jammed next to each other on the bench-turned-couch.

I’d found the code for my first game, Albatross, and with a few upgrades I had it running on a console hooked up to the boat’s TV. I’d brought it as a surprise for Payton. The look of delight on her face was more than enough reward.

Now that same face was screwed up as she took the bird on the screen through a series of maneuvers.

The game was crude and the graphics were shit, but she loved it.

And anything Payton wanted, Payton got.

“Why do we always play for sexual favors?” she muttered.

“Because it doesn’t matter who wins.”

I always won. But today, I was lagging. She’d worn that fucking dress that makes me stare at her legs like a perv.

It’s hard to play a video game when you’re imagining your face under a skirt.

“Do you need some pointers?” she offered airily, taking a hand off the controller long enough to push her long, dark hair over her shoulder. The fact that she was winning hadn’t escaped her.

“Maybe. Or…” I shifted in my seat and lifted the hand that’d been idle. “Maybe I’ll start playing with both hands.”

“Urgh! What were you doing with the other one?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.” I shot her a smug grin and she couldn’t hide the twitch of her lips.

She was mine. Seriously, actually mine. And it was fucking great.

I’d been afraid to care about her once. I’d thought those feelings were for people too naive to understand how the world worked. But I’ve realized the people who don’t believe in love are the naive ones. That just because you haven’t found the right one doesn’t mean you won’t.

Love isn’t what makes you weak, it’s what makes you strong.

“I love you, Max,” Payton murmured beside me, reading my thoughts. “But sometimes? Love hurts. And baby, you’re about to feel the pain.” She went back to the game with renewed concentration.

She was so damn cute. I couldn’t resist.

“Foul!” she shrieked.

“There are no fouls in gaming.” My hand crept up her thigh under her sundress.

Fuck,
her legs are smooth
. I could picture them wrapped around me.

“Yeah? Well that is most definitely a—!” Her voice squeaked as I grazed the edge of her panties.

I shifted over her. Her eyes widened in surprise and anticipation, and blood roared in my veins.

Just like that, the video game was a hell of a lot less interesting. Payton was the only girl I’d met who could make them that way.

“Draw?” I muttered, my fingers hovering at the juncture of her thighs.

Payton shook her head, sending smooth waves cascading around her shoulders. “You forfeit,” she retorted.

Slowly, with patience I didn’t feel, my fingers slipped beneath the thin fabric that was the only thing separating us.

Shit.
She was like hot silk, and my stomach tightened at the feel of her. Her gaze clouded as I pressed two fingers to where she was already wet—where I’d known she would be—and rubbed them in a slow circle.

“Well in that case, I guess I’d better pay up.”

“You’d better,” she murmured breathily, her gaze flicking to my mouth.

Impatient, I shoved her dress up around her waist and pulled her legs apart. My hands pinned her knees to the couch, and a second later my tongue was flicking her clit.

“Dammit, Max…it’s a good thing you’re better at that than video games,” she moaned.

I sucked hard. Her legs tried to clamp together but I held her down. I devoured her with my mouth, adding my fingers just when I knew she couldn’t take any more. Payton exploded on my tongue, her honey sweetness a reward of its own.

I vaguely noticed the screen in the background flashing that, according to the gaming system, we’d both lost.

Like it mattered.

An alarm went off on her phone just as she was starting to recover. She reached for it and I pinned down her arm.

“It’s Saturday, Payton,” I grunted, the taste of her still on my tongue and her tight body distracting under mine. “We’re on vacation. What could it possibly be? Your mom’s moved into your old apartment. Riley’s looking after Titan…”

I released her wrist and she snatched up the phone. “Maybe the Raiders lost their lead singer and they’re calling personally to see if I’ll fill in!”

I snorted. “I’ve heard you sing, Coyote. I don’t think that’s it.”

Still, I peered over her shoulder as she looked at the phone. The text from Charlie said
Are you guys fucking yet?

A laugh started low in my gut.

“I thought it might be important,” Payton murmured, but she was smiling too. I flipped her on her back and her eyes widened.

“Uh-huh. If I knew you were going to be so distracted on this trip, I could’ve brought work too.”

My hands worked the snap of my jeans, shoving them and my shorts down at once.

“Oh yeah?” she breathed.

“Yup. I’m working on a new game.” I grabbed her ass with one hand and thrust inside her. Payton gasped as I filled her, her tight body sweet agony.

“What’s it about?” she managed.

“It’s about this coyote and this roadrunner…” I started stroking into her, bending to take her nipple into my mouth through the thin fabric.

She arched into me. “Pretty sure that’s copyrighted.”

“Then I’ll buy it.”

“Sounds expensive. You sure it’d be worth it?” Payton’s fingers flexed into my back as I changed the angle, making her moan again.

I looked her dead in the eyes. “Fuck, yes.”