Strictly Business: Hooded Pleasures, Book 1 (13 page)

Even when he didn’t know it.

The latest example stared at her via the computer monitor, his shocked expression morphing into a wide grin as she held up the finished product, the elf diving into battle.

“I can’t believe you did it. My God—” Sam shook his head, sitting at his desk three time zones away. “You captured him perfectly.” He squinted, studying the image again. “Damn, you even caught the nick on the battle-ax from that damned stone golem.”

Kate laughed. “You told me it was one of your best battles. Couldn’t not put it in.”

“It’s magnificent.” He couldn’t stop grinning, his smile contagious. “Let me see it again?”

Kate smiled as she held up the finished picture to the camera mounted atop her computer. “I’ll matte it, get it into a frame and have it to you next week by courier, as we agreed upon. The scan will be in your email in a few hours for you to use as wallpaper or whatever—I didn’t want to send it until I got your approval.”

“Which you have. Tons and tons and tons of approval.” He let out another whistle as he turned his attention to the keyboard in front of him. “I’ll send your payment immediately.” Sam looked up at the camera with unabashed glee. “I can’t thank you enough. I’ve been searching for something like this for years. I never had the skill to do it properly, and when he reached epic level, I had to do something to commemorate the occasion.” He licked his lips before continuing. “Do you mind if I give your name to some of the other guys and girls in my gaming group? Some of them—”

“No problem at all.” Kate put the picture down. “I’d be glad to discuss more commissions with them. As long as they supply all the details and don’t mind waiting in line.” She waved a finger at him. “Good work takes time. I won’t deliver shoddy work, and I won’t be rushed.”

“I’ll tell them. And I agree.” Sam beamed. “Thanks again. I really, really appreciate this. I’ll let you know when the courier arrives.”

“No problem. Enjoy.” Kate smiled as the email came though confirming his payment. “Everything’s cool. Now go find a spot on your wall for this.”

Sam laughed. “Roger that. Have a good day.” He cut the connection, and the screen went blank.

Kate sat back, savoring the good feelings. There was a sense of satisfaction when you started a project and ran it right to the end, making it the best you could.

Like her work with Hooded Pleasures.

Alex.

She flashed back to their imagined coupling, the intense memory sending a shudder through her.

Alex.

Kate rubbed her face with both hands, trying to figure out what was going on with him. Her other clients were good men, strong men who did their best for her, and she cared for them all, but Alex had worked his way to the front of the line.

He’d swept the rest of them out of the way like a tornado in a trailer park.

Kate stared at the blank screen.

She wasn’t looking for a relationship.

She enjoyed her time with her clients, the emotional rush of being needed, of dominating them.

Walking away at the end with no commitment. No broken promises, no fighting or bad sex.

No sex at all.

When the need overcame her, she had options.

Her hand did the job. Or the vibrators in the bedside table.

At least they wouldn’t walk out on her for another woman.

She couldn’t help glancing at the calendar hanging on the wall.

Four more days until Alex’s turn again.

Her stomach flip-flopped, and she wasn’t sure how she felt about that.

Sunday had become the most important day of the week in Alex’s world.

He glanced at the grandfather clock in the hallway as he waited by the front door, kneeling naked with his hands behind his back. He couldn’t help clenching and unclenching his toes, scraping them across the hardwood floor.

His collar sat on the coffee table, waiting for him.

Any second now…

The door opened.

“And what are you smiling about? That’ll earn you ten strokes right there, smirking like the Cheshire Cat.”

He couldn’t stop grinning even as she grabbed him by the ear and pulled him to his feet. A few steps, and they were in the living room.

“Fifth position.”

Alex knelt on the carpet, hands behind his back. He lifted his head as Kate snatched up the collar and advanced on him.

He inhaled deeply as the lock clicked shut, the leather pressing against his neck.

Yes.

“Today, we’re going to play a game. But first we have to put all the pieces in place.” The low sultry voice sent shudders through him, and he exhaled slowly, trying to keep control.

She moved out of his vision, and he heard her rooting through her duffle bag.

“On your list you included—”

An object appeared in front of him, attached to a long slinky chain.

“Nipple clamps.”

The air rushed out of his lungs in a gasp. He’d read about them, fantasized about them, but now—

Kate knelt in front of him. “Look at me.”

Those blue eyes. Those lovely, lovely—

Alex arched back, closing his eyes and clenching his teeth as the small clamp latched on to his right nipple.

“Look at me, Alex.” The warning tone said that she wouldn’t ask twice.

He pushed himself back up, panting as he locked eyes with her again.

“Red yellow green,” Kate murmured. “Tell me.”

Alex waded through the fog clogging his mind to measure his comfort level. The colors allowed him to express himself without having to use his safe-word.

“Green.”

He focused in on what she was wearing, using the desire to push away the pain. Today she wore a luscious dark green corset with a garter belt and black fishnet stockings.

“Good,” Kate murmured. “Hold on.”

Alex gritted his teeth as she fastened the second clamp to his other nipple. The cool chain rubbed against his skin.

“Color?”

“Yellow,” Alex gasped as the sharp twinges of pain died down to a low throbbing, racing down from his nipples to his cock and balls.

Kate gave the chain a gentle tug, and he arched back, gasping.

“Color?”

He wasn’t going to buckle now, not on his first try. He was going to—

A shrill noise shot through the room, a low siren blasting out from Alex’s computer speakers.

He froze in place, the shriek pulling him away from the waves of pleasure and pain.

No.

Not now.

Alex rolled away from Kate, cursing as he fumbled at the clamps. They came away easily when he squeezed the pincers open, but the pain of removing them slammed into him, almost as bad now as when she’d put them on.

Damn it.

Alex swore as it subsided, drowned in the emotional rush swamping his senses.

The clamps fell to the floor as he scrambled to his feet, the blaring rubbing on all his exposed nerves.

“Kill switch. Kill switch.” He rushed by Kate and sat down at the computer.

Son of a bitch—

He jabbed at the keyboard, painfully aware of her confused stare. “I’m sorry. I turned my phone off like I always do, set everything to mute or to go to voice mail or whatever. I remember that from the rules telling me to shut everything off because our time together is valuable and not to be interrupted unless it’s an emergency. Which this is.”

He knew he was babbling, trembling with the sudden overload on his senses.

“I have the computer set up to set off the alarm if my customers call a specific phone number. They’re only supposed to use this number if something has gone into nuclear meltdown.” Alex bashed a key to silence the alarm.

He reached for his cell and turned it on.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kate retrieve the nipple clamps and place them back in her bag.

Alex opened the connection. “What is it?” He couldn’t keep the anger out of his voice.

“Alex? Man, you gotta help us.” The whine grated on his ears. “We got a crisis on our hands. I know you said not to call unless it was an emergency, but—”

“What’s going on?” Kate moved up beside him, but he couldn’t deal with her now, couldn’t deal with what she represented.

His two worlds had smashed into each other with a massive explosion.

“That problem you talked about? We got it, and we got it going on big-time. Raiders, hundreds of them hitting that chest nonstop and then running over to the nearest town and selling their loot. It’s busting the economy and dumping high-powered weapons on the market.”

“Hold on.” A hand landed on Alex’s shoulder, the familiar touch both soothing and inflaming his senses. “Is this
Warrior World Six
?”

“Maybe.” The cautious response came out of the speaker. “Who is this?”

“A friend of mine.” Alex tapped on the keys to pull the program up. “I told you it was going to be a problem.”

“That’s an understatement.” Kate snorted. “You released the expansion yesterday, and the bug was up on the game forums by last night. I’m surprised it’s taken this long for you to find out it’s being abused.”

“What the—” Alex recognized Jacob’s angry snarl. “We test our products thoroughly before launch.”

“Except this one got through, and now you’re going to pay for it. I warned you that it’d be found and exploited,” Alex intervened. “You thought it was only going to be a few players snatching gold and weapons. You never suspected it’d screw up the game balance so badly. I told you—” He sighed. “I’ll get a patch ready to go as soon as I can. I suggest you shut down the servers until then.”

“We can’t just close the game down. The paying customers—”

“The paying customers are going to be pissed off if they’re getting massacred by free players with way more weapons and gold than they should have. Do it, and I’ll call when I’m ready to upload the patch. Blame it on the power company or something. Just turn the damned game off.” Alex’s voice rose on the last sentence.

“We’ll have to get permission.” The whiny response grated on his ears. “It might take some time. This is a big deal; we can’t just pull the plug.”

“Do what you need to do. And don’t call me and ask when it’s ready. I’ll call you when it’s ready to upload.”

He jabbed at a key, and the speakers went silent.

“You knew about that flaw?” Kate asked.

He swiveled in the chair to face her. “I warned them it’d be exploited as soon as someone found that sequence. The error is in the timing. A player moves to one side of the screen, and he’s out of the reset zone for the chest, barely. He comes straight back, and the chest has reset, allowing him to open it again. Rinse and repeat, he’s got an unlimited supply of weapons and gold to buy more weapons. It’s got to be fixed so there’s a time factor involved, that it won’t let the same player return and—” He frowned. “You play
WW6
?”

“Damned straight.” She swept a pile of books off a nearby office chair and pulled it up next to his. “One player on the Grave Diggers board noted it but said it was a flaw no one should exploit since it’d turn off the noobs. We agreed, but there’s always idiots out there looking to run wild.” She snorted. “Someone did send an email to the devs, but obviously no one paid attention.”

Alex got up and went to the pile of clothing. He tugged on his pants. “I warned them. It was easy for me to see it, but they didn’t want it repaired because it was original code from one of their in-house employees. Idiots. Fools.” He looked at her. “It’ll take me a few hours to work the patch out. I’m sorry.”

He didn’t have to pretend to be upset. His nipples ached from the clamps, and he was still shaky, his mind trying to process the clash between his two realities.

“It’s okay. This isn’t your fault. And it’s something you need to do right away.” Kate caught his eye. “You were right to word out.”

Alex rubbed his chin, unsure how to respond.

Kate pointed at the monitor. “It’ll take them a bit of time to contact all the important people and get final permission to turn the servers off. Let me sign in, and we’ll see how bad the carnage is. Give you some idea of what’s going on and if there’s more for you to worry about than just the chest.”

“Okay.” Alex sat next to her and reached for his laptop. “I can start working on this. Got all my useful tools on here already.” He shook his head. “I’ve been telling them this was going to be a dammed disaster for weeks.”

“Some people just don’t listen,” Kate said as her fingers flew across the keyboard, logging in to the online game.

He watched her virtual image form on the screen.

Damn. Warrior ogre, level 99.

Alex couldn’t help grinning as the tall gray hulk loped off the entrance platform. It only took her a few minutes to transport over to where the expansion started and a few seconds to see where the trouble was.

The carnage was, to say the least, mind-blowing. Kate’s character wandered in among the heaps of bodies, player avatars that hadn’t been cleared away yet by the program’s automatic system because there were just too many to deal with.

“Shit.” She swore under her breath. “The Bloody Punks are in here. An online guild, they’re notorious for staking out land claims. They must be calling their buddies in here to get as much as they can before you seal up the hole. Blowing away anyone who comes too close to infringe on their booty grab.” Kate rubbed her arms, and Alex saw goose bumps appear on the soft white skin.

He got up from his chair and strode over to his folded clothing to pick up his white T-shirt. A few steps put him at her side.

Alex touched her forearm. “Here.”

She looked at the offered clothing for a second before tugging it on over her corset. “Thanks.” One finely manicured fingernail tapped on the monitor. “I’ve dealt with these assholes before.”

Alex found himself smiling as he sat and began working on the computer code needed to plug the glitch. “Don’t get yourself killed.”

“I don’t plan to.” She gave him a sly wink, and his heart skipped a beat. “But I’m going to call the rest of my friends here to try and keep the damage down to a minimum until you get that patch ready.” Kate opened up a chat window and typed furiously. “We can at least try to hold these guys at bay, keep them from taking too much and unbalancing the game. Most of my buddies are high enough levels that it’ll be hard for these poachers to kill them off.” She chuckled. “The Punks have had this coming for a long time anyway, and my friends love a good fight.”