Page 84 of Game Over

His smile fell a slight bit at my harsh tone, but not terribly. “Lets do it.”

We started playing. Charlie was right, after a round or two it started to make sense. Not long after our drinks and fries were dropped off. They were crinkle fries, the perfect shape to hold all of the toppings. I pulled one of the fries up, the cheese stretching high before falling back down. I moaned as I shoved it in my mouth, it was really good. And cheese fries were some of my favorites.

Feeling someone staring I looked over at Charlie whose gaze was locked to me, his mouth hanging open slightly. My face heated. Why was he looking at me like that?

I swallowed. “So, do you want to pull a tool card, or try to get a new worker?”

He faced the board, thinking about my question. The intensity that was between us then lessened, and I felt like I could breathe again. “A tool is probably the safest since we don’t know the stats of the worker we’ll get.”

My focus now came back to the game. “That’s true, but if we pull one of the large diggers, we won’t have enough workers to operate it and it will be a lost turn.”

He considered my words. This was something that had always drawn me to Charlie. Most people didn’t take me seriously, and I understood why. I was the class clown in high school then I dropped out of college and grew up to be a streamer. A lot of people joke that I get to play video games all day for a living. And though I enjoyed those titles most of the time—it felt like it was something that made me successful at my job—it could be annoying in situations like this where I wanted to be listened to.

But I never had to worry about that with Charlie. He’d always weighed my words like they were as important as his own, even with something as mundane as a game. It always made me feel valued and important in his eyes, which was in part why this was all so frustrating.

I jumped when Charlie’s finger touched between my brows, smoothing across and up my forehead, leaving a trail of warmth in it’s wake. “What’re you thinking about?” he asked, head resting against his free hand, propped up by his elbow on the table.

“Us.” I didn’t mean to be so blunt about it, but I didn’t want to lie either.

His expression didn’t change. “What about us?”

I leaned back in my chair, facing forward, towards the mostly empty cafe area. “Everything.”

“I’m going to need more than that, Jesse. What’s bothering you?”

“That’s what I’m saying, everything about this is bothering me. My girlfriend mated you! I’ve never even seen youdateor really even have interest in someone, but suddenly Tara comes along and you’re all but obsessed with her. And what about me? Where does that leave me with either of you?”

I was breathing heavily now, and probably talking a bit too loud for being in public, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t stop myself from just letting it all out.

If the dumb alpha had an issue with it, we could go back to the car.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Charlie said, hand hovering before finding a home cupping my cheek. “Tara is obsessed with you and I…” he trailed off. His eyes shining with unspoken emotion as he looked away with a sigh.

“You what?” I asked, almost too hopefully, my voice hardly above a whisper.

Charlie seemed to consider the question for a moment before he leaned in close, the movement sudden and unexpected. When I didn’t move his eyes bounced around my face, as if he was trying to map the entire thing—or maybe save it to memory.

“This.” His lips crashed into mine, lacking the finesse that I’d gotten used to with kissing Tara. Or even during her heat before she’d bitten him… no softness. Just pure, unfiltered need.

Was this real?

It felt real, but also like a dream. One I didn’t realize I’d been waiting for until the moment it arrived.

He took control of the kiss quickly, deepening it, letting himself become softer as he pressed in closer to me. Being in two different chairs quickly became inconvenient, I wished I could just swing my leg over and sit myself in his lap.

Charlie pulled away far before I was ready, but we were in public, and I’d already need a minute before I could stand. My cock reacted to Charlie even faster than my mind, swelling until it pressed against the zipper of my jeans. If I got up from this table it’d be very obvious exactly how I felt about that kiss.

The kinds of thoughts I was having.

“God, I’ve wanted that for so long,” Charlie murmured absently, his warm breath skating across my cheek. It was as if he was thinking it and hadn’t really meant to mumble the words aloud, a private thought given space between us that I couldn’t help but want to explore.

“You have?” I asked.

He nodded, so close that his hair brushed my forehead with the movement. “Since middle school, at least.”

I pulled back to look at him, mouth hanging open with incredulous surprise. “Middle school?”

I might’ve assumed he was joking, but his face was so genuine—steady—that I had no choice but to take it as fact.

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