I cut myself off at her shaking head. “I sent Hopkins my polite rejection.”
I pulled away from her and sat back on my legs. “What?”
“I’m not going to Maryland.”
“But—”
“I’m staying here. I’m going to go to UC Irvine.”
My mouth hung open. She gave me a look of concern.
“Adam, are you okay? I’m kind of worried.”
I shook my head. “I don’t understand. UCI wasn’t even on your top five list.”
She sat down in the sand next to me. “You’re right. It wasn’t. Until I started going there every week for my chemo. Until I met the staff and some of the teaching doctors and was so impressed by how they interacted with their patients. How they concentrated on our comfort, our emotional health and on putting us at ease. To be honest, I’m not even sure about specializing in oncology anymore. I don’t know if I still have the guts for it. But if I do, I want to be taught by those doctors.”
I looked at her, still not quite able to wrap my mind around it. “Are you sure?”
She smiled and nodded. “I’ve given it a lot of thought. I had a lot of time up there in the desert to think.”
I shook my head. “You are absolutely sure? Because I don’t want you to regret it.”
She looked up into the sky, fingering the compass around her neck. “So here’s the deal…This last year has been, um, challenging and I tried to do a stupid thing and power through it by myself because that’s what I’d always done my entire life. For me, it was easier to do that than to get my heart broken by relying on other people who wouldn’t come through. It was an idiotic way of thinking. You and I had started something special but I was very much still in that old mindset.”
She looked down from the sky and found my gaze. I leaned back on my arms, watching her. “So I’ve learned that very hard lesson. At any moment, your life can change for the worse or for the better. And when that happens, you need your allies. My people are here. Mom, my friends…and you. Even if I moved there with you, I wouldn’t have everyone else. And I need everyone.” She leaned forward and laid her cold hand on my cheek. “Some more than others, of course. But I need Alex and Jenna and Kat and William and Britt. Mom and Peter and Connor. And of course Heath.”
“Hmmm.” I shook my head. “I was afraid you were going to mention the big ugly guy.”
She laughed and then leaned forward, looping her hands around my neck. “I need all of you. And I don’t want to leave for that long. Being sick…having been through all that happened to us. It taught me a lot. It taught me what is really important. So it’s better that that slot at JHU goes to someone who really, really wants it. As for me, I still want to be a doctor and I think I’m going to be learning from some brilliant doctors at Irvine.”
I reached out and pulled her into my lap. She came willingly and clasped my neck, pressing her head onto my shoulder. “Adam…”
“Yes?”
“I just…I want to say that even though I have no idea what’s in store for us in the future…or if we are even finished with going through these rough bits in life. I just want to say that whatever happens, the good or the bad, I’m so incredibly lucky to be sharing those days and nights with you.”
I closed my eyes, turned and kissed her face. Her lips found mine and we shared a passionate kiss—one with enough fire in it to stoke the flames for more. I ordered my libido to calm the hell down because I wasn’t going to wear her out tonight. She was still recovering, probably still weak, and we had to go easy for her…
Before I knew it, though, she had pulled me down in the sand on top of her, reaching under my shirt to touch my chest. “So about that old bucket list…” she said.
“Sex in public?” I said in a faux-shocked voice.
“The beach is public. And look—I brought some of my own.” She pulled out a condom—the wrapping of a brand I didn’t recognize. I squinted at it in the dim light.
“You can’t read it but trust me, I conducted some research into the product testing these things have to go through and this brand has by far the best record for breakage.”
I laughed. Then I stood up and when she tried to pull me down again, I swung her into my arms. “Come on—I’m going to make sweet, slow love to my fiancée in the privacy of my own cottage, thank you very much. Where there’s no danger of sand getting involved.”
And she laughed all the way back to the front door. But when I put her down, sliding her slowly down over my hard body, she wasn’t laughing anymore.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Jordan
Six Weeks Later
It wasn’t easy getting my ass out of bed the first day back to work after Comic-Con and goddamn—what a week it had been…parties, women, oh yeah, and the panels. I think I managed to squeeze in some serious business in the cracks between all the fun. It’s good to be young, single and rich.
But even I had to go to work, and after a week of living as if I didn’t have a care in the world, my first day back at Draco had me dragging ass. Good thing I spent most of it alone in my office sipping my favorite hangover remedy and pushing paperwork around—even if virtually on my laptop. I really didn’t have much to complain about, in all honesty. I had a kickass job at a growing company that had made me a crapton of money at a young age. I may not actually have been a rock star but I was glad to live like one. The parties, the women, the dream beach house. And the open, spacious corner office that had its own view of the indoor atrium. I had a nice office. I wasn’t going to complain about that, even on a day when I was feeling like death warmed over, laying my head on the desk for much of the morning and wondering if I could wander out a little early for the day to catch up on my sleep.
Just before lunch, I was finally feeling the first hunger pangs when our jackass publicity manager, Weston, poked his head into my office—without knocking, of course.
“Fawkes—Need you in Adam’s office, asap.” He said it like a word instead of pronouncing all the letters, like that made him cool. He was a pencil neck and his habit of only calling me by my last name irritated the fuck out of me. He seemed to know it, too.
“Okay, Preston,” I said, hiding the smirk as I deliberately messed up his name. He rolled his eyes and spun from the doorway, leaving it ajar as he headed to the CEO’s office.
A few minutes later—long enough to make it known that I didn’t jump and follow his orders whenever he snapped his damn fingers—I sauntered over to Adam’s office, where our illustrious CEO was pacing in front of the wall of windows behind his desk, his hands shoved into his pants pockets.
He’d been on edge for the last few months. While he’d been tending to a sick girlfriend, he’d also been working on the secret project with me—a project which stood to make us all a lot more money and push him up into billionaire range if everything went down as we planned it.
And of course, he’d just gotten engaged. If nothing else could stress a man out, I’m sure the thought of marriage would. Poor fool.
I stifled a yawn and sank into the chair facing Adam’s desk. I was now hungry as hell. Checking my watch—12:30—I tried not to think about the lunch that was arriving any minute now, via my luscious new intern assistant.
“So what’s so important it couldn’t wait until after lunch?” I asked as Adam settled in the chair next to me.
Weston flipped open his laptop that was sitting on the desk facing us. “A negative PR situation—and before you open it and start going on about how this doesn’t concern you—it does.” He held out a hand to stave off my protest. I closed my mouth and shrugged. “It concerns all of us, because of the plan to take the company public.”
I sat up at that. He had my full attention now. Anything that threatened my pet project needed to be stamped out immediately. I scratched my chin. “Okay, so what is it, then?”
Weston leaned forward to toggle the video player on. “It’s from Comic-Con. The video has gone viral over the weeken
d.”
A video? Dude had his panties in a twist about a damn video? What the hell? I had a corporation to run. What could possibly be in a video to threaten our bid to go public? Weston was clearly smoking something—probably the good stuff. I eyed him for a minute until the video started streaming. Then, I was distracted by the distinctive sounds of hot sex.
My eyes jerked to the laptop screen. A girl, her back to the camera and wearing no pants. A strange tramp-stamp tattoo with a skull and crossbones was clearly visible at the small of her back. She straddled a guy sitting on a chair. His hands gripped her hips so tightly that her skin under his fingers was white. She gyrated on top of him and both of them were moaning and breathing hard.
I shifted in my seat, loosening my tie. It was more than just an ordinary sex tape, though, because both participants were in full cosplay from head to toe (except, of course, for the girl’s tight little bare ass). They were unrecognizable in masks but their cosplay was clearly intended to depict characters from Dragon Epoch. The captured princess Alloreah’ala and Falco, a famous bounty hunter that the elf king had hired to go and find her (to no avail). The princess even had sparkly purple shackles hanging from her wrists and ankles. Christ Almighty.
I was distracted by a hiss of breath at my right shoulder. Adam leaned forward, his face flushed. That vein that stuck out on his forehead when he was pissed was currently dancing the lambada between his dark eyebrows.
With a jerky motion, he pounded on the pause button. “That shit is viral?” he choked out.
Weston nodded, casting a cautious glance at the boss. “It’s all over the place—Facebook, Reddit, Youtube, Porn sites—you name it.”
Adam jerked out of his seat, raking a hand through his hair. I crossed my legs and then uncrossed them, unable to get comfortable. I settled for lacing my hands together and staring at them fixedly. “C’mon, man,” I finally said after clearing my throat. “It’s not a big deal. It’s a couple of idiots goofing around… Probably drunk off their asses.”
“Employees,” Adam muttered, flushing even darker red. “My employees fucking on camera, dressed up as characters from what is supposed to be a fucking family game!”
Oh. Shit. I needed to calm him the fuck down.
I held out my hand. “You don’t know for sure that—”
But Adam cut me off, jerking a long finger at the frozen screen, indicating something in the foreground—what looked like a Draco employee badge, the kind we all wore. I had one clipped to the pocket of my dress shirt.
Fucking hell.
“The name is obscured,” Weston said, leaning in next to Adam to get a better look at what was unmistakably the logo of Draco Multimedia. “What’s that thing blocking it out?”
“The chick’s lace thong,” I said drily.
Adam’s hand closed into a fist that landed on the desk next to the laptop with a loud thump. “Goddamn it!” he hissed. “I leave fucking Comic-Con a day early to spend some time with my fiancée and all hell breaks loose.” He turned his narrowed eyes on me and I swallowed nervously.
“You’re not—”
“You need to find out who the fuck that was and make sure they are looking for another job before the week is out. This company cannot stand more negative publicity after last year’s lawsuit and settlement. This needs to be nipped in the bud or we can kiss our plan to go public goodbye.”
I held up a placating hand. “Adam, calm down. The ranting is not going to do your blood pressure any good. I’ve got this, all right? I’ll handle everything. It’s not going to affect our project. I promise.”
He clenched his jaw. “I’m counting on you for that…”
I swallowed, sent him a confident smile I definitely didn’t feel and nodded reassuringly. I was counting on me for that, too. Because three things had to happen. Number one, nothing could threaten our pet project. Number two, I needed to find out just how and why that video had been posted on social media. And three, Adam could never find out that the dude in the video was me.
The Gaming The System series continues in For The Win, Jordan’s story, available 2015.
Afterword
Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed At Any Moment. I am writing the next book in the series, For The Win, which stars Jordan and his heroine.
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Acknowledgements
I owe many thanks to those who helped this book come into being: Sabrina Darby, Courtney Milan, Kate Mckinley, Minx Malone, Tessa Dare, Natasha Boyd, Leigh Lavalle, and Carey Baldwin. A big thank you to my production team: Eliza Dee, S. G. Thomas, and Sarah Hansen.
Thank you to my amazing fellow authors authors for your support: Bella Andre, Roxie Rivera, Mimi Strong, Maya Rodale, Marquita Valentine, Elena Dillon, Debra Holland, Michelle Pickett, S.M. Butler, Viv Daniels, . Shout-outs to the NAAU peeps, the Awesome Authors, the LOL ladies, the SPRT guys and gals and the Romance Divas.
Many thanks to all the readers and bloggers who have loved, read, reviewed and talked about the Gaming the System books. Adam and Mia are every bit as much yours are they are mine. <3
All my gratitude to my family. Thank you to my husband, sometimes affectionately referred to as "the publisher." Hugs and kisses to my sweet little guys, heroes to some lucky future heroines. Love always xoxox.
Author’s Note
Due to the subject matter of this novel, I felt it might be helpful to include a note about the research I conducted in order to portray Mia's illness and treatment with as much realism as possible. I did not want this to be a book about cancer, but rather, a book about how a young couple, already challenged with overcoming their own foibles, must find the strength to overcome those struggles, both external and internal, through their love for each other.
Nevertheless, I felt it was very important to not downplay the seriousness of Mia's cancer, the chemotherapy, and, above all, the difficult decision to terminate her pregnancy in order to seek life-saving treatment.
There were many resources that I consulted to learn more about breast cancer. Most heart-rending of these were the actual blogs and memoirs of cancer survivors and of those who, in the end, did not survive.
Some of my sources include:
Haily Peterson's youtube vlog chronicling her treatment and survival
Geralyn Lucas, author of the memoir Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy
Jessica of Cancer, Baby blog (archived after her passing)
Sylvia Soo of Cancer Fabulous (cancerfabulous.com)
Jennifer Smith of Living Legendary blog and author of What You Might Not Know
Jill Brzezinski-Conley of Breast Friends (Facebook) and subject of the documentary, "The Light that Shines, A Story for All."
I urge you to seek out these sources if this subject interests you.
Thank you,
Brenna Aubrey
Copyright ©2014 by Brenna Aubrey
All rights reserved. This
book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Trademarked names appear throughout this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, names are used in an editorial fashion, with no intention of infringement of the respective owner’s trademark.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Cover Art: ©Sarah Hansen, Okay Creations
Professionally edited by Eliza Dee, Clio Editing.
20141020
ISBN 978-1-940951-06-5
Silver Griffon Associates
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Table of Contents
Title Page
“Re-spawns, Do-overs and What Video Games Can Teach Us About Life”
1. This was the ongoing story of how I completely and utterly fucked up my life.
2. I watched Emilia closely as the doctor delivered her prognosis numbers.
3. I slowly got out of the car, my muscles stiff with annoyance.
4. After yet another long and sleepless night...
At Any Moment (Gaming The System Book 3) Page 33