i d236ce2fd225c71c (4 page)

“I’ve been giving you things that aren’t strictly necessary,” Hunter said. “You’re doing more than

any of the admins before you. I need to make some changes.” I saw Hunter glance at Bert before

directing his gaze out of the front again. “We’ll talk about this later.”

Irritation welled up in me, bringing back a little stress. I took another deep breath and stared out of the window. When did I start getting so worked up about everything? It seemed like I redlined

pretty easily. That was not great for the baby.

“This is going to take some getting used to,” I muttered to myself.

A SHORT WHILE LATER, HUNTER OPENED THE FRONT DOOR AND TURNED TO ME. I PLAINLY SAW REGRET IN HIS

eyes. “I do have to go back. I can’t stay here with you.”

“I know.”

He paused, almost like he expected me to beg.

Would begging work?

I opened my mouth to apply a little pressure, but I knew that wouldn’t solve the problem. Instead,

I said, “How are we going to fix this, Hunter? You’re in an extremely high-pressure job. You can give some of my work away, but that just means you have to stay longer. That’s not going to work. Not in

the long run.”

He trailed his fingertips down my cheek. “I’ll figure something out, Olivia. I promised I would be

a good father. I will keep that promise. I just need some time. You’re my life, now. My future. I didn’t know happiness before you, and I couldn’t have happiness without you. I’ll protect you and that baby with everything in my power, but some things can’t happen in a day. I need you to bear with me, okay?

Like you promised.”

I blinked away a tear. “Backing me into a corner with super-sweet words. I see how you roll.”

I closed my eyes as he planted a kiss on my lips. Then the kiss deepened. His hands came around

me, pulling me into his hard body. He stepped forward. My back bumped against the wall. My core

blistered with heat. My sexy systems swelled.

“I need you, Hunter.” The scare returned, having me hesitating. “If only to kiss.”

He scooped me up and carried me into the house. He gently set me down on the couch before

sitting down beside me. “We can do this safely,” he whispered as his hand drifted down between my

thighs. He circled my nub as his mouth made a trail up my neck.

“Oh God,” I said as my head fell back. His lips connected with mine, needy and insistent. His

fingers picked up pace. Heat unfurled in my body, mixing with love. I clutched Hunter’s shoulders,

falling into his kiss. The world dropped away. All I knew was Hunter Carlisle and this moment.

I moaned as pleasure spiked. Everything in me wound up. So tight. So hot.

“Oh!” I burst, bliss filling up my body. I sighed against his lips as I shook.

His kiss turned languid. His fingers on me slowed down, but didn’t relent. “How do you feel? Do

you want another?”

I smiled against his lips. “I think this is the opposite of stress. This is safe.”

I undid the top button on his trousers and slid down his zipper. I reached into his boxers and

captured his smooth manhood, hard and huge.

He moaned as I fell into the kiss again. Not able to help it, wishing I could feel him inside me, I

started with a fast pace, my palm gliding over that velvety skin.

“Hmm,” he said against my lips as his fingers matched my speed.

Desire pumped through me. I leaned on him more heavily, stroking faster. Kissing harder. His

touch, firm and insistent, sent pulses of pleasure through me.

“Oh God,” I murmured against his lips. I panted, stroking. Feeling the heat against my palm.

“Almost…”

“I need something to catch—”

I didn’t wait for him to finish that sentence. As my body ramped up for that final blast, I bent

down and sucked him in.

“Oh—” He switched hands like a pro, reaching around my body and continuing to pleasure me.

“Come with me, baby,” he commanded.

Without warning, an orgasm tore through me. My body jolted and shook as he quaked under me,

releasing into my waiting mouth. I exulted in the pleasure even as I felt him shake.

When we were done, I wiped my face on his suit jacket.

“Dirty move,” he said with a chuckle as he pulled me tight to his body. “But under the

circumstances, I won’t complain.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t say ‘low blow.’ Get it?”

“Hilarious.”

“You’re only just realizing that?” I kissed his neck as he sat with his eyes closed, resting.

Too soon he rubbed my back, a signal he wanted me to move so he could get up. When I did, he

stripped out of his jacket and inspected his pants. They’d need to be changed, no two ways about it.

“What time will you be home?” I asked.

“As soon as I can, but don’t wait up.” He looked at me seriously. “I will keep my promise,

though, Olivia. Just give me some time. I’ll reward your patience.”

“Yes, my liege.” I gave him a salute.

His brow furrowed before a lopsided grin took over his face. He shook his head a fraction before

walking off toward the bedroom.

I hauled myself off the couch and headed to my office. As I closed myself in and sat at my

computer, my mind turned to what I wouldn’t be able to get done for Hunter. Another wave of stress

rose up. Then the fear of what that stress meant.

I knew I had to choose; that was a certainty now. The problem was, even if I knew
which
job I’d pick, I’d have to give notice. It would take a couple weeks to get out completely.

With my body’s reaction today so clear in my mind, I didn’t know if I had a couple weeks.

Chapter Three

“Goodbye, baby. I love you.”

I felt Hunter’s lips on my forehead and his light touch across my stomach. I blinked as his

presence moved away. It took me a second to wake up, but when I did I caught his shape leaving the

bedroom in the early morning twilight.

On a normal day I’d smile and go back to sleep, but this wasn’t a normal day.

I came wide awake and grabbed for my phone. After punching icons with my thumb, I scrolled

through the ranking, looking for Bruce’s and my game. We’d hit thirty-one last night before I’d gone to bed. Bruce had said it was gaining momentum faster than he’d expected, and predicted it would keep

climbing. The marketing strategy was just getting going, apparently.

I passed the thirties with a frown. Maybe he was wrong.

My gaze scanned, then stuck to a nice graphic, scanned, stuck—I wasn’t seeing our game. As the

hundreds passed, my heart dropped. It had been a fast rise, but I’d thought the fall would’ve been

more gradual.

A stab of fear pierced me. What if people hated it? What if they’d started playing it because it

was free and the graphic and description were awesome, but realized it sucked and left horrible

reviews? A bunch of bad reviews would sink that game. It would prevent other people from trying it.

Even if we fixed the problems, assuming it wasn’t the foundation, people would steer clear if the

stars were low for the rating.

Biting my lip, feeling the squeeze in my chest for possibly hurt feelings, I searched for the game.

When it came up, I almost wanted to cover my eyes instead of meeting my fate.

Taking a deep breath, I looked at the star rating. 4.5 with one hundred and three reviews.

“That’s not so bad,” I mumbled.

I tapped the game and flicked to the reviews. Five-star, five-star, five-star…one-star. I homed in.

I couldn’t help it. The only bad review in the whole list, and it was the only one I could see.

FROM: GMELOVR

This is th worst game ever!!!!!!! Terrible it suks u in then u hav to pay!! Rip off. Dont waste ur

time!!!!!!

“A LITTLE HEAVY ON THE EXCLAMATION POINTS, HUH?” I MUMBLED.

I hunched over the phone. I scrolled through the five-stars, some reviews lengthy, some small, all

praising how fun and addictive it was. Then my eyes stuck to the one-star again.

I dropped the phone into my lap, dwelling. Maybe the fact that the gamer had to pay to keep

playing was a bad idea. Maybe we should have just used this game to get people to play our stuff, and make them pay for a continuation. That would prevent people from being angry and feeling cheated.

I blew out a breath and looked at the time. Six o’clock.

I glanced up at the door as I rubbed my stomach, trying to simmer down my stress level. Hunter

had left early. Usually he went to the office at seven.

My mind drifted back to that one star.

Could that one review really unseat our placement?

I updated the ranking again, and then scrolled through, going slower this time. Twenties, thirties…

fifties, sixties… “Why so fast?” I said with that same sinking feeling.

I dropped the phone and felt despondency settle over me. I blinked at the soft light of the windows

to clear the moisture from my eyes. Bruce said we wouldn’t be a sensation overnight. It would take

time. We might even need to climb out of the abyss with our claws to get noticed. He’d said to keep

the faith.

This was probably a good thing. It would buy me time to get my life balanced out. With

yesterday’s scare still hanging heavy over me, I needed to admit that this was probably the best

situation for my baby.

I took a deep breath, trying to clear away the disappointment. Good thing or not, I still hated to

fail.

I thought about Bruce. He’d been so smug and sure of himself at launch. And when I’d called him

last night squealing like a thirteen-year-old, he’d taken it in stride. The man thought he couldn’t lose.

Worse, he’d sucked me up with his infallible confidence.

I lay back down, my phone in my hand, and checked our downloads on the website dashboard. As

it populated, I found myself blinking rapidly for the second time.

I sat back up.

The numbers were for one day. Just one day in the Apple app store—launch day, at that. There

was a lot of room for free play before anyone would be tempted to pay. Not only that, but they would potentially play the whole game, beginning to end, for free if they just waited for their lives to

repopulate. Bruce didn’t expect any sales right away.

We’d made $2000. For the day.

“Holy shit.”

I checked it again, made sure it was just our company and just that one game. It was.

As ninety-nine cents a hit, that meant a lot of people were buying. Sure, there were a couple of

bulk options, but mostly it was just that one small purchase.

“Holy shit.”

I hit the green call button before I knew what I was doing.

“Olivia.”

“Oh. Um. Hey, Bruce. Sorry—I shouldn’t be calling this early.”

“No, it’s fine. I’m just in the office now. What’s up?”

He was talking about his home office, the place his wife was starting to hate. “I thought you were

supposed to be a family man now…”

“The wife is working out and kids are asleep. I’m being sneaky.”

I laughed, then shifted, getting down to business. “Did you see the bad review?”

“Which one?”

A zing of fear worked through me. I didn’t want to have to face another. “I just saw one.”

“There’s one for the US store and one for the UK. They’re pissed they have to pay for extra play.

These types of games always get this kind of review. It won’t affect us. On the whole, our feedback is extremely positive. We’re doing better than I expected, and I was expecting miracles with the strategy we set up.”

We?
All I’d done was blink stupidly while he tried to explain our release schedule for the next couple of years. Hunter was teaching me the ropes of business, and I was grudgingly learning, but I

was more partial to shutting off my brain and programming. I’d hoped Bruce’s job would allow me to

do that.

“I mean, the sales are great. I didn’t expect that. I know we have a bunch of expenses to pay for,

but still…that’s a good haul, right?”

“Are you kidding? It’s a great haul for the first day.” I could hear the excitement in Bruce’s voice.

Finally! “We were liberal with lives and playtime. More liberal than the other hot games in this

category. This says to me that the players are so addicted, they are flying through. Yes, this is great news. Our testers loved it, but sometimes that means only the techies will get the game. This says to me that the average Joe gets it, too. We have a hit, girlie, and we haven’t even released on the other platforms! This is just the beginning. You wait.”

I felt a smile bud. Then wither. “But we’ve already fallen off the ranking. Don’t we need to be on

there longer for visibility?”

“What do you mean we’ve fallen off?”

“I just looked. I didn’t see us.”

“Wipe the sleep out of your eyes. We’re number five.”

Ah!
Tingles worked through my body. I jabbed the phone, turning on speaker before going back to the ranking. Sure enough, right on page one, there we were.

Number five!

“I didn’t really pay attention to the first couple. Holy crap, Bruce! That’s insanely good, right?”

“It’s beating our expectations, yes. We weren’t scheduled to hit this high for another day or so.

This is more word of mouth and reviews than it is our marketing efforts, I think. Very good news. Very good. I’m excited about this, Livy. We have the dream team. Now. What are you thinking for the add-on levels? Did you get my email?”

I stared at our game with a smile. Number five! That was so awesome.

What Bruce had said filtered into my excitement. Reality seeped in slowly as the time to officially

get up approached. “I didn’t. I had a medical issue yesterday so I didn’t get as much done as I wanted to.”

“Oh. Is everything okay, if you don’t mind me asking?”