Page 48 of The Proximity Factor

“Yeah, baby.” I leaned into him.

He smiled and kissed my head. We still hadn’t kissed, and it was driving me freaking crazy. The man had an iron will. It made me more determined to sell the heck out of his game in the next two days. Maybe then he would feel worthy to lay one on me. If not, I was going to finally end our misery and do what needed to be done.

“How are you feeling?” I asked, admiring him in his Ruptured Worlds T-shirt. There was just something about a man in a black tee.

“Okay.” His eyes darted around.

I had a feeling he was looking out for his ex-wife and her new husband. We still hadn’t talked about them. But maybe now was a good time to at least broach the subject. “You know I can take her, right?” I teased, but not really. I was ready to go toe to toe with her if I had to, in the most southern way possible. It would be a battle of the belles. That sounded like a good reality TV show.

“Take who?” Parker seemed confused.

“You know who I’m talking about. Don’t let her ruin this for you. You deserve to be here.”

Parker paused and gazed into my eyes. “Thank you, Lanie. I’m sure you’ve gotten an earful about my ex from my sister and friends.”

“Oh, and I looked her up.” I wagged my brows.

He shook his head at me. “Why am I not surprised?”

“It would disappoint me if that surprised you. By the way, darlin’, you’re way better looking than Stephen. The girl didn’t know what she had. But I do.”

His brow raised. “Is that so?” he said sexily.

I lifted up on my tiptoes and kissed his cheek, aching for it to be his lips. “Yes. Now let’s go kick their butts.”

Parker chuckled and pulled me along. “If I haven’t mentioned it, thank you for being here. For everything.”

“It’s my pleasure.” And it truly had been. The last several days had been some of the best, most rewarding of my life. I could totally get into the business thing.

On the way to our booth, we walked past Richy the Kid’s booth in the center of the expo. He was the hottest gaming YouTuber around. If he loved your game, it would almost certainly be a success. My aim was to get Richy to play Ruptured Worlds and create content surrounding it. It was a tall order, considering it was the objective of every gaming company here. But I wouldn’t let that stop me. For the last several days, I’d watched the guy’s videos on YouTube and read everything I could about him. Richy and I had one thing in common—Taylor Swift. His girlfriend was a huge Swiftie, which meant he was probably a closet Swiftie. Richy had posted several videos of them attending Taylor’s concerts all over the world. It’s all I needed to open the door. Assuming I could get to the door.

I pointed at the elaborate booth set up like a theater, with the largest TV screen I had ever seen and several chairs for people to watch Richy the Kid play. Those seats had cost big bucks. It was so weird to me that the guy had made millions of dollars for playing video games. But who was I to judge? Lots of people thought my job was just being a glorified cheerleader.

“He’s going to play your game and love it,” I said confidently, even though I was only, like, 5 percent sure of it. But a girl could hope. Especially if it meant she was going to finally get the kiss she’d been agonizing over. Sexual tension was a real thing, and I was about as tense as I could get.

“Lanie,” Parker said adoringly, but with a hint of you’re crazy if you believe that. “The odds are against it. Even when I had a successful company behind my name, the guy wouldn’t respond to our emails.”

“But you didn’t have me.” I grinned.

He squeezed my hand tighter. “If anyone could get him to play my game, it’s you. But even as magical as you are, it would take a miracle.”

“You think I’m magical?” I played coy.

He drew me closer. “You’ve certainly bewitched me.”

“Bewitched, huh? That’s pretty serious business. Does that mean you still think I’m devious?”

“Without a doubt.” He smiled. “But in the best sort of way.”

“I can live with that.”

He chuckled.

I tugged him along. “Let’s do this thing.”

It didn’t take us long to find our booth. We were lucky enough to get one on a main aisle that I hoped garnered a lot of traffic. Whoever had dropped out had given up a primo location. It cost a pretty penny, but it was a price that needed to be paid.

The expo vendor was delivering our equipment when we arrived. It included screens, tables, chairs, and mounting equipment. Per union rules, they had to assemble everything for us. That was fine, but we wanted to monitor the process to make sure it was to our specifications.

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