Page 35 of Blow Me Down
“Really? How about if I…” His free hand slid under my skirt, up my bare thigh.
“No!” I yelled, slapping my hand down on his. “All right, I admit it, you’re doing something to me, but just a little. Stop that! And take your hand out of my bodice. My boob is not bread to be kneaded.”
He chuckled as he withdrew both hands. I pushed my skirt down and rearranged my breasts in my bodice (fluffing them up a bit when he wasn’t looking—this might not be real, but I wasn’t a fool). I couldn’t help but sneak what I hoped was a covert glance at his groin.
“Yes, I’m as aroused as you are,” he said, causing me to blush a little. Damn. I’d have to work on my covert glancing.
“I was just checking to make sure that you’re playing fair.”
“Women are such contrary creatures when it comes to sex. You parade around like scantily clad vixens but blush when you’re caught staring at the erections you cause.”
“I didn’t stare; I glanced! There’s a big difference. Besides, you’re the one who created the clothes here, Mr. Pirate Expert.”
“Actually, Holder did, but your point is taken. Now, if you’re done trying to make me explode out of my breeches”— he ignored my outraged squawk of protest—“let me tell you what I think happened.”
I pinched his leg but told him to go on.
“I told you I had a partner in the company, right?” he asked, absently rubbing his leg.
“Yeah. You said he left.”
“His name was Paul Samuels. He was in charge of the VR unit and did most of the work on programming the glasses. In other words, I provided the data and program that the Internet version had created, and he translated it into VR.”
“And you think he messed up somehow?”
“No,” he said, turning his head so he could look into my eyes. “I think this was deliberate. I think he set up a sort of virtual virus to trap players here.”
“For what purpose?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know that yet. But I do know that, unlike me, Paul must have had the foresight to program in a back door he could use to access the game, because we changed all the security codes after he left us. He couldn’t access it by normal means, which means he must have another way in.”
“If he has a way in, can we use it to get out?”
“I don’t know. I doubt it, though,” he said.
Frustration mingled with panic deep within me, leaving me with a sick feeling in my stomach. “So, what are we going to do?”
His eyes, normally so warm, suddenly went chilly. “We’re going to find Paul.”
“Find him?” My jaw dropped a little before I realized what it was doing. “You think he’s in the game? Right now? Who is he? Where is he?”
“I’m positive he’s here, although I don’t know who his character is, or where he’s hiding,” Corbin said, his voice as grim as his eyes.
“And after we find him? What then? How do we make him stop the virus or whatever it is that’s keeping us here?”
He slid off the bed, strapping the rapier to his hips. “The only way to stop a virus is to kill it.”
“So?” I asked, jumping to my feet to grab my own foil. Even though I knew this was all a virtual world, it made me feel much better to have the cold steel next to me.
He paused in the doorway of the cabin, throwing me a dark look. “We kill Paul, we kill the virus. It’s as simple as that.”
Simple, my butt!
Chapter 9
I do not think I ought to listen to you.
Yet, mercy should alloy our stern resentment…
