Page 49 of Royal Fling
“No, but I can tell from your face. You look like you just stepped off into an alien world.”
I pursed my lips and lowered my gaze, drawing a coo out of Luke.
“Aww, come on you big puppy. Let’s explore together.”
He dragged me through several arcade games, each with a different challenge. There was something called Super Mario, Asteroids, Galaga, Bubble Bobble. There was also a Pac-Man machine.ThatI’d heard of. And Ms. Pac-Man.
We must have spent an hour playing with plastic guns, shooting at the screen, then riding motion sensitive chairs racing cars and hitting angry mushrooms with buttons before we took a break.
“I can’t believe you haven’t played video games before,” Luke said.
“I wasn’t really allowed TV or video games growing up. My youngest sister, however, is obsessed.”
“What’s her name?”
“Dorothea Parthena, but we call her Ginny.”
Luke raised an eyebrow.
“Parthena is Greek for Virginia, so we shortened it to Ginny because she hates it.”
“Why can’t you call her Dora like normal people?”
“My parents do. But Ginny was also obsessed with Harry Potter, so she liked her nickname.”
Luke nodded and smiled.
We approached the bar, which was empty as I’d requested, and given the lack of staff, I walked behind it and poured us both a pint of beer.
“I can’t wrap my head around what you’ve done tonight,” he said when he’d taken a sip, a frothy moustache having formed on his upper lip.
“I can’t wrap my head around how adorable you are,” I replied, licking the foam of his lips and turning it into a kiss.
Luke pushed me off him and pouted.
“Excuse you. I’m not adorable. I’m formidable,” he said.
“You’re that, too.”
I tried to kiss him again, but he walked away from me.
“Come on. We’ve got lots more games to play,” he said.
I followed after him, unable to take my eyes off his ass.
You’re telling me?
I had to fight with my sense to drag my eyes up again as he guided us to more games. These ones were more physical, scattered around a ring of bumper cars.
Each game we played on that section of the arcade spat out tiny yellow stubs. We hit things with hammers, punched automated bags, shot lasers at targets, collecting a ton of yellow stubs along the way.
I had no idea what they were for, but gladly, Luke did.
“See, the more games you play and the better you are, the more tickets you get. Then you take your tickets to the counter over there”—He pointed at a glass counter in the middle of the floor—“and you can claim your prize based on how many tickets you have.”
“Prize?” I asked.
“Yes. They have teddy bears, board games, and other knick-knacks,” he said.
