Page 13 of Game Over

“How would you feel about meeting Charlie?” they asked suddenly, making me adjust to get a better look at his face.

“You mean our healer? That Charlie?”

Jesse nodded. “Yeah, that Charlie. I know he’s played with us a bit, but he’s one of the most important people in my life, and since you are as well, I’d like if you guys met more officially.”

Nerves danced in my stomach uncomfortably, for more reasons than one. The main being nerves around meeting someone so important to Jesse, but also, every time they say that name it brings me back to Mr. Heat Hotel. Though Charlie was a super common name, I hadn’t heard it much before, and it now felt like I was surrounded by it. “I… that could be fun. I thought he lived up in Seattle?”

“He’s just moved back, or he’s about to at least. Is that too much?”

My eyes widened, realizing my apprehension was probably making Jesse nervous. “No, not at all! It’s just that… um…meeting someone that important to you makes me a bit nervous. What if he hates me?”

He laughed, shaking his head. “I don’t think Charlie could hate anyone even if he tried.”

I bumped him playfully with my shoulder. “You know what I mean.”

“Least of allyou,” Jesse stressed, his lips finding my temple for a tender kiss. “I promise he’ll love you. And I’d never force you, but I do want you to meet each other. If you’re ready. I’m ready.”

There were two very distinct, warring schools of thought bouncing around my mind like a ping-pong ball.

I really,reallywanted to meet Charlie. And I was so, so excited that Jesse wanted to make our relationship more serious and take this next step.

And I was totally going to fuck all of this up just to try and move in together faster.

“I want to meet him too,” I said with a nervous smile, deciding that either way… I wanted to be honest. “If he’s important to you he’s important to me.”

Jesse let out a relieved sigh. “I’ll talk to him and get a plan going. You think next week is too close to your heat?”

“Nah, I’ll just take my suppressants. I should be fine unless he’s like the sexiest alpha I’ve ever seen in my life.”

“Ooooh like Mr. Heat Hotel?”

I snorted, rolling my eyes. “As if, I feel like I would’ve recognized his voice by now.”

“Maybe,” Jesse chuckled with a waggle of his eyebrows. “Unless the heat had you so fucked up you can’t tell what’s what.”

“I take it back, you are the worst boyfriend ever. How dare you make me think about Mr. Heat Hotel this close to having to go back?”

Mr. Heat Hotel was an alpha I’d met before I’d been dating Jesse during my very first time at a center. He was giant, incredibly sweet, and fucked my virginity clean out of me with such softness that I’d spent more than my fair share of streams pretending the alpha I was begging to fuck me was him.

But… I’d never seen him again.

Jesse groped my ass playfully. “As if Charlie had the balls to fuck a girl as pretty as you.”

“Uglies only then?” I teased, making the beta roll his eyes. “So…” I started slowly, dragging the word out as if by taking longer to say the syllable I could stop myself from uttering my next sentence. “I also wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Anything,” he said easily, running a wet hand through his bouncy curls. They were this interesting mix of dusty blond that got much darker when wet.

“How would you feel about coming onto my stream?” I asked, feeling the apprehension start to creep up the back of my neck.

Jesse’s brows furrowed in confusion. “I’ve been on your stream a lot, sweetie pie. For something specific? Thinking about a sub-a-thon?”

I shook my head, realizing my mistake. “No… not that stream. The Afterdark one.”

Jesse froze, didn’t move, didn’t so much as breathe for a solid minute.

“Why the sudden interest?” he asked. “We’ve never, uh… talked about it before?”

“In truth, one of my viewers asked,” I hedged. “You know… Glitch. I’ve told you about him before, he’s the one who pays my rent after just a couple of streams every month?”

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