Page 48 of Forbidden Game

It was Lee who started our weekly hangouts when she made friends with Deer, another fellow streamer. Known as “TheCozyDeer,” she is one of the most-viewed content creators when it comes cozy video games. She puts out a new video almost every single day. Recently, though, she’s been going viral from edits of her horror streams. For someone who bled the color pink and spent hours cultivating cute towns online, Deer plays some unhinged stuff.

Deer didn’t hang out with The System much, but since meeting Stevie at the club a few months back, she’d begun going out with them a bit more. Truthfully, considering how long I’ve known her, there is still a lot I don’t know. She likes to keep her gaming life pretty well separated from her personal life, unlike Lee, who is a bit too much of an open book.

The two girls are my sanity, honestly. I am surrounded by testosterone twenty-four seven, and up until recently, I couldn’t really be open about my job to anyone else I met. It made making friends a little hard when you couldn’t talk about ninety percent of your day-to-day life, so having girlfriends in the same space as the guys helped.

That being said…

I hadn’t breathed a word about this past weekend to them.

There is no way I ever could.

Oh my God.

I kissed Parker Covington.

I can’t believe I freaking kissed him?

I work for him, for God’s sake. Even though it isn’t the most conventional publicist relationship, it is still a professional one. Mathias would kill me if he found out. Heck, I’d do it for him! Everything about what I did went against everything I know. I am becoming my own PR nightmare, let alone a legal nightmare. A romantic relationship with anyone in The System is a direct violation of my contract.

What is wrong with me?

I crossed the line on so many levels, and I just…I don’t even have an excuse. It’s not like I was drunk, high, or clinically insane at the time. I’d even been lying when I’d told him I was tired that night. My body had been on high alert the second he held that chocolate-covered strawberry out to me. A want swirled deep within my core, and I could do nothing to tamp it down, no matter how hard I tried. Even the cold shower I doused myself in didn’t cool the heat crawling across my skin. He ignited me, and the flames aren’t going away.

Years.

I’d spent years ignoring my attraction to Parker. I’d placed him squarely in that little box in my brain that said, “Do not touch.” I made sure to just treat him like EnglishCoffee, a mask and nothing more.

Maybe that’s where it all went wrong. Ever since the guys came clean about their identities, their gamer personas and real-life ones have been blurring. I don’t see him as just English anymore; he is becoming Parker to me, and that…that is dangerous because Parker is someone I have history with.

History that I tried to erase from the books.

If that one night had never happened, I wouldn’t be stuck where I am right now.

I need to get myself together. I have to put him back in that little box before it is too late. Sure, we’d made out, but that was nothing.

Liar.

It was everything.

I groan into my tea, but the noise is drowned out by the TV.

“When the victim was set to get married, the chapel was blown up in an act of retaliation. Here are pictures from the scene shortly after.”

“I’m not going to lie, it’s sort of creepy that this girl has the same hair as me.” Deer’s pouty lips purse as she runs a manicured hand through her wavy pink hair. I don’t know how the little charms on her nails don’t get all tangled in her hair.

“Better sleep with one eye open, then, babe,” Lee croons, wiggling her fingers creepily in the air.

“Don’t be an eejit.” She rolls her eyes, her slight Irish accent peeking out with the slang. Normally, it only slips out when she’s mad, super drunk, or speaking to her family. “Although, that being said, I am thinking of moving out. The security at my place isn’t great; they’ve had some issues lately.”

“Why don’t you just look at getting a place in our complex?” I suggest, forcing myself to pay attention. “The guys have great security there.”

Stevie snorts. “The rent at your place is stupid high.”

“What? No, it’s not.” I reach forward and pluck a pretzel from the bowl on the coffee table. “It’s barely half my biweekly paycheck.”

Lee’s brows furrow. “That can’t be right.”

“I swear; I only pay twenty-five hundred.” I look around at the three girls, popping the salty pretzel in my mouth. The crunch is loud compared to their silent stares.

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