“If I’m going to make you love me, I probablydoneed a tragic backstory,” Fallyn said. “It ups the sympathy and draws the player in faster. Gives him something to commit to early on. To feel possessive over.”
Excuse me? “I’m not a two-dimension game character. Or gamer.”
Link also refused to give King any table scraps.
“I never said you were.” She smirked. “Besides, my story isn’t the kind of tale a gamer wants to hear. It’s full of naughty words like sexism and degradation and me just wanting to be treated like a human being.” Bitterness lined her voice when she finished.
Fallyn cleared her throat. “Anyway…” Now she sounded too sunny. “I started in quality assurance when I was younger. I was underpaid because I didn’t know how much to ask for and I didn’t have a degree. The company I was at loved me until I started asking why we made the same mistakes in our games over and over. I ran into the same most places I went, plus bosses hitting on me, a senior QA guy who insisted I didn’t have a job unless I fucked him—and as soon as I stopped he got me fired—and I reached a point where I was too tired to keep going through the same. If people were going to ogle my tits while I broke games, I was going to do it for the world and make a lot more money for it.That’sFallyn’s story.”
Thanks. I hated it. Not hearing it, but that anyone would have to put up with that kind of bullshit. I didn’t think she was making any of it up—I’d been in the industry as long as she had, and I didn’t doubt for a moment that it happened again and again. “You didn’t deserve to be treated that way.”
“Thanks.” Her smile was tight. She let out a noisy sigh. “Can we talk about anything else?”
King yipped and scrambled across the room to where she sat. As if offering her a solution, he sat back on his haunches and barked.
“Sure, Puppy. I’ll bribe you to be my friend.” Fallyn’s smile didn’t quite erase her frustration. She shredded some of her chicken and held a piece out for him.
He reached his nose up, sniffed a few times, and ran back to me.
I didn’t know whether to laugh or feel bad that she’d been snubbed. For trying to feed my dog. When I’d made it obvious we weren’t doing that. Where was my head tonight?
As a reward, I offered him a piece of beef, and he scarfed it down happily. When he finished, he pawed at my leg and whimpered, and I pulled him into my lap.
“So that’s how that works.” All the sadness vanished from Fallyn’s voice. “I just have to walk up to the pretty man, beg for his meat, and he’ll hold me.”
If she wanted to move on from the sadness, that was fine with me. “That’s how it works forhim.” I nodded at King.
“Hmm.” She looked at Link. “Would it work for me?”
Link seemed to consider this. “Depends.”
“On what?” Fallyn asked.
“On whether you actually want to be in my lap, or you’re just trying to make Elliot jealous.”
I hid my smirk.Busted.
Fallyn set her plate aside, dropped to her knees, and crawled across the carpet, her tutu-accentuated ass wigging in the air. She nuzzled Link’s shin, like a cat. A sexy, fuckable—
Damn it.
“I actually want up.” The way she spoke was practically a purr. “You’re nice, you’re nonjudgmental, and you’re cuddly.”
Link patted his legs. “I can’t saynoto that.”
Fallyn moved to perch on his lap and that damnminevoice was back. Worse, I didn’t know which of them it was directed at. When she stuck her tongue out at me, it didn’t help.
“See, you do that, and I think you’re here for his reaction, not mine.” Link loosely wrapped his arms around Fallyn’s waist, defying his words.
She pouted. “Can it be both? Because yes, I’ll admit it, I want to make Elliot scowl. But I do want to be up here.” She turned wide eyes on him. “You’re cuddly, you’re sweet, and you’re safe.”
Link was only safe if one was on the right side of his sunshine.
“You can be both, if you’re honest about it,” Link said.
Fallyn leaned her head on his shoulder. “Now you know all about my trauma. Do I get a snippet of who either of you are in return?” She met my gaze, and I swore she was trying to peer into my soul. “Are you going to tell me your stories?”
Absolutely not. I was aware I’d put up thick walls, and regardless of the abnormal reactions she evoked in me, she hadn’t earned a glimpse at what lay behind my defenses. “We already covered this. You know my story.”