Game of Love (15 page)

A quick Google search located his office, and forty minutes later she walked through the doors of Thrive Entertainment. From the distressed metal sign above the desk reading
LIVE, PLAY, THRIVE!
to the mismatched furniture, the office felt very Dexish. The wide-planked hardwood floors were heavily scuffed, which made her smile because only Dex would pay to have scuffed floors installed in the middle of Manhattan.

Her nerves tingled as she approached the reception desk, feeling overdressed in her skirt, blouse, and heels and wishing she had her favorite boots to ground her. It had seemed like such a great idea to show up unannounced, but now that she was there, the idea of popping in felt a little presumptuous. As much as he wanted her to stay and as much as Dex might love her, it didn’t mean that he wanted his entire company to know about them. The young man behind the desk wore a black T-shirt with
thrive!
imprinted across his narrow chest and a pair of black jeans. He had on a thick studded leather wristband, and his short, dark hair stuck up in thick, gelled spikes.

“Hi.” Her voice came out just above a whisper. She cleared her throat and forced herself to speak louder. “I’m here to see Dex.”
Whew. Okay. I did it.

“Sure.” He looked at his computer. “And you are?”

“Ellie Parker.”
Bad idea. Truly a bad idea
. She should just turn around and walk out. Tell him never mind.

“Let me buzz him. I don’t see you on his schedule.”

“No, I’m not. Um. It’s okay. I can talk to him later.” She turned to leave, and the young man’s voice stopped her.

“Hold up, hon.”

She closed her eyes and feigned a smile before turning around.

“I already buzzed a message through the system. If you wait one sec, I’m sure he’ll respond quickly.”

“It’s really okay. I don’t need to—”

“Ellie.”

She turned toward Dex’s voice and watched him cross the floor, arms open, looking drop-dead gorgeous in his jeans and button-down shirt. His eyes locked on hers and sent her stomach on an instantaneous roller coaster ride. Then she was wrapped in the warmth of him, and his lips were on hers for a split second, in a very appropriate, quick, claiming kiss. She felt her cheeks flush when they drew apart, his hand clutching hers.

“Sam, this is my girlfriend, Ellie Parker.”

Girlfriend?
Girlfriend. She tasted the word…and liked it. “Hi, Sam.”

“Ellie, it’s a pleasure. I’ll just put your name on the
always-allow-in
list.” Sam winked at Dex.

“You know it. Thanks, Sam.” Dex led her through the office, which was open, like an enormous loft, and lined with workstations. There were no interior walls, no cubicles, and more computers than she could count. Every employee was dressed casually, sporting a wide variety of denim, leather, and tattoos. An orange couch was tucked in the far corner of the space beside three oversized chairs and faced three enormous television screens. At least they looked like television screens, but they appeared to be fed by computers.

Dex raked his eyes down Ellie’s body as they walked. “Wow, you look hot. I’m surprised to see you.” He squeezed her hand.

“I do?”

“Smokin’.”

She tucked that compliment in the secret Dexy compartment in her heart, right beside the memory of his voice telling her he loved her. That he’d always love her. “I’m sorry for just showing up like this. I wanted to give you my news in person.”

He stopped cold. His eyes darkened. “Please tell me you didn’t come here to tell me you’re leaving, because it’s not true what they say about public spaces. I would totally make a scene here.”

She knew he was only half kidding. “No. It’s great news.” She saw Regina approaching from the far end of the room.

He let out a fast breath. “Good.”

“Dex.” Regina touched his arm. “Small problem.” The tattooed head of the viper that ran across her collarbone poked out from beneath her tank top. The hoodie she wore dipped low in the back, weighed down by the hood, and Ellie caught another mass of colorful tattoos that crept up the back of her neck. Regina smiled at Ellie. “Hey there, Ellie. Nice to see you.”

“Hi.” She didn’t know what to make of Regina. The thick makeup and tattoos, combined with the harsh stares she’d given Ellie the night they’d met at the bar, contrasted sharply with the kinder woman who had made her breakfast and just flashed a sincere smile in her direction. Had she chosen a more visual path for her own walls and worn her mistrust on her sleeve, she wondered if it would have helped her deal with life in the long run. Regina seemed comfortable in her own tattooed skin, while Ellie, even after twenty-five years, was just beginning to get used to hers.

Everyone has walls to hide behind and secret insecurities. Some just hide them better than others.
She glanced at Dex, his jaw muscles twitching, his hand still embracing hers, and she knew his heart was tortured by her as much as it loved her.

Regina turned back to Dex. Ellie noticed the way she held on to his arm, and she felt a flash of jealousy, which she quickly pushed away.

“KI pushed their date back a week. Just announced it. They’re going out after us.” Regina tightened her grip on Dex’s arm as he flexed his fist.

“Shit. Okay, meet in five, conference room.” He tugged Ellie toward his office. “I’m sorry, El, but this is critical. Can we talk fast?” He closed the door behind them and took her in his arms, then kissed her deeply, rendering her brain cells useless. Her hands found his hips and she pressed into him, her body instantly responding with a sharp ache of need down low. The parts that he’d awakened last night wanted to come out to play.
Stop it. Stop it. Stop it.

When they drew apart, she blinked several times, trying to regain control of her breathing. Damn, he knew how to steal her worries—and replace them with pure and luscious lust.

“What’s your news?”

“How can…?” She drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “How can you do that? Jesus, Dex. Your kisses are like aphrodisiacs.”

He pressed his hips to hers again. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” she said in a dreamy whisper.
Shit. Concentrate
. She took a step back. “You stay there,” she teased, holding her palm up. “I got a job. A really great job.”

He opened his arms again. “That’s great, El. What school?”

She held her palm up to ward him off. “Don’t touch me until I get this out, because you make me babble like a lovesick fool.”

He wiggled his eyebrows. “I do. Hmm…”

She laughed softly, then continued. “Maple Elementary. It’s a privately funded alternative education school.”

“Sure. I know them. My mom has spent time there, teaching kids art, I think.”

“Really? Oh, Dex. I loved the woman who interviewed me, Blythe Wagner, and their vision is so close to mine. She’d even like me to work on a proposal for the educational software I told you about. It’ll take extra hours, which I won’t be paid for, but I know I can do it.”

“This is great news. I knew things would work out. You’re too smart and too passionate about education and kids not to have found someplace where you can make a difference. See, fate really does play a part in our lives.”

Fate?
That word was coming up a lot lately, and Ellie found herself giving it a little more serious consideration.

DEX HEADED INTO the conference room with a full heart. He knew how much courage it took for Ellie to come to his office. He also knew it meant she was really trying with regard to their relationship, and that thought chipped away at the anxiety that had been prickling his mind for the past twelve hours. He half expected her to bolt from his life, but his mother’s words had really hit home.
She’s the one you probably need to trust the most right now.
Maybe his mother was right. He needed to put his faith in Ellie instead of expecting the worst.

The full conference room, the strained faces, and the quiet that came over his employees when he entered the room pushed his thoughts of Ellie to the background and brought the issues with their release date to the forefront.

Mitch’s voice broke the silence. “We should wait to release.”

Dex stood in the doorway, mulling over the ramifications of delaying the release date.
Angry fans. Bad press.

“They’re doing the
next big thing
rollout. We can’t win. I knew we should’ve gone out later. One week after they launch, we should release. I suggested that two weeks ago,” said Mike Talen, one of their programmers.

“What do we gain by doing that?” Dex asked.

Mike looked around the room, as if someone else might offer up the answer. Dex crossed his arms and waited for him to respond.

“We become the
next big thing
,” Mike said.

“How about going out a month after instead of a week? We can see what they roll out and tweak our system to beat it?” Regina suggested.

Dex walked around the room and felt the eyes of his employees trailing him. He’d been thinking about Ellie’s project—and Thrive—ever since she’d first mentioned the idea of writing a proposal for a grant to develop educational software. He’d even mentioned it to Mitch, and Mitch had been excited about the possibility. The idea had sparked Dex’s interest for more than just the intellectual challenge of developing such a program. It offered a way to balance out his misgivings about the gaming industry. With his and Mitch’s design and development skills and a few key staff members pitching in, they could make a kick-ass educational software program that felt more like a game than a method for teaching.

As he surveyed his employees, he saw a team of loyal, dedicated, hard-working, intelligent people. A bright and worthy team he had personally selected. The decisions Dex made today would affect every person in that room, plus the ones who worked for Thrive but weren’t present. Dex didn’t take these obligations lightly, but then again, no matter how relaxed he looked on the outside, he never took anything lightly—ever. Expanding development into new areas would potentially provide security for his staff, if the expansion didn’t cost them too much of their game-development time. The idea was a tricky one, and testing the viability of it on a small scale was inspiring. Even if it meant that he put his own capital into the initial development and prototypes, together—with his team and Ellie—they could potentially change the face of education for low-income kids. The idea renewed his enthusiasm and bolstered his confidence.

“Who here believes in our product?” Dex raised his hand. “Show of hands.”

Every person in the room raised their hand.

“Great. You can put your hands down now.” He circled the far end of the conference table. “Who here thinks our product is better than KI’s?”

Again, the same show of hands.

“What’s the chance of error on the release?” He looked at his programmers. “Statistically speaking? Percentage?” Dex already knew it was near zero, but he wanted to make a point.

“You’re not an indie developer anymore, Dex. Chances with our team are safely two percent or less,” Mike said.

“He’s right. I’ve looked over the beta testing. We’ve nailed it.” Regina gnawed on the end of her pen with a nod.

“And what do we lose by postponing?” Dex had circled the room and stood at the front of it again.

“If their game kicks ass and we don’t leave enough lead time after they release, users might not jump as quickly to check our game out and we could lose a huge market share,” Mitch said.

After a minute of silence, Dex asked, “What about our fans? Do we not create these games for our fans? Isn’t that the whole damn reason we’re in this business? To bring games to the fans that they’ll stay up all night playing?”
Pissing off their mothers, girlfriends, wives, teachers. Shirking responsibilities and letting their muscles atrophy.

“They’ll get over it. Companies delay all the time,” Mike said with a wave of his hand.

Dex set his palms on the table and narrowed his eyes, dragging them slowly across each and every face in the room. “They’ll get over it.” He let the words sink in, then pushed from the table and crossed his arms, speaking louder. “They’ll get over it.” He stared at Mike. “They’ll fucking get over it?” Dex took a slow stroll to Mike’s side of the table. “Let me ask you something, Mike. If you waited three years to buy something you wanted, and you found out it was going to take a month longer in production, how would you react?”

Mike shrugged.

“Really?” Dex lifted his brows, feeling the eyes in the room boring into him. “Because if I had to wait a month for anything, I’d be pissed. And as a teenager, I’d have bashed the company on as many forums as possible. Even if I went back to those same forums a month later to retract what I’d posted, those initial posts still exist. Our rep is tarnished, and rightly so.”

He took a deep breath and let it out loud and fast. “Our product is ready. It’s rolling out to reviewers, and we have buyers standing by. I didn’t set out to let people down. I set out to create the best damned games I possibly could, without the bullshit excuses that I hated as a kid. And to a kid, any reason to delay a game release is a bullshit excuse. That is what Thrive Entertainment is all about. Making our fans happy. Live. Play. Thrive. They can’t play if we’re holding up the release to play marketing games.”

“But, Dex, it’s been shown that the second game out can make a killing,” Lisa, a thirtysomething blonde and their financial marketing consultant, pointed out.

“How close to breaking even are we with preorders?” Dex asked.

Lisa shook her head. “More than two million preorders. We’re long past clear, and we’ve broken preorder records. There’s no failing unless our game fails.”

Dex nodded. He held up his palms toward the ceiling, then weighed them like two sides of a scale. “Let’s see. We believe in our product. We’ve tested the hell out of it. We can make fans happy.” He lowered his right hand. “Or…we play scared and piss off fans, maybe sell more, maybe not.” His right hand dropped lower. “Seems to me it’s a no-brainer.”

“Dex.” Regina crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair. “It’s a risk.”