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Chapter One
The one thing thatmade crunch time tolerable was my boss. It wasn’t his fault we were working eighty-hour weeks to wrap up our company’s most anticipated game ever; he took his directions from the people above him, like the rest of us.
Besides, even at eleven at night, when had both been staring at the same code problem for the last three hours and were punchy from lack of sleep, he was gorgeous. Dark hair that was cut close, piercing dark eyes, and tonight, a tantalizing hint of stubble.
Luke clucked. “Anne, Anne, Anne... Why the fuck isn’t this working, Anne?”
“Gremlins?” I loved the way my name rolled off his tongue. And I was too tired to pretend I didn’t want other bits of me on his tongue as well. I also didn’t have any better answer to his question than any other time he’d asked it tonight.
We were in his office. As a director, he got one of the mid-range offices, with room for a small table in the corner and a great view of the mountains. I was sit-leaning against the edge of his polished-wood desk, watching him work. God, I loved the view. It almost made up for the fact that we were working on a Sunday.
Luke had returned to the flow chart we started an hour ago, and was drawing another series of lines. He jabbed the marker into the board several times, leaving a series of ink freckles. “The hobbits had a more direct, easy route walking to Mordor. Who wrote this shit?”
It didn’t matter that his question wasn’t funny. I still had to cut off my laugh before it became one of those drawn-out, sleep-deprived giggles. “We did.”
I’d had more coffee in the last week than I used to drink in a year. Anything with high amounts of caffeine had been added to my Best Friends list since this project went sideways, shit itself, and landed face down, ass up in a ditch at the bottom of a deep ravine. Laughing was one of the only ways to stay sane in the midst of it all.
He sighed and dropped the marker. It clattered against the tray and bounced to the ground. “In hindsight, we should have just chartered a helicopter and flown into the mountain. The direct path is always the best.”
And it was rarely the path a group of developers took. Partly because we all had different definitions of direct. “I’m at the point where I’d sell my soul to Sauron to fix this issue. I wouldn’t hesitate.”
“You’d make a horrible ring wraith. The hood and eternal damnation would obscure those gorgeous eyes.” He turned back to the board and bent at the waist to pick up the marker, the muscles along his back and arms rippling under his T-shirt. He was a Marine-turned-developer and still had the physique.
“And you’d make a lousy hobbit.” I smirked to hide my uncertainty. When he did things like compliment me in a way that sounded suspiciously like flirting, and then kept going as if nothing happened, it was almost impossible to take my eyes off him.
Too bad I was so lousy at seeing the signs of someone’s intent. Misread it one too many times in an ex.
“Are you kidding? I’d make the best fucking hobbit. First of all, look at the size of these feet. Legit thirteens right here.” He raised his foot.
I bit back my you know what they say about guys with big feet comment. That visual was for me alone. “And you’d forgo adventure, to stay home in the Shire and live a peaceful life?”
“I wouldn’t forgo it, but I would make sure we were back in time for afternoon tea.” He cupped his hand to the side of his head, like he was covering an earpiece. “Alpha Echo Sierra, this is Foxtrot One Half. We’re ten clicks out from Mount Doom. Over.”
My giggles threatened to return. I loved Luke’s impersonations. I couldn’t do the voices like he could, but that rarely stopped me from participating. “This is Sierra One Half, on your three. We’ve got orcs inbound. Spinning up the guns. Over.”
“I’m going in. Give me cover.” He mimed holding onto something, then made a tossing gesture. “Ring is in the fire. I repeat, ring is in the fire. Tea’s getting cold. Let’s head out, boys.” He straightened again. “See how much easier that would have been?”
I laughed. “Tolkien fans everywhere would have your hide.”
“They’d need to get in line, behind the X fans we’re about to piss off with this plot twist.” Luke winked.
And here were the giggles. I couldn’t stop them this time. It was like being drunk without alcohol. The harder I tried to rein them in, the more my body shook.
“It’s not that funny.” But Luke was laughing too.
Several minutes—and my aching sides and cheeks—later, we calmed down enough to stand upright again.
“Back to basics. The game is breaking on the call to the relationship AI.” He spoke through gasps for breath, the occasional chuckle slipping through.
I composed myself and replied. “Are we passing too many variables? Not enough?” We’d asked the question before, in about fifty different ways. It wasn’t the right direction to look in, but I was stuck on that point and couldn’t move past it.
I could pretend there was no sexual tension between us better than he did. Even if he weren’t my boss, I’d probably get stuck in the indecision of whether or not to say something to him.
My best friend, Sadie, would have made up her mind months ago and stuck to it. Either to pursue him or to ignore him. She was my exact opposite when it came to being outgoing and decisive. She’d landed her dream job because of it, along with two gorgeous boyfriends.
Yup. Two. And I couldn’t even hold onto one for more than a couple of dates, because I was busy drooling over men I couldn’t have and didn’t dare approach.
“This is why you don’t let programmers write romance,” Luke said. “They think falling in love should be as simple as ticking the right 1s and 0s.”
