No. I never did. I knew exactly how lucky I was to have Elliot and Link, and I never forgot it.
Elliot slid Harper a house key. “You’re welcome to move your things in whenever you want. As a reminder, I require progress reports, but I’m not worried that you’ll produce great work.Everyone here is available to ask for help. That includes me. And Fallyn.”
Harper blushed and took the key. “Thank you.” She shook both our hands again. “I’ll be back this weekend to move my stuff in.”
“I’ll show you out.” I walked her to the door, wished her good luck, and told her it was nice to meet another fan of quality games.
After I closed the door behind her, I spun away, and when Link was standingright theremy heart lodged in my throat.
He cupped my face and backed me into the wall as he kissed me. His mouth on mine still stole my breath after all this time.
“I have a present for you,” he murmured without letting me go.
I teased his half-hard cock, where it pressed into my belly. “Is it in your pocket?”
He grabbed my wrist with a rough laugh. “Not unless you decided not to stream this afternoon. Or you’re changing your content.”
“I should probably stick to the schedule.” My sigh was exaggerated.
One of the changes I’d made to my channel was that Elliot and I had taken our rivalry live, as much as our relationship. We gamed together, and we drew in lovers, haters, and everyone who either wanted to see us together or was waiting for us to crash and burn.
“I was hoping you’d say that.” Link handed me a post-it note with a code scribbled on it. “That’s our first expansion area in the game. Doesn’t go live for a week, but that will get you onto the test server.”
No shit. Exclusive access? Live? “Are you sure?”
“I have it on good authority that their development manager signed off on it,” Link said.
I threw my arms around his neck, tugged his head down to mine, and kissed him hard. “Thank you.” I kissed him again and again.
“Hey. Save some of that for me.” Elliot’s voice came from behind Link.
Link smirked against my mouth. “Nope.”
“He bribed me,” I said.
“With kisses? I can do kisses.” Elliot joined us.
I held up the post-it note.
“You got the sign-off.” Was that awe in Elliot’s voice?
Link nodded.
Elliot kissed him too. “I’d say you’re the best, but I think you’re trying to one-up my surprise.”
“No. I would never.” Link shook his head. “The two really go hand-in-hand, though. Don’t you think?”
“Boys? What are we talking about?” I should be happy with just the test server code. And I was. But if there were more surprises, I wanted to see them, and Elliot tended to have good surprises.
Elliot pointed to the coat closet a few feet away. “In there. But before you look, you should know that accepting this gift makes you a shill. Everyone will know you’re in bed with the people who write the game.”
I stared at him in disbelief. “Pretty sure everyone already knows. Can I look now?”
His deep bow was ridiculous, but fun.
I opened the closet to find a dry-cleaning bag hanging among the jackets. As I pulled it out, Elliot said, “Sadie Sews original. She mocked up the real thing, and Adrienne built a one-of-a-kind skin based on it.”
No way. I was looking at a recreation of a costume I’d designed for my in-game character. I made a version myself, last year for RinCon, but I’d never been happy with the results.